1874.] 339 [Putnam. 



saurus type descending in a modified form to the present epoch; and 

 either, in the vast expanse of ocean, might for ages escape the exam- 

 ination of naturalists. The probability is that this animal belongs 

 either to some secondary form greatly modified, of enaliosaurians, 

 perhaps intermediate between these and the ophidians, or to a terti- 

 ary Zeuglodont form, with reptilian affinities, like Elasmosaurus, 

 intermediate between Plesiosaurus or Mosasaurus, and the elongated 

 cetaceans. 



He thought a careful weighing of the evidence showed that such 

 an animal is not a zoological absurdity, and that from palaeontology 

 (if we discard the testimony of many credible witnesses), we may 

 even conclude that it is & possibility — and, he believed, a probability — 

 that some form, intermediate between the marine saurians of the 

 secondary and the elongated cetaceans of the tertiary has come down 

 to the present epoch, and will eventually come under the notice of 

 naturalists, and prove, in this as in many other cases, that widely 

 spread popular beliefs in natural history, especially when professing 

 to rest upon credible testimony, have generally for their foundation 

 some portion of scientific truth. He believed there were at least two 

 species of the creature (which he styled Eremotherium), one in the 

 northern and another in the southern ocean. 



Dr. Hagen said that he had, in 1839, accompanied Prof. 

 Rathke in his visit to Norway to collect evidence in regard 

 to the sea-serpent, the reality of which no Norwegian doubts, 

 and Dr. Hagen expressed himself convinced of its existence. 



Notes on Ophidiid^e and Fierasferid^e, with Descriptions 

 of New Species from America and the Mediterranean. 

 By F. W. Putnam. 



OPHIDIUM. 



Two species of this very interesting genus inhabit our southern 

 coasts. One of these, first mentioned by Mitchell, under the name 

 of Ophidium barbatum, was afterwards described and figured under 

 the name of 0. marginatum by DeKay, from a single specimen taken 

 in New York waters. The other species, which I believe to be un- 

 described, I name 0. Holbrookii, in memory of the late Dr. J. E. 

 Holbrook of Charleston, S. C, one to whom science is deeply in- 

 debted for the results of his labors on the reptiles of North America 



