Frof, Pec¥s obsevmtlons on the Sea Serpent, 



87 



'J 



The v^^os and ^i^a-v^^o^of ^lian, the Hydrus and Chersydru 

 of Pliny, may both be referred to Coluber Xatrix of Liunajus 

 which frequents fresh waters, and very much resembles our own 

 water adder, which is found in similar situations. The notion of 



r 



the enormous serpents brought by Virgil from TeneJos, was prob- 

 ably suggested to the Greek poets from whom he took the hint, 

 by the appearance and habits of the same Coluber Natrix 

 ed and made more terrible by poetic fancy. 



} 



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The story mentioned by Pliny Lib. VIII, Chap. 14, 6f 



enormous 



serpent in Africa, was probably 



exaggeration, and was more than two centuries old when he copied 



M 

 \ 



it from Livy or Valerius Maximus, 



It does not appear from any thing in the writings of the an- 

 cient Naturalists, that what is now called Sea-Serpent, was 

 known in their times. It is of modern discovery and was, I be- 

 lieve, first mentioned by Olaus Magnus in his Historia de Crenti- 

 bus Septentrionalibus. He seems to have been as credulous as 

 Pliny, and the figure which he gives of this Serpent, as well as of 

 other marine animals, was probably sketched from the extravagant 

 relations of sea-faring people. 



Hp represents the serpent he speaks of, as several hundred feet 

 in length and in the act of taking sailors from the deck of a ship. 

 The w^ork of Magnus was published at Rome in 1555. In 1558 

 Gesner published the IVth book of his History of Animals. In 

 this he copies the figure of Magnus with a short description as he 

 found it, without comment. Kuysh in his Theatrum animulinm, 



published in 1718^ copies the figure of Magnus omitting the ship. 



Finally the Rt. Rev. Eric Poutoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, in 

 his Natural History of Norway, published in 1753 and 1/53, 



> 



