The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-22

with that progressing cousin OF ours.
'MOnstrous cGttlefish were thought
70 be moastioGs lies Ill the A,ec.0a,
IN 1851, came upon one and captured
It's tail, whose weight OF forty pounds
led naturalists 70 estimate the entire
weight Of the creature at 1000 pounds,
( or nearly q couple OF tons. Ia 1873,
( again, two fishermen encountered q
z g,.ntic cutie in Conception bay,
I Newfoundland, whose arms were about
/ thirty-fYe feet in length (the fishermen
/ cut OF from one arm piece twenty
/ five feet long, while its body was es-
I tmated at sixty feet Ia length and five
/ feet in diametCT-so that the devil
I fish OF Victor Hugo's famous story was
/ = mere baJy cutie in Comparison with
/ the Newfoundland monster. The mer-
maid, again, has been satisfactorily
! identified with the manatee, or woman
| fish, as the Portuguese call it, which
assumes, says Capt. Scoresby, such
positions that the human appearance is
very closely initiated
"As for stories Of sea serpents, natu-
ralists have been far less disposed to
be incredulOus than the general pub
! lie. DR.. Andrew Wilson, for instance,
after speaking Of the recorded obser-
vations in much such terms as l have
used above, says: we may then
affirm safely that there are many Yeri-
| fed pieces OF evidence on record Of
strange marine forms having been met
with, which evidence, judged accord
ing to ordinary and common sense
rules, go to prove that certain hitherto
undescribed marine organisms do GER
tainly exist III the sea depths AS to
the support which natural history can
give to the. above proposition, 'zoolo-
gists can but admit, he proceeds,
the correctness of the observation
Certain organisms, and especially those
OF marine (e. g., certain whales are
known to be of exceedingly rare &C.
currence. Our knowledge of marine
reptilia is confessedly very small and,
best of all, there is no counter objec-
ton or feasible argument which the
naturalist can offer by way of denying
the above proposition. He would be
forced to admit the existence of purely
marine genera of snakes which possess
compressed tails, adapted for swim
ming and other points of organization
admittedly suited for purely aquatic
existence
eff, therefore, we admit the posi-
bIlity-nay, even the reasonable prob
abillty-that gigantic members OF these
watersnakes may occasionally be de.
Yeloped, we should state a powerful
case for the assumed and probable ex-
istence of natural ''sea serpent" We
confess we do not we'll see how such 8
chain of probabilities can be readily
set aside, supported as they are in the
possibility of their occurrence by zoo
logical science, and in the actual de,
tails of the case by evidence as trust
worthy in many cases as that received
IN our courts of law. When we re
member how few fish or other Inhabi
tants of the sea are ever seen compared
with the countless millions which ex
list, that not one specimen of some
tribes will be seen for many years in
succession, and that some tribes arr
only known to exist because a single
specimen or even single skeleton ha!
been obtained, we may well believe
that in the sea, as in heaven and earth
there are more things than are dreamed
of in our philosophy"