Three vears aero the Author of the following Daeres. having been 
ERRATA. 
>a ge 7, 2nd line from bottom, for “a new,” read “mere” 
hypothesis, &c. 
’age 10, 22nd line from top, after level, read “with.” 
paper wnose purposewasonry to engage ine auennon oi a well- 
informed auditory for an hour—the best, therefore, being selected, 
the rest were laid aside. 
The short Essay produced under the foregoing circumstances, 
having performed the office for which it was intended, was cast aside 
and nearly forgotten, when the recent account of the creature seen 
by the captain and officers of the Daedalus, and the public interest 
expressed on the subject in many of the papers of the day, deter¬ 
mined the Author, on the persuasion of many of his friends, to lay 
before the world the fuller fruits of his former researches. 
He is aware that his publication can be viewed as little else than 
a collection of curious facts; though he has endeavoured to string 
them together in a way likely to assist the reader to arrive at some¬ 
thing like definite conclusions on this vexed question, or at least to 
dispel some of the mistiness with which it is surrounded. 
With this view, the Author has adverted as briefly as possible to, 
or neglected altogether, those accounts which carry improbability or 
gross mistake on the face of them; and he has wished also to be 
