242 SALMONIA. [NINTH DAY. 



power of the whaler ; whereas, if he knew his force, 

 and were to swim on the surface in a straight line, he 

 would break or destroy the 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 

 animals do not come to the surface. The only sea 

 snake, that has been examined by naturalists, turned 

 out to be a putrid species of shark the squalus 

 mavimus. Yet all the newspapers gave accounts of 

 this as a real animal, and endowed it with feet, which 



