130 On the Sea-Serpent of the American Seas. 



in the position as it appears in the sketch, slowly approaching 

 at not more than the rate of two miles an hour, in a straight 

 direction. I suppose we were hardly going through the water 

 so fast, for there was scarcely a breath of wind. I must pre- 

 mise that I had never heard of the existence of such an ani- 

 mal. I instantly exclaimed, why, there is a sea-snake ! 

 ' That is the sea-serpent,' exclaimed the captain, ' and I 

 would give my ship and cargo to catch the monster.' I im- 

 mediately called to the passengers, who were all down below, 

 but only five or six came up, among whom was Miss Magee, 

 the daughter of a merchant in New York. The remainder 

 refused to come up, saying there had been too many hoaxes 

 of that kind already. I was too eager to stand parleying with 

 them, and I returned to the captain. In the same slow style 

 the serpent passed the vessel at about the distance of 50 yards 

 from us, neither turning his head to the right or left. As 

 soon as his head had reached the stern of the vessel, he gra- 

 dually laid it down in a horizontal position with his body, and 

 floated along like the mast of a vessel. That there was up- 

 wards of 60 feet visible, is clearly shown by the circum- 

 stance, that the length of the ship was upwards of 120 feet, 

 and at the time his head was off the stern, the other end (as 

 much as was above the surface) had not passed the main-mast. 

 The time we saw him, as described in the drawing, was two 

 minutes and a half. After he had declined his head, we saw 

 him for about twenty minutes a-head, floating along like an 

 enormous log of timber. His motion in the water was mean- 

 dering like that of an eel, and the rake he left behind was like 

 that occasioned by the passing of small craft through the wa- 

 ter. We had but one harpoon on board, and the ship's long- 

 boat was, for the time being, converted into a cow-house. We 

 had two guns on board, but no ball. Two days after we saw 

 him, he was seen by another vessel off Cape Cod, about 200 

 miles from where he made his appearance to us. This intel- 

 ligence reached New York about four days after we arrived 

 there, and the description given exactly corresponded with the 

 foregoing. I dined one day at the hotel of New York with 

 Sir Isaac Coffin, who discredited the existence of such an ani- 

 mal, which was reported to have been seen by Captain Ben- 



