_Thursday, Dec. 10._--Off Madeira, on board R.M.S. "Thames."--"Made acquaintance with a Captain Christmas of the Danish navy, a proprietor in Santa Cruz, and holding some office about the Danish Court. He told me he once saw a sea-serpent between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. He was lying-to in a gale of wind, in a frigate of which he had the command, when an immense shoal of porpoises rushed by the ship, as if pursued; and, lo and behold! a creature with a neck moving like that of a swan, about the thickness of a man's waist, with a head like a horse, raised itself slowly and gracefully from the deep, and seeing the ship it immediately disappeared again, head foremost, like a duck diving. He only saw it for a few seconds; the part above the water seemed about 18 feet in length. He is a singularly intelligent man, and by no means one to allow his imagination to run away with him." THE END. INDEX. Æpyornis, 38. America, early condition of, 8, 32. Ant-eaters, 9. Antidotes to poison, 268, 272, 276, 298, 300. Ants, slave-hunting, 384. Apteryx, egg of, 38. Argus pheasant, 323. Auk, great, 82. Australia, early condition of, 12. Aye-aye, 78. Bamboo, elegance of, 340. Bananas in Tahiti, 342. Barbadoes Pride, 353. Bats, immured, 183, 185. Bear, black, 70. Bear, cave, 15, 69. Beauty, Divine appreciation of, 302 --in quadrupeds, 304 --in birds, 306 --in beetles, 329 --in butterflies, 331 --in plants, 338 --in flowers, 344. Beaver in Britain, 72. Beetles, splendour of, 329, 337. Birds, colossal, of Australia, 13, 34. Bison of Europe, 68. Blood rain, 98, 102 --waters, 99, 103 --snow, 100. Bois Immortel, 354. Britain, early condition of, 13, 44. Butterflies, splendour of, 331. Bruce on serpent-charming, 266, 277. Cave in Skye, 134. Changeable colours, 315. Climbers of tropical forests, 368. Climbing perch, 123. Cock of the rock, 307. Corals, parasitic, 380. Corncrake, torpidity of, 198. Cowpen bird, 381. Crabs, parasitic habits of, 379. Crane-fly, luminous, 231. Creation progressive, 89. Cuckoo, habits of, 381. Deer, elegance of, 304. Deposition, rate of geologic, 47. Dinothere, 5, 14. Dodo, 74. Drift, remains in, 44. Eagle fascinates rabbit, 259. Eel, wanderings of, 122. Eggs, fossil, 37, 38. Elephant of Siberia, 6, 20. Elk, Irish, 14, 49-57, 61. Entozoic worms, 360. Europe, early condition of, 3. Extinction of species, 1, 81, 88. Fascination in serpents, 242 --in lizards, 255 --in scorpion, 256 --in stoats, 257 --in fox, 258 --in eagle, 259. Fig-trees, parasitic, 364. Fire attracts insects, 260 --birds, 261 --toads, 262. Fishes, showers of, 109-117 --torpidity of, 118 --travelling, 121 --parasitic, 376. Flamboyant, 353. Fleas _ad infinitum_, 359. Flints, fossil, 44. Fox of Falkland, 86 --fascinating poultry, 258. Frogs, showers of, 108. Galeodes, account of, 237. Goatsuckers, 307. Grouse, 95. Guiana, scenery in, 346.