Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/197

Rh liferated freely and now formed free growths, ossifying independently, of the cranial bones, but ultimately fusing with them.

Type III. was a continuation of the main line from II., represented by the Prongbuck; predominant epidermal growth produced a hornshoe, which was periodically shed, but had abolished the shedding of the bony core which represented the antler.

Type IV., the highest stage, was represented by the hollow-horned Ruminants, in which the horn-shoe was now a permanent feature; but it was important to note that these animals still shed the first, or earliest, generation of the horny sheath. Horns and antlers were developed alike with a cartilaginous matrix, with subsequent ossification.

These four types were an illustration of onward phyletic evolution, and these stages were still faithfully repeated in the development of the recent species: this was a clear instance where ontogeny was a shortened recapitulation of phylogeny.

most zoologists we neither affirm nor deny the possible existence of large sea-serpents at present unknown; on this question we are distinctly agnostic. From time to time we are treated in the newspapers with yarns, hasty and mistaken observations, and legends, anent this mythical animal. The following cutting from the 'Pall Mall Gazette' (Sept. 27th last) is worth reproduction for comparison with similar reports, and is given sans comment:—

"We have received the following letter from Mr. Oliver G. Ready, of the Chinese Customs. It has reference to a very old friend. Lappa, from which the letter comes, is close to the mouth of the Canton River:— "Custom House, Lappa, August 22nd.

"Sir,—With the Commissioner's approval, I enclose copy of an official report made by Mr. Officer-in-Charge Wolfe on a monster sea-serpent seen by him when on patrol duty. Mr. Wolfe has been in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs service for nine years, and is now in charge of the armed revenue launch 'Lungtsing,' a vessel of one hundred tons and fourteen knots speed. He is most steady and trustworthy, and in every way to be believed. His testimony is, moreover, confirmed in writing by the second officer, and all of the 'Lungtsing's' Chinese crew who were on deck at the time. I have had a long conversation with Mr. Wolfe, and carefully sifted his evidence. You may rest assured that this is not a yarn, but a true and unvarnished account. Chuk Chao Islands are about twenty miles south-west of Hong-Kong, with ten to twelve fathoms of water. There had recently been very