128 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [N° 18.] 
to that of the fisherman (n°. 8), who declared it as woolly as a | 
seal-skin. The fact is that the one has distinctly recognized the 
hairy nature of the skin, whilst the other did not discern it. 
4, — 1751? — (Pontoppipan , Chapt. VIII, § 1, note). “An | 
incertain rumour tells me, that some peasants of Sundméer have 
lately captured in their nets.a serpent of eighteen feet with four 
paws under its belly; which they brought ashore. Thus it resembled 
a. crocodile. The peasants in their terror fled from their nets, and 
by doing so they gave an opportunity to the serpent to do the 
same.” 
Though the Bishop does not call this animal a sea-serpent, I 
am sure it was one. In the Norwegian and Danish languages an 
Orm is a serpent, viz., a long slender animal with a rather small 
head and a pointed tail; and as it was captured in nets in the 
sea, it is certain, that this animal, which Pontoprrpan compares 
with a crocodile, having a slender and round body like a snake 
and four paws (or flappers) is the same as the animal afterwards 
seen by Captain Horr (n? 119) and compared by him with an 
alligator. The dimensions not surpassing twenty feet, the animal 
must have been very young. 
Now let us see what Ponrorrrpan himself says of the sea-serpent , 
after having heard hundreds of eye-witnesses : : 
“The sea-serpent, serpens marinus, by some people also called 
Aale Tust, is the second wonderful and frightful sea-monster which 
ought to be studied by him who looks with delight on the great 
deeds of the Lord, and which is considered as the greatest wonder 
next to the Kraken, which will be described hereafter. Before 
describing its habit and shape, I feel again obliged to prove the 
real existence of the serpent, as I did before with the mermen.” 
The first kind of wonderful and frightful sea-monsters were the 
mermen and mermaids. At present, we know with certainty what 
were and are the mermen and mermaids of ancient days and our 
own time. All zoologists are convinced they were nothing else but 
sea-cows or manatees (Z’Arichechus manatus L. and Thrichechus sene- 
galensis Drsm.) or dugongs (Dugungus dugung Gwuw.). Mr. LEe 
