"In every age of the world, travellers to far off lands have brought back stories of strange peoples and strange customs, of plants and birds and beasts unknown to those who stayed at home. Perhaps no sight has made a stronger appeal to the imagination than an enormous fish, whose vast bulk lay stretched out on the surface of the sea, or who opened his huge jaws to devour smaller creatures. According as the lines of travel moved to the east or to the west and north, he is pictured, now off the coast of India or among the islands of the Southern Pacific, now on the shores of the Baltic; his dimensions and habits are variously described; but always he is an object of terror, and always he lends himself to stories of adventure and romance." - author

Language: English