48 ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT THE SEA-SERPENT. 
the bones in, but they are now nearly clean, and are very porous 
and dark coloured. The heart I was enabled to preserve in liquor, 
and one of the eyes, but the head, notwithstanding it is cool, 
begins to emit an offensive odour; but I am so near the coast 
now that I shall hold on to it as it is; unless it is likely to breed 
a distemper. Every man in the ship participates in my anxiety. 2 
p. m. I have just spoken the vessel; she proves to be the bree 
Gipsy, Captain Sturges, eight days from Ponce, P. R., with 
oranges and merchandise, bound to Bridgeport. He has kindly 
offered to put these sheets in the post office when he arrives. As 
soon as I get in I shall be enabled to furnish you a more detailed 
account. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Charles Seabury, 
Master, Whale-ship Monongahela, of New Bedford.” 
Mr. Newman, the Editor of the Zoologist, adds: 
“Very well like a hoax, but well drawn up.” 
Mr. Ropert FRroriep, the Editor of the Vagsberichte uiber de 
Fortschritte der Natur- und Heilkunde, (Abtheilung Zoologie und 
Palaeontologie n°. 486, 1852, March), says: 
“The picturesque description of the adventure is lively and reads ~ 
pleasantly, yet it makes the impression, as if the whole is one of 
the stories, so often occurring in American newspapers. Nothing 
can be concluded with any certaimty from the description of the 
animal of 104 feet length and 16 feet thickness, with two spout- 
holes and a skin like that of whales. The intrepid captor of the 
monster says that he has preserved the bones, the skin, the skull 
with its flesh adhering to it, an eye and the heart, and as he 
must come back ashore, a naturalist will at last have opportunity 
to examine and determine these remains, and we shall learn then, 
whether the fable of the Sea-Serpent is founded, and what the 
Sea-Serpent may probably be. As soon as possible we will mention 
more accurate reports.” 
Some time afterwards Mr. Ropert Froriep wrote, (same jour- 
nal n°. 491): 
“As it was supposed, we learn from a communication of the 
Philadelphia Bulletin that the story of the capture of the Sea- 
Serpent is a fiction. The crew that was said by the New York 
Tribune to have met with the ship of Captain Szapury in the 
open sea and to have taken home the report, has declared, that 
it has nowhere met with a ship Monongahela, Captain SEABURY.” — 
