the minimum length of the mammal at more than threehundred and fifty feet,as the Shannon and Helvetia wereof smaller dimensions than it.though they measured threehundred feet over all.Now the largest whales,those which frequent those partsof the sea round the Aleutian,Kulammak.and Umgullichislands have never exceeded the length of sixty yards,if theyattain that.In every place of great resort the monster was thefashion.They sang of it in the cafes.ridiculed it in thepapers,and represented it on the stage.All kinds of storieswere circulated regarding it.There appeared in the paperscaricatures of every gigantic and imaginary creature.fromthe white whale,the terrible"Moby Dick"of sub-arcticregions,to the immense kraken,whose tentacles couldentangle a ship of five hundred tons and hurry it into theabyss of the ocean.The legends of ancient times were evenrevived.Then burst forth the unending argument between thebelievers and the unbelievers in the societies of the wiseand the scientific journals.The question of the monster"inflamed all minds.Editors of scientific journals,quarrellingwith believers in the supernatural.

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