306 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



existence of the marine monster. That Englishman, how- 

 ever, certainly partakes of the credulity of the Northmen, 

 and cannot withhold his belief in the existence of some 

 huge inhabitant of those northern seas, when, to his mind, 

 the fact of his existence has been so clearly proved by 

 numerous eye-witnesses, many of whom were too intelli- 

 gent to be deceived, and too honest to be doubted."* 



In 1817, the Linnsean Society of New England pub- 

 lished a " Report relative to a large marine animal, sup- 

 posed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, 

 in August" of that year. A good deal of care was taken to 

 obtain evidence, and the depositions of eleven witnesses of 

 fair and unblemished characters were taken on the matter, 

 and certified on oath before magistrates, one of whom 

 himself saw the creature, and corroborated the statements 

 of the deponents on the most important points. The 

 serpent form was attested by all, and the colour, a dark 

 brown, mottled, according to some, with white on the 

 under parts of the head and neck. The length was vari- 

 ously estimated, from fifty to a hundred feet. No ap- 

 pearance of mane was seen by any. The head was com- 

 pared to that of a sea-turtle, a rattlesnake, and a serpent 

 generally ; and, for size, to that of a horse. As to the 

 form of the body, five deponents speak of dorsal protuber- 

 ances ; four declare that the body was straight, while two 

 do not moot the point. The mode of progression is gene- 

 rally spoken of as by vertical undulation, " like that of a 

 caterpillar/' probably a looping or geometric caterpillar 

 * Zoologist, p. 3228. 



