166 TRANSACTIONS Or THE [fEB. 22, 



affidavits, etc., of the several gentlemen of Boston and Lynn, 

 Mass., who saw what they describe. 



Tlie Records of the Linnean Society, of Boston, Mass., show 

 that a committee was appointed to report upon the ''strange ap- 

 pearance at Nahant.'' The ''monster," they say, "was from 

 eighty to ninety feet in length. His head, usually carried about 

 two feet ahove water, was of a dark-brown color. The body 

 had thirty or more protuberances, resembling a string of buoys. 

 Its motion was very rapid, faster than that of a whale, being 

 a mile in three minutes, or faster, leaving a wake behind. 

 Mackerel and other fishes were seen jumping out of water 

 many at a time as he approaciied. ... A skilfuj gunner fired 

 at him from a boat, and having taken good aim, felt sure he 

 must have hit him on the head. The creature turned toward 

 him, then dived under the boat, and reappeared a hundred yards 

 on the other side." 



Mr. Amos Lawrence, one of the most notable merchants and 

 citizens of Boston, gives similar testimony. Col. Harris, com- 

 manding at Fort Independence, in Boston harbor, stated that 

 such a creature had, about the same time, been reported by his 

 sentinels as swimming around the fort in the early hours of 

 morning. 



Several other prominent Boston and Lynn names are recorded 

 in this connection, but the following is, perhaps, most important 

 for the circumstantial details : 



James Prince, Marshal of the district, writes to Judge Davis: 



" My Deak Jujjge. — I presume I have seen what is generally 

 called the sea-serpent. ... I will state that which, in the pres- 

 ence of more than two hundred otiier witness, took place near 

 the Long Beach of Nahant on Saturday morning last. 



Intending to pass a few days with my family at Nahant, we 

 left Boston early on Saturday morning. 



On i)assingnear the Beach, I was informed that the sea-serpent 

 had been seen the evening before at Nahant Beach, and that 

 vast numbers of people from Lynn had gone to the Beach that 

 morning in hopes to see him. 



I was glad that I had my famous mast-head spy-glass with me. 

 On our arrival at the Beach we associated with a considerable col- 

 lection of peo})leon foot and in cai'riages. 



Very soon an animal of the Gsh kind made its appearance. Its 

 head appeared about three feet above water. I counted thirteen 

 bunches on his back. My family thought there were fifteen. 

 He passed three times at a moderate rate across the bay, but so 

 fleet as to occasion a foam in the water. My family and myself 

 judged it to be about fifty or sixty feet long. ... As he swam 

 up the bay we, as well as other spectators, moved on, and kept 



