84 
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED, 
that the creature seen might have been a great seal, such 
as the leonine seal, or the sea-elephant (the head, as 
shown in the enlarged drawing, was wonderfully seal-like), 
but it was generally felt that this explanation was un- 
satisfactory. The nature of his criticism of the official 
statement will be seen from Captain M'Quhae's reply, 
which was promptly given in the Times of the 2ist of 
November, 1848, as follows: — 
*' Professor Owen correctly states that I evidently saw a large 
creature moving rapidly through the water very different from 
anything I had before witnessed, neither a whale, a grampus, a 
great shark, an alligator, nor any of the larger surface-swimming 
creatures fallen in with in ordinary voyages. I now assert — neither 
was it a common seal nor a sea-elephant, its great length and its 
totally differing physiognomy precluding the possibility of its being 
a ' Phoca ' of any species. The head was flat, and not a ' capa- 
cious vaulted cranium;' nor had it a stiff, inflexible trunk — a 
conclusion at which Professor Owen has jumped, most certainly 
not justified by the simple statement, that no portion of the sixty 
feet seen by us" was used in propelling it through the water either 
by vertical or horizontal undulation. 
*' It is also assumed that the ' calculation of its length was made 
under a strong preconception of the nature of the beast another 
conclusion quite contrary to the fact. It was not until after the 
great length was developed by its nearest approach to the ship, 
and until after that most important point had been duly considered 
and debated, as well as such could be in the brief space of time 
allowed for so doing, that it was pronounced to be a serpent by all 
who saw it, and who are too well accustomed to judge of lengths 
and breadths of objects in the sea to mistake a real substance and 
an actual living body, coolly and dispassionately contemplated, at 
so short a distance, too, for the 'eddy caused by the action of the 
deeper immersed fins and tail of a rapidly moving gigantic seal 
raising its head above the surface of the water/ as Professor Owen 
imagines, in quest of its lost iceberg. 
"The creative powers of the human mind may be very limited. 
