SEA SERPENT KRAKEN. 281 



machinery by which he is arrested, as easily 

 as a salmon breaks the single gut of a fisher 

 when his reel is entangled. 



POIET. My amusement in such a voyage 

 would be to look for the kraken and the sea 

 snake. 



HAL. You have a vivid imagination, and 

 might see them. 



POIET. Then you do not believe in the 

 existence of these wonderful animals ? 



HAL. No more than I do in that of the 

 merman, or mermaid. 



POIET. Yet we have histories, which 

 seem authentic, of the appearance of these 

 monsters, and there are not wanting persons 

 who assert, that they have seen the mermaid 

 even in these islands. 



HAL. I disbelieve the authenticity of these 

 stories. I do not mean to deny the existence 

 of large marine animals having analogies to 

 the serpent ; the conger we know is such an 

 animal : I have seen one nearly ten feet long, 

 and there. may be longer ones, but such ani- 

 mals do not come to the surface. The only 

 sea snake, that has been examined by na- 



