In a rather detailed communication to Land and Water on this subject, by Dr. Andrew Wilson, September 15, 1877, he also reminds us how easily and frequently we may trace supposed resemblances to animals or faces, where none can possibly exist; as, for instance, ‘in the gnarled trunks and branches of trees.’ Much more true resemblances to serpentine forms are really seen at sea; as, for example, those ‘floating trunks and roots of trees serving as a nucleus, around which sea-weed has collected.’ In one instance, as Dr. Wilson relates, some such object, seen from the deck of a yacht, was so deceptive even to intelligent men who scrutinized it through the telescope, that the course of the ship was changed on purpose to inspect it closely. Dr. Wilson regrets the unfortunate discredit which has been cast upon all sea-serpent stories through such erroneous observations, causing even the more trustworthy accounts to be received with almost universal ridicule, and as already observed in the opening of chap. xiii., almost to the ignoring of the true sea snakes, which are too often included among the mythical.
Briefly to enumerate some of those which appear to have recently had the chiefest claims to attention as really living creatures, otherwise than flights of birds or shoals of fish, but making due allowance for unscientific observations, and vague or exaggerated representations, we find that gigantic marine animals were observed as follows:—
1734. Off Greenland.
1740. Off Norway; described by Bishop Pontoppidan as 600 feet in
length.
1809. Off the Hebrides.
1815. Near Boston, U.S.
1817. Ditto.
1819. Ditto. From 80 to 250 yards in length!
1819. One seen for a month off Norway.