CAPTAIN HARRINGTON'S TESTIMONY. 34] 



Trade. It was authenticated by Captain Harrington, and 

 his chief and second officers. 



Ship Castilian, Dec. 12, 1857; N.E. end of St Helena, 

 distant ten miles. At 6*30 P.M., strong breezes and 

 cloudy, ship sailing about twelve miles per hour. While 

 myself and officers were standing on the lee side of the 

 poop, looking towards the island, we were startled by the 

 sight of a huge marine animal, which reared its head out 

 of the water within twenty yards of the ship, when it sud- 

 denly disappeared for about half a minute, and then made 

 its appearance in the same manner again, shewing us dis- 

 tinctly its neck and head about ten or twelve feet out of 

 the water. Its head was shaped like a long nun buoy, 

 and I suppose the diameter to have been seven or eight 

 feet in the largest part, with a kind of scroll, or tuft of 

 loose skin, encircling it about two feet from the top ; the 

 water was discoloured for several hundred feet from its 

 head, so much so, that, on its first appearance, my impres- 

 sion was that the ship was in broken water, produced, as 

 I supposed, by some volcanic agency since the last time I 

 passed the island, but the second appearance completely 

 dispelled those fears, and assured us that it was a monster 

 of extraordinary length, which appeared to be moving 

 slowly towards the lancl The ship was going too fast to 

 enable us to reach the mast-head in time to form a correct 

 estimate of its extreme length, but from what we saw 

 from the deck, we conclude that it must have been over 

 two hundred feet long. The boatswain and several of the 



