(24 ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT THE SEA-SERPENT. 
been a native of the land, (apparently a colwber,) and had, of 
course, no pretention to claim kindred with its pretended parent 
of the ocean.” 
“I was the better enabled, I thought, to form a more correct | 
opinion, relative to the matter, by reason of my possessing in my 
museum, at the time, four true sea-serpents, which my navigating 
friends had brought me from the Gulf of Mexico, and the Chin- 
ese Sea.” 
“The history of Sea Serpentism is a very memorable part of the 
sayings and doings in this enlightened age and country. For the 
benefit of the present generation, and of posterity, it ought to be 
written. In proceeding to pen a short sketch of it, I must pre- 
mise, that I am one of the last persons in existence who would 
presume to put a limit to creative power. I admit that the all- 
mighty beimg could make a water-snake as easily as a fish; and 
that such an animal might be as big as a Kraken, as easily as 
the diminutive size of the Stickleback. Yet, on reviewing these 
legends of the times, there is found such a propensity towards the 
strange and the marvellous, that the men of the present day 
show a credulity very much resembling that of the remote ages, 
when the terraqueous globe was peopled with gorgons, mermaids, 
chimeras, hydras, dragons, and all the monsters of fabulous zoology.” 
“(a). The first tale I remember tc have considered seriously rel- 
ative to it was this: it had been determined, they said, to put 
a steam boat in operation at Boston to coast along shore and to 
convey passengers. It was foreseen that such a vessel would traverse 
the currents and pass among the islands with an ease and a speed 
unknown to boats moved by oars and sails; and of course, much | 
of the business of transporting passengers would be taken away 
from the small craft heretofore employed. The large boat would 
thus destroy the small ones, or, as was expressed by another 
word, devour them. Under these forebodings, the steam-vessel — 
made a trip, with favourable auspices. Some wag, the account 
proceeds, wrote for one of the gazettes, an allegorical description 
of a sea-serpent, that had been descried off Nahant and Gloucester, 
and had probably come there to consume all the small fish in the 
place. The narrative, given with such grave diction and imposing 
seriousness, was received by many as an actual and literal occur- 
rence, and credited accordingly.” 
“(b). Long Island Sound put in a claim for a sea-serpent. On 
this fiction I am well satisfied of the particulars that follow. An 
