CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
SEA-MONSTERS.
FROM DAWN TO SUNSET.
SKETCHES IN VANCOUVER ISLAND.
THE ADMIRAL'S SECOND WIFE.
A LEGEND OF 'THE FORTY-FIVE.'
THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.
A STRANGE PAIR.
| No. 722. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1877. | Price 1½d. |
SEA-MONSTERS.
Whether the sea contains any creature at allanswering to the popular idea of a 'sea-serpent'—thatophidian monster which is annually reportedto have been interviewed by various crews andpersons—is a problem which will only be solvedby the actual capture of one of those visitors.There are, as will presently be pointed out, certainwell-known true sea-snakes, the Hydrophidæof the Indian Ocean, which swim by means of theircompressed fin-like tails; but whether these marineserpents will correspond to the 'sea-serpents' ofpopular tales, is a matter deserving further investigation.The wide ocean presents features wellsuited to tempt the imagination to stray into thewildest flights. Its vastness; the difficulty of exploringeven a small portion of its surface, as wellas its enormous depths; its capacity for containingthe strangest and most gigantic objects that fancycan picture: these are attributes of the mightydeep that have ever attracted the attention andprompted the weird imaginings of man.
It is a curious fact that recent scientific researchhas revealed the existence in the sea, at the greatestdepths, of most minute and wonderfully formedorganisms, the beauty and rarity of which necessarilysecure our admiration; but instances ofanimals of enormous size being met with beyondthose already known, are few and far between.This fact may be accounted for by the circumstancethat while it is easy to construct instrumentsfor capturing the smaller creatures living inthe deep, it is a very different matter to entrap andsecure an unseen monster, whose very size mustendow him with enormous strength. The whale,so far as we know, is the largest denizen of thedeep. Whether it is possible that it can beequalled by giants of some other order or race,is the point which public curiosity is very keento have settled.
The appearance of great snakes at sea isrecorded by more than one old voyager; but itwould seem to have been only of late yearsthat the idea of their existence has been generallyconfined to one, familiar to us all as the 'Greatsea-serpent.'
In Opuscula Omnia Botanica, Thomæ Johnsoni,1629, we have an account