THE AMERICAN SEA-SERPENT. 1*0/ 



This gentleman informed me, that when travelling through 

 Norway, he made many enquiries after the Sea Serpent, but 

 having been unable to see the creature himself, he was forced 

 to be contented with the accounts he received. In 1818, the 

 fishermen at Sejerstad stated, " That a sea serpent was seen 

 in the Folden jiord, the length of which, as far as it was 

 visible, was sixty feet. In July 1819, it made its appearance 

 off Otersun in Norway, and Captain Schilderup stated to Sir 

 Arthur, that it was seen daily during the whole of the month, 

 and continued while the warm weather lasted, lying motion- 

 less as if dozing in the sunbeams. When Captain Schilderup 

 first saw it, he was in a boat at the distance of about two 

 hundred yards, and supposes its length to have been about 

 three hundred ells, or six hundred feet. It was of considerable 

 length, and longer than it appeared, as it lay in large coils 

 above the water to the height of many feet. Its colour was 

 greyish. He could not distinguish from the distance, whether 

 it was covered or not with scales ; but when it moved, it made 

 a crackling noise, which he distinctly heard. Its head was 

 shaped like a serpent, but he could not tell whether it had 

 teeth or not. He said it emitted a very strong odour ; and 

 that the boatmen were afraid to approach near it, and looked 

 on its coming as a bad sign, as the fish left the coast in con- 

 sequence." Some fishermen at Forvig considered it possessed 

 teeth, and to be about thirty feet long, and the head of a 

 blackish colour. The bishop of Nordland and Finmark saw 

 two in the bay of Shuresund, or Sorsund, in the Drontheim 

 Jiord, about eight Norway miles from Drontheim : he was not 

 far from them, and considered the largest to be about one 

 hundred feet in length. 



In 1817, an animal having the form of a serpent, made its 

 appearance in Gloucester harbour, and it was seen repeatedly 

 by great numbers for some time afterwards, on different parts 

 of the neighbouring coasts, particularly those contiguous to 

 Cape Ann and Marble Head. The head and tail of this crea- 

 ture resembled that of the common snake, and generally lay 



