54 ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT THE SEA-SERPENT. 
level with his eyes, and his head was surrounded by a horny crest , 
which he erected and depressed at pleasure. He swam with great 
rapidity and lashed the sea into a foam, like breakers dashing 
over jagged rocks. The sun shone brightly upon him; and with a 
good glass I saw his overlapping scales open and shut with every 
arch of his sinuous back coloured like the rainbow.” 
I don’t know whether the following, taken from the Graphic, 
is a true hoax, or an optical illusion, but I think it is a hoax. 
There we read in the number of August, 17th., 1872: 
“Concerning this much discussed animal, whose existence mariners 
from the earliest times have firmly asserted, and landsmen as ob- 
stinately persisted in doubting, we have received the followmg ~ 
from Mr. Walthew, a well-known ship-owner and merchant in 
Liverpool: — “Report of Captain A. Hassel, of barque S?¢. Olaf, 
from Newport to Galveston, Texas. -— ‘T'wo days before arrival 
at Galveston, and about 4.30 P. M. on May 18, weather calm, 
smooth sea, lat. 26° 52’, long. 91° 20’, I saw a shoal of sharks 
passing the ship. Five or six came under the vessel’s stern, but 
before we could get out a line they went off with the rest. About 
two minutes after, one of the men sang out that he saw something 
on the weather bow, like a cask on its end. Presently another one 
called out that he saw something rising out of the water like a tall 
man. On a nearer approach we saw it was an immense serpent, with 
its head out of the water, about 200 ft. from the vessel. He lay stall 
on the surface of the water, lifting his head up, and moving the body 
in a serpentine manner. Could not see all of it; but what we could 
see, from the after part of the head, was about 70 ft. long and of 
the same thickness all the way, excepting about the head and neck, 
which were smaller, and the former flat, like the head of a serpent. 
It had four fins on its back, and the body of a yellow greenish colour, 
with brown spots all over the upper part and underneath white. 
The whole crew were looking at it for fully ten minutes before it 
moved away. It was about six feet in diameter. One of the mates 
has drawn a slight sketch of the serpent, which will give some 
notion of its appearance. — A. Hassel, master of Norwegian barque 
St. Olaf. — Witness to signature, J. Fredk. Walthew.” — 
The accompanying engravings are also published, and I give 
facsimiles of them in Fig. 3 and 4. —TI think that Captain Hassm1 
