Ever and again, when a new ‘sea monster’ has been reported, the newspapers take up the theme, and often give a _resumé_ of its history, from Bishop Pontoppidan’s down to the most recent specimen. References to the most important of the journalistic authorities usually accompany the more detailed accounts; but among them an excellent abridgement of ‘sea serpent’ literature, which appeared in the _Illustrated London News_ of October 1848, is worth studying. Another of interest was in the _Echo_ of January 15, 1877. In _Silliman’s Journal of Science_, 1835, was also an excellent paper. One of the best digests is that given by P. H. Gosse, in his _Romance of Natural History_, of the ed. 1860. This author, after weighing all the published evidence both from ordinary and scientific sources, and presenting it in a well-arranged and lucid form, sums up as follows:— ‘In conclusion, I express my own confident persuasion that there exists some oceanic animal of immense proportions, which has not yet been received into the category of scientific zoology; and my strong opinion that it possesses close affinities with the fossil _enaliosauria_ of the lias.’ Having respect for the opinion of so thoughtful a writer, and further encouraged by the fact that some of our most eminent physiologists have not thought it beneath them to give their attention to the various serpentine appearances which from time to time are seen at sea, and that the majority of them believe in the possibility of an unknown marine reptile, let us accept this idea as the basis of an endeavour to lay before my readers another summing up of evidence gathered from the still more recent writings on ‘The Great Sea Serpent’ of modern times.