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Sea-Serpents

"Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Where the winds are all asleep; Where the spent lights quiver and gleam; Where the salt weed sways in the stream; Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round, Feed in the ooze of their pasture ground; Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, Dry their mail, and bask in the brine."

M. ARNOLD, The Forsaken Merman.

IT has been said that everything on earth has its double in the water. Are there not water-beetles, water-scorpions, water-rats, water-snakes, sea-lions, sea-horses, and a host of other living things, whether plants or animals, bearing some sort of resemblance to others that live on land? Then why not sea-serpents? The great controversy of the sea-serpent, that has so often been discussed in the newspapers, need not be considered here. We are dealing not with the present, but with the past; and whether or no the wonderful sailors' yarns of sea-serpents can be regarded as authentic, even in a single case, we can offer our readers infallible proof that during the so-called "Age of Reptiles," certain monstrous saurian animals flourished in considerable abundance, which, though not true serpents, nevertheless must have borne a striking resemblance to such, as they cleaved the waters of primæval seas. (See Appendix II.) The modern evolutionist believes that snakes are descended from lizards, possessing, as usual, four legs; that some primitive form of lizard with very small legs appeared on the scene, and found that it could better move along by wriggling its body and pushing with its ribs than by walking. So, in course of time, a race of lizards without legs arose; these, by Natural Selection, and perhaps other means, became more and more elongated, so that they could move faster than their ancestors, and glide out of harm's way more effectually. Thus was the snake evolved from a lizard.

Now, in the great geological museum of the stratified rocks, there have been discovered skeletons of marine reptiles, which propelled themselves chiefly by means of their tails and elongated bodies, rather than by their limbs. The limbs were not discarded entirely as in the case of the serpents, but were useful in their way as the fins of fishes are. Perhaps, therefore, we may be justified in calling these ancient monsters sea-serpents, in consideration of their long thin bodies; for they certainly would be called by that name if now living, and their skulls are very much like those of a modern lizard known as Varanus.

Strictly speaking, they were not serpents, but more or less like some of the extinct saurians described in Chap. V. The name, however, has been adopted by geologists, and is useful in so far as it serves to remind us of their very peculiar shape and structure. Remains of these strange creatures have been found both in Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. One of the earliest discoveries of remains of a fossil sea-serpent was made by M. Hoffmann, a Dutch military surgeon, in the year 1770. Maestricht, a city in the interior of the Netherlands, situated in the valley of the Meuse, stands on certain strata of limestone and sandstone, belonging to the Upper Chalk. Extensive quarries have, for many centuries, been worked in the sandstone, especially in the eminence called St. Peter's Mount, which is a cape or headland between the Meuse and the Jaar. This elevated plateau extends for some distance towards Liége, and presents an almost perpendicular cliff towards the Meuse. From the extensive works that have so long been carried on, immense quantities of stone have been removed, and the centre of the mountain is traversed by galleries, and hollowed by vast excavations. Innumerable fossils, such as marine shells, corals, crustaceans, bones and teeth of fishes, have been obtained from this rock, but St. Peter's Mount is now chiefly celebrated for the discovery of the bones and teeth of a huge saurian, to which Mr. Conybeare has given the name Mosasaurus, on account of its connection with the River Meuse. M. Hoffmann had long been an assiduous collector of fossils from this neighbourhood, and he had the good fortune to obtain the famous specimen on which this genus is founded.

It was at first considered by M. Faujas St. Fond to be a crocodile; but Cuvier and Camper formed a different and better conclusion. Perhaps no fossil ever had such a remarkable history as this one, as the following account, from M. Faujas St. Fond's work on the fossils of St. Peter's Mount,¹ will show. "Some workmen, on blasting the rock in one of the caverns of the interior of the mountain, perceived, to their astonishment, the jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of the chasm. The discovery was immediately made known to M. Hoffmann, who repaired to the spot, and for weeks presided over the arduous task of separating the mass of stone containing these remains from the surrounding rock. His labours were rewarded by the successful extrication of the specimen, which he conveyed in 1 Histoire Naturelle de la Montagne de St. Pierre. This account is given by Dr. Mantell, in his Petrifactions and their Teaching, 1851. triumph to his house. This extraordinary discovery, however, soon became the subject of general conversation, and excited so much interest, that the canon of the cathedral which stands on the mountain resolved to claim the fossil, in right of being lord of the manor; and succeeded, after a long and harassing lawsuit, in obtaining this precious relic. It remained for years in his possession, and Hoffmann died without regaining his treasure, or receiving any compensation. At length the French Revolution broke out, and the armies of the Republic advanced to the gates of Maestricht. The town was bombarded; but, at the suggestion of the committee of savans who accompanied the French troops to select their share of the plunder, the artillery was not suffered to play on that part of the city in which the celebrated fossil was known to be preserved. In the mean time, the Canon of St. Peter's, shrewdly suspecting the reason why such peculiar favour was shown to his residence, removed the specimen, and concealed it in a vault; but when the city was taken, the French authorities compelled him to give up his ill-gotten prize, which was immediately transmitted to the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, where it still forms one of the most striking objects in that magnificent collection."

Dr. Mantell quotes the Frenchman's remarks on this transaction: "La Justice, quoique tardive, arrive enfin avec le temps: " but adds, "The reader will probably think that, although the reverend canon was justly despoiled of his ill-gotten treasure, the French commissioners were but very equivocal representatives of Justice!"