[N°. 31.] REPORTS AND PAPERS. 151 
“To the Secretary of the Wernerian Natural History Society.” 
“Hige Island, 24th April 1809.” 
Sone 
“Your letter of the first instant I received, and would have 
written in answer thereto sooner, had I not thought it desirable to 
examine others relative to the animal of which you wish me to 
give a particular account.” 
“According to my best recollection, I saw it in June 1808 not 
on the coast of Higg, but on that of Coll. Rowing along that coast , 
I observed, at about the distance of half a mile, an object to 
windward, which gradually excited astonishment. At first view it 
appeared like a small rock. Knowing there was no rock in that 
situation, I fixed my eyes on it close. Then I saw it. elevated con- 
siderably above the level of the sea, and after a slow movement, 
distinctly perceived one of its eyes. Alarmed at the unusual appear- 
ance and magnitude of the animal. | steered so as to be at no 
great distance from the shore. When nearly in a line betwixt it 
and the shore, the monster directing its head (which still continued 
above water) towards us, plunged violently under water. Certain 
that he was in chace of us, we plied hard to get ashore. Just as 
we leaped out on a rock, taking a station as high as we conven- 
iently could, we saw it coming rapidly under water towards the 
stern of our boat. When within a few yards of the boat, finding 
the water shallow, it raised its monstrous head above water, and 
by a winding course get, with apparent difficulty clear of the 
creek, where our boat lay, and where the monster seemed in 
danger of being imbayed. It contmued to move off, with its head 
above water, and with the wind for about half a mile, before we 
lost sight of it. — Its head was rather broad, of a form somewhat 
oval. Its neck somewhat smaller. Its shoulders, if I can so term 
them, considerably broader, and thence it tapered towards the tail, 
which last it kept pretty low in the water, so that a view of it 
could not be taken so distinctly as I wished. It had no fin that 
I could perceive, and seemed to me to move progressively by 
undulation up and down. Its length I believed to be from 70 to 
80 feet; when nearest to me, it did not raise its head wholly 
above water, so that the neck being under water, I could perceive 
no shining filaments thereon, if it had any. Its progressive motion 
under water I took to be rapid, from the shortness of the time 
it took to come up to the boat. When the head was above water, 
