The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-16
Sea. ssrnent spseulatIans.

sea'sorpeht sp~cuintions. r''
 The tortoise type clearly presents a very different appearance from either the crocodile of the snake when swim ming. Yet some of the accounts of marine monsters seen in recent years describe n creature which seems strangely like a survival Of the giant tortoises. compared to which the speci- mems on the Galapagos Islands are mere pigmies, Tortoises or turtles when swimming have none of the ri- diculous unwieldly appearance which marks their slow movements upon land. They either float just upon the surface with the shell appearing above the water, and head. limbs and tail Hat upon the surface, or raise their heads to the utmost extent of the neck, which gives them the look of floating snake. Some of the long-necked spe- cles, when thus surveying the surface of the water, present exactly that ap- pearance of tortoise with a snake threaded through It," which an emil nent photographer attributed to the ex- tinct sea-lizards of the ancient world. This does not differ greatly from the descriptions of unknown or unidentified sea-monsters given in the last quarter of a century.
 Thus the account of the royal yacht Osborne of a creature seen in the Med iterranean In 1878 was not unlike the probable appearance of a monstrous tortoise. The supposition that. there may still exist some few gigantic tor toises. or even marine lizards, which are still unknown and unrecognized, has in It's favor the fact that most tor tolses and such sea-liZards as are known are mainly vegetable feeders, and that some of the latter live upon sea-weed. The large sea-lizards of the Galapagos Islands were noticed by Darwin to feed on the seaweed on the rocks. The question of food supply cannot be admitted in considering the possible existence of large unknown species. The shallow waters near the coast are the home of nearly all the commoner sea-creatures, and the prob- ability Is great that any carnivorous sea-monster must pursue its prey near the land. If so, 1t could hardly es- cape observation. But a vegetable feeding creature could find sufficient food in the floating masses of seaweed in the tropical ocean to enable 1t to live all It's days out of sight of land, provided 1t could produce its young in the fully developed state, and were not forced to visit the shore to lay its eggs. The form in which the "sea-serpent" is commonly expected to appear, that of a gigantic sea-snake, is probably the least likely to gratify those who cling to the belief in its existence. The diffi- culty in the way of its realization Is again that of food supply. All known snakes are carnivorous; and if such a great serpent existed, it must almost certainly haunt the neighborhood of the shore where, owing to the necessi- ty of breathing, it must frequently ap. pear on the surface, and would natural. ly be seen from time to time, and its habits observed.
 On the other hand, it is not inconceiv able that a great carnivorous ocean snake might, if necessary, find suf ficient food-supply in the open sea, ii it had the requisite speed and size tc catch and swallow the dolphins, DOT. poises and other whale-like creatures which travel far and wide over the ocean. There is one creature, itself a mammal, though disguised as fish which actually does this, the killer whale of the North Pacific. It follows and devours the shoals of dolphins and porpoises, just as these do the lesser fishes, and destroys the young not only of the sea-lions, but of the largest whales. It must be admitted that the description and drawing of the crea- ture seen by the officers of the H. M. S. Doedalus was not only exactly like a snake, but had, if the evidence is fair ly correct, the appearance really made by swimming serpent. A snake never assumes in the water, any more than on land, the shape of horizontal let. ter s, in upright loops, touching the surface at intervals, which artists fan. cy ascrfbes to them. The explanation that the supposed "sea-serpent" was a shoal of dolphins or porpoises plung. ing one after another, is based on the notion that this represents the move. ment of a snake, It is very likely that many observers have been so misled But the account of the officers of the Doedalus avoids this common error and is exactly consistent with the movement of the ordinary snake wher swimming, its body nearly straight, its head raised at an acute angle to the surface, and the propulsion due entire. ly to 8 lateral writhing, of no great ex. tent or sweep of the center and tail If such serpent there be, it should look like what the officers and crew o1 the Doedalus averred that they saw and it must be remembered that the object seen was at no further distance than that at which it would have beer possible to distinguish a mans features London Spectator. !.
 Lighting the Table.