THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. 



393 



raised this portion of its body out of the water to a 

 considerable height, an occurrence which I have often 

 witnessed, and which I have elsewhere described (see 

 p. 347). The supposed tail, which was turned up at some 



FIG. iy. THE ANIMAL WHICH EGEDE PROBABLY SAW. 



distance from the other visible portion of the body, after 

 the latter had sunk back into the sea, was one of the 

 shorter arms of the cuttle, and the suckers on its under 

 side are clearly and conspicuously marked. Egede was, of 

 course, in error in making the " spout " of water to issue 

 from the mouth of his monster. The out-pouring jet, 

 which he, no doubt, saw, came from the locomotor tube, 

 and the puff of spray which would accompany it as the 

 orifice of the tube rose to the surface of the water is 

 sketched with remarkable truthfulness. In quoting Egede, 

 Pontoppidan gives a copy (so-called) of this engraving, but 

 his artist embellished it so much as to deprive it of its 



