56 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



unlike any known, would not be in itself very marv^elous. Omitting 

 details of no importance, the account runs thus : 



While the boats of Captain Seymour's bark Hope On were on the 

 watch for whales off the Pearl Islands (between 40 and 50 miles from 

 Panama) the water broke a short distance away, and Captain Seymour 

 made ready for a whale. But a head like that of a horse rose from the 

 M'ater and then dived. The creature was seen by all the boat's crew. 

 Cai^tain Seymour describes the animal as almost 20 feet in length, with 

 a handsome horse-like head, with two unicorn-shaped horns protiuding 

 from it. The creature had four legs or double-jointed fins, a brownish 

 hide, profusely speckled with large black spots, and a tail which ap- 

 peared to be divided into parts. The creature was seen on two different 

 days, and if whales had not been about at the time, an effort would 

 have been made to catch it. Captain Seymour and his officers agree in 

 considering that the creature is peculiar to the locality, and that it 

 could easily be killed with lances and guns. It is important to notice 

 that officers of the Pacific Mail Company state they have seen the 

 animal on several occasions, but not so closely as did the officers and 

 men of the Hope On. 



The nearest account of any strange animal akin to that seen by 

 Captain Seymour and his men is the account of a marine creature, sujj- 

 posed to be a sea serpent, seen in 1817 near Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 

 Eleven witnesses of good reputation gave an oath before magistrates 

 (one of whom had himself seen what they had) a description of a crea- 

 ture like a serpent, dark brown in color (some said mottled), with white 

 under the head and neck. The head of this creature was as large as a 

 horse's, but shai)ed like a serpent's, and the animal was estimated as 

 exceeding 50 feet in length. Colonel Perkins noticed an appearance in 

 the front of the head like a single horn, but other observers thought this 

 was the monster's tongue. 



The evidence now obtained confirms the theory which was ad.vanced 

 in 1848, and has since been maintained by Gosse and others, that a 

 race of marine animals exists, including probably several varieties, 

 which is characterized by a serpentine neck, a head small comjiared 

 with the body but large compared with the thickness of the neck, an 

 air-breather, and deriving its propulsive power from paddles; in other 

 words, a modern representative of the long-necked Plesiosauriajis of the 

 great secondary or IVIesozoic era. Creatures of this class have been 

 ajitly compared to what would be formed by drawing a serpent through 

 the body of a sea-tuitle. 



London, England, 1884. 



