245 



The President exhibited a document submitted to him by 

 Dr. H. C. Perkins, of Newburyport, giving a drawing and an 

 early account of the Sea Serpent, of the latter of which the 

 following is a transcription : — 



" The above is a figure of a Sea Serpent, seen on a passage 

 from Newburyport to St. Petersburg (Russia), on board the brig 

 Washington, Joseph Brown, Master, August 1811, in lat. 60° 30' N. 

 and long. 7° 45' W. He was in sight three hours or more, and came 

 up within forty feet abreast of us, and remained several minutes, as 

 described above, his head eight or nine feet above water ; judged him 

 to be sixteen or eighteen inches diameter, and seventy or eighty feet 

 in length. He appeared to be very smooth, and in color like a 

 porpoise — back black and belly white. He did not appear at all 

 startled at the sight of the vessel, but turned his head toward us till 

 we passed him, about twice the length of the vessel astern of us. He 

 sank gradually under water for several minutes, and then rose again 

 gradually, and so continued to rise and sink as long as I could see 

 him with a good glass. "When we first discovered him, supposed it to 

 be a vessel's mast, at about three miles distance, two points on the 

 weather bow, and hauled up for him, and did not discover that he 

 was alive till within a mile of us. He appeared to move along about 

 two or two and a half miles an hour, and his course about N. N. E. 

 and very steady. He never altered his course from the time we first 

 saw him, nor as long as we could see him with a good glass, and his 

 motion of alternately rising and "sinking at short intervals of time was 

 the same during the whole time. 



(Signed) Joseph Browk. 



The President gave an account of the early discussions relative to 

 the Sea Serpent by the Linnean Society of New England, and stated 

 that the original animal, concerning which a committee was ap- 

 pointed and gave their lengthy report, had since been rediscovered, 

 and proved to be a black snake (^Coluber constrictor) with a diseased 

 spine. 



Dr. Pickering said that it should be stated to the credit of the late 

 Prof Peck, who was upon the committee referred to, that he was in 

 a minority of one in support of the same opinion. He also stated that 

 an explanation had been given of the various appearances by which 

 the stories of the Sea Serpent had arisen, by an old whaler, namely, 

 that it was a hump-backed whale scooping fish, the upper jaw being 

 elevated, forming the supposed erected head and neck, and the hump 

 representing the imagined vertical curvature of the serpentine body. 



Prof. Asa Gray read the following paper : — 



