HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



member of the seal or walrus family. It is a well- 

 known fact that such creatures are often found afloat 

 on fragments of ice which are detached from the 

 parent ice-field. These detached portions travel from 

 the pole, equatorwards, and melting away as they pass 

 into warmer latitudes, deposit their living freight in 

 the ocean, where they must swim for dear life to the 

 nearest land to procure rest and food. If the sea 

 monster under discussion were of this class, he was 

 apparently fated to meet with a watery grave, for 

 in the words of the report : " It did not either in 

 approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake 

 deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the 

 south-west, which it held on at the pace of from twelve 

 to fifteen miles an hour, apparently on some determined 

 purpose." 



It is rather a coincidence that some six weeks later 

 the Daphne, an American brigantine, reported passing 

 in 4 S., 10° E. a gigantic creature of the snake family. 

 It appeared about loo feet in length and had the 

 stereotyped appearance of the serpent or snake with a 

 dragon's head. From the locality where the Dcsdalus 

 monster was observed to where the crew of the 

 Daphne descried theirs is, roughly speaking, some 

 1,500 miles ; and assuming, as has been suggested, 

 that the animal w as one and the same creature, then 

 it must have followed pretty closely the trend of the 

 African littoral. Assuming this supposition to be 

 feasible, it is rather peculiar to note the nomenclature 

 of the more salient features of the coast along which 

 the creature would pass. 



Great Fish Bay, Little Fish Bay, Walvisch (Whale- 

 fish) Bay, Nourse River and Whale 'Head, all show 

 that great fish and seal-like animals abound off the 

 coast, so that it is quite within the bounds of possibility 

 that the "sea-serpent" was some huge fish whose 

 visible parts presented the appearance ascribed to the 

 "great sea-serpent." 



Some nine years subsequent to this, the crew and 

 officers of the ship Castilian were entertained with the 

 sight of some ocean monster when navigating close 

 to the island of St. Helena. Some ten or twelve 

 feet of the creature's head were visible above the 

 waves, and the total length of the "serpent" was 

 variously estimated at from 200 to 450 feet. It seems 

 strange that there should be such disparity in the 

 estimates of the creature's length, for the monster lay 

 extended on the ocean and the distance of the vessel 

 was but thirty yards. 



Navigators of the present day think twice before 

 reporting the seeing of a "sea-serpent." Superstition 

 and with it the belief in the " great sea-serpent " are 

 fast being banished from the British Mercantile 

 Marine, and a master who reports seeing anything of 

 the kind is certain to bring down upon his head a 

 torrent of ridicule. But the monster is not yet 

 defunct. America, which in the opinion of a section 

 of its inhabitants enjoys a monopoly of all that is 

 great and marvellous in nature, has still some three 



or four of these gigantic snakes cruising in their 

 waters, and each season they considerately raise their 

 heads above the surface of the sea in the neighbour- 

 hood of some fashionable watering-place, and the 

 imagination of the visitors and the press fill in the 

 details with a graphic minuteness of detail that leaves 

 nothing to be desired. To the remainder of the 

 world the " sea-serpent " is almost extinct. It has 

 died out like the dodo, and even its prior existence 

 is now regarded as extremely mythical. But in 

 1S90 at such a well-crossed spot as 42° N., 29° 

 W., a sea-serpent presented itself to the astounded 

 gaze of the master and crew of the Thomas Hilyard. 

 It is matter for regret that this monster of the deep 

 did not choose to reveal itself to some Atlantic liner, 

 for then, among the many eyes that would have gazed 

 upon it, some might be relied upon to observe the 

 creature with a quiet and scientific scrutiny and to 

 convey to the rest of mankind a true picture of the 

 creature, founded upon what really is and not upon 

 preconceived notions of the appearance an orthodox 

 sea-serpent should present. From a few words of 

 alternative description in the account of the monster 

 encountered by the Thomas Hilyard we may draw 

 our own conclusions as to the decadence of popular 

 belief in the existence of the great sea-serpent. The 

 creature is not represented as being a sea-serpent and 

 " nothing more," it is a sea-serpent or a gigantic fish 

 of the conger-eel species. There is much virtue in 

 the "or," and the hardy skipper of the Thomas Hilyard 

 has placed on record a pretty accurate estimate of 

 the state of nautical opinion regarding the sea- 

 serpent. 



Yet one more manifestation, this time off the coast 

 of North Island, N.Z. The account given of the 

 monster, as seen by the chief officer of the Rotomahana, 

 is singularly lucid and circumstantial. It runs as 

 follows : — 



"On the morning of the 1st of August (1891), 

 about 6.30 o'clock, we were' off Portland Light, 

 between Gisborne and Napier. I was on deck, look- 

 ing over the weather-side for land, when I saw the 

 object, whatever it was, rise out of the water to the 

 height of thirty feet. Its shape was like a huge 

 conger-eel, with the exception of two fins about ten 

 feet long. The creature was not more than 100 

 yards away, and I estimated its girth at between ten 

 and twelve feet It was broad daylight at the time, 

 and the sun was shining brightly ! " 



This statement is substantially corroborated by the 

 quarter-master of the same vessel, who saw the 

 creature first and drew the chief officer's attention to 

 it. If further evidence were wanting that a sea 

 monster of some kind or other has placed itself on 

 evidence in New Zealand waters, it is to be found in 

 the parallel testimony of a surveyor resident at 

 Gisborne, who wrote to the New Zealand papers that 

 while on another of the Union Company's steamers, 

 the Matiapouri, on July 24th, he and several others 



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