420 SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 



Pontoppidan's sea-serpent, namely, seven hunches or protu- 

 berances like so many porpoises swimming in line, preceded 

 by a head and neck raised slightly out of water. Many other 

 accounts have been published of the appearance of serpent- 

 like sea monsters, but I have only space for two or three 

 more of the most remarkable of them. 



On the 10th of January, 1877, the following affidavit was 

 made before Mr. Raffles, magistrate, at Liverpool : 



" We, the undersigned officers and crew of the barque Pauline (of 

 London), of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, in the United King- 

 dom of Great Britain and Ireland, do solemnly and sincerely declare 

 that, on July 8, 1875, in lat. 5 13' S., long. 35 W., we observed three 

 large sperm whales, and one of them was gripped round the body with 

 two turns of what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and tail 

 appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about thirty feet, and its 

 girth eight feet or nine feet. The serpent whirled its victim round and 

 round for about fifteen minutes, and then suddenly dragged the whale 

 to the bottom, head first. 



"GEO. DREVAR, Master ; HORATIO THOMPSON, JOHN HEN- 

 DERSON LANDELLS, OWEN BAKER, and WILLIAM 

 LEWARN. 



"Again, on July 13, a similar serpent was seen, about two hundred 

 yards off, shooting itself along the surface, head and neck being out of 

 the water several feet. This was seen only by the captain and one 

 ordinary seaman. 



" GEORGE DREVAR, Master. 



" A few moments after it was seen some 60 feet elevated perpendicu- 

 larly in the air by the chief officer and the following seaman : Horatio 

 Thompson, Owen Baker, Wm. Lewarn. And we make this solemn 

 declaration, conscientiously believing the same to be true." 



In the Illustrated London News, of November 2Oth, 1875, 

 there had previously appeared a letter from the Rev. E. L. 

 Penny, Chaplain to H.M.S. London, at Zanzibar, describing 

 this occurrence and also the representation of a sketch 

 (which I am kindly permitted to reproduce here), drawn by 



