300 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



other conclusion can possibly be tenable. I by no means 

 wish to appear as a partisan in treating such questions ; 

 perversely adducing evidence only on one side, and cu- 

 shioning or distorting what might be said on the other ; 

 but honestly to weigh the proof on both sides, so that the 

 reader may be able to determine for himself to which is 

 the preponderance. 



Perhaps the most renowned of all these doubtful ques- 

 tions is the existence of the " Sea-serpent." 



For ages, an animal of immense size and serpentine 

 form has been believed to inhabit the ocean, though to be 

 but rarely seen. A strong conviction of its existence has 

 always prevailed among the inhabitants of Norway ; and 

 the fjords or deep inlets which indent the coast-line of 

 that mountainous country are the situations in which it 

 is reported to have been most frequently seen. The coasts 

 of New England, in the United States, are also said to 

 have been favoured with frequent visits from the august 

 stranger during the present century ; and, even recently, 

 reports by many witnesses of unimpeachable character 

 have been published of its appearance in the midst of the 

 ocean, far from land, in various latitudes. 



Bishop Pontoppidan, who, about the middle of the last 

 century, wrote a natural history of Norway, his native 

 country, collected together a considerable mass of testi- 

 mony to the occasional appearance of an immense serpen- 

 tiform marine animal off the shores of northern Europe 

 before that period. Among other evidence, he adduces 

 that of Captain de Ferry, of the Norwegian navy, who saw 



