THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 249 



sea, and, after a slow movement, distinctly perceived one 

 of its eyes. Alarmed at the unusual appearance and mag- 

 nitude of the animal, I steered so as to be at no great dis- 

 tance from the shore. When nearly in a line between it 

 and the shore, the monster, directing its head, which still 

 continued above water, toward us, plunged violently under 

 water. Certain that he was in chase of us, we plied hard 

 to get ashore. Just as we leaped out on a rock, and had 

 taken a station as high as we conveniently could, we saw 

 it coming rapidly under water towards the stern of our 

 boat. When within a few yards of it, finding the water 

 shallow, it raised its monstrous head above water, and, by 

 a winding course, got, with apparent difficulty, clear of 

 the creek where our boat lay, and where the monster 

 seemed in danger of being embayed. It continued to 

 move off with its head above water, and with the wind for 

 about half a mile, before we lost sight of it. Its head was 

 somewhat broad, and of form somewhat oval ; its neck 

 somewhat smaller ; its shoulders, if I can so term them, 

 considerably broader, and thence it tapered towards the 

 tail, which last it kept pretty low in the water, so that a 

 view of it could not be taken so distinctly as I wished. It 

 had no fins that I could perceive, and seemed to me to 

 move progressively by undulation up and down. Its 

 length I believed to be betw r een seventy and eighty feet. 

 When nearest to me it did not raise its head wholly above 

 water, so that the neck being under water, I could per- 

 ceive no shining filaments thereon, if it had any. Its pro- 

 gress motion under water I took to be very rapid. About 

 the time I saw it, it was seen near the Isle of Canna. The 

 crews of thirteen fishing boats, I am told, were so much 

 terrified at its appearance, that they, in a body, fled from 

 it to the nearest creek for safety. On the passage from 

 Rum to Canna, the crew of one boat saw it coming 

 towards them, with the wind, and its head high above 

 water. One of the crew pronounced the head as large as 



