CHEATS AND HOAXES. 7 
reported by the men at the tavern and the printing office, to be 
the very creature. Mr. Printer wrote a paragraph on the subject, 
and inserted it in his paper, in which it travelled far and wide. It 
may be relied on that this alleged inhabitant of that inland sea, 
has been reduced to genus and species, by a distinguished natur- 
alist, and registered very orderly in zoology. Now let us find what 
the production really turned out to be. The sheriff of the county , 
a sensible man, heard of the marvel, and conceiving that he knew 
as much about the lake as any person whatever, went on board 
full of curiosity, to make inquiry about it. He found but one of the 
people on board, whom he interrogated closely concerning the won- 
derful sight, with which he and his associates had entertained the 
neighbourhood. The sailor was scon implicated in contradictions. 
The querist, aware of the fellow’s confusion, asked him if he was 
not ashamed to propagate such falsehoods? He then said, if the sher- 
iff would not be affronted, he would relate the whole story just as 
it was. At the place aforesaid, they passed a dry tree afloat; and 
concluding that the butt or root would do for a head, some knots 
on the trunk for knobs or bunches, and the top for a tail, they 
would have a little pastime by telling a story of a sea-serpent, 
which they thought their lake was as much entitled to as any 
other water. The whole three had agreed to tell the same tale and 
support it!” 
“(g). When the skin, &c. of the huge basking shark, that had 
straggled from the Northern Ocean and had been killed in Raritan 
Bay (Squalus Maximus), was exhibited in New York City, the in- 
habitants were openly and earnestly invited by notice in words at 
length displayed in front of the house, to enter and behold the 
sea-serpent. ‘The conceit took very well!” 
“Now, after all these mistakes, deceptions and wilful perversions 
on the subject, every person of consideration may admit that the 
gambols of porpoises, the slow motions of basking sharks, and the 
yet different appearances of balaenopterous whales, all of which 
have fins on their backs, may have given rise to those parts of 
the narrations, not already here commented upon.” 
Professor Siuniman, the editor of the journal, could not help 
Saying in a note: 
“We give place to the scepticism of the learned author, although 
not ourselves sceptical on this subject. We do not see how such 
evidence as that presented by Dr. Bigelow Vol. II p. 147 of this 
Journal — particularly in the statements of Capt. Little of the 
