334 THE KRAKEN, 



August 5, 1786, off the coast of Scotland, about 

 fifteen leagues to the eastward, in lat. 56 16'. In 

 appearance it resembled three low islands, or sand- 

 banks, of a greyish colour, within less than a mile's 

 distance from the ship; and it appeared to- extend 

 about three miles from one extremity to the other* 

 It remained in sight about fifty minutes, and upon 

 the springing up of a breeze it gradually sunk under 

 the water. The illusion or exaggeration in this 

 instance must here be very great, and would almost 

 lead us to agree with the remark made in the So- 

 ciety's Transactions, that Ifce account is perfectly 

 consistent with the idea of this being nothing more 

 than a fog^bank, of which the appearance is fami- 

 liar to mariners.* 



A similar incident is mentioned by Dr Hibbert 

 as having occurred in Shetland. " A few years 

 since," he states, " an affidavit was taken by a justice 

 of the peace in Shetland relative to this monster, 

 which was seen at a distance from the shore off the 

 Island of Burra. It appeared, according to the de- 

 claration of these witnesses, like the hull of a large 

 ship, but, on approaching it nearer, they saw it was 

 infinitely larger, and resembled the back of a 

 monster/' It is also said that part of the remains 

 of a dead Kraken were found about seventy years 

 ago, driven to the mouth of a large cave in the 

 Island of Meikle Roe. We learn, likewise, from 

 Pontoppidon, that Mr Friis, minister of Bodeon in 



* Edin. Phil. Traiu. vol. ii. 16. 



