274 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS. 



positive statements of some of tlie older and more recent writers in regard to 

 tliis mysterious animal, reserving our remarks until the testimony not only 

 concerning these, but the Scotch and American varieties, is fully presented. 



Pontoppidon, in his Natural History of Norway, makes the following 

 statement : " Our coast is the only place in Europe visited by this terrible 

 creature. This makes many persons who are enemies to credulity entertain 

 doubts about it. I have questioned its existence myseli', till that suspicion 

 Mas removed by full and sufficient evidence from creditable and experienced 

 fishermen and sailors, of which there are hundreds who can testify they have 

 annually seen them. All these persons agree very well in the general 

 description. In all my incpiirics, I have scarcely spoken to any intelligent 

 jierson who was not able to give strong assurance of the existence of this fish ; 

 and some of our traders think it a very strange question when they arc seri- 

 ously asked whether there be such a creature ; they thiuk it is ridiculous, as 

 if the question were put to them whether there be such fish as cod or eel. 

 Captain L. do Ferry, who was in his boat, with a crew of eight men, saw 

 this sea-serpent, which he fired at and wounded. Ilis description very much 

 agrees with that already given, and every particular is authenticated by the 

 affidavits of two of his crew. We are also informed that Governor Bore- 

 strap states that he saw a similar animal a few years before, and drew a 

 sketch of it. Mr. Hans Strom, a clergyman, also caused a sketch to be 

 made of one which came under his iusjiection and other eye-witnesses are 

 named. I might mention, to the same purpose, many more persons of equal 

 credit and reputation." " Though it is difficult to ascertain its exact dimen- 

 sions, yet all who have seen it are unanimous in affirming that it appears to 

 be about six hundred feet long ; that it lies in the water in many folds, and 

 there appears like so many hogsheads flcjating in a line, at a considerable 

 distance from each other." 



The missionary Hans Egedc thus records what he himself witnessed off 

 the coast of Greenland, in the year 1734: "None of these sea monsters 

 have been seen by us, nor by any of our time that I could hear, save that 

 most dreadful monster which showed himself on the surfiice of the water oiF 

 our colony, in G4'-' north latitude. This monster was of so huge a size, that, 

 coming out of the water, its head reached as high as the mainmast ; its body 

 was as bulky as the ship, and three or four times as long. It had a long, 

 pointed snout, and spouted like a whale-fish ; it had great broad paws ; the 

 body seemed covered with shell-work, and the skin was very rugged and un- 

 even. The under part of its body was shaped like an enormous huge serpent ; 

 and when it dived again under water, it plunged backward into the sea, and 

 so raised its tail aloft, which seemed a whole ship's length distant from the 

 bulkiest part of its body." 



