I 



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I 



88 



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Frof. Peelers ohservations on the S'^a Serpent. 



gives, oil the authority of a naval officer in the Danish service, a 



more rational and credible account of it. 



Tlie fi2:ure which he 



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to 



gives seems to have been made from the description of Capt. De 

 Ferry, the oificer above alluded to. In this figure, the head and 

 jugular region are raised out of the water ; a little hclow the head 

 is a mane which seems to he inserted all round the hack part of 

 the neck. The appearance of this mane was most probably an 

 optical deception, and was nothing more than the water displaced 

 by the neck in tlie progress of the animal through it, returnin 

 its level. It had probahly no mane. But of the existence of the 

 animal, the testimony* presented by the Rev. Bishop is sufficient- 

 ly conclusive. 



The testimony is ample of the existence of such a serpent, in 

 the portion of the Atlantic which washes our shores. 



It appears by papers sent to the Academy in the year 1810, 

 that this Serpent was first seen in Penobscot Bay about the year 

 1779, by Mr. Stephen Tuckey: he compared it to an unwrouglit 

 spar (meaning probably one of Spruce) which the scaly surface 

 and dark colour of the animal would very much resemble ; he 

 thought it fifty or sixty feet in length. 



The next notice is from Capt. Eleazar Crabtrce, who saw it in 

 the same Bay about the year 1785 ; he estimated its length at six- 

 feet, and its diameter he thought equal to that of a barrel, 

 which is about twenty two inches. 



In the publication of the Linnsean Society, to whose commit- 

 tee we are indebted for collecting the most recent testimonies on 



mi 



this subject, is a letter from the 11 



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Jenks of B 



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ho 



* A letter of Capt. l)e Fenj, and the declaration en oath of two of his 

 who were with him when he saw and shot at it. 



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