20 ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT THE SEA-SERPENT., 
extravagant degree of fear. You will already know, that Capt. Rica 
has thrown light upon the subject; out of his own means he fitted 
out a ship to catch this Leviathan. He succeeded..... ” (etc., the 
rest of the letter runs like the Path from the Phzlosophical Maga- 
zine, quoted above). | 
Mr. RaAFINESQUE SCHMALTZ, however says, (see Phil. Mag. Vol. 
LIV, 1819): . 
“The Pelamis megophas, or Great Sea-Snake, appears to have 
left the shores of Massachusetts, and to have baffled the attempts 
to catch it, probably because those attempts were conducted with 
very little judgment. But a smaller snake, or fish, nine feet long, 
and a strange shark, have been taken, of which the papers give 
no description: let us hope that they will be described by the 
naturalists at Boston’. 
And Prof. Jacop Biestow, of Boston (Stnuiman’s Am. Journ. Se. 
Arts, Vol. IL, Boston, 1820): 
“In the following year’ (1818) “Capt. Rich of Boston, went on 
an expedition fitted out for the purpose of taking the Sea-Serpent , 
and after a fruitless cruise of some weeks, brought into port a fish 
of the species commonly known to mariners and fishermen by the 
name of ‘Tunny, Albicore or Horse Mackerel, the Scomber Thynanus 
of Linnaeus, and which fish he asserted to be the same as that 
denominated Sea-Serpent. This disappointment of public curiosity 
was attended at the time by a disbelief on the part of many, of 
the existence of a distinct marine animal of the serpent-kind, or of 
the dimensions and Shape represented by the witnesses of Glou- 
cester and elsewhere.” 
“It is hoped that the unsuccessful termination of Cign Rich’s 
cruise will not deter others from improving any future opportuni- 
ties which may occur for solving what may now perhaps be consid- 
ered the most interesting problem in the science of Natural History.” 
This was written m 1820, and the problem is not quite solved yet! 
The trick of Capt. Ricu is also mentioned in the paper of Mr. 
Mircuini, spoken of further on. 
Again Colonel T. H. Perkins relates in the Boston Daily Ad- 
vertiser of November 25, 1848, the trick of Capt. Ricu as follows 
(copied from the Zoologist of 1849, p. 2361). 
“As it happened, a circumstance took place which did not do 
much credit to the actors m it, but which served to fortify the 
unbelief of our southern brethern. Believing that the possession of 
the sea-serpent would be a fortune to those who should have him ~ 
