104 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



voyage to Akyab, about having seen ' a sea-serpent ' while 

 on a voyage in the Indian seas, was declared to on oath before 

 Mr. Raffles, the stipendiary magistrate, at the Liverpool 

 Police-Court. The affidavit was made in consequence of 

 the doubtfulness with which anything about the 'sea-serpent ' 

 has hitherto been received; and to show the genuine 

 character of the story it has been placed judicially on record. 

 The following is a copy of the declaration, which will be 

 regarded as unprecedented in its way : 



BOROUGH OF LIVERPOOL, IN THE COUNTY PALATINE OF 



LANCASTER, TO WIT. 



We, the undersigned, captain, officers, and crew of the barque 

 Pauline (of London), of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, in the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, do solemnly and sincerely 

 declare that on July 8, 1875, in l at - 5 r 3' S., long. 35 W., we observed 

 three large sperm whales, and one of them was gripped round the body 

 with two turns of what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and 

 tail appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about thirty feet, arid 

 its girth eight or nine feet. The serpent whirled its victim round and 

 round for about fifteen minutes, and then suddenly dragged the whale 

 to the bottom, head first. 



GEORGE DREVAR, Master. 

 HORATIO THOMPSON. 

 JOHN HENDERSON LANDELLS. 

 OWEN BAKER. 

 WM. LEWARN. 



Again, on July 13, a similar serpent was seen about two hundred 

 yards off, shooting itself along the surface, the head and neck being out 

 of the water several feet. This was seen only by the captain and one 

 ordinary seaman, whose signatures are affixed. 



GEORGE DREVAR, Master. 

 OWEN BAKER. 



A few moments after it was seen elevated some sixty feet perpendi- 

 cularly in the air by the chief officer and the following able seamen, 

 whose signatures are also affixed. 



HORATIO THOMPSON. 

 WILLIAM LEWARN. 

 OWEN BAKER. 



And we make this solemn declaration conscientiously, believing the 

 same to be true, and by virtue of the provisions of an Act made and 

 passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, entitled ' An 

 Act to repeal an Act of the present Session of Parliament, entitled an 



