132 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [ 1753. | 
not see the animal spouting water, but he only saw the warm 
breath of the animal condensed in the cold air, just as Bine, his 
brother missionary, figured it, and just as it is mentioned by 
accurate observers of whales. It is very easy to understand that 
EerpE saw it, for the animal had apparently been under water 
for a long time; it suddenly appeared with so much violence, 
that a considerable part of its body was elevated above the surface 
of the sea, whilst, by a violent blow, the breath, hitherto held 
in, was pushed into the air. In this way parts of mucus of the 
inner surface of the nostrils and the little quantity of water ad- 
hering to the valves of the nose, must have been driven away at 
the same time, and the whole effect has been very accurately des- 
cribed by Ecrpe and figured by Brine, but has afterwards been 
exaggerated and altered by Pontopprpan (see our fig. 22), and 
also in our century by Dr. R. Haminron (see our fig. 28). 
“But many agree in telling that when it swims rapidly through 
the water, it propels before it the water with such a violence that it 
murmurs like a small mill-brook.” 
This peculiarity has been repeatedly confirmed by the most 
trustworthy eye-witnesses as we will observe more than once af- 
terwards. 
“Also the common sea-serpents of our shore differ from those of 
the Greenland-coasts, seen by Ecaupr, in having no rough and 
hard skin, but a smooth one like a mirror, except on the neck, 
on which it has a mane, resembling sea-weed.” 
Remarkable again is the statement of its smooth skin, remark- 
able too is the declaration of the sea-serpent having a mane, and 
most remarkable the resemblance of this mane to sea-weed, an 
observation made by several eye-witnesses independant of each other. 
It is surprising that Pontoprrpan silently passes over the difference 
between his two kinds of sea-serpents: that the Greenland one has 
two flappers on the fore-part of its trunk. 
“As they cast their skin like common snakes, some people pre- 
tend, that a few years ago, a table-cloth has been made of such 
a slough found in the harbour of Kobbervueg. This made me so 
curious, that I wrote to one of the inhabitants of that harbour, 
to inquire after it, and as the proverb says, to get a strap of the 
skin. However, there was nothing of that skin, at least at that 
time. And a man of that harbour, who came to Bergen, told me 
he knew nothing at all about it.” 
As to the renewing of the skin, we see that the Bishop was 
