a, ee 
; : 
‘ 
138 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [1765.] 
Knup Lrems, as we learn in A. pr Carrera Brooxe’s Travels 
through Norway, a northern divine, wrote his Seskrivelse over 
Finmarkens Lappen, 1765, in which he mentions, p. 332, the 
sea-serpent in the following terms: | 
“The Finmark Sea also produces the hydra or sea-serpent, a 
huge monster, forty “passus’” long, with a head resembling in size 
that of large sea-fishes, in shape that of a snake. This beast has a 
neck with a mane like a horse’s, a grey back and a whitish belly. 
In the dog days, when the sea is free from wind, the sea-serpent 
will come to the surface, bend itself in several coils, of which some 
are partly visible above the water, whilst others remain hidden 
under it. The seamen greatly fear this monster, and they do not 
trust themselves on the sea, when the animal is on the surface.” 
The length of forty “passus’, i.e. 200 feet, the large head, 
resembling that of a snake, the mane, the grey back, the habit 
of the animal to swim with vertical undulations, are all characters 
known to us. We have here a new one, viz. that the belly is 
whitish, which we shall frequently meet hereafter. It is, however, 
not the belly that is meant here, but the animal’s throat. The 
animal’s neck being cylindrical, and its flappers constantly hidden 
under water, the observers thinking that the animal is eel-shaped, 
always call its throat “the belly’. We may safely suppose that the 
whole throat and the breast were seen, though not described, by 
Hans Herne, but that even he did not see the true belly. 
1G. — 17702 — In a letter from Mr. Mc. Luan to the Rev. 
AupEN Braprorp written in Aug. 1803, and published in Sinm- 
MAN'S American Journal of Science and Arts (Vol. Il) we read: 
“One of the same kind was seen above thirty years ago, by the 
deceased Capt. Pau Reep, of Boothbay.” 
WG. — 1777 or 1778. — (Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts Se. Vol. 
LY, Part 1); 
“The next notice is from Capt. Enzazar Craprree, who saw it 
in the same (Penobscot) Bay about the year 1785; he estimated 
its length at sixty feet, and its diameter he thought equal to that 
of a barrel, which is about twenty two inches.” 
