12 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [ N°. 41.] 
August we will communicate afterwards (n°. 48). The answer of 
Judge Nasu, omitting the intelligence about the animal reposing 
on the rocks (this report has been discussed some pages further 
on, n°. 45) runs as follows (See Report of a Committee, 1817): 
“Gloucester, September 9, 1817.” 
Solr, 
“Your favoured of the 2d. inst. has been received. The vote of 
thanks of the Linnaean Society for my services was highly grati- 
fying to me, not simply on account of the high consideration I 
entertain for the members of that laudable institution; but likewise 
for the agreeable manner, and respectable channel, through which 
their vote of thanks was communicated to me.” 
“You request a detailed account of my observations, relative to 
the serpent. I saw him on the fourteenth ultimo, and when near- 
est, I judged him to be about two hundred and fifty yards from 
me. At that distance I judged him (in the largest part) about the 
size of a half barrel, gradually tapering towards the two extremes. 
Twice 1 saw him with a glass, only for a short time, and at 
other times, with the naked eye, for nearly half an hour. His 
colour appeared nearly black — his motion was vertical. When 
he moved on the surface of the water, the track of his rear was 
visible, for at least half a mile.” 
“Fis velocity, when moving on the surface of the water, I 
judged was at the rate of a mile in about four minutes. When 
immersed in the water, his speed was greater, moving, I should 
say, at the rate of a mile in two or at most three minutes. When 
moving under water, you could often trace him by the motion of 
the water, on the surface, and from this circumstance, I conclude 
he did not swim deep. He apparently went as straight through 
the water, as you could draw a line. When he changed his course, 
he diminished his velocity but little — the two extremes that were 
visible appeared rapidly moving in opposite directions, and when 
they came parallel, they appeared not more than a yard apart. 
With a glass, I could not take in, at one view, the two extremes 
of the animal, that were visible. I have looked at a vessel, at 
about the same distance, and could distinctly see forty five feet. 
If he should be taken, I have no doubt that his length will be 
found seventy feet, at least, and I should not be surprised, if he | 
should be found one hundred feet long. When I saw him I was 
standing on an eminence, on the sea shore, elevated about thirty 
feet above the surface of the water, and the sea was smooth.” 
