From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) The leatherskin
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 11:06:10 -0600

William Ansley heroically proffers:
Way back on October 18, 1999 I argued that the leatherskin has twelve legs
and no one has bothered arguing with my conclusions yet. What I said then:
----------------
The leatherskin, one of the largest I have ever seen, stood with six massive
legs and half its weight on the starboard gunwale, over which silver water
cascaded. [OBW (hc), p. 62]
----------------
If this creature has only six legs and all of them are on the starboard
gunwale (rather a tricky balancing act in the first place), then how can the
gunwale be only bearing half its weight?


Crush blunders forward:
Ok. I think I have an understanding of what a leatherskin looks like.

The leatherskin is giant dugong with six pectoral flippers and a manticore's
jaws.

The reason "half its weight" was on the starboard gunwale was because its
massive tail-end was dangling in the water.

See the following link for my full explanation:
http://www.urth.org/whorlmap/leatherskin.htm


--- Crush




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