322 GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 



existence we can scarcely deny, is very doubt- 

 ful."* 



But long before the Great Sea- Serpent was ever 

 suspected of being a visitor of the British Isles, or 

 of the New World, it was regarded as a well known 

 member of the Fauna of Scandinavia. In this con- 

 nection, we will not omit the unquestionably exag- 

 gerated statements of the honest missionary, Hans 

 Egede, concerning what he tells us he himself wit- 

 nessed off the coast of Greenland in the year 1734. 

 After speaking of the Mermaid, &c., he adds 

 " None of these sea monsters have been seen by us, 

 nor by any of our time that I could hear, save that 

 most dreadful monster which showed itself on the 

 surface of the water off our colony, in 64 north 

 latitude. This monster was of so huge a size, that, 

 coming out of the water, its head reached as high 

 as the main mast ; its body was as bulky as the 

 ship, and three or four times as long. It had a long 

 pointed snout, and spouted like a whale fish ; it had 

 great broad paws ; the body seemed covered with 

 shell work, and the skin was very rugged and un- 

 even* The under part of its body was shaped like 

 an enormous huge Serpent ; and when it dived again 

 under water, it plunged backwards into the sea, and 

 so raised its tail aloft, which seemed a whole ship's 

 length distant from the bulkiest part of its body."f 

 in the new History of Greenland, our author again 

 upeaks of this animal, and informs us that Mr Bing, 



* Journal de Physique, t. Ixxivu p. 297. 

 t Nat. Hist of Greenland, p. 86. 



