SEA SERPENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5384, 29 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

SEA SERPENTS.

(From the Austra/asiait, 15th lust.) So many respectable witnesses. have in the last 20 years, to leave all those of older date out of the question, borne testimony to the appearance of “sea serpents ”, far out at sea, that it is not possible longer to doubt the good faith of the descriptions published, imperfect though they be, or of the stories we have heard, although they are full of obvious, though perhaps unconscious, exaggeration, None_ of these accounts of sea serpents arc by scientific men, and none but those who have received a careful training for observation can be aware how difficult it is for a person unaccustomed to such a task to give an accurate or recognisable description of almost any natural object, and the difficulties are of course greatly increased if, as in these accounts of sea serpents, the objects are indistinctly seen or inaccessible.

The first' point 1 which a scientific man would stop at would be the use of the word “ serpent,” and if we endeavor to ascertain on what grounds the observers concluded they had seen a great “serpent” out at sea, we shall find that iu all the accounts, from the most ancient to those of, the present day, there is not to’ be found the slightest valid reason for using the word serpent for these marine monsters in its proper of technical sense, but, on the contrary, mention is made in nearly all the characters which would satisfy a naturalist that the creature was certainly not a serpent, whatever else it might be. It is not every long and narrow animal that is a serpent, and there is really little greater reason for thq popular use of the word in the present relation. I think we may do the captains of ships, who have written occasionally on this matter, the justice to believe that they are sufficiently, familiar with common marine objects, and the suggestion of Professor Owen that the descrip, tions referred to seals, or the suggestion of floating lines of seaweed being mistaken for sea serpents, may he put aside without further reference. Before ; going further the'reader must know that there are real serpents in the sea, but these sea snakes are small creatures, rarely exceeding two , or ' three feet in length, and one two inches in diameter, so that we may leave them out in considering the sea-serpent question. Nearly, all the descriptions make mention of a “mane” on the back of the neck, and a “crest" along the back. Now, no snake or serpent, or any nearly allied reptile, has any sort of mane or dorsal crest, and although the name has suggested 1 to some people the idea that longnecked “sea-lions” or allied seals might have been mistaken for sea serpents, yet seals have no crests running along the back; and this brings us to the class of fishes as that to which the sea serpents probably belonged, as ’most fishes have dorsal crests (or dorsal fins), often extending the length of a very long snake-like body,‘ ; as in the cels, for instance. But though the conger eels are often of great size, crested along the back, and snake-like iu form, yet they are too well known by mariners to be mistaken for anything else; and, further, they are not inhabitants of the oceans very remote from land, where the “sea serpents” have alone been reported. Take it for all and all, there is probably no creature known which fulfils all the conditions required to realise the accounts we have of, sea serpents so 1 completely as that’ caught l in Tasmania a little while ago, and now ' brought to Melbourne by Mr. Vail, who fa understood .to be’ preserving it for exhibition. ; This is a very large example of-that rarest and most ouridus : fish, the c.t'rw#, of which to the present t-imono.perfect •

example has ever been seen, although specimens have been caugbt in England in 1750, and on a few occasions at rare intervals rince, and a few unsatisfactory observations of somewhat similar fishes have beeu reported from Norway, the Mediterranean, tho Gape of Good Hope, and more recently by Mr. Travers in New Zealand in 1860.

There can be little doubt that this particular Cryimdrus is the Jicgalcats BanJci of modern authors, which is most probably the same as the Gymnttru. s Ifaichhisi of Black. Mr. Vail's specimen is upwards of 15ft. in length, and so compressed laterally that no part of the immensly . long body is more than Sin. thick, while the greatest part of the depth is little over a foot, so that when seen swimming at some distance, the form is certainly long and narrow enough to be taken for a serpent, especially as the tail end is so low in the water as to be lost to sight, and leaves room for the imagination to suggest that at least as much is hidden behind as is seen in front. The head is small, with a concave profile like that of a pug dog, and an immense bright silvery eye as large as that of a bullock, giving an active intelligent look, ranch more like that of a serpent, than an eel. The mouth is small, and capable of so much motion of the bones of the face that it can be protruded very considerably, or retracted at pleasure. There are no teeth, so that there is little ground for the alarm which its appearance inspires. Just over the eye a great manelike anterior part of the dorsal tin stands up to a height of about a foot and a half above the head, composed of 18 excessively brittle rays with a membraneous connexion irregularly torn in tho specimen, in which also those long rays are much broken, so that the precise form of this so-called mane cannot be seen : but as it is more than double the height of the bead and neck it must have a very striking appearance, and add to the formidable aspect of a supposed sea-ser-pent. Beyond this “mane” the dorsal fin or “ crest” is formed of 434: simple rays, with connecting membrane, and • extends, with uniform comparatively low height, to the tail, which ends in a point, without any caudal tin. The so-called maiie and crest are bright rose red. There is no anal fin, so that the ventral Hue seems finless or naked, as the name Gymnetrus is intended bo indicate. The ventral fins of ordinary fishes are replaced by two long slender rays, each two feet and abaif long, ending in oval membraneous flaps of a bright carmine red color. The pectoral fins are very small, and of twelve rays. The whole of the body is of a bright silvery greyish white color, with numerous small rounded hard white tubercles like seed pearls, largest along the ventral line ; there are about eighteen narrow undulating dark streaks, extending downwards and slightly backwards, of very irregular lengths, most of them starting from the back, and reaching one-third or ouehalf the depth of the body, while others begin and end near tho middle of the sides ; besides these marks there are five or six rows of much more obscure faint greyish bare round spots across the anterior portions of the body. There are four conspicuous ridges and furrows extending the whole length of the body above the lateral line.

Barge as this specimen is, there is uo doubt of one caught at the Fern Islands in 1806 having measured ISft., aud there is a doubtful record of one caught on the Yorkshire coast in 1845, part of which is now in the British Museum, having measured 24ft. Now, as L h continue'to grow as long as they live, there s a probability of this length being far exceeded by old healthy specimens, such as m ght be encountered far from land in the comparatively desert parts of the deep oceans, in which alone they are fitted to dwell. So excessively brittle are all the parts of this extraordinary fish that all the examples found are more or loss imperfect, and tin’s, with their disproportionate length aud thinness, renders it impossible for them to withstand the turbulence of the moderately deep waters near the coasts, the only individuals secured being obviously sick or dying, and out of their natural habitat, which is supposed to be the depths of the great oceans, where the water is never moved by the storms which toss the surface. This explains why they have beeu seen eo rarely seen, and why they have been seen in the localities where the occurrence of sea serpents has been reported. The specimen of this species obtained at Cullercoats in 1849 by Hr. Embleton and Mr. Hancock was caught by some fishermen, who saw it approaching them near the surface, with a gentle lateral undulating motion, with its crest aud a portion of the head raised out of the water. Now, this is exactly the description most commonly given of the appearance and movements qf the sea serpent. If some such allowance be made for exaggeration in size in tho accounts of.the glimpses seen of the so-called sea serpents at sea, as has been found necessary in. reducing the monstrously exaggerated estimates of travellers us to the dimensions of true serpents on the land, the conviction arises that we have now tho real type of creature which lias excited sc much interest, and which is in itself so curious. Tire barbarous dogLatin generic name Keyalccas was given by Ascanius as an equivalent of the Norwegian popular name Ceil von in, or king of the herrings, and although Valencienne aud others object to the name as barbarous, still, as it has the priority over Gyuinctrn*, it must by the rules of nomenclature be now retained.