The Washington times., 1918-12-29

gripping teeth broke of in the backbone
And then the Zeuglodon, mortally hurt'
sinking dying through the waters, to rest
upon the ocean bottom that centuries al
ter was to be covered by fertile south
ern field.
Almost coincident with these finds was
the reported discovery of a fragment OF
a snake-like sea monster cast up near
North Cape on the Norwegian coast.
This fragment was twenty feet long,
six feet wide, leathery skinned and beau
tifully cylindrical From these and au-
thenticated observation-notably those
of DR.. William Sharp on the Emerald, be-
tween Madeira and st. Thomas, in 1906;
by voyagers on Lord Crawford's yacht the
Valhalla, in the same year; the monster
seen from the H NJ. S. Daedalus, in 1S4S;
and other off the coast Of Maine in 1851,
a full description of which appears in the
records of the time, and other narratives
we may now place the sea serpent, as sur
vival of that prehistoric monster which
science names the Zeuglodon, and whose
remains are found in the greatest pro-
fusion among the fossil beds Of southern
Louisiana
Louisiana, which was at the time the
fossils were deposited entirely under sea,
seems, in fact, to have been the main
breeding place of this particular monster.
Zeuglodon, which means yoke tooth, is
also catalogued basilosaurus, which means
whaleIike king lizard, but this term is
hardly fitting, as Zeuglodon was, and is,
no lizard at all. He was a true cetacean.
He had no remotest connection with the
reptilean family, and Mrs. Zeuglodon
nuTsed her babies approximately as the
mammals do to-day-at the breast. The
fossil remains show that these creatures
averaged a length of from seventy to
hundred feet.
Neither Mr.. nor Mrs Zeuglodon had
any structural characteristics which might
encourage them to enter any geological
beauty show of their time. In fact, they
we're all out Of proportion.
Zeuglodon's head was about four feet
long, and the actual body, or what we
would call in humans the torso and in
harmony with the head, was only about
ten feet long and from six to eight feet
through at the biggest part. But it rapidly
tapered away into a tail of from fifty to
seventy-fye feet in length. This tail
ended In fukes like a whales and had the
quality Of twisting, curving and turning
with true serpentine facility.
Here, In its appearance as we learn it
from the fossils, we have a convincing
parallel to the description Of the monster
seen from the Daedalus. Small head, a
barrel-like body behind it, and the out
lines Of an enormously long tapering tail"
The same barrel, or cask-like shape, is
noted in the narratives of the monster
seen on the coast of Maine in 1851 In
"Our First Century" an interesting vol
ume dealing with the noteworthy occur
rences Of the republic between 1776 and
1878, appears this description:
From all this testimony there seems to
be no doubt, reasonable or plausible, of
the existence of a sea serpent of some
eighty TO one hundred feet in length and
Of the size of large barrel or cask.
Indeed, so great was the sensation Gre
ated by the movements OF the monster so
repeatedly seen by so many witnesses and
described by them with such detail and
concurrence, that the Linnaean Society Of
Boston appointed committee Of eminent
scientific gentlemen to collect evidence on