256 SNAKES. 



judge, from seven to eight feet above the water, and ex- 

 tending about forty feet along the surface.' 



Though we are not able to say what this strange animal 

 really was, we can positively affirm what it was not. A 

 snake has neither fins, flippers, flappers, nor 'shoulders 

 fifteen feet broad ; ' therefore this assuredly was no * sea 

 serpent' Nor would it be introduced here, excepting as 

 inviting further comment on its mysterious existence. 



And curious enough it is to remark the persistence with 

 which all these anomalies are announced as ' the sea serpent,' 

 as if the sea produced but one solitary specimen, which is 

 now the shape of a ' turtle ; ' next of a * frog,' w^ith ' one 

 hundred and fifty feet of tail ; ' then a creature with ' fins ' 

 and a 'mane,' 'flippers' and 'flappers' and 'ridges of fins.* 

 All these appendages are one after the other described, 

 and yet as belonging to a 'serpent,' which has no such 

 appendages. 



A few of the recorders do really describe something 

 more of the true ophidian, and those who do this, not 

 being familiar with ophidian manners, are more useful as 

 witnesses than those who at once report a ' serpent,' and 

 afterwards proceed unknowingly to disprove their own 

 words. 



Among the more noteworthy, the following account, 

 copied from* the Liverpool papers at the time, is worth 

 considering : — 



' The story of the mate and crew of the barque Pau'iue, of London, said to 

 have arrived in port from a twenty months' voyage to Akyab, about having 

 seen a "sea serpent" while on a voyage in the Indian seas, was yesterday 

 declared to on oath before Mr. Raffles, the stipendiary magistrate at the police 

 court. The affidavit was made in consequence of the doubtfulness with which 



