Part 97

“A correspondent of the Zoologist (2395) adduces the great authority of Professor Agassiz to the possibility of the present existence of the Enaliosaurian type. That eminent palaeontologist is represented as saying, that “it would be in precise conformity with analogy that such an animal should exist in the American seas, as he had found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of the Old World were represented by living types in the New. He instances the gar pike of the Western rivers, and said he had found several instances in his visit to Lake Superior, where he had detected several fishes belonging to genera now extinct in Europe.””

“On this point, however, an actual testimony exists, to which I cannot but attach a very great value.”

Here Mr. GOSSE cites the report of Captain HOPE (n^o. 119), and goes on:

“Now, unless this officer was egregiously deceived, he saw an animal which could have been no other than an Enaliosaur,--a marine reptile of large size, of sauroid figure, with turtle-like paddles. It is a pity that no estimate, even approximate, of the dimensions is given; but as the alligator affords the comparison as to form, it is most probable that there was a general agreement with it in size. This might make it some twelve or fifteen feet in length.”

“I cannot, then, admit that either the general substitution of Cetacea for Enaliosauria in our era, or the absence of remains of the latter in the tertiary deposits, is sufficient evidence of their non-existence in our seas; any more than the general replacement of Placoid and Ganoid fishes by the Cycloids and Ctenoids, or the absence of the former two from the tertiaries, is proof of their present non-existence.”

“It must not be forgotten, as Mr. Darwin has ably insisted, that the specimens we possess of fossil organisms are very far indeed from being a complete series. They are rather fragments accidentally preserved, by favouring circumstances, in an almost total wreck. The Enaliosauria, particularly abundant in the secondary epoch, may have become sufficiently scarce in the tertiary to have no representative in these preserved fragmentary collections, and yet not have been absolutely extinct.”

“But Professor Owen presses also the absence of any recognised recent remains of such animals. Let us test this evidence first by hypothesis, and then by actual fact.”

“It may be that a true serpent, with large vesicular lungs, would float when dead, and be liable to be seen by navigators in that condition, or to be washed ashore, where its peculiar skeleton would be sure to attract notice. But, as I have before said, I do not by any means believe that the unknown creature is a serpent in the zoological sense. Would a Plesiosaurus float when dead? I think not. It is supposed to have had affinities with the whales. Now, a whale sinks like lead as soon as the blubber is removed; the surface-fat alone causes a whale to float. But we have no warrant for assuming that the Plesiosaur was encased in a thick blanket of blubber; no geologist has suggested any such thing, and the long neck forbids it; and if not, doubtless it would sink, and not float, when dead. Therefore the stranding of such a carcase, or the washing ashore of such a skeleton, would most probably be an extremely rare occurrence, even if the animal were as abundant as the sperm whale; but, on the supposition that the species itself is almost extinct, we ought not to expect such an incident, perhaps, in a thousand years. If we add to this the recollection, how small a portion of the border of the ocean is habitually viewed by persons able to discriminate between the vertebrae of an Enaliosaur and those of a Cetacean, we shall not, I think, attach great importance to this objection.”

“The only region of the globe in which the unknown monster is reputed to be in any sense common, is the coast of Norway. Now this, it is true, is fortunately within the ken of civilized and scientific men; and, confessedly, no enormous ophidian or saurian carcases have ever been recognised on that shore. But the shore of Norway is, perhaps, the least favourable in the world for such a jetsam. Such a thing as a sand or shingle beach is scarcely known; the coast is almost exclusively what is called iron-bound; the borders of the deeply indented fjords rise abruptly out of the sea, so that there is generally from fifty to three hundred fathoms’ depth of water within a boat’s length of the shore. How could a carcase or a skeleton be cast up here, even if it floated?”

“But, secondly, as to facts. Is it true, that of all the larger oceanic animals we find the carcases or skeletons cast up on the shore? Is it true even of the Cetacea, whose blubber-covered bodies invariably ensure their floating, and whose bones are so saturated with oil that they are but little heavier than water?”

“In September 1825, a cetacean was stranded on the French coast, which was previously unknown to naturalists. It was so fortunate as to fall under the examination of so eminent a zoologist as De Blainville; and hence its anatomy was well investigated. It has become celebrated as the Toothless Whale of Havre (Aodon Dalei). Yet no other example of this species is on record; and, but for this accident, a whale inhabiting the British Channel would be quite unrecognised.”

“Of another Whale (Diodon Sowerbyi), likewise British, our entire knowledge rests on a single individual which was cast on shore on the Elgin coast, and was seen and described by the naturalist Sowerby.”

“There is a species of sperm whale (Physeter tursio) affirmed to be frequently seen about the Shetland Islands; a vast creature of sixty feet in length, and readily distinguishable from all other Cetacea by its lofty dorsal, and, according to old Sibbald, by other remarkable peculiarities in its anatomy. Yet no specimen of this huge creature has fallen under modern scientific observation; and zoologists are not yet agreed among themselves whether the high-finned Cachelot is a myth or a reality!”

“Mr. Rafinesque Schmaltz, a Sicilian naturalist, described a Cetacean which, he said, he had seen in the Mediterranean, possessing two dorsals. The character was so abnormal that his statement was not received; but the eminent zoologists attached to one of the French exploring expeditions,--MM. Quoy and Gaimard,--saw a school of cetacea around their ship in the South Pacific, having this extraordinary character,--the supernumerary fin being placed on the back of the head. Here is the evidence of competent naturalists to the existence of a most remarkable whale, no carcase of which--no skeleton--has ever been recognised.”

“The last example I shall adduce is from my own experience. During my voyage to Jamaica, when in lat. 19° N., and long. from 46° to 48° W., the ship was surrounded for seventeen continuous hours with a troop of whales, of a species which is certainly undescribed. I had ample opportunity for examination, and found that it was a Delphinorhynchus, thirty feet in length, black above and white beneath, with the swimming paws wide on the upper surface, and isolated by the surrounding black of the upper parts,--a very remarkable character. This could not have been the Toothless Whale of Havre; and there is no other with which it can be confounded. Here, then, is a whale of large size, occurring in great numbers in the North Atlantic, which on no other occasion has fallen under scientific observation.”

“Are not these facts, then, sufficiently weighty to restrain us from rejecting so great an amount of testimony to the so-called sea-serpent, merely on the ground that its dead remains have not come under examination?”

“In conclusion, I express my own confident persuasion, that there exists some oceanic animal of immense proportions, which has not yet been received into the category of scientific zoology; and my strong opinion, that it possesses close affinities with the fossil Enaliosauria of the lias.”

We only observe that Mr. GOSSE is evidently inclined to believe that there are “two or more species inhabiting the Northern and Southern oceans.” It is not at all plain what circumstance has led him to this supposition.

Curious is the comparison of the flappers, figured by Mr. BING (fig. 19) with the frill of the Chlamydosaurus. I give here a figure of such an animal.

Mr. GOSSE gets clearly entangled in his own considerations of the affinity of the sea-serpent with the Plesiosaurus when he comes to the fact of the existence of a mane. It is a pity that he has not mixed up with his considerations the well-known Iguana tuberculata, a lizard belonging to the same family as the Chlamydosaurus, but which has a comb extending over the whole length of the neck, the back and the tail!

Mr. LEE in his Sea Monsters Unmasked, considering the Plesiosaurus hypothesis, says:

“I think this theory is not forced upon us.”

Of the probability of living Plesiosauri, however, he says:

“Only a geologist can fully appreciate how enormously the balance of probability is contrary to the supposition that any of the gigantic marine saurians of the secondary deposits should have continued to live up to the present time. And yet I am bound to say, that this does not amount to an impossibility, for the evidence against it is entirely negative. Nor is the conjecture that there may be in existence some congeners of these great reptiles inconsistent with zoological science. Dr. J. E. Gray, late of the British Museum, a strict zoologist, is cited by Mr. Gosse as having long ago expressed his opinion that some undescribed form exists which is intermediate between the tortoises and the serpents.”

“Prof. Agassiz, too, is adduced by a correspondent of the Zoologist (p. 2395), as having said concerning the present existence of the Enaliosaurian type that “it would be in precise conformity with analogy that such an animal should exist in the American Seas, as he had found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of the Old World were represented by living types in the New.”

It is obvious that of all animals, now living or extinct, the outlines of the Plesiosaurus fit best to the descriptions and figures of the great sea-serpent. Abandoning the possibility of still living Plesiosauri, I reply to the question “Why cannot the sea-serpent be a Plesiosaurus?”

Plesiosauri with such an enormous tail as the sea-serpent has, are hitherto unknown to palaeontologists, but, as to me, this cannot be of much importance; for there is no reason why in the course of ages this appendage should not have been developed to gigantic dimensions. The difference between the place of the nostrils in the two animals cannot claim any weight either (the Plesiosaurus had its nostrils both before its eyes and not at the end of its snout, as is the case in the sea-serpent) for this place may have changed in process of time. But there are two other differences which are of very great importance, and settle the question: 1. The neck of the Plesiosaurus must have been fit to be bent in all directions, but I think no palaeontologist will ever admit that its trunk or backbone could be bent in such vertical undulations, as is the case with the sea-serpents. 2. The Plesiosaurus may have been destitute of scales, and may have had a smooth skin, it can never have been provided with a hairy skin as seals have, and at all events it had no mane, and no whiskers.

* * * * *