64 Transactions of til € 



and in shape like that of a sea-tiiitle, rattlesnake, and serpent 

 generally. 



Five witnesses speak of dorsal protuberances, four say the body 

 was straight, and the rest don't discuss the point. 



The magistrate who saw the animal, and to whom the body ap- 

 peared straight, considers that the appearance of protuberances was 

 due to the vertical bendings of the body during energetic motion. 



About fifteen years afterwards, five British officers saw the 

 sea-serpent. The following is the evidence they gave : — 



' On the 15th of May 1833, a party, consisting of Captain 

 Sullivan, Lieutenants Maclachlan and Malcolm of the Rifle 

 Brigade, Lieutenant Lyster of the Artillery, and Mr Ince of the 

 Ordnance, started from Halifax in a small yacht for Mahone Bay, 

 some forty miles eastward, on a fishing excursion. 



' We were enjoying ourselves on deck, smoking our cigars and 

 getting our tackle ready for the approaching campaign against 

 the salmon, when we were surprised by an immense shoal of 

 grampuses, which appeared in an unusual state of excitement, and 

 which in their gambols approached so close to our little craft that 

 some of the party amused themselves by firing at them with rifles. 

 At this time we were jogging on at about five miles an hour, and 

 must have been crossing Margaret's Bay. I merely conjecture 

 where we were, as we had not seen land since leaving Pennant Bay. 



' Our attention was presently diverted from the whales and 

 " such small deer," by an exclamation from Dowling, our man-of- 

 war' s-man, who was sitting on the leeward, of, "Oh, sirs, look here!" 

 We were startled into a ready compliance, and saw an object which 

 banished all other thoughts save wonder and surprise. 



' At the distance of 150 to 200 yards on our starboard bow, 

 we saw the head and neck of some denizen of the deep, pre- 

 cisely like those of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the 

 head so elevated and thrown forward by the curve of the neck as 

 to enable us to see the water under and beyond it. 



' The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from the 

 commencement of which to the fore part, which was out of water, 

 we judged its length to be about eighty feet ; and this within, 

 rather than beyond the mark. We were, of course, all taken aback 

 at the sight, and, with staring eyes and in speechless wonder, 

 stood gazing at it for full half a minute. There coidd be no 

 mistake, no delusion, and we were all perfectly satisfied that we 

 had been favoured with a view of the " true and veritable sea- 

 serpent," which had been generally considered to have existed 

 only in the brain of some Yankee skipper, and treated as a tale 

 not much entitled to belief. Bowling's exclamation is worthy of 

 record, "Well, I 've sailed in all parts of the world, and have seen 



