| |
|
1976 |
The monsters of Loch Ness.
London, Futura Publications Ltd.: [xi] + 401. Illus.
–Considers (in rather surprising detail) Steller's sea cow and other sirs. as possible candidates for the Loch Ness monster, presents an odd and rather lumpy reconstruction of Hydrodamalis (136), discusses sir. behavior, environment, and morphology, and illustrates (158) a "Hypothetical (but unlikely) sirenian" with a giraffe-like neck (!) that might conceivably account for the monster sightings (135-137, 143-144, 148-149, 155, 157-159, 162, 166-167, 171-172, 177, 181, 185-186, 192, 195, 197, 204, 283, 310-312). The most noteworthy part of this quaint exercise in speculative sirenology is a calculation (311-312), based partly on Steller's measurements and partly on unsupported estimates, of the body volume and lung volume of Hydrodamalis, which concludes that lung gas volume was about 13% of body volume.
|