86 Proceedings. 



Evening Meeting. — April 12th, 1889. 

 Mr. A. J. Crosfield exhibited specimens oi Hellebonis ftetidus, 

 gathered at Clayton, Sussex ; and of several plants out of his 

 garden, including Draha aiznides, Primula viscosa, &c. He 

 remarked on the late arrival of the migratory birds this year, 

 especially the Wheatear, which was seen near Brighton on 

 April 6th, being a month behind its usual time of arrival. 



Mr. A. W. Brackett, of Tunbridge Wells, read a paper on 

 * The Sea Serpent ' : — 



He said that for ages the idea of the existence of a sea 

 monster has prevailed on the coast of Norway, and the same 

 idea is current on the New England coast. The Poet Laureate 

 has embodied the idea in his poem upon the fabulous Kraken. 

 Bishop Poutopidon last century collected evidence on the 

 occurrence of the Sea Serpent ; he recorded that Captain de 

 Ferry, in August, 1747, saw near Molde, on the Norwegian 

 coast, a monster having the gliding form of a serpent, a head 

 like a horse, and a neck two feet long. In 1846 the Nor- 

 wegian papers described a monster which was seen by 

 numbers of people near Molde, on the Romsdal Fiord ; it was 

 described as from 50 to 100 feet in length, with a head the 

 size of a ten-gallon cask, and a mane of long-spreading hair. 

 Some men in a boat fired at it, when it came straight towards 

 them, but on reaching shallow water dived and disappeared ; 

 they said its snout was sharp, and its head semicircular. A 

 letter in ' The Times' dated November 4th, 1848, and signed 

 by " Oxoniensis," gave the evidence of the Norwegians who 

 had seen it. 



In August, 1887, eleven witnesses deposed that they had 

 seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, a huge serpent-like 

 creature, of a dark brown colour, with white under its neck ; 

 some said they saw protuberances on its neck. Col. Perkins 

 thought he saw a horn on its head (this was probably its 

 tongue thrown out). Most people at Cape Ann had seen it. 



On May 15th, 1883, an English crew off Margaret's Bay, 

 near Halifax, saw a head six feet in length upon a neck six 

 feet in l(jngth gliding through the water ; the neck was the 



