The Sea Serpent 23 



could plainly see his head and the motion of his body, but 

 not distinctly enough to give a good description of him. 

 Later in the day I again saw him off ' Red Rock.' He then 

 passed along one hundred feet from where I stood, with 

 head about two feet out of the water, and his speed was 

 about the ordinary speed of a common steamer. What I 

 saw of his length was from fifty to sixty feet. 



" It was very difficult to count the bunches, or humps 

 upon his back, as, by the undulating motion, they did not 

 all appear at once. This accounts in part for the varied de- 

 scriptions given of him by different parties. His appearance 

 on the surface of the water was occasional and but for a 

 short time. The color of his skin was dark, differing but 

 little from the water or the back of any common fish. This 

 is the best description I can give of him from my own 

 observation. And I saw the monster, just as truly, though 

 not so clearly, as I ever saw anything. 



" This matter has been jtreated by many as a hoax, fish- 

 story, or a seaside phenomenon, to bring trade and profit to 

 the watering-places; but, notwithstanding all this, there is 

 no doubt in my mind that some kind of an uncommon, and 

 strange rover, in the form of a snake, or serpent, called an 

 ichthyosaurus, pleisiosaurus, or some other long-named 

 marine animal, has been seen by hundreds of men and boys 

 in our own, if not in other waters. And five persons besides 

 myself — Amos Lawrence, Samuel Cabot, and James Prince, 

 of Boston ; Benjamin F. Newhall of Saugus, and John Mar- 

 ston of Swampscott— bore public testimony of seeing him at 

 the time. Yours truly, 



"Nathan D. Chase." 



There is a long and slender shark, with a body like an 

 eel, the frill shark, which may have served as the basis for 

 this class of " sea serpents," yet its length, so far as known, 

 is five or six, instead of sixty, feet. 



Recently we have learned of the existence of a sea ser- 



