COLONEL PEEKINS'S EVIDENCE. 307 



is meant. The magistrate who saw the animal, and to 

 whom the body appeared straight, considers that the ap- 

 pearance of protuberances was due to the vertical bendings 

 of the body during energetic motion. 



That there were other witnesses of the same appearance 

 of the stranger in 1817, was generally stated at the time ; 

 and one of these, whose testimony is of value, was brought 

 out by the report of Captain M'Quhse, and the correspond- 

 ence that ensued upon it. In the Boston (U.S.) Daily 

 Advertiser for November 25, 1848, appeared a long 

 communication from the Hon. T. H. Perkins of that city, 

 attesting his own personal observation of the marine 

 serpent at Gloucester Harbour, near Cape Ann, in 1817. 

 The communication mainly consisted of a copy of a letter 

 which Colonel Perkins had written to a friend in 1820. 



". . . . Wishing to satisfy myself on a subject on which 

 there existed a great difference of opinion, I myself visited 

 Gloucester with Mr Lee. On our way down we met 

 several persons returning, who had visited the place where 

 he was said to have exhibited himself, and who reported 

 to us that he had not been seen for two or three days 

 past. We, however, continued our route to Gloucester, 

 though with fears that we should not be gratified with the 

 sight of the monster which we sought. I satisfied myself, 

 from conversation with several persons who had seen him, 

 that the report in circulation was not a fable. All the 

 town were, as you may suppose, on the alert ; and almost 

 every individual, both great and small, had been gratified, 

 at a greater or less distance, with a sight of him. The 



