THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



twenty minutes in sight of the frigate, and passed 

 under her quarter. Its head appeared to be about 

 four feet out of the water, and there was about 

 sixty feet of its body in a straight line on the 

 surface. It is calculated that there must have 

 been under water a length of thirty-three or forty 

 feet more, by which it propelled itself at the rate 

 of fifteen miles an hour. The diameter of the ex- 

 posed part of the body was about sixteen inches, 

 and when it extended its jaws, which were full of 

 large jagged teeth, they seemed sufficiently capa- 

 cious to admit of a tall man standing upright 

 between them.'' 



Some of the details here given were not after- 

 wards substantiated; but popular curiosity was 

 excited. The Admiralty instantly inquired into 

 the truth of the statement, and in The Times of 

 the 1.3th was published the gallant captain's 

 official reply in the following terms:— 



"Her Majesty's Ship Daedalus, 

 Hamoaze, Oct. 11. 

 "Sir,— In reply to your letter of this date, re- 

 quiring information as to the truth of a state- 

 ment published in The Times newspaper, of a sea- 

 serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been 

 seen from Her Majesty's ship Diedulus, under my 

 command, on her passage from the East Indies, I 

 have the honour to acquaint you, for the infor- 

 mation of my Lords Commissioners of the Ad- 

 miralty, that at five o'clock P.M., on the 6th of 

 August last, in latitude 24° 44' S., and longitude 

 9° 22 E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind 

 fresh from the N.W., with a long ocean swell from 

 the S.W., the ship on the port tack heading N.E. 

 by N., something very unusual was seen by Mr. 

 Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the 

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