8 
alleged discoveries submitted to the test of enlightened discussion. Natural 
history is no exception to these remarks, and from no department of know¬ 
ledge has more error been extirpated. But has this lessened its interest 
to its votaries? Far from it. The ground from which the weeds have 
been cleared is now producing sound fruit abundantly; the real wonders 
brought to light continually by the indefatigable enthusiasm of the natu¬ 
ralist and physiologist, are fast superseding the old superstitions. When 
we consider the new creations, as they may almost be termed, of organized 
life in Australia—the interesting facts continually discovered in animal 
physiology and comparative anatomy—the researches of the entomologist 
—the singular creatures brought to light by the indefatigable explorers 
among the molluscous and zoophyte tribes—the wonders of the animalcular 
world—the economy of the beehive now laid open, and our increasing 
knowledge of the instincts and reasoning powers of the lower creation— 
we may well be content to give up our nursery belief in the existence of 
the roc, the phoenix, the dragon, the basilisk, the goose-bearing barnacle, 
and other legendary creatures, or more recent credence in the bird of 
paradise without legs, the poison of the toad, and other popular errors. 
There are no monsters now-a-days, except those of the imagination. 
Every being and every species has its congeners, and strange or incredible 
as the vague accounts of unclassed forms of animal life present themselves 
to our minds, we may rest assured that, if we could bring them within the 
reach of scientific examination, the supposed monsters would readily arrange 
themselves in the formulae of systematic arrangement. 
Yet so long as the true characters of the kraken and sea serpent remain 
among the desiderata of the naturalist, and their very existence is open to 
question, it may be allowable to apply the word “ monster” to them, as a 
convenient and safe term of reference, and with such conventional meaning, 
therefore, it will be used occasionally in this essay. 
In his research among the works of writers on fishes and mollusca, the 
author expected to have found the question of the existence of these mon¬ 
sters philosophically handled; but he has been disappointed. In some 
publications the subject has been confined to mere repetitions of previously- 
recorded appearances, with one or two new cases as they may have appeared 
in the newspapers ; or it has been alluded to with an admission of the bare 
possibility of the reality of these creatures; but in many works they have 
not even been mentioned. A careful collation of the whole body of evi¬ 
dence respecting them seems to be wanting; yet in the hands of an able 
zoologist such a dissertation would excite an interest which the author of 
the present pages cannot expect; for if such creatures do exist, none can 
