840 THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 



weed, evidently detached from a coral reef, and drifting 

 with the current, which sets constantly to the westward 

 in this latitude, and which, together with the swell left 

 by the subsidence of the gale, gave it the sinuous, snake- 

 like motion. 



" But for the calm, which afforded Captain Herriman 

 an opportunity of examining the weed, we should have 

 had another ' eye-witness ' account of the great sea-serpent, 

 — Mr Herriman himself admitting that he should have 

 remained under the impression that he had seen it. 

 What appeared to be head, crest, and mane of the im- 

 mensum volumen, was but the large root which floated 

 upwards, and to which several pieces of the coral reef 

 still adhered. The captain had it hauled on board, but, 

 as it began to decay, was compelled to throw it over. He 

 now regrets that he had not preserved it in a water-butt 

 for the purpose of exhibition in the Thames, where the 

 conflicting motion produced by the tide and steamers 

 would in all probability give it a like appearance.* 



A new and unexpected interpretation was thus given to 

 the observed phenomena ; an interpretation which has 

 been recently revived. For a statement published in The 

 Times of February 5, 1858, by Captain Harrington of the 

 ship Castilian, brought out another witness on the sea- 

 weed hypothesis. 



The statement alluded to was couched in the form of 

 an extract from a Meteorological Journal kept on board 

 the ship, the original of which was sent to the Board of 



* Sun, July 9, 1849. 



