EVIDENCE OF FIVE OFFICEES. 313 



and we were all perfectly satisfied that we had been 

 favoured with a view of the c true and veritable sea- 

 serpent,' which had been generally considered to have 

 existed only in the brain of some Yankee skipper, and 

 treated as a tale not much entitled to belief. Bowling's 

 exclamation is worthy of record, ' Well, I 've sailed in all 

 parts of the world, and have seen rum sights too in my 

 time, but this is the queerest thing I ever see!' and surely 

 Jack Dowling was right. It is most difficult to give 

 correctly the dimensions of any object in the water. The 

 head of the creature we set down at about six feet in 

 length, and that portion of the neck which we saw, at the 

 same ; the extreme length, as before stated, at between 

 eighty and one hundred feet. The neck in thickness 

 equalled the bole of a moderate sized tree. The head and 

 neck of a dark brown or nearly black colour, streaked 

 with white in irregular streaks. I do not recollect seeing 

 any part of the body. 



" Such is the rough account of the sea-serpent, and all 

 the party who saw it are still in the land of the living, 

 Lyster in England, Malcolm in New South Wales, with 

 his regiment, and the remainder still vegetating in Hali- 

 fax. 

 " W. SULLIVAN, Captain, Kifle Brigade, June 21, 1831. 



A. MACLACHLAN, Lieutenant, ditto, August 5, 1824 

 G. P. MALCOLM, Ensign, ditto, August 13, 1830. 



B. O'NEAL LYSTER, Lieut., Artillery, June 7, 1816. 

 HENRY INGE, Ordnance Store-keeper at Halifax." * 



* This account was published in the Zoologist for 1847, (page 1715:) 



