62 Tra/nsactions ofUit 



Mr J. Ward then read a paj^er on — 



THE SEA-SERPENT, OE KRAKEN. 



There is perhaps no animal which has caused such dispute 

 among scientific men of all nations and times as the sea-serpent. 



Its wonderful size, and the strange stories concerning it, natu- 

 rally heightened by its extreme scarcity, have, as a general rule, 

 been discredited ; but of late years, Gosse and other eminent 

 naturalists have begun to attach more importance to the stories 

 of the much-doubted sea-serpent. 



The countries that have been most frequently visited by it are 

 Norway and North America, and occasionally our own shores. It 

 has also been seen out at sea, and, as a general rule, within tem- 

 perate climates. 



Popular tradition has ascribed to it an immense serpent-like 

 body, but the particulars will appear in the following accounts, all 

 of which are authentic, most of the narrators being officers in the 

 English navy, or persons of well-known character. 



The first case which I shall mention is that of a gentleman 

 who, under the title of Oxoniensis, published the following com- 

 munication in the Times of November 4, 1848 : — 



' There does not appear,' says this writer, ' to be a single 

 well-authenticated instance of these monsters being seen in any 

 southern latitude ; but in the north of Europe, notwithstanding 

 the fabulous character so long ascribed to Pontoppidan's descrip- 

 tion, I am convinced that they both exist and are frequently seen. 



'During three summers in Norway, I have repeatedly conversed 

 with the natives on the subject. A parish priest residing on 

 Komsdal Fjord, about two days' journey south of Drontheim — an 

 intelligent person, whose veracity I have no reason to doubt — 

 gave me a circumstantial account of one which he had himself 

 seen. 



' It rose within thirty yards of the boat in which he was, and 

 swam parallel with it for a considerable time. Its head he de- 

 scribed as equalling a small cask in size, and its mouth, which 

 it repeatedly opened and shut, was furnished with formidable 

 teeth ; its neck was smaller, but its body — of which he supposed 

 that he saw about half on the surface of the water — was not less 

 in girth than that of a moderately-sized horse. 



' Another gentleman in whose house I stayed had also seen one, 

 and gave a similar account of it ; it also came near his boat upon 

 the fjord, when it was fired at, upon which it turned and pursued 

 them to the shore, which was luckily near, when it disappeared. 



' They expressed great surprise at the general disbelief attached 

 to the existence of these animals amongst naturalists, and assured 



