Dec. 21, 1882. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



40 



SKELETON OF PLESIOSAURUS. 



near us, as we talked, the neck, for instance, with the mast 

 of one of the boats at the wharf, the body with the body of 

 a horse standing nigh. They represented the impression 

 which the size'of the sea animal had made upon his eye. 

 The length from the neck to the tail was judged to be about 

 twenty -four or five feet, and that of the tail to equal that of 

 the head and neck. 



The eye was very large and conspicuous ; the animal 

 seemed to be looking* at the boat, though that probably was 

 an error. 



There were no fins whatever along the back or neck ; of 

 this Captain Chappell was entirely certain, for he said he 

 noticed it particularly. 1 questioned him specially as to it, 

 for in a number of instances a sort of mane has been re- 

 ported as existing on the neck. I asked if there were any 

 protuberances on the back, such, for example, as are found 

 on the hump-back whale. No, there were none ; the only 

 thing was that the top of the head was marked by three or 

 four broad transverse ridges or folds, as shown in' the illus- 

 tration. 



No "flippers" or fins below were detected with certainty, 

 but Captain Chappell was confident that they existed, for 

 as the animal eventually moved and disappeared, he'noticed 

 that the body and tail lay still — they took no part in the pro- 

 cess of swimming, as they would have done in a long-bodied 

 fish like an eel — and consequently there must have been 

 means of propulsion beneath. He thought he saw where 

 they united with the body, hut he could not be certain of 

 it. " The tail had no flukes like those of a whale ; it seemed 

 to end in a very blunt point — though it is quite possible that 

 viewed in cross section it might have been flattened. 



The skin showed no signs of hair, like the "pelt" of a sea 

 elephant, or sea lion ; it was smooth and naked, like whale 

 skin. That along the inferior surface of the neck looked as 

 though it might be somewhat, roughened and corrugated. 

 There was no indication anywhere of scales or plates. 



The color of the animal above, Captain Chappell com- 

 pared to that of old kelp, that is to say, a very dark green- 

 ish olive, marked in various parts with elongated and oval 

 spots of a similar hue, but much lighter. The throat and 

 inferior surface of the neck he described as resembling in 

 color the flesh and skin of a sturgeon which at the moment 

 lay near us, which was a blending of yellowish and rusty 

 red. 



The animal, after remaining, as. stated, still and quiet 

 for a certain length of time, lowered its neck gradually till 

 its head was level with the water and beneath it, and then 

 started with a steady motion, but quite rapid, directly to- 

 ward the boat, diving deeply as it did so. The expectation 

 was that he would attack them, and Captain Chappell re- 

 marked, "When he comes up next time, boys, he will be 

 alongside, and if he is I will get an iron into him," but he 

 did not come up, and they saw no more of him at that time, 

 perhaps not at all. That night, about ten o'clock, they be- 

 ing not more than a mile or two from the place where they 

 had seen him during the day, a large object rose with a 

 rush through the water, some ten feet above the surface, 

 within a very few feet of the boat, and as suddenly went 

 under and disappeared. Captain Chappell judged it to be 

 the head and forward part of the same animal, though not 

 with. certainty. 



The next event is withm the experience of Capt. James 

 F. Smith, also of New Loudon. Capt. Smith is at, present 

 in command of the steamer Manhanset, running between 

 New London and Sag Harbor. I know him well and feel 

 no hesitation in vouching personally for any statement, 

 made by him, as being worthy of entire credence. 



In the year 1864 lie was mate of the whaleship Florence, 

 Capt. Stevens. On the 14th of November they were in kit. 

 48° N., long. 178' W., bringing them, of course," in the North 

 Pacific, about 400 miles from the nearest land, which was 

 the Fox Islands. A heavy gale was blowing, with a rough 

 sea, and they were under short canvas. The main topsail 

 sheet had just parted, and as officer of the watch his whole 

 attention was engrossed in seeing to the repair of the injury. 

 All at once the Captain, standing near him, called out, "For 

 Heavens sake, Mr. Smith, look there," pointing earnestly at 

 some object, broad off the starboard beam. He looked and 

 saw with entire distinctness the object to which the Captain 

 pointed. The exigencies of the service demanded his care 

 pn the instant in board and for a minute or two longer. As 

 soon as he could I urn his eyes outward he looked again and 

 saw the same object. It was but for a moment, and duty 

 once more called him away. When he could look again ft 

 had disappeared. 



He saw a large, round, elongated head, supported on a 



slender neck, the head bent forward so as to lie horizontally 

 while the neek was vertical. As a heavy sea rolled over it 

 the whole was buried, and then the next instant in the 

 trough of the sea the head was perhaps six feet or more out 

 of water. The distance he reckoned at about a cable's 

 length (130 fathom), and all that he could observe, except 

 the general form, was that the prevailing color was dark. 

 Of the remaining portions of the animal he saw nothing, but 

 what he saw he saw distinctly. 



Here are no extended observations, and the report by itself 

 is not much, but as a part of the whole it is of no inconsid- 

 erable value. It is the testimony of a man who knows every 

 form of whale recognized among the whalemen, has killed 

 too many sea elephants, sea lions and walrus to mistake one 

 of them for anything else, and whose word is good for 

 whatever he states. 



Capt. Smith saw a head and neck, different from those of 

 any recognized inhabitant of the sea. The sort of body and 

 tail which made up the complete animal remains a matter of 



uncertainty; but he says that jf I had attempted to make a 

 drawing of what he saw. 1 could not have come nearer to 

 the representation of it than in the head and neck of the 

 figure in which I have delineated as nearly as 1 could the 

 one seen by Capt. Chappell. That was drawn as nearly as 

 I could get the idea from the Captain's statements, and then 

 submitted to him for correction and for recorrection. He 

 considers that it represents faithfully the animal seen by 

 him off Montauk. 



The third instance to which I referred comes to me some- 

 what more indirectly, but I have no question whatever, that 

 what I report is the* simple truth. The observations were 

 made by Capt. Henry Fordham, of Sag Harbor, in 1841. 

 My record comes not from Capt. Fordham himself, but from 

 those to whom he made the statements, and I do not doubt 

 that they described to me correctly what he saw. He was a 

 whaleman of experience and a worthy and credible man. 



At the time specified he was in command of a sloop bound 

 from Long Island to Boston. He was crossing Nan- 

 tucket Shoals, being then about six miles north of the old 

 South Shoal, in twelve to thirteen fathoms of water. A 

 thick fog was prevailing, when suddenly he heard a rusliing 

 sound, and forthwith hailed the watch forward to keep a 

 good lookout, having no doubt that some craft was ap- 

 proaching. The sound continued, but no sail could be made 

 out, when, turning his eyes lower, he saw, but a few yards 

 distant from him, the head anil neck of an animal such as 

 he had never seen before. The head, he said, was very 

 large, he thought three feet and more long, with a very con- 



spicuous eye, which looked "ugly." The head was bent 

 forward, supported on a neck much smaller than itself. The 

 neck was round, erect, and carried the head about four feet 

 above the water, which at the time was very smooth. The 

 color was dark. No mention was made" of any fin or 

 "mane" on the head or neck. The sloop was making but 

 slow headway— only about two knots; the animal wasmov- 

 ing in the same direction and with more than double her 

 rate of speed, as the water was curling away from the up- 

 lifted neck, thus causing the rushing sound" first noticed. 

 He turned his head toward (hem, as though watching the 

 vessel, but swam steadily forward. The body was sub- 

 merged so as not to be distinctly visible, but from the wake 

 made Capt. Fordham judged he had no tail-flukes, and as 

 there was no sign of undulations, he must have been pro- 

 pelled by paddles beneath. When the lookout forward 

 hailed that the animal's head was right opposite to him, the 

 tail, indistinctly seen, was believed to be even with the 

 taffrail. This would make his entire length sixty to sixty- 

 five feet. 



Taking fright apparently at some noise on board he gave 

 sudden plunge and disappeared. 



These observations are not precise, but so far as they go, 

 they indicate an animal which was in all probability very 

 similar to the one seen by Capt. Chappell near Montauk. 



These three are all of which I have any personal cogniz- 

 ance, but referring, for the present, only to our own neighbor- 

 ing coast the number of those which have been seen, and re- 

 ported by perfectly credible witnesses, is great. 



In 1780, Geo. Little, commander of the frigate Boston, 

 saw one in Broad Bay, near Muscongus Island, and chased 

 him in his cutter, but when they had approached within 

 about 100 feet and the marines were about to fire on him, 

 he dove and disappeared. He was not less than forty-five to 

 fifty feet long, with a snake like body, and carried his head 

 four or five feet abeve the water. 



Rev. Abraham Cummings saw one in Penobscot Bay in 

 1^0'J, as reported to the Hon. John Q. Adams, secretary of 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He says that 

 "the head was rather larger than that of a horse, but formed 

 more like that of a serpent," the head and neck raised above 

 the water, color blue with a black ring around the eye, form 

 snake-like, length not less than sixty feet. He saw him at a 

 distance of ten rods. 



In 1817 one was seen for a number of days in Gloucester 

 Harbor, by many hundreds of people. Fortunately one of 

 these was Col. Thomas H. Perkins of Boston, a man whose 

 standing renders perfectly absurd the thought of question- 

 ing his veracity. He published his observations in the Boston 

 Daily Advertiser of Nov. 25, 1848, doing it then because of 

 the report; made at that time by Capt. McQuhal of the 

 British Navy. Col. Perkins saw, with a fine glass, at the 

 distance of a third to half a mile an animal of SDake-like 

 form, about a hundred feet long, of a chocolate color, with 

 the head flat in the water (though he says that Capt. Tappan, 

 a man well known to him, saw the animal swimming with 

 the head raised two to three feet above the water) and that 

 its motion was "evidently the vertical movement of the cat- 

 erpillar." 



In 18.1.9 Mr. Samuel Cabot saw a similar animal 

 near Nabaut, which he described in a letter to his friend. 

 Col. Perkins, dated Aug. 19. The social standing of Mr. 

 Cabot gives equal value to his assertions with that recorded 

 above. To suspect cither of the two of a hoax or a false 

 statement is simply ridiculous. Mr. Cabot says he saw "an 

 Object emerging from the water at the distance of about one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty yards, which gave to my 

 mind at the first glance the idea "of" a horse's head. As my 

 eye ranged along I perceived at a short distance eight or ten 

 regular protuberances, and at a short interval three or four 

 more. " The head was elevated about two feet above the 

 water. The length of the animal, he judged, by compari- 

 son with a whaleboat near it, to be not less than eighty feet. 



June 6, 1819, Capt.. Hawkius Wheeler, of 'Fairfield, 

 Conn., in the sloop Concord, saw, fifteen miles N. W. of 

 Race Point, an animal, to the published account of which 

 he, with his mate, Gershom Bennett, also of Fairfield, made 

 affidavit, before Theodore Fames, justice of the peace. 

 "The creature was entirely black, the head, which perfectly 

 resembled a snake's, was elevated from four to seven feet 

 above the surface of the water, and his back appeared to 

 be composed of bunches of humps, apparently about as 

 large as a half barrel. I think I saw as numy as ten or 

 twelve. I considered them to be caused by the undulatory 

 motion of the animal." "The surface * appeared to be 

 smooth, without scales — his head was a proper snake's head 



