214 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



In the memoir and correspondence of the late Sir James Edward 

 Smith, just published, there is a letter from Dr. Goodenough, Bishop 

 of Carlisle, referring to the American sea serpent, from which the 

 following passage is extracted : — The famous American serpent is 

 at length ascertained to be no fiction. It seems that there has always 

 been a rumour of this animal: Aldrovandus mentions it among others. 

 However, it has never been caught and described. It has now been 

 seen by three hundred people at once, and hopes are entertained that 

 ere long this will be taken. It is of immense length and size." — 

 JYov. 1819. 



I cannot conclude these brief observations on the progressive de- 

 velopment of organic life on our planet, without remarking, that if 

 man were recently created, as geologists generally maintain, this cir- 

 cumstance alone affords strong presumptive evidence, to those wha 

 admit the doctrine of final causes, and of a presiding intelligence, 

 that the ancient condition of the globe, and the changes then in ope- 

 ration, were very different from what we observe at present; or, in 

 other words, that the world was not then prepared by the Creator for 

 the residence of man. 



Dr. Jacob Bigelow of Boston, and present a mass of evidence, sufficient to estab- 

 lish any fact which is capable of being substantiated by human testimony. Al- 

 most every year since has added to the amount of evidence ; and the present sum- 

 mer (1833) has been particularly fruitful in such testimony. Attempts to capture 

 or kill these extraordinary animals have proved, hitherto, abortive; but, in some 

 more fortunate conjuncture, the Eastern seamen, proverbial for their intrepidity 

 and dexterity in hunting the whale, will yet bring in the sea serpent, or the ani- 

 mal, whatever it may be, that has borne that name. Mr. Bakewell's ingenious 

 conjecture, that it may be a Saurian, agrees, however, much better with the sup- 

 position that it is a Plesiosaurus than an Ichthyosaurus, as the short neck of the 

 latter does not correspond with the ordinary appearance of the sea serpent. 

 September, 1833. B. S, 



