114 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



They saw the creature in the Bay of Along, near Haiphong. The 

 commander reported to the admiral ' that as he was standing on the 

 bridge his attention was directed to a round dark mass in the water, 

 about three hundred yards to port. Soon it rose out of the water, and 

 by the undulatory movement he saw an enormous monster, shaped like 

 a flat-bodied serpent, of about 100 ft. in length. It appeared to have 

 a soft black skin, covered with marbled spots, and the head, which 

 rose 16 ft. out of the water, closely resembled that of a Turtle, with 

 huge scales. It blew up two jets of water to a height of about 50 ft. 

 It moved through the water at the speed of eight knots, and when 

 about 150 yards from the gunboat it plunged beneath it, and appeared 

 on the surface about 400 yards away. A broadside of shrapnel was 

 fired at the leviathan, but without apparent effect.' 



" Another French naval officer saw a similar animal off the same 

 coast, but it was of a greyish hue. On two occasions Miss Lovell had 

 a lengthy view of this remarkable animal, and was in close proximity 

 to it, enabling her to give an excellent description of its form, colour, 

 and approximate length. Her description states that it had a glossy 

 skin on the head and neck, smooth and shiny as satin. Whilst taking 

 notes of the animal and its appearance, it put its tail out of the water 

 over the beach only five feet away from her, and held it elevated so that 

 Miss Lovell could have walked under it. The only part of the body 

 that had marks like joints (like in shape and size to a common brick) 

 was also on the shore, and resting on the sand ; the great dome- 

 shaped carapace or shell, dull slaty grey, was standing five feet high, 

 and so hid its long neck and head from her view, which, before it rose, 

 she could see as a long shadow in the water. The carapace was smooth 

 and without marks of any sort. The fish-like tail was glossy and shiny 

 like the head and neck, but of a beautiful silver-grey shading to white, 

 with either markings or large scales, each bordered with a ridge of 

 white, but, if scales, not like those of a fish in position, as fish-scales 

 lie horizontally, whilst this monster's scales lay perpendicularly. Each 

 scale was the size of a man's thumb-nail. It had a thick fleshy fin 

 near the end of the body, about three feet from the flukes, and, like 

 them, chocolate-brown. The flukes were semi-transparent, and she 

 could see the sun shining through them, showing all the bones to be 

 forked. The fish-like part was about twelve feet long, therefore the 

 total length of the animal was about forty feet. When making out to 

 sea the ' Serpent ' threw a quantity of fish into the air by a movement 

 of its tail. It is known by the aboriginals of Sandy Island as the 

 Moha Moha, and, owing to the foregoing description, was placed by 

 Saville Kent amongst the Chelonia, or shield-reptiles, and, owing to 



