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. 1822. Ditto; and again 600 feet long. 1827. Ditto. 1829. Mr. Davidson, surgeon, R.N., described one seen in the Indian seas as precisely similar to that seen afterwards from the _Dædalus_ in 1848. He wrote of it during the controversy that passed regarding the latter. Mr. Gosse regarded his testimony as of much value. 1833. One seen by five British officers off Halifax, and described by P. H. Gosse. 1837. Again off Norway. 1846. Off Norway, and in the same locality as one seen about one hundred years previously; also during the hottest part of the summer. This individual had two ‘fins,’ and ‘the movements were like those of a snake forty to fifty feet long.’ 1848. The one seen from the _Dædalus_. 1850. Off Norway. 1851. Ditto. 1852. One described by Captain Steele, mentioned by Gosse. 1857. One described by Captain Harrison, and considered trustworthy evidence. 1875. One seen from the _Pauline_, July 8, in lat. 5° 30´ S., long. 35° W. Also on July 13, ‘a similar serpent’ seen from the same barque _Pauline_. 1875. September 11. ‘An enormous marine salamander’ in the Straits of Malacca, seen from the _Nestor_. 1877. Large marine animal seen from the royal yacht _Osborne_ off Sicily.