Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-14
sEA-sERPENTs.
PROFESSOR RICHARD Z. PROC
TOR's FAITH IN THEM.
He Shows How Critics Have Often
ScofFes7 at Discoveries Which
Hare Proved to be Real.

subject OF marine monster, seen Reaz
Panama, appearing in the very valuable
report OF Professor Spencer r. Baird
United States Commissioner of Fish and
Fisheries. 4 genial article in the Tribune
| for January 9Th prcseats my recognition
of this marine raonster and defense Of the
sea-serpent as g tardy admission On the
part of science that there may be more
things in sea and Land than had been
dreamt of in an unphiIosophical philoso-
phv. But so far as an concerned there
has been no "ridicule, followed by denial,
then by doub+, and lastly by partial ac-
ceptance" l have always been believer
in the sea-serpent Of Captain McQuhae, Q!
the Dedalus. l was a very young lad
when his report of the strange encounter
first appeared; but it seemed to me then
and it seems 10 me sill, that the sea
Captain had rauch the best Of the discus
sion with the representatives of science
There was that cautious naturalist and
palaontologist, Richa11 Owen, SO anx-
iouS to
DIsPRoVss THE. ss.A-sRRPENT,
That he pictured to himself the Captain
and officers of British frigase frightened
out OF their wits and on OF one, at least, Of
their senses, by the sight Of q sca-elephani
Gas he tried to make ort) rather far away
from its native abode, ard urging its course
as fast as possible honewmd. Captain
Mc[luhae, in report 10 the Admiralty,
says that he and his officers saw u long
uecbed sea-monster travelling swiftly il
the teeth of ten-knot breeze, on the surf
ace of the sea, 80 quickly that lie could
see the waves frothing against the Great
ure's chest. 1t passed So near that he
could have distinctly seen the features Of :
man ut the distance. lie and his officers
had good view of the creature. (For a
wonder they we're not possessed by the
customary desire to shoe: it---a desire
which speaks as honorabl3 Of the human
race as the saying Of the North Country
miner immortalized by Leec'l, who, seeing
Z stranger, thought it due welcome to
"'eaye 'arf d brick at UNI They rejected
THE sEA-ELEPuANT
With derision, rs entirely Inconsistent with
what they had clearly seen; while the idea
e. their being frjghtened-well, Ameri-
cans in old tiuies tackled = few OF our
British frigates with success, but they did
n0t find our seaznen so timoroua rs 10 be
likely to trenhle in their Shoes at the
sight even of an extra large sca-eiephant.
Yet Professor Owen persisted in h:s belief
that she Dadalus sea-seTpent story =gas not
worti;er Of credeRea than story about
ghosts That particular ghost he thought
J l,n i.,I IL : |,
natiOns Of sea-serpent et0ries have heea ad-
yanced. Because one Captain has mis-
taken a lot Of floating sea wreck haIf a
mile away for a sea-nlonGtcr, therefore the
story Of assa-creature seen swiftly adyaac-
ing against wind and sea, at distance OF
less than two hundred yards, meant moth
ing more than misunderstood seawecd
Another mistakes a fight Of birds in the
distance, or sloal Of porpoises, or even q
range Of hills beyond the horizon for some
sea-serPentine nosster, and forthsith other
accounts, however maniiestly inconsistent
with such explanations, are regarded as
explained away. Then, worst Of all, some
idiot invent5 q sea-serpcnt u Leeuile his
time and find occupation for his shallow
pate, and Us soon az the story is shown to
be only II story, men Of sense aud standing,
rs incapable Of the idiocy Of
lNyENTING sEA-AoNsTEEs
As 7 am Of inventing planet are sup
posed to have amused their leisure by
sending grave reports Of non-existent sea-
monsters to men under whom they {the
seamcn, not the monsteza) held Office, OF by
taking oath before magistrates that they
had seen sea creatures which they had in
vented, and by parallel absurdities. All
this has been done in the case of the sea
serpent, rs something akin to it was long
since done in the ease Of the camelopard,
and later in the case Of the gorilla. Much
earlier Iierod0tus had been called TIE
Father Of Lies, instead of the Father Of
History, because of wonders related by him
which have since been shown to be facts.
The poor lin intellect and veracity) are
always with Us, and they can never admit
that anything exists outside what they
know, or understand how any traveller in
little known regions can fail to lie Justify
when he comes home again. Among the
creatures thus specially ridiculed was
TIE MONSTER EARTH-woRM
Described by Rapp, some forty years
ago, and those who believed in il,
Or declined utterly to reject it,
were sncered at just as those who recog-
nize the rcasonablencas Of the sca-serpent
are laughed at now. Eapp said he had
seen in South Africa monstrous earth
worm, several feet in length. One Of these
he described Us SIX feet two inches long ana
proportionately thick. The measurement
was regarded rs not worthicr Of credence
than Gulliver's precise statement Of the
hight Of Lilliputian and Brobdingnagian
animals. The absurdity and impossibility
OF the thing were abundantly proved. A
worm Of the ordinary kind averages, let
US say, six inches in length. Here, if this
lying traveller was to be believed, was an
animal more than twelve times as long,
and, therefore, some SEQ times as large.
Now, the ordinary Demonstration is about
Is feet long. Multiply his length by
twelve and we get q serpent 2l6 feet in
length. CreiGt Jt.dss, etc. Rapp was de-
z vendor of lies; So at least,
said the young buccaneers Of the press
Well, there is now in the Geological Gar
deus in London
A LIVING SPECIMEN
OF the species described by Rapp. It is
not one of the largest Indeed, these
are hard to catch and keep alive;
and probably the biggest are the most
difficult to secure. They are described as
fairly abundan: in the neighborhood of
Port Elizabeth and other parts of Cape
Colony" but they keep out Of sight unless
heavy rains drive them out Of their holes. ]
when hundreds Of them can be seen crawl .
ing about, but they usually perish soon
after thus visiting the surface. The speci-
men at the Geological Garden is about five
feet long, however; SO that it is quite a
yood-sized worm. Here, t.,en, Is a case
where creature, the description Of which
excited as much ridiculo az that Of the sea-
serpent, is found not only to exist in large
but to be amendablo to the Gus
tomary treatment extended by our kindly I.
race TO the inferior races. We have cap ;
tured specimen and keep it on show.
Yet those who formerly laughed at the :
I, -