100 WOULD-BE SEA-SERPENTS. 
time. It is the neck of a snake, one would say, and we estimate 
the length of the visible part of the animal at about a meter. The 
thickness is about that of the upper-arm of a full-grown man and 
the head ends in a point, and is as large as a child’s head”. 
“We call the whole crew, and the captain as well as some offi- 
cers run to. But the animal does not appear again. Nevertheless 
five of us had seen the animal distinctly, so that a violent alter- 
cation arose, when one of the officers said we evidently were 
mistaken, because the sea-serpent did not exist.” 
“Nobody of us, it is true, could affirm that it was a sea-serpent. 
We could only fnmily maintain that what we had seen, “igteed m 
all respects with the shape of a serpent.” 
“The second officer, who jomed in the conversation, declared to 
have observed in 1871 near the coast of Australia, a sea-serpent 
which was several meters in length, and when this statement too 
was called in question, the quarrel got warmer and warmer, and, 
as it generally happens in such cases, every one kept his own opin- 
ion, and the world did not get any the wiser for it.” 
“Does the sea-serpent exist, or does he not? This is a problem 
which has been answered more than once in the most affirmative 
manner, and also in a negative sense. I have heard the question 
disputed on more than one voyage.” 
In order to obtain more particulars about the animal, I wrote 
to Mr. Verscuuur Oct. 26th., 1889, directing to him the fol- 
lowing questions: 
“Did the features of the “snake” make on you the impression 
to be those of a mammal, like those of a seal or sea-lion, though 
the pointed head more resembled that of a snake?” 
“Or had the head, though being much larger, more the shape 
of that of an eel?” 
“Were there just behind the head a pair of fins, as 
eels have?” 
“Why did the visible part make on you the impression to be a 
“neck”. You speak of a “neck” of a snake. Was the diameter 
near the head smaller than that just above the water, as if the 
animal was still thicker under water?” 
“Or did you observe the contrary?” 
“Was the “snake” perfectly round, or was it provided on its 
back with a fin, as in eels?” 
“What colour had your snake, and had the belly and the back 
the same colour?” 
