GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 317 



that the neck being under water, I could perceive 

 no shining filaments thereon, if it had any. Its 

 progressive motion under water I took to be very 

 rapid. About the time I saw it, it was seen near 

 the Isle of Canna. The crews of thirteen fishing 

 boats, I am told, were so much terrified at its ap- 

 pearance, that they, in a body, fled from it to the 

 nearest creek for safety. On the passage from 

 Rum to Canna, the crew of one boat saw it coming 

 towards them, with the wind, and its head high 

 above water. One of the crew pronounced the 

 head as large as a little boat, and its eye as large as 

 a plate. The men were much terrified, but the 

 monster offered them no molestation."* Dr Hibbert 

 mentions that the Great Sea-Serpent has occasion- 

 ally been recognized in the Shetland Seas ; and 

 specifies one which was seen off the Isle Stonness, 

 Vaeley Island, and Dunvossness.f 



We now turn to several instances of the appear- 

 ance of the Sea- Serpent which have been witnessed 

 off the coast of America ; and we do so by referring 

 first to the Report published by a Committee ap- 

 pointed by the Linnean Society of New- England, 

 to collect all the evidence they could obtain on the 

 subject. In the month of August 1817, it was 

 generally reported that a very singular animal of 

 prodigious size had been frequently seen in the 

 Harbour of Gloucester, Cape Ann, about thirty 

 miles from Boston. In general appearance it re- 



See Trans, of the Wernemn Soc. vol. i. 442. 

 t Shetland Islands, p. 565 



