“Not at all,” was the reply. “Some of them were hoaxes, of course. But I’m not the man to believe that other people are lying because I don’t happen to agree with them. It’s easy to make errors in a subject on which you’re not an expert—and few of the people who have claimed to have seen sea-serpents were expert naturalists. Now, if a sea-serpent presented himself for examination to a scientific expedition, such as the _Challenger_, or the _Michael Sars_, it would be a different matter. That has never happened.” [Illustration: COMBAT BETWEEN ICHTHYOSAURUS AND PLESIOSAURUS. One of the most famous of the early restorations. Modern discovery has shown that the long neck of the Plesiosaurus was almost stiff, and that the Ichthyosaurus had not a whale-like spout. The latter also bore a triangular shark-like fin on the back.] “But you think the people who reported a sea-serpent saw something?” “I’m sure of it,” was the scientist’s instant reply. “The very difference in all the reports shows that.” “What do you suppose they saw?” “Some of them saw porpoises, without a doubt, like those you saw this morning. But, myself, I believe that most of the stories have started from appearances of the giant squid or calamary. You know, Perry, the squid has been known to reach fifty or sixty feet in length, from the tip of the broad arrow-like tail to the end of the longest tentacle. As squids swim tail first, and as their method of propulsion is by expelling water in little jets from a siphon which is situated near the head, and, moreover, as they often allow the tail (which might look like a head) to project half out of the water, their huge bulk would easily lead an observer to make a false estimate of their size. If you add to this the peculiar bubbling ripple caused by the squid’s curious method of swimming, the wake would give the effect of the animal forty or fifty feet longer than its true size. Squids are not at all uncommon, though they seldom stay long at the surface, and their appearances may be the basis of many sea-serpent stories.” “But you do think that all the stories are a bit high, don’t you, Uncle George? I mean, you think they’re not just right?” “I may be a little partial to the sea-serpent,” the scientist answered with a quizzical smile, “so I should never declare that there may not be some monster of the deep that is occasionally seen.” “But there have been some awfully queer stories,” put in Perry, incredulously. “Yes, there have been,” the professor admitted. “The early ones, particularly, seem more or less fabulous. For example, Perry, there was the story of the island found by the old Swedish bishop-explorer, Olaus Magnus. Do you know that one?”