4108 The Zoologist — August, 1874. 



the American narratives above cited, I cannot say, and have no 

 desire to offer an opinion ; but I cannot refrain from observing that 

 the coincidence between all these details and the methodical de- 

 scription of the animal seen by the Rev. John Macrae and the 

 Rev. David Twopeny (Zool. S. S. 3517), and again by Lady Florence 

 Levesou Gower and the Hon. Mrs. Coke (S. S. 3804) is too obvious 

 to escape the most superficial reader, and really bids fair to solve 

 the sea-serpent mystery at last. 



"We had left Colombo in the steamer ' Strathoweu,' had rounded Galle, 

 and were well iu the bay, with our course laid for Madras, steaming over a 

 calm aud tranquil sea. About an hour before sunset ou the 10th of May 

 we saw ou our starboard beam, and about two miles off, a small schooner 

 lying becalmed. There was nothing iu her appearauce or position to excite 

 remark, but as we came up with her 1 lazily e.xamiued her with my binocular, 

 and then noticed between us, but nearer her, a long, low swelling lying on 

 the sea, wliich from its colour and shape I took to be a bank of sea-weed. 

 As I watched, tlic mass, hitherto at rest ou the quiet sea, was set iu motion. 

 It struck the schooner, which visibly reeled, aud then righted. Immediately 

 afterwards the masts swayed sideways, and with my glass I could clearly 

 discern the enormous mass and the hull of the schooner coalescing — I can 

 think of no other term. Judging from their exclamations, the other gazers 

 must have witnessed the same appearance. Almost immediately after the 

 collision aud coalescence, the schooner's masts swayed towards us, lower and 

 lower ; the vessel was on her beam-euds, lay there a few seconds, aud dis- 

 appeared, the masts righting as she saak, and the main exhibiting a reversed 

 ensign struggling towards its peak. A cry of horror rose from the lookers-on, 

 aud, as if by instinct, our ship's head was at ouce turned towards the scene, 

 which was now marked by the forms of those battling for life — the sole 

 survivors of the pretty little schooner which ouly tweuty minutes before 

 floated bravely on the smooth sea. As soon as the poor fellows were able 

 to tell their story they astounded us with the assertion that their vessel had 

 been submerged by a gigantic cuttle-fish or calamary, the animal which, in 

 a smaller form, attracts so much attention in the Brighton Aquarium, as the 

 octopus. Each narrator had his version of the story, but iu the main all 

 the narratives talUed so remarkably as to leave no doubt of the fact. As 

 soon as he was at leisure, T prevailed on the skipper to give me his written 

 account of the disaster, and I have now much pleasure iu sending you a 

 copy of his narrative : — 



" ' I was lately the skipper of the ' Pearl' schooner, 150 tons, as tight a 

 little craft as ever sailed the seas, with a crew of six men. We were bound 

 from the Mauritius for Eaugoon in ballast to return with paddy, and had 

 put in at Galle for water. Three days out we fell becalmed iu the bay 



