Third Report on Weighls and Mt^aiures? 359 



the United States' schooner Science, off Gloucester, on the I9th 

 of Aug. 1819, within 20 yards of him. They followed him for 

 some time, and saw him very distinctly. He describes it as dark 

 brown, with white under the throat. Could not ascertain the 

 size, but the head appeared to be about three feet in circumfe- 

 rence, flat, and much smaller than the bodv. Did not see his 

 tail, but from the head to the end of the part seen was about 100 

 feet. Mr. Felch counted 14 bunches on his back, the first one 10 

 or 12 feet from his head, and the others about seven feet apart. 

 Pontoppidan's account of the Serpens marinus mniyniis in his 

 History of Norway, published in 1747, seems to describe the 

 same kind of sea serpent seen on the American coast. " It is 

 usually seen in July and ^August, and when it is calm — ' His 

 head was more than two feet above the water, and resembled 

 that of a horse. Beside the head and the neck, seven or eight 

 folds or coils of the animal were distinctly seen, and vvei-e about a 

 fathom apart.' This is the statement of a Capt. de Ferry and 

 others, wiio saw the sea serpent with him. Others state" that 

 when it was calm it lay on the water in many folds ; and that 

 there were to be seen above the water small parts of the back 

 when it moves or bends ; and that at a distance these appear 

 like so many casks or hogsheads, floating in a line, with a con- 

 siderable distance between each of them." — The historian adds 

 '■' that many other persons on the coast of Norway had seen tiie 

 sea serpent — and thought it a strange question, when sermisli/: 

 asked, whether there was such an animal in existence ; being as 

 fully persuaded of the fact as of the existence of an eel or a cod." 



LXI. Third Report of the Commissioners appointed by His Ma- 

 jesty to consider the Suljecl of IVeighls and Measjires. 



May it please Your Majesty, 



W E, the commissioners appointed by Your Mn.jcstv for the pur- 

 pose of considering the suijjcct of weigUts and measures, have 

 now completed the examination of the standards which we have 

 thought it necessary to compare. The measurements which we 

 have lately performed upon the apparatus eu)ployed by the late 

 SirGcorgeShuckburgh Evelyn, have enabled us to delcrlninc with 

 sufficient precision the weight of a given bulk of water, with a 

 view to the fixing the magnitude of the stanriard of weight ; that 

 of length l)eing already determined by the experiments related in 

 our former reports : and we have found by the computations, which 

 will be detailed in the Apjjendix, that the weight of a cubic inch 

 of distilled water, at OJJ deg. of Fahrenheit, is 2.32-72 grains of 

 the parliamentary standard pound of 17JH, stipposing it to be 

 weighed in a vacuum. We 



