248 THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 



We can allow space only for a very short abridgment of 

 these documents, which, be it remembered, furnish an 

 account of the animal principally after it had been mutila- 

 ted ; and hence we cannut wonder if the original accounts 

 are both imperfect and contradictory. It measured fifty- 

 six feet in length, and twelve in circumference. The head 

 was small, not being a foot in length, from the snout to 

 the first vertebrae; the neck was slender, extending to the 

 length of fifteen feet. All the accounts agree in assigning 

 it blow-holes, though they differ as to their precise situation. 

 On the shoulders something like a bristly mane commen- 

 ced, which extended to near the extremity of the tail. It 

 had three pairs of fins or paws connected with the body ; 

 the anterior were the largest, measuring more than four 

 feet in length, and their extremities were somewhat like 

 toes, partially webbed. Probably the sketch is particu- 

 larly defective respecting these. Dr. Fleming, in his 

 notice of this animal, suggests that these members were 

 probably the remains of pectoral, ventral, and caudal fins. 

 The skin was smooth, without scales, and of a grayish 

 color; and the flesh appeared like coarse ill-colored beef. 

 The eye was of the size of the Seal's; the throat was too 

 narrow to admit the hand. 



We shall next allude to the unvarnished account recently 

 given, of a great animal which excited considerable aston- 

 ishment and alarm among the Western Isles of Scotland. 

 The following extract is taken from a letter of Mr. Maclean, 

 the parish minister of Eigg, dated 1S09, to Dr. Neill, the 

 learned and worthy Secretary of the Wernerian Society : 

 " I saw the animal of which you inquire, in June, 1808, 

 on the coast of Coll. Rowing along that coast, I observed, 

 at about the distance of half a mile, an object to wind- 

 ward, which gradually excited astonishment. At first view 

 it appeared like a small rock ; but, knowing that there was 

 no rock in that situation, I fixed my eyes closely upon it. 

 Then I saw it elevated considerably above the level of the 



