Reptiles. 2319 



our consideration. Whatever discrepancies may perplex us with regard to subordinate 

 details, it is important to remember that the one ruling form, that of a serpent, is the 

 foundation of all the descriptions. The form may vary — in length, perhaps, from 

 forty to a hundred feet and upwards ; in the relative dimensions of the head and dif- 

 ferent parts of the body ; in the presence or absence of a mane or paddles ; and more 

 particularly with respect to an appearance of dorsal arches or elevations, rising above 

 the water like a row of casks or buoys. The greater part of the evidence on the sub- 

 ject is contained, I believe, in Pontoppidan's 'Natural History of Norway' (1755), 

 the ' Report of a Committee of the Linnaeau Society of New England relative to a 

 large Marine Animal, supposed to be a Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusets, 

 in August, 1817 ' (Boston, 1817), and the last volume of ' The Zoologist ' (1847). In 

 the Scandinavian work the principal witness is Captain L. de Ferry, of the Navy, who 

 thus describes an individual which he saw while in a boat, rowed by eight men, within 

 six miles of Molde, in a calm hot day of August, 1747. " The head of the snake, 

 which it held more than two feet out of the water, resembled that of a horse. * * 

 It had black eyes, and a long white mane that hung down from the neck to the surface 

 of the water. Besides the head and neck we saw seven or eight folds or coils of the 

 snake, which were very thick, and, as far as we could guess, there was about a fathom 

 distance between each fold." This declaration was attested on oath, before the civil 

 functionaries, by two of the crew. A drawing is annexed, copied under the inspection 

 of a clergyman, from a sketch of one seen by Governor Benstrup, representing a ser- 

 pent-like form with the head raised, and a long train of arches stretching beyond the 

 picture. 



The Report of the Linnaean Society of New England contains the results of an 

 inquiry by three of the members, concerning the existence and appearance of a sea- 

 serpent said to have been seen in the harbour of Gloucester, near Cape Ann, about 

 thirty miles from Boston. The depositions of eleven witnesses, " of fair and un- 

 blemished characters," were taken and certified on oath before local magistrates, one 

 of whom personally saw the object, and corroborates their statements on the material 

 points. It remained under observation from the 10th to the 28th of August inclusive. 

 The head is severally compared to that of a " sea-turtle," a " rattle-snake, but nearly 

 as large as the head of a horse," and a " serpent." Five of the deponents observed 

 dorsal protuberances ; two do not allude to them ; while to the remaining four, whose 

 experience agrees with that of the magistrate who saw the animal, the back and body 

 appeared straight. The mode of progression was generally vertical, like that of a 

 caterpillar, from which circumstance the magistrate believes the appearance of protube- 

 rances to have arisen. The total length is variously estimated at from fifty to a hun- 

 dred feet. Colour, a dark brown, and, according to some, the under part of the head 

 and neck was marked with white. No mane was observed. To the above are added 

 notices of sea-serpents seen by a clergyman and others on the coast of Maine for 

 many previous years. The Report concludes with a description of a snake captured 

 in the neighbourhood of Cape Ann, and supposed to be the young of the larger speci- 

 men : from appearing to possess the like peculiarity of dorsal arches, it was included 

 with its supposed parent under a new genus, and named the Scoliophis Atlanticus. 

 Further research, however, seems to have shown that the two animals were not con- 

 nected. 



The tenor of the late observations in Norway recorded in the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 

 1604) certainly might justify the inference that these so remarkable prominences are 



