Many sea-faring men firmly believe in the existence of sea
serpents and more than one has reported seeing of those huge sea-beasts.
Scientists point out that porpoises, swimming single-file, appear not
unlike a great snake upon the surface. A long line of sea-wood, riding up
and down the waves, is a fine starter for the imagination. Then there is
the ribbon fish, or oarfish, a slender serpent-like creature, which grows to
a length of 25 feet or more. It is not exactly a common fish. It has been
observed swimming on the ocean surface and, by just stretching the
imagination, a 100-foot monster could be made of it. (5) (7 p. 221)

In the absence of absolute proof, science will neither affirm nor
deny a place to the sea serpent. As the expression goes, "a scientific
skepticism prevails." But of late, scientific explorers going about in
queer corners of the world, have begun to look about them more sharply.
Reports have been coming in from men of undoubted truthfulness, and,
to make matters more confusing, from the scientists themselves. (5)

It is a state of affairs that calls for serious thinking. In past and
forgotten ages the high seas were frequented by serpentine leviathans
and it may well be that they are not entirely extinct. None of these
Brobdingnagian ophidians having been discovered, we must content
with very ordinary sea-serpents, the Hydrophidoc, found in most warm
seas. They are small, have compressed tails, and