358 America?! Sea Serpent. 



he altered his course to S.E. After being seen about five ifii* 

 nutes it sunk, and in about 8 minutes after appeared again di- 

 rectly over the weather quarter, about the same distance from 

 the sloop, and in about six minutes more he sunk and did not 

 rise again. — Had a distinct view of the creature : it was entirely 

 black i the head, which resembled a snake's, was elevated from 

 four to seven feet above the water, and his back appeared to be 

 composed of bunches or humps, apparently as large or larger 

 than a half barrel. Tail not seen, but from head to last hump 

 npparentlv about oO ieet in length. — Capt. Wheeler's statement 

 is on oath. 



At 7 o'clock the same morning, G. Bennett, the mate of 

 the foregoing sloop, had his attention called to something along- 

 side by the man at the helm : it was the same serpent, or one 

 similar to that seen by those on deck two hours before. It was 

 not more than 14 rods from the vessel : its head was about seven 

 feet out of the water : it was black, and the skin seemingly 

 smooth, without scales ; the head as long as a horse's, but " a 

 proper snake's head" — tliere was a degree of flatness, with si 

 slight hollow on the top of his head — the eyes prominent, and 

 standing out considerably from the surface like those of a toad, 

 and nearer to the mouth than to the back of the head. The 

 back composed of bunches about the size of a flour barrel, and 

 three feet apart — they appeared to be fixed, but this might be 

 occasioned by the motion of the animal, and looked like a string 

 of casks tied together. The tail not visible, but it showed a ho- 

 rizontal or sweeping motion, producing a wake as large as the 

 vessel made. The part visible appeared to be about 50 feet in 

 length. While the mate was ascending the rigging to get a bet-" 

 ter view, the animal sunk and did not rise again. — This account 

 is also on oath. 



On the 13th of August, 1819, a sea serpent was seen near the 

 Long Beach of Nahant, by James Prince, marshal of the district, 

 and more than 200 persons. It had been seen the evening be- 

 fore at Nahant beach by, many people from Lynn. It had the 

 general appearance ahendy described — the bunches on his back 

 were 1.'5 to 1.5— from oO to 60 feet in length. Mr. Prince had 

 more than a dozen distinct views of him with a good telescope 

 from the Lonir Beach, and at some of them the animal was not 

 more than 100 yards distant. It was seen at intervals from a 

 quarter past eight till half-past 1 1 in the morning — the water 

 quite smooth. 



iMr. San)uel Cabot gives a similar description of the serpent 

 seen the KJth of Aug. 1819, 



Mr. Cheever Felch, chaplain of the United States' ship Inde- 

 pendence, of 74 gun.", al'io describes the sea serpent as seen from 



the 



