Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-08-04
Prof. Proctor ON Sea.serpents.

see in your Letter-box'' Il para
graph about the sea-serpent, inserted at
the request of one of your young corre-
spondents. The paragraph does not
quite correctly represent what actually
said but that does not much matter |
think it may interest your readers, how
ever, to jot down few facts, some of
which are not commonly known, be-
lieve, while others are commonly over
looked or forgotten. In passing let me
remark that the circumstances mention
ed in the paragraph were quoted from
an essay by DIR. Andrew Wilson, the
well known Scottish naturalist.
l. A great number of foolish stories
have been told about the sea-serpent by
anonymous hOaxers, so that
2. Persons of known name are apt to
be ashamed, rather than otherwise, to
describe any sea-creature (or appear
ance) which they supposed to be the sea-
serpent. Yet
5. In 1917, eleven Massachusetts wit
nesses of good repute gave evidence on
oath before magistrates Zone of whom
corroborated the evidence from his own
observatory about a serpentine sea-
creature 20 or so feet long, seen in some
cases within few yards. 1t presented
all the features afterward described by
the officers of the Dedalus'
t. In 1888 five British officers record
a similar experience.
5. In 1913 the Captain of Il British
frigate sent to the Admiralty an official
description of such creature. seen (by
himself and his ofiicers) travelling past
his ship. close by, so that he '.could
have recognized the features of hui
man person at the distance with the
naked eye
8. Captain Harrington and his officers
saw such 4 creature in 1858 under such
circumstances that he says: " could no
more be deceived than Gas seaman) |
could mistake porpoise for whale
Z. The story last related, marvellous
though it is (rejected by myself on that
account, when first received, rs prob
able hoax, has been deposed 10 on oath
by all who were on board the So Pauline"
at the time. The Captain of the Pau
line'' writes to me that, instead OF being
anxious to tell the story, he, and his
officers and crew, were in twenty minds
to keep it TO themselves, knowing that
they would be exposed to ridicule, and
worse
Ii is certain that creatures of the kind
i. e., not sea-serpents, which few be-
lieve in, but sea-saurians-weref formerly
(See Lyell's 80 Students Ge-
Dlogy. ''-Lias, Plesiosaurus Dolichodei-
rus.
9. Of other creatures, numerous at
The same time, occasional living speci-
mems are still found. (See Lyell-Lias
10 Agassiz (.'Zoologist," p. 2,395)
states that it would be in precise con-
iormity with analogy that such an ami
nal as the Enaliosaurus (Which, see
Professor Wincheli's 50 Sketches Of Gre
,tion,'' p. Us, would precisely resem-
Die the sea-serpent as described) should
Exist still in the American seas.
IL. OF several existent sea creatures
,nly very few specimens have ever been
seen Gin some cases only one).
With these, and many like facts be-
ore us, we may believe that the above
observers were deceived, and
loubt whether any Enaliosaurus con-
inue to exist But there is no scientific
'eason for denying the possibility of
heir existing, and being occasionally
cen. The foolish stories told by hoax
RS have no bearing on the case one way
n the other; at least they should have
10 bearing with those who can reason
right. Yours truly,
RICHARD A. PROCTOR.
st. Nicholas for Auglist'-