THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 251 



to be between eighty and ninety feet in length, with the 

 head formed somewhat like the Rattle-Snake, but nearly 

 as large as that of the horse. At one time it showed about 

 fifty distinct portions of its body. The fourth witness saw 

 it open its mouth, which appeared like that of a Serpent. 

 Another shot his gun loaded with ball at it, at the distance 

 of thirty feet ; when he found the monster immediately 

 turned round, as if intending to approach him, and passed 

 very near the boat. The tenth deposition we shall give 

 somewhat more fully. " On the 20th of June, 1815, my boy 

 informed me of an unusual appearance on the surface of 

 the sea in the Cove. When I viewed it through the glass, 

 I was in a moment satisfied that it was some aquatic ani- 

 mal, with the form, motions, and appearance of which I 

 was not previously acquainted. It was about a quarter 

 of a mile from the shore, and was moving with great 

 rapidity to the southward ; it appeared almost thirty feet 

 in length. Presently it turned about, and then displayed a 

 greater length, I suppose at least one hundred feet. It then 

 came towards me very rapidly, and lay entirely still on the 

 surface of the water. His appearance then was like a 

 string of buoys. I saw thirty or forty of these protube- 

 rances, or hunches, which were about the size of a barrel. 

 The head appeared six or eight feet long, and tapered off 

 to the size of a horse's head. He then appeared about a 

 hundred and twenty feet long ; the body appeared of a 

 uniform size ; the color deep brown. I could not discover 

 any eye, mane, gills, or breathing holes ; I did not see any 

 fins or lips." We add, that there are many other deposi- 

 tions equally pointed as to the occurrence of this extraordi- 

 nary creature, and several letters respecting it ; one from 

 the Honorable Lonson Nash, one of the committee of the 

 Linnaean Society, and himself an eye-witness, and another 

 addressed by a clergyman to Judge Davis, the President 

 of the Society. General Humphreys, by whom the affida- 

 vits were taken, transmitted a copy of them, and a detail 



