Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1920 — HUNTING LAIR OF SEA SERPENT [ARTICLE]

HUNTING LAIR OF SEA SERPENT

Scientists' Search Leads to Dis* covery of Many Strange Monsters of Deep.

BIG SEI LIZARD EXTINCT There Are Still Sharks to Be Found, However, Forty Feet Long—Dangerous Marine Creatures Not the Largest. New York. —Imaginative sea captains and their followers on returning to local ports entertain their 1 friends and unsophisticated strangers with highly colored narratives of great sea serpents and other unfamiliar monsters of the deep that they have encountered on their voyages. That monsters of the deep exist today as in olden times is well known to science, but they are quite different from those described by the old salts. —aiei Nichols. head of the department of recent fishes at the American Museum of Natural History, “as that creature is pictured In the popular mind is a purely mythical animal. Although there are doubtless many strange beasts in the sea, as yet unknown to science, it is highly improbable that such a monster will be

found." Big Sea Lizards. The nearest approach perhaps to this monster that ever existed was some of the big sea lizards which used to navigate the globe in prehistoric times. The most authentic reports of sea serpents nowadays when traceable at all turn out to be faulty observations of some ordinary marine creatures. A school of porpoises stretched out in line and rolling their backs above the surface in unison, may readily enough appear like the coils of a great sea monster to an observer with an active imagination. There are plenty of monsters in the sea. though none equal in size (he largest of the whalelwne whales. The largest of such creatures are some-, thing like 90 feet In length. If there are larger specimens they have bpen remarkably successful in eluding accurate measurement. In order to find sufficient food such gigantic creatures must be content with a humble diet. Hence they have developed their whalebone —a substance in which no imitation can compete in the manufacture of high-grade whip handles and corset stays—for the purpose of straining an abundance of small fishes or other ainmals from the sea water. Inhabiting the deep are two gigantic sharks, either one of which may reach a length of 40 feet. The basking shark is found in northern seas, occasionally straying southward to our

coasts. and the whale shark seems to have its principal habitat in the Indian ocean, though stragglers have tumefi up as far away as the shores of Florida, Oue such, mounted, is on exhibition at Miami and will repay a visit to any one who chances to be in that vicinity.

Plenty of Sea Monsters. There are plenty of monsters In the sea, the giant devil fish, or manta, which probably grows to be over 20 feet between the tips of its great wings. The model of an individual of 18 feet or so Is on exhibition at the American museum. The manta has hornlike processes directed forward, one at either side of its broad head, and there are well-authenticated Instances of a devil fish “flying” through the water, catching a boat’s anchor between its horns hy chance, lifting the anchor and towing the astonished boatmen out to sea. At certainseasons the devil fish is common along the Gulf coast of Florida, where it furnishes exciting sport for blg-gameJisb-ermen. The dangerous marine creatures are in general not the largest. The killer whale, which is 20 feet or so in length, will attack and devour almost anything that swims in the sea. Sqmetimes they join in schools and hunt the big whalebone whales like a pack of hungry wolves. The man-eater shark, seldom more than 20 feet long, of the fiercest of sea creatures. He is as rare as he Is dangerous. The hig sperm whale seems to feed largely on large specimens of octupus, for which it dives in deep water. Some observers assert that they have seen spectacular contests between such a sperm whale and an octopus which it had brought to the surface.