THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. 255 



ments of Pontopidon to a close with one other short quo- 

 tation. " Though it is difficult to ascertain its exact di- 

 mensions, yet all who have seen it are unanimous in affirm- 

 ing that it appears to be about 600 feet long ; that it lies in 

 the water in many folds, and there appears like so many 

 hogsheads floating in a line, at a considerable distance 

 from each other." 



Again, Sir A. de Capell Brooke makes allusion to this 

 animal in his " Travels in Norway." He states that he 

 did not witness it himself, but that the fishermen of Sejer- 

 stad stated that it was seen in 1818 in the F olden fiord. In 

 July, 1819, it made its appearance off Otersun in Norway, 

 and Captain Schilderup stated to Sir Arthur that it was 

 seen daily during the whole month, and continued while 

 the warm weather lasted, as if dozing in the sun-beams. 

 When Captain S. first saw it, he was in a boat at the dis- 

 tance of about 200 yards, and supposes its length to have 

 been about 600 feet. The Bishop of Nordland had seen 

 two of them ab.out eight miles from Drontheim ; he was 

 not far from them, and considered the largest to be about 

 100 feet. Again, in 1822, one of these creatures, reported 

 to be as bulky as a large ox, and about a fourth of an Eng- 

 lish mile in length, made its appearance off the island of 

 Soroe, near Tin mask, and was seen by many of the 



islanders. 



The most recent account of this monster we have no- 

 ticed, appeared in the public newspapers of Drontheim, 

 in the autumn of 1837, and we confess we cannot regard 

 it as a sheer fabrication : " The Adiz of this city contains 

 an account from Tozen of the end of August, which it says 

 was communicated to the editor by a very enlightened 

 and principled man, so that it merits attention, as tending 

 to remove the doubt respecting the existence of the Sea- 

 Serpent. The account says, that since the beginning of 

 the dog-days, the Serpent has been seen at various parts 

 of the coast of that district. One of them seems to have 



