72 



Pontoppidan, in the 17th century, an abridgment of which 

 may be sen in the Naturalist' 's Library, vol. viii. p. 328. 



" Pontoppidan thinks that the accounts of floating islands, 

 occasionally seen about the coasts of Norway and off the 

 South of Sweden, in the Baltic, are referable to the appear- 

 ance of this creature. The belief in its existence seems to 

 have been general among the Norwegian sailors and fisher- 

 men in the Bishop's time, and may still linger with them : 

 that of the sea serpent certainly does, — and the two crea- 

 tures are often confounded. T am inclined to believe that 

 all that was true of the alleged appearances of tins huge 

 monster is to be accounted for by the effects of refrac- 

 tion, which every one accustomed to the sea well knows, 

 is capable of producing the most singular optical 

 illusions." 



The Sea Serpent is first heard of in the same 

 quarter, viz,, on the shores of Norway. "We have, 

 first, vague and exaggerated accounts mixed up with the 

 legendary superstitions common to the old times ; as, for 

 instance, that this animal inhabited all the deep Scandina- 

 vian lakes — that it infested the sea coasts, lurking in the 

 hollows of the rocks, and, coming out at night, ravaged 

 the country of its cattle, &c, thus assimilating its character 

 to that of the old dragon, which, in other countries was a 

 land monster, but here a marine one. Then, since the 

 days of Pontoppidan, we have occasional reports of this 

 creature being seen, evidently much exaggerated, but, at 

 least, confined to the element in which alone so monstrous 

 a form could continue unexposed to the observation of 

 man ; and now, within the last fifty or sixty years, when no 

 accounts are received except at their true value, we have 

 more frequent instances, all agreeing in their general detail 

 of circumstances ; and, lastly, we have one, if not two, 

 cases of the dead animal itself being found, though, un- 

 fortunately, in the more important one, it was east ashore 



