Bigelow on the Sea Serpent. 163 
as far as could be seen, was black, and the surface appeared 
to be smooth, without scales—his head was about as long 
as a horse’s' and was a proper snake’s head—there was a 
degree of flatness, with a slight hollow on the top of his 
head—the eyes were prominent, and stood out considerably 
from the surface, resembling in that respect the eyes of a 
toad, and were nearer to the mouth of the animal than to 
the back of the head.. I had a full view of him for seven or 
eight minutes. He was moving in the same direction with 
the sloop, and about as fast. The back was composed of 
bunches about the size of a flour barrel, which were appa- 
-rently about three feet apart—they appeared to be fixed, but 
might be occasioned by the motion of the animal, and look- 
ed like a string of casks or barrels tied together—the tail 
was not visible, but the part which could be seen was, I 
should judge, fifty feet in length—the motion of the bunch- 
es was undulatory, but the wake of his tail, which he evi- 
dently moved under water, showed a horizontal or sweep- 
ing motion, producing a wake as large as the vessel made. 
He turned his head two or three times slowly round, toward 
and from the vessel, as if taking a view of some object on 
board. I went up on the rigging, for the purpose of taking 
a view of him from above; but before I had reached my 
station, he sunk below the surface of the water, and did not 
appear again. 
GERSHAM BENNETT. 
Essex, ss. June 9th, 1819.—-Then Gersham Bennett per- 
sonally appeared and made oath that the foregoing affidavit 
by him subscribed, contains the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the an Before me, 
THEODORE EAMES, Justice of the Peace. 
The substance of Pantopidan’s account of the Serpens mar- 
inus Magnus, contained in his History of Norway, pub- 
lished in 1747, (from a Boston Newspaper.) 
“ The Serpens Marinus Magnus is a wonderful and terri- 
ble Sea monster, which deserves to be noticed by those who 
are curious to look into the works of the great Creator. It 
is usually in July and August he appears, and when it is 
calm”—‘“‘ His head was more than two feet above the sur- 
face of the water and resembled that of a horse. Beside 
