Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-02

with fish's tail and An and the swimming
| paddles of a turtle. Its tremendous alliga-
| tor-like jaws were armed with great teeth
| for rending and tearing. With the excep-
| ton of the mosasaur it was the most fero-
| cious and terrible marine reptile of Its day.
| 1t fed on fishes, sometimes near shore, but
| usually 1t frequented the deeper ocean in
| pursuit of It's prey. 1t dived to great
| depths, and is supposed to have had eyes of
| telescope power. These eyes were foot
| In diameter, and their chief use seems to
| have been to enable the creature to see in
| the gloom of the ocean depths.
| who can say with certainty that the
ferocious iscthyosaur or that other huge
| fSh-eating lizard, the plesiosaur, may not
| Turk even now in the dark, unfathomed
| caves of the sea?' asked Director Lucas.
Another gigantic reptile inhabiting the
| seas in that chalk-forming epoch was the
/ hadrosaur. 1t was thirty feet long as II
| swan, stood twenty feet in height as 1t
| waded. kangaroo fashion on its hind legs,
| through the ocean shadows. 1t was not
carniverous like its fel!ow-lzards above
| mentioned, but browsed upon seaweeds.
| With its great jaws, shaped like pair of
| salad spoons. it picked up marine growth
| in huge mouthfuls grinding it with its 1850
| teeth. Associated with these reptiles was
| the laelaps, perhaps the most wonderful
| jumper which ever existed on earth. 1t
walked. kangaroo wise, on its hind legs
| which were seven feet in length, and ac-
| cording to whose structure it Is estimated
that the creature could leap thirty feet at
a bound 1t stood fifteen feet in height its
fore legs were small and short, but armed
with claws like those of some giant eagle
Springing upon its victim, over ten yards
of space, 1t held 1t fast with fatal grip
| then pressed it to the earth with its great
weight and proceeded to tear 1t to pieces
| with teeth and claws together.
This Monster Surely Lives
| fair likeness to the traditional sea SER
| pent is borne by the calamary or giant
| squid-a mollusk of the present time. 1t is
/ tod to he v,Ar 10 6chl q nd
one of the giants of the entire animal king
| dom. Its eyes are sometimes a foot in
| diameter, and 1t has eight short arms be-
| sides two mighty tentacles sixty to eighty
| feet In length, with which 1t. grasps its
| prey. This awful creature is the terror OF
| the fisherman in the Indian ocean, who now
| and then sees above the gunwale of his boat
| the greedy stare of pair of green eyes,
| bigger than dinner plates and always the
| summons to awful death for next mo-
| ment the calamary throws about him a
| frightful snake-like arm, provided with
| powerful suckers, which mercilessly cling to
| him while he is dragged down into the sea
| and devoured.
This monster. dragging it's awful snake
! like arms behind, swims backward, forcing
water out through a siphon. Its tail has
| horizontal rudder-like fianges and Is
| sometimes elevated a considerable distance
above the sea, when 1t looks very like a
| head while either of the enormously long
\ arms trailing along behind through the
| water appears like giant snakes tall
| Director Lucas is of the opinion that some
| noted sea serpent scares have been caused
| by this creature OF present time-a creature
| which, he says, inspired the Norwegian
| ia bles OF the 'kraken.
Seal-Like Monster 249 Feet Long.
DR.. A. c. Oudemans, after carefully an
aiyzing testimony Of persons witnessing
| sixty-fve sea serpent appearances on the
eastern coast OF our continent, forty-six
such visitations off Norway and fifteen off
Scotland, has, after wedding out the
cheats and "hoaxes," lately came to the
conclusion that the monster is, in fact,
some giant mammal belonging to the family
of the seals, sea lions and sea bears-being
| most nearly related to the last named.
| Now, the great Zeuglodon belonged to this
| tribe, but Its greatest known length of
| seventy feet. Is far surpassed by the d.
mansions which DR.. Oudemans has deduced
| for his sea serpent after averaging up such
accounts as seem to come from sober and
| trustworthy men, He estimates it's length
| to be as great 249 feet, and says that It's
| head, resembling that of sea lion. prob
| ably reaches nine feet In length, while It's
long, eel-like neck stretches out over fifty
| three feet Its trunk, not unlike that of the
| seal, attains to sixty-seven feet in length
while It's tail tapers to point 100 feet from
| the trunk. 1t has two ffippers each
| side and is covered all over with hair like
| that of the seal, the males being possessed
| OF names "A newborn pup most prob
ably has a length of about twenty feet"
l
| quite q harmless creature. 1t Is evident
| that II is q tough one; II Is not easy to kill
! It. A single rifle ball seems to be insult
| fcient, ana / think the only manner Of
| killing il would be by explosive balls or
| harpoons loaded with nitroglycerin.
Great Eel-Like Shark.
That the actual original of the so-caIled
sea serpent Is a giant selachian related
to the basking shark. with an elongated
| snake-lke or eel-like body, dorsal fin
close to the head and a snaky tail, is a
possibility suggested by DIR. Theodore Gill
! OF the Smithsonian, one OF the most emf
nent OF living naturalists Recently there
| has been discovered some remarkable eel
| shaped shark inhabitants OF the depths Of
| the sea, such naturaists never knew of
1 hitherto. One of these of remarkably large
| size. coming to the surface might easily be
| mistaken for gigantic serpent
| 1T cannot be doubted that somewhere In
the depths of the seas living certain
| animals unknown to science and OF great
| size, which come occasionally TO the sur
face and give foundation to such stories as
those of the sea serpent" says the late DIR.
| G. Brown Goode, for some years In charge
OF the National Museum. and DIR. Tarieton
| Bean, now director OF the New York
aquarium. in their. authorative work.
| abysses of the sea, from three to six miles
! below the surface. In region of perpetual
cold and darkness such undiscovered mon
| sters doubtless exist. and some OF them
| may De SuTFlFais Oh atfkfSut eSoioSiC
periods They are two swift and too power
full to ever be taken In dredging appliances
| used by scientific expeditions.
Two Noted Hoaxes.
Two effective hoaxes of fifty and sixty
years ago wrought such ridicnle as silenced
our naturaiists on the sea-serpent question
| during that generation. In 1916 one DIR. Al
bert C.. Koch exhibited In New York the
large skeleton of an alleged fossil animal
| which he named the 'hydrarchus." or sea
king" II consisted Of head and vertebrai