STRANGE SEA CREATURES. an 



papers set a specially bad example in this respect, giving 

 room in their columns for pretended discoveries in various 

 departments of science, elaborate accounts of newly dis- 

 covered animals, living or extinct, and other untruths which 

 would be regarded as very disgraceful indeed by English 

 editors. Such was the famous " lunar hoax," published in 

 the New York Sun some forty years ago ; such the narrative, 

 in 1873, of a monstrous fissure which had been discerned in 

 the body of the moon, and threatened to increase until the 

 moon should be cloven into two unequal parts ; such the 

 fables which have from time to time appeared respecting 

 the sea-serpent. But it would be as unreasonable to reject, 

 because of these last-named fables, the narratives which have 

 been related by quiet, truth-loving folk, and have borne close 

 and careful scrutiny, as it would be to reject the evidence 

 given by the spectroscope respecting the existence of iron 

 and other metals in the sun because an absurd story had 

 told how creatures in the moon had been observed to make 

 use of metal utensils or to adorn the roofs of their temples 

 with metallic imitations of wreathed flames. 



The oldest accounts on record of the appearance of a 

 great sea creature resembling a serpent are those quoted by 

 Bishop Pontoppidan, in his description of the natural history 

 of his native country, Norway. Amongst these was one con- 

 firmed by oath taken before a magistrate by two of the crew 

 of a ship commanded by Captain de Ferry, of the Norwegian 

 navy. The captain and eight men saw the animal, near 

 Molde, in August, 1 747. They described it as of the general 

 form of a serpent, stretched on the surface in receding coils 

 (meaning, probably, the shape assumed by the neck of a 

 swan when the head is drawn back). The head, which re- 

 sembled that of a horse, was raised two feet above the 

 water. 



In August, 1817, a large marine animal, supposed to be 

 a serpent, was seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Eleven 

 witnesses of good reputation gave evidence on oath before 

 magistrates. One of these magistrates had himself seen the 



