' THE GREAT SEA SERPENT: 259 



and by those not likely to be familiar with ophidian capa- 

 bilities, is a natural action described. 



In several other instances, the animal seen has raised its 

 head many feet, and 'let it down suddenly;' exactly what 

 land snakes do. 



The one seen from on board H.M.S. Dcedahcs in 1848 

 is considered one of the most circumstantially recorded 

 evidences of some really existing serpentine animal within 

 the memory of many still living. It was much commented 

 upon in the journals of that year, and claims a passing 

 mention here. 



Captain M'Quhae, who commanded the Dcedalus, in an 

 official report to the Admiralty, gave the date of the 

 'monster's' appearance as August 6, 1848, and its exact 

 locality in the afternoon of that day as lat 24° 44' S., and 

 long. 9° 22' E., which would be somewhere between the 

 Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. In his own mind 

 the captain had no doubt whatever as to the nature of the 

 animal, which he simply reported as an ' enormous serpent, 

 with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly 

 above the surface of the sea ; and as nearly as we could 

 approximate, by comparing it with the length of what our 

 main-topsail yard would show in the water, there was, 

 at the very least, sixty feet of the animal a Jiciir d'eaii, no 

 portion of which was, to our perception, used in propelling 

 it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undula- 

 tions. There seemed to be as much as thirty to forty feet 

 of tail as well.' The animal passed the ship 'rapidly, but 

 so close under our lee-quarter, that, had it been a man of 

 my acquaintance, I should easily have recognised his features 



