Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes

Texts printed in italics and bold face or spaced in the source document have been transcribed between underscores, =equal signs= and ~tildes~ respectively. Superscript x is represented by ^x and ^{xx}. Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.

More Transcriber’s Notes and a list of changes made may be found at the end of this text.

THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT.

THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT.

AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL TREATISE.

WITH THE REPORTS OF 187 APPEARANCES (INCLUDING THOSE OF THE APPENDIX), THE SUPPOSITIONS AND SUGGESTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC AND NON-SCIENTIFIC PERSONS, AND THE AUTHOR’S CONCLUSIONS.

WITH 82 ILLUSTRATIONS.

BY A. C. OUDEMANS, JZN., DOCTOR OF ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MEMBER OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF THE NETHERLANDS, DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL SOCIETY (ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS) AT THE HAGUE.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, OCTOBER 1892.

LEIDEN, E. J. BRILL, Oude Rijn 33^a.

LONDON, LUZAC & Co., Great Russell Street 46.

PRINTED AT E. J. BRILL’S, AT LEIDEN.

~THIS VOLUME~ IS DEDICATED TO ~OWNERS OF SHIPS AND YACHTS,~ SEA CAPTAINS AND ~ZOOLOGISTS.~

“It is always unsafe to deny positively any phenomena that may be wholly or in part inexplicable; and hence I am content to believe that one day the question will be satisfactorily solved”.--A. G. MELVILLE. (See p. 397 of the present volume.)

Voyagers and sportsmen conversant with photography are requested to take the instantaneous photograph of the animal: this alone will convince zoologists, while all their reports and pencil-drawings will be received with a shrug of the shoulders.

As these animals are very shy, it is not advisable to approach them with a steamboat.

The only manner to kill one instantly will be by means of explosive balls, or by harpoons loaden with nitro-glycerine; but as it most probably will sink, when dead, like most of the Pinnipeds, the harpooning of it will probably be more successful.

If an individual is killed, take the following measurements:--1. Length of the head from nose-tip to occiput.--2. Length of the neck from occiput to shoulders.--3. Length of the trunk from shoulders to tail-root.--4. Length of the tail from tail-root to end.--5. Distance from shoulders to fore-flappers.--6. Distance from shoulders to thickest part of the body.--7. Length of a fore-flapper.--8. Length of a hind-flapper.--9. Circumference of the head.--10. Circumference of the neck.--11. Circumference of the thickest part of the body.--12. Circumference of the tail-root.

Give a description of the animal, especially an accurate one of the head, the fore-flappers and the hind-flappers, and, if possible, make a sketch.

If but barely possible, preserve the whole skeleton, and the whole skin, but if this is utterly impracticable, keep the cleaned skull, the bones of one of the fore-flappers and those of one of the hind-flappers, four or five vertebrae of different parts of the backbone, neck, and tail; and preserve the skin of the head, and a ribbon of about a foot breadth along the whole back of the neck, the trunk, and the tail.

PREFACE.

In all ages meteoric stones have fallen on the earth. Many of them were found by persons who were in search of them; they preserved them, and thus collections were made in private rarity cabinets and in natural history cabinets. Many learned persons believed in meteoric stones, but many others were sceptical, and their attacks were so violent, and their mockery about stones that fell from the atmosphere, or were thrown by the men in the Moon to the inhabitants of the Earth, so sharp as to shake the belief of many a collector, and the happy possessor, fearing the mockery of the so-called learned men, concealed his treasures, or threw them away on the dust-hill, or in a ditch.

But at last there appeared a firm believer in aerolites, named CHLADNI, who took the trouble to collect all accounts concerning observations of meteoric stones from the ancient times up to the nineteenth century. He showed 1. The immense number of facts. 2. The strikingly concurrent testimony in all the accounts independent of one another.

In the year 1829 he published his work “Ueber Feuermeteore” (i. e. on Meteoric Stones) in Vienna, and from that moment the eyes of unbelievers were opened. Meteoric stones were again found, and were proved to be quite different from terrestrial stones. From that moment the belief in the existence of meteoric stones was fixed for ever.

The author of the present Volume has been at the pains to collect all accounts concerning observations of Sea-Serpents. His work has the same purpose as CHLADNI’S had in 1829. It is his sincere hope that it may meet with the same success.

THE HAGUE,

A. C. O. JZN.