Sea Serpent. B75 
VII. Sea Serpent.—To us it seems a matter of surprise, 
‘that any person who has examined the testimony, can doubt 
the existence of the Sea Serpent ; the documents communi- 
cated by Dr. Bigelow of Boston, and published im the se- 
cond vol. of this Journal, in 1820, were in our judgement 
alone sufficient, to settle the question : the following letter is 
an important additional document. 
The American Sea Serpent.—The following letter res- 
pecting this huge animal was addressed to Robert Barclay, 
Esq. of Bury Hill, Surrey, by Mr. Warburton, a gentle- 
man belonging to the house of Barclay, Brothers & Co. 
London. That gentleman, proceeding on his passage to 
America, on board the Silas Richards, Captain Holdridge, 
had an opportunity of beholding this sea monster, on Fri- 
day, the 16th of June, off St. George’s Banks. 
“ Pentonville, 20th Sept. 1826. 
* Dear Sir,—Having been informed by your grandson, 
lantic, and to have some account of the same, in compli- 
ance with your wishes I have annexed a rough pencil draw- 
ing of the monster, as it appeared during the time when its 
head was elevated above the water, and I shall state the par- 
ticulars attending this novel exhibition. 
‘‘ The captain and myself were standing on the starboard 
side of the vessel, looking over the bulwark, and remarking 
how perfectly smooth was the surface of the sea. It was a- 
bout half past six o’clock, P. M. and a cloudless sky. On 
a sudden we heard a rushing in water a head of the 
ship. At first we imagined it to be a whale spouting ; and — 
turning to the quarter from whence the sound proceeded, we 
observed the serpent in the position as it appears in the 
sketch, slowly approaching at more than the rate of two 
miles an hour, in a straight direction. I suppose we were 
hardly going through the water so fast, for there was scarce- 
ly a breath of wind. I must premise, that I never had heard 
of the existence of such an animal, I instantly exclaimed, 
‘ Why, there is a sea snake.’ ‘That is the sea serpent,’ ex- 
elaimed the captain, ‘and I would give my ship and carge 
> JT immediately called to the passen- 
but only five or six came 
‘ 
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