The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-02
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abAS a9 0it dS IfStotys 4AotAetSH" and legends concerning them have come down the stream of Time for centuries with wonderful persever- ance and obstinate continuity. That many of the stories concerning the existence of such creature are mere sailors yarns is more than probable. but some of the accounts are too cir cumstantial. and the authors seem ingly too we'll entitled to credenee for one to pass the accounts by as myths or hallucinations. In point of fact, as we learn from an editorial tn the current issue of The Journal of She American Society for Psychical Research. a noted biologist has re- gently taken the trouble to investi- gate and compare the sailors stories rt blished in all languages, running back for four hundred years. He finds in them remarkable argu- mcnt on certain essential points, such as shape of the head. mauner of swimming. etc., which leads him to conclude that there Is something be- 6iItb yaTuS III tltIT Stpi iCos LiS sOef nal from which we have quoted adds these later and more definite data
 The French gunboat Avalanche. ce mmanded by Lieutenant Lagreslie, In July, 1897, sighted two strange creatures in the Bay of Fai-tsi-long. Their size he estimated at sixty me- tres long by two or three in diame- ter. When he fired at them at a range of 800 metres they dove and February 15. 1898. the same. vessel sighted another pair of similar ere atrres. and made chase for an hour and a half. giving up. as the gallant lieutenant put 1t. because the sea- serpent had greater endurance than the Avalanahe:" Less than a month tcard some officers of the Bayard. the interesting swimming creatures were sighted third time and pur- sued up to closer range than on any of the previous occasions. While it might be objected that a group or na wal officers engaged In entertain ing their brethren from another ship do not make ideal scientific observers, third vessel, the Decidee, sighted the timorous monsters ip the same waters no longer ago than the spring of 1904.
 One does not have to accept the
 
 vitza. who read a paper not long ago before the French Geological Society, that the sea-serpent Is not only ex- istent but comparatively common m sto stories s thus M T far coliected suggest some extremely interesting possioii- ties. There was certainly a time vixen the sea, swarmed Wieh crea- sernents. Have any of them surviv- edf That, of course, is the Wnole question, but 1t must be remembered that the garpike, substantially as ne sw;Ts today. was ,s an ola and mhsn ss'aSe abe hthyosaurus first raised his head above the water, just as the surviV- ing Australian duck-bill belongs 10 very much older type than the ex- tinct mastodon or sabre-toothed tl- ger Zoologists secuted the kraken myth until they actually fodnd huge csittiehshes that were quite as sat isfying to the appetite for prodigles.
 Now. the mere fact that one of us has never seen sea-serpent can not be taken as indisputable evidence that such creatures have no existence. nor ever had any. Seeing Is belieV- ing" is an old saying, but we must take many things on faith. and be satisfied with the evidence of others. lEony persons have never seen whale. but none doubt that there are such animals. So it is with many other objects that some of us may have no personal knowledge of--we are bot safe In asserting that they do not exist. Many of us know that the stories of a pygmy race in some portion of Africa were long looked on as myths, but that there i2 such race is too well established to be aisbelieyed. We might call to mind other instances of the same kind where disbelief has been compelled to give way in the face of evidence.
 A noted instance of tl.is finding of an apparently mythical creature Is connected with a strange and large animal which received the name of Okspi. and was said to have its habi- tat in some remote portion of Africa. Hardly any one believed in its exis- tence until Sir Harry Johnson report ed the finding of the dead body oF one in the course of his African ex- DlCIAIlOuSs not dispelled on the part of the great majority who refused to believe In the existence of this hitherto unknown spectmen of the animal kingdom. A few days ago, however, dispatches were received In this country telling of the capture of a living okapi, and we suppose 1t will be brought either to the United States or to Europe. in which case 1t may be presumed that there will be no more doubts on the subject.
 If this turns out to be true, and If the existence of a supposedly mythical animal is proven by the production of the creature itself may 1t not be possible that genuine sea-serpent will be produced and exhibited? We notice that Dr. Raphael Blanchard wants the government of Cochin Chi na to fit out an expedition for the purpose of making a thorouHF inves- tigation in Chinese waters for the purpose of settling the matter. It IS to be hoped that this will be done. either by China or some other coun- try, SO that we may know of q cer- tainty whether such creatures are in existence, and if 3D. what are their habits, sizes and appearance. It may be true that 1t may not be essential to gcod government and human hap piress to know If there are sea-ser-