Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/17

 public curiosity. From that time all disasters at sea which could not be accounted for were put to the credit of the monster. This fantastic animal bore the responsibility of all shipwrecks—whose numbers are, alas! considerable—for out of the 3,000 vessels whose loss is annually recorded, the number supposed to be lost, because no intelligence concerning them has been received, scarcely reaches 200. Now this was the monster which, justly or unjustly, was accused of their destruction; and, thanks to him, the communication between the continents became more and more dangerous, and the public demanded that the ocean should be cleared of this formidable cetacean.