In opposition to these testimonies, incredulous naturalists beg to remark, that no museum possesses a single bone of the huge snake, and that its body has nowhere been found swimming on the ocean or cast ashore. They therefore agree with Professor Owen in regarding the negative evidence, from the utter absence of any recent remains, as stronger against their actual existence than the positive statements which have hitherto weighed with the public mind in favour of their reality; and believe that a larger body of evidence from eye-witnesses might be got together in proof of the reality of ghosts than in proof of the existence of the great sea-serpent.
The plain truth seems to be that lines of rolling porpoises, resembling a long string of buoys, first gave origin to the marvellous stories of the fabulous monster. For, keeping in close single file, and progressing rapidly along the calm surface of the water by a succession of leaps or demivaults forward, part only of their uncouth forms appears to the eye, so as to resemble the undulatory motions of one large serpentiform animal.
General Observations on Fishes.--Their Locomotive Organs.--Tail.--Fins.--Classification of Fishes by Cuvier.--Air-Bladder.--Scales.--Beauty of the Tropical Fishes.--The Gills.--Terrestrial Voyages of the Anabas and the Hassar.--Examples of Parental Affection.--Organs of Sense.--Offensive Weapons of Fishes.--The Sea-Wolf.--The Shark.--The Saw-Fish.--The Sword-Fish.--The Torpedo.--The Star-Gazer.--The Angler.--The Chætodon Rostratus.--The Remora, used for catching Turtles.--Defensive Weapons of Fishes.--The Weever.--The Stickleback.--The Sun-Fish.--The Flying-Fish.--The numerous Enemies of the Fishes.--Importance and History of the Herring Fishery.--The Pilchard.--The Sprat.--The Anchovy.--The Cod.--The Sturgeons.--The Salmon.--The Tunny.--The Mackerel Family.--The Eel.--The Murey.--The Conger.--The Sand-Launce.--The Plectognaths.--The Sea-Horse.--The Pipe-Fish.--The Flat-Fishes.--The Rays.--The Fecundity of Fishes.
The bosom of the ocean is full of mysteries; it conceals a whole world of curiously-shaped animals, which the naturalist only superficially knows, and may, perhaps, never be able to fathom. To observe the habits of terrestrial animals, and accurately to determine their various species, is a comparatively easy task; but the denser element in which fishes live prevents us from following their motions with exactness, from studying their instincts, and from noting with fidelity their specific differences.