The Ottawa Free Trader

Our correspondent "Rhodolph" has been looking at the great sea serpent skeleton now on exhibition in New York, and kindly furnishes us the following account of it:

The magnificent scale upon which nature wrought in the formation of this country, has elicited the admiration of the eloquent, the wise, and the scientific men of all civilized countries. The awfully sublime grandeur of Niagara; the impetuous torrent of the majestic Mississippi; the fairy-like beauty of the boundless prairies, have called forth alike the song of the poet, the learned disquisitions of the naturalist, and the essays of the scholar. Nor has it been the striking characteristics in the natural formation of this country that have alone arrested attention, and excited wonder. Nature ever working by uniform and harmonious laws, extended the same scale of magnificence to the animal kingdom, and created the Mylodon, Mammoth, and Missourium—moving mountains of flesh and blood. But great as has been the wonder excited by the discovery of the remains of these monsters, it is entirely overawed by the recent discovery of the complete skeleton of the Hydrargos, or Sea Serpent. This is no longer a fabulous monster of the mighty deep, but lives, or has lived, in as much reality as whales and sharks. The skeleton is now exhibiting in this city, and is so perfect in its formation, and so well preserved, that the doubts of the most sceptical are at once removed on beholding it. Dr. Koch discovered it in Alabama, and brought it to this city. He found it embedded in stone, and with great labor succeeded in removing it nearly entire. The length of this monster is 114 feet as the bones are now put together, without estimating any space for the cartilages between the joints, which would probably make it 130 feet. The diameter across the ribs is eight feet, and the circumference, when alive, must have been at least 24 feet. The skeleton alone weighs 7,500 lbs. The length of the jaws is six feet. It is the opinion of professor Silliman, who pronounces it the greatest wonder ever discovered, that it lived about the mouths of the large rivers, and swam upon the surface of the streams, carrying its head twenty feet out of the water, and feeding upon alligators, buffaloes, and everything that frequented the sides of the rivers. It could have swallowed a buffalo at a single gulp, and must have required about ten of them for a meal. Its dental system proves it to be carnivorous. The dorsal and lumbar vertebrae are greatly elongated, measuring from 14 to 18 in. in length, and have a circumference of from 24 to 30 inches. Their construction differs from any animal hitherto known, as each body of the vertebrae is divided into five sections. In the centre is the main body, to which all the processes are attached, and which measure from five to seven inches in length: to both extremities of this is a pelvis. The section is angulized, measuring from 3 to 4 inches in length, and to the extremities of these again is an apevis. The whole is angulized and ossified together. It must have possessed great power, and been capable of gliding over the water with great rapidity, when alive. It is a most extraordinary spectacle, and one almost doubts his senses while beholding it.

It is to be hoped that our government will purchase this skeleton, and place it in the National Institute at Washington, or that individual liberality will prevent its being carried out of the country, as was the case with the Missourium. No exertion was made to keep that wonderful skeleton in the country, and it was carried to Europe, and now adorns the British Museum, and is justly considered its greatest wonder. It could not be bought at any price. Is this right? Are we always to see these great natural wonders carried out to adorn the collections of foreign countries? They are a part of our country, one of its striking characteristics, and we should no more allow ourselves to be stripped of them, than consent to the destruction of Niagara, if it were possible. Our national pride should stimulate us to collect all these wonders of the animal kingdom, which are in truth scattered pages of the early history of this country, in which we may read the power of the Creator, and presages of the high and mighty destiny to which this country is to attain.