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IX 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON. THE SEA SERPENT. 



BY W. D. PECK, A. M. F. A. A. 



fBOFESSOR OF KATUIUL HISTOBY IS HAETARD COIXEGE, 



E 



X HE appearance in this vicinity the last summer of an enor- 

 mous animal of the serpentine order, is a fact so remarkable, and 



4 



so interesting to naturalists every where, that the Academy at 



their last meeting were of opinion that some notice of it should ap 



pear in their next publication, and appointed me to consider the ev 

 idence of the fact. 



of my enquiries. 



The writers on 



I beg leave to offer the following as the result 



Natural History for more 



2000 years 



Iiave mentioned Sea-Serpents. It may not he entirely foreign to 

 the purpose to notice what they have left us on this obscure sub- 

 j ect. 



Aristotle, the father of Zoology, observes in Lib. II. Chap. 

 XIV, " that there are Serpents in the sea as well as on the laud, 

 and in fresh waters. That some of those in the sea, in form re- 

 semble those of the land, except that the head has a greater resem- 

 blance to the Conger.'' 



His o(pi; ^aXarJiog^ Lib. IX, Chap. 17, was probably the Con- 



r 



ger or some other species of Mur^ena. The Mursena colubrina 



found in Amboina, M. Ophis^ Serpens and I^Jy 

 undMur. Echidna in the Pacific Ocean resemble 

 form, but are furnished with fins. 



Europ 



pent 



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