GREAT SEA.-SERPENT. 325 



Drontheim; he was not far from them, and consi- 

 dered the largest to be about 100 feet. Again, in 

 1822, one of these creatures, reported to be as 

 bulky as a large ox, and about a fourth of an Eng- 

 lish mile in length, made its appearance off the 

 island of Soroe, near Tinmask, and was seen by many 

 of the islanders. 



The most recent account of this monster we have 

 noticed, appeared in the public newspapers of Dron- 

 theim, in the autumn of 1837> and we confess we 

 cannot regard it as a sheer fabrication : " The Adis 

 of this city contains an account from Tozen of the 

 end of August, which it says was communicated to 

 the editor by a very enlightened and principled 

 man, so that it merits attention, as tending to re- 

 move the doubt respecting the existence of the Sea- 

 Serpent. The account says, that since the begin- 

 ning of the dog-days, the Serpent has been seen at 

 various parts of the coast of that district. One of 

 them seems to have remained constantly during this 

 summer near Storfosen, at the Kergvang Islands. 

 Several fishermen have been so dreadfully alarmed 

 at the sudden appearance of the Serpent so near 

 their boats, that they did not know in what direc- 

 tion to escape. The Serpent did not attack, but 

 followed the boat for some distance, and the men in 

 their haste so over-exerted themselves, that two 

 were confined to their beds. Very credible persons 

 affirm that the length of the Sea- Serpent may be 

 taken at 600 or 800 ells, or perhaps more, for when 

 these people were near its head, they could not 



