10 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



The interest excited by this meeting gave the Society reason to believe that the 

 importance of its work was fully appreciated, and that the public already felt disposed to 

 protect and patronize it. It is sad to think how soon the hopes excited by the 

 feeling manifested at this meeting were doomed to fade away. 



Soon after this meeting, wonderful stories were circulated concerning a strange marine 

 animal, said to have been seen in the harbor of Gloucester, and a special meeting of the 

 Society was called for the purpose of taking measures to obtain information. Judge Davis, 

 Dr. Bigelow, and Mr. Gray, were constituted a committee to write to, and have depositions 

 taken of, all who had seen the animal. The committee reported, in September, that they 

 had no doubt of the existence of an animal of extraordinary appearance and enormous 

 dimensions, as there were many credible witnesses. They expressed the hope of getting 

 more information soon. In October, a very full report was made upon what was 

 now designated as the sea serpent, and an account was also given of a small one, probably, 

 the record says, of a " spawn," that had been taken at the water's edge. The committee 

 were of the opinion that these animals were of a genus wholly unknown to naturalists, 

 and they designated them under the name of Scoliophis, from the singular curvatures 

 of the spine, by which they possessed a vertical motion. To this they added the specific 

 name Atlanticus. 1 



It is a subject of great regret, the Secretary wrote, that all the efforts that were made 

 to take the great serpent proved wholly ineffectual, notwithstanding the zeal and activity 

 of his pursuers. 



1818. We have thus far traced the history of this Society from its formation, have 

 dwelt upon the evidences of its rapid progress, and have had brought before us accounts 

 of its great acquisitions, through which it had become possessed of a collection which, in 

 the language of its Secretary, seemed likely to surpass any one of like character in this 

 country and even rival the great collections of Europe. Henceforth we shall find evidence 

 of declining vigor on the part of the Society as such, notwithstanding great struggles on the 

 part of many of its members to sustain it and give it renewed activity ; we shall see the 

 interest in its meetings rapidly wane, and its valuable cabinet becoming ruined for the want 

 of proper care ; we shall see that even the hope for continued existence is giving place to 

 utter despair, foreboding dissolution. 



In January a committee was appointed to make propositions to the trustees of the 

 AthenEeum for a union of the two institutions, and if this could not be effected, to report 

 what measures should be taken for the preservation of the cabinet. 



Meetings were held in the succeeding months, but not with so much regularity as here- 

 tofore. At one of the meetings a valuable paper was read by Dr. J. W. Webster on the 

 mineralogical character of the Island of St. Nicholas, which he had lately visited. This 

 seems to have been the only paper brought forward during the year. The Immediate 

 Members made an excursion up the Middlesex Canal, upon invitation of Mr. J. L. Sulli- 

 van, and they dined together at Woburn, their last dinner as a society. 



1 Report of a Committee of the Linnajan Society of New 52 pp. Sue remarks by Dr. Jeffries Wyman, Proc. Bost. 

 England relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a Soc. Nat. Hist., IX, 245. 

 Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Mass. Boston, 1817. 8vo. 



