130 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [1753. | 
existence of the sea-serpent as eye-witnesses, and they agree pretty 
well in their descriptions, though there are many others who~ 
declare that they know the sea-serpent only from the tales of their 
neighbours. I, however, in my inquiry hardly met with a person 
who, when born in the Northern provinces, did not answer im- 
mediately with the greatest certainty and assurance. Nay, some so- 
called north-sailors, who are here (in Bergen) every year for com- 
mercial interests, even consider it as a shame to be earnestly 
questioned on that subject. They consider this question as superfluous 
as that one, whether there exists a cod-fish or an eel.” 
We sce hereby that in Norway the belief in the existence of 
the sea-serpent was as firm as possible amongst the sea-faring people. 
“Though no one has ever been able to measure this animal, 
many witnesses agree in telling that the serpent must be as long 
as a cable, viz., 100 fathoms or 300 ells, whilst it lay on the 
surface of the water, so that only here and there behind the head, 
which is held upwards, some parts of the back were visible, 
which were also held upwards, whilst the serpent bent; and from 
afar one would have believed that he saw some tuns or hogsheads, 
which floated in a line, so that there was a space between each 
of them.” 
Though the length of a cable or six hundred feet given to the 
sea-serpent is exaggerated, it may be more than 100 feet, why 
not? For there are other sea-animals, such as the whale, which 
measures more than 88 feet, and the fin-fish (Balaenoptera loops) 
which sometimes attains a length of about 105 feet. 
It has been stated to Ponropripan by most of the eye-witnesses 
that the animal shows by its vertical undulations several coils above 
the water, and that these coils resembled from afar tuns or hogs- 
heads floating in a line. It is very remarkable that these facts are 
repeatedly stated by witnesses who are independent of one another, 
even by persons who never heard of a sea-serpent. 
“The head of all these animals has rather a high and broad 
forehead; some, however, have a sharp snout, others a quadrangular 
beak as cows and horses have, with large nostrils, and on the 
sides there are a few stiff hairs, or bristles, as other animals have 
with a good nose. And that the sea-serpent has a good nose, is 
proved by its flying away at the smell of castoreum, which the 
people who go out in summer to fish on the great bank, will 
never -forget to take with them.” 
The various ways of describing the head may be owed to this 
