THE GEEAT SEA-SERPENT. 185 



receding coils or undulations, and the head, which resembled that of a horse, elevated 

 some two feet out of the water. 



In the summer of 1846 many respectable persons stated that in the vicinity of 

 Christiansand and Molde they had seen the marine serpent. The affidavits of numerous persons 

 were given in the papers, which, with some discrepancies in minute particulars, agree in 

 testifying that an animal of great length (from about fifty to a hundred feet) had been 

 seen at various times, in many cases more than once. All agreed that the eyes were large 

 and glaring; that the body was dark-brown and comparatively slender; and that the head, 

 which for size was compared to a ten-gallon cask, was covered with a long spreading 

 mane. 



An account of one of these encounters, which took place on the 28th May, 1845, was 

 published by the Rev. P. W. Demboll, Archdeacon of Molde, those present being J. C. Lund, 

 bookseller and printer, G. S. Krogh, merchant, Christian Flang, Lund's apprentice, and 

 John Elgenses, labourer. These men were fishing on the Romsdal Fjord, and the appearance 

 took place about seven in the evening, a little distance from shore, near the ballast place and 

 the Molde Hove. Lund fired at the animal, which followed them till they came to shallow 

 water, when it dived and disappeared. 



In 1817 the Linnsean Society of New England published " A Report relative to a Large 

 Marine Animal, supposed to be a Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August," of 

 that year. A good deal of care was taken to obtain evidence, and the deposition of eleven 

 witnesses of fair and unblemished characters were certified on oath before the magistrates. 

 The length was estimated at fifty to a hundred feet, and the head compared to that of a 

 sea-turtle, a rattlesnake, and a serpent generally, but in this case there was no appearance 

 of a mane. 



Again, in the Boston Daily Advertiser for November 25th, 1840, there is a communication 

 from the Hon. T. H. Perkins of that city, attesting his own personal observation of the marine 

 serpent at Gloucester Harbour, near Cape Ann, in 1817. This communication took the form 

 of a letter written to a friend in 1820. 



Captain Perkins speaks of the animal's motion being the vertical movement of the cater- 

 pillar, and not that of the common snake either on land or water, and this confirms the account 

 of Mr. M'Clean, the minister of a parish in the Hebrides, who saw in 1809 a serpentine 

 monster about eighty feet in length. He distinctly states that it seemed to move by undula- 

 tions up and down, which is not only contrary to all that is known of serpents, but from the 

 structure of their vertebrae impossible. Hans Egede mentions the appearance of a marine 

 snake off the coast of Greenland in 1734. 



On the 15th of May, 1833, a party, consisting of Captain Sullivan, Lieutenant 

 Maclachlan and Ensign Malcolm of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Lyster of the Artillery, and 

 Mr. Ince the ordnance store-keeper at Halifax, started from that town in a small yacht 

 for Mahone Bay, on a fishing excursion. When about half-way they came upon a shoal 

 of grampuses in an unusual state of excitement, and to the surprise of the party they 

 perceived the head and neck of a snake, at least eighty feet in length, following them. 

 An account of this occurrence was published in the Zoologist for 1847. The editor stated 

 that he was indebted for it to Mr. W. H. Ince, who received it from his brother, 

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