Taking into sideration the mean of obrvations made at divers times—rejeg the timid estimate of tho who assigned to this objebsp;a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions whibsp;t it down as a mile in width and three in length—we might fairly clude that this mysterious being surpasd greatly all dimensions admitted by the learned ones of the day, if it existed at all. And that it DID exist was an undeniable fabsp;and, with that tendenbsp;whibsp;dispos the human mind in favour of the marvellous, we bsp;uand the excitement produbsp;in the entire world by this supernatural apparition. As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea was out of the question.
On the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, of the Calcutta and Burnabsp;Steam Navigation pany, had met this moving mass five miles off the east coast of Australia. Captain Baker thought at first that he was in the prenbsp;of an unknown sandbank; he even prepared to determine its exabsp;position when two ns of water, projected by the mysterious objebsp;shot with a hissing noi a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted to the itent eruption of a geyr, the Governor Higginson had to do her more nor less than with an aquatibsp;mammal, unknown till then, whibsp;threw up from its blow-holes ns of water mixed with air and vapour.
Taking into sideration the mean of obrvations made at divers times—rejeg the timid estimate of tho who assigned to this objebsp;a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions whibsp;t it down as a mile in width and three in length—we might fairly clude that this mysterious being surpasd greatly all dimensions admitted by the learned ones of the day, if it existed at all. And that it DID exist was an undeniable fabsp;and, with that tendenbsp;whibsp;dispos the human mind in favour of the marvellous, we bsp;uand the excitement produbsp;in the entire world by this supernatural apparition. As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea was out of the question.
On the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, of the Calcutta and Burnabsp;Steam Navigation pany, had met this moving mass five miles off the east coast of Australia. Captain Baker thought at first that he was in the prenbsp;of an unknown sandbank; he even prepared to determine its exabsp;position when two ns of water, projected by the mysterious objebsp;shot with a hissing noi a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted to the itent eruption of a geyr, the Governor Higginson had to do her more nor less than with an aquatibsp;mammal, unknown till then, whibsp;threw up from its blow-holes ns of water mixed with air and vapour.