186 THE SEA. 



Commander J. M. R. Ince, R.N. It was written by one of the eye-witnesses Mr. 

 Henry Ince, and signed as follows : 



W. Sullivan, Captain Rifle Brigade, June 21, 1831. 



A. Maclachlan, Lieut. ,, August 5, 1824. 

 Gr. P. Malcolm, Ensign August 13, 1830. 



B. O'Neal Lyster, Lieut. Artillery, June 7, 1816. 

 Henry Ince, Storekeeper at Halifax. 



The dates affixed to the names were those on which the gentlemen received their 

 respective commissions. 



Great interest was excited in 1848 by an account of a great sea-serpent seen in lat. 

 4 44-' S., and long. 9 20' E., in the tropics, and not very far from the coast of Africa, 

 by the officers and crew of her Majesty's frigate Dadalus. It was not, as in other cases, 

 in bright and fine weather, but' on a dark and cloudy afternoon, and with a long ocean 

 swell. Captain Peter M'Quhae, in his report to the Admiralty, published in the Times for 

 the 13th of October, describes it with confidence as "an enormous serpent, with head 

 and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea ; " and he adds : 

 " As nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main 

 topsail-yard would show in the water, there was at the very least sixty feet of the animal 

 u JJenr d'eau, no portion of which was to our perception used in propelling it through 

 the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close 

 under our lee-quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily 

 recognised his features with the naked eye; but it did not, either in approaching the 

 ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the 

 south-west, which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, apparently 

 on some determined purpose. The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen 

 inches behind the head, which was without doubt that of a snake ; and it was never during 

 the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses once below the surface of the 

 water; its colour a dark brown with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, 

 but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed washed about its 

 back." 



Drawings prepared from a sketch by Captain M'QuhaB were published in the 

 Illustrated London News of 28th October, 184-8. Lieutenant Drummond, the officer of 

 the watch at the time, also printed his own impression of the animal, which differs in some 

 slight points from the Captain's account, particularly in ascribing a more elongated form 

 to the head, in the mention of a back-fin (whereas Captain M'Quhse expressly says no 

 fins were seen), and the lower estimate of the length of the portion of the animal visible. 

 Lieutenant Drummond's words are : " The appearance of its head, which with the back 

 fin was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened at the top, 

 perhaps ten feet in length; the upper jaw projecting considerably; the fin was perhaps 

 twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally. The Captain also asserted 

 that he saw the tail, or another fin about the same distance behind it. The upper part 

 of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the jaw a brownish 

 white. It pursued a steady and undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal with the 



