212 PLEASANT WA YS IN SCIENCE. 



creature, and corroborated the most important points of the 

 evidence given by the eleven witnesses. The creature had 

 the appearance of a serpent, dark brown in colour (some 

 said mottled), with white under the head and neck. Its 

 length was estimated at from 50 to 100 feet The head was 

 in shape like a serpent's, but as large as a horse's. No mane 

 was noticed. Five of the witnesses deposed to protuber- 

 ances on the back ; four said the back was straight ; the 

 other two gave no opinion on this point. The magistrate 

 who had seen the animal considered the appearance of pro- 

 tuberances was due to the bendings of the body while in 

 rapid motion. 



In 1848, when the captain of the British frigate Dadalui 

 had published an account of a similar animal seen by him 

 and several of his officers and crew, the Hon. Colonel T. H. 

 Perkins, of Boston, who had seen the animal on the occasion 

 just mentioned in 1817, gave an account (copied from a 

 letter written in 1820) of what he had witnessed. It is 

 needless to quote those points which correspond with what 

 has been already stated. Colonel Perkins noticed "an 

 appearance in the front of the head like a single horn, about 

 nine inches to a foot in length, shaped like a marlinspike, 

 which will presently be explained. I left the place," he 

 proceeds, "fully satisfied that the reports in circulation, 

 though differing in details, were essentially correct" He 

 relates how a person named Mansfield, " one of the most 

 respectable inhabitants of the town, who had been such an 

 unbeliever in the existence of this monster that he had not 

 given himself the trouble to go from his house to the harbour 

 when the report was first made," saw the animal from a bank 

 overlooking the harbour. Mr. Mansfield and his wife agreed 

 in estimating the creature's length at 100 feet Several 

 crews of coasting vessels saw the animal, in some instances 

 within a few yards. " Captain Tappan," proceeds Colonel 

 Perkins, " a person well known to me, saw him with his head 

 above water two or three feet, at times moving with great 

 rapidity, at others slowly. He also ^aw what explained the 



