CHEATS AND HOAXES. aa | 
in their power, many boats were fitted out from Cape Ann and 
other places in the neighbourhood of his haunts, armed with har- 
poons and other implements, and manned with persons used to 
the whale fishery, in hopes of getting near enough to him to fasten 
their harpoons in his side. Among others a Captain Rich (not 
Benjamin Rich), of Boston, took command of a party, which was 
fitted out at some expense, and went into the bay, where they 
cruised along shore two or three days without seeing the serpent. 
With a view, however, to keep the joke from themselves, they 
determined to throw or attempt to throw it upon others, though 
at the expense of truth! They spread a report that they had caught 
the serpent, or what had been taken for one, and that he was to 
be seen at a place mentioned in the advertisement.” 
“Thousands were flocking to see this wonder, when it was found 
to be no other than a large horse macquerel, which (though a 
great natural curiosity, weighing sometimes 600 or 700 pounds) 
very much disappointed those, who had been induced to visit it. 
Those who had declared their disbelief of the existence of the Sea- 
serpent amongst ourselves were delighted to find their opinions 
were confirmed, and gave themselves great credit for their judg- 
ment and discrimination. The report spread from Boston to New 
Orleans, that what had been thought by some persons to be a 
sea-serpent had proved to be a horse macquerel, and even those 
who had been believers now supposed that those who had reported 
that they had seen the serpent had either misrepresented or had 
been themselves deceived. As no report of the snake having been 
seen after the capture of the macquerel was made, during that 
year, Captain Rich had the laugh with him, until circumstances , 
which have transpired since, have borne rather against him. Thus 
much for the transactions of the past years.” 
The Lake Erie Serpent. — In Mr. Rarinesaun’s Dissertation 
on Sea-Snakes, we read (See Phil. Mag. Vol. LIV, 1819): 
- _ “Jt appears that our large lakes have huge serpents or fishes, 
as well as the sea. On the 3d. of July, 1817, one was seen in 
Lake Erie, three miles from land, by the crew of a schooner, 
which was 35 or 40 feet long, and one foot in diameter; its 
colour was a dark mahogany, nearly black. This account is very 
imperfect, and does not even notice if it had scales; therefore it 
