[ Ne. 45. REPORTS AND PAPERS. 183 
mant very near the shore. In speaking of Mr. Nasu’s answer we 
skipped this evidence to insert it here. It runs as follows: 
“] have seen and conversed with the woman, who was said to 
have seen the serpent dormant on the rocks, near the water, to 
whom you refer in yours; but she can give no material evidence. 
She says that she saw something, resembling a large log of wood, 
on the rocks, on the extreme eastern point of Ten Pound Island, 
(a small island in our harbour), resting partly on the rocks, and 
partly in the water. The distance was about half a mile. She took 
a glass, looked at the object and saw it move. Her attention was 
for a short time arrested, by some domestic avocation, and when 
she looked for the object again, it had disappeared.” 
The letter from the Hon. Joun Davis, the Chairman of the 
Committee, was dated Sept. 2, 1817. The appearance, therefore , 
took place before this date. Fortunately we have another testi- 
mony of this position of the animal. In the letter from Col. T. H. 
Perkins, dated Oct. 13, 1820, and published by him in the 
Boston Daily Advertiser of Nov. 25, 1848, we read that he visited 
the harbour of Gloucester. This must have been on the 18th. of 
August 1817 (see n°. 44. p. 178.); after having described this 
visit the Colonel goes on: 
“A few days after my return | went again to Cape Ann with 
the ladies; we had a pleasant ride, but returned ungratified in 
the object which carried us there.” 
“Whilst at Cape Ann I talked with many persons who had 
seen the serpent, and among others with a person of the name 
of Mansfield, one of the most respectable inhabitants of the town. 
His account to me was, that a few days before, as he was taking 
a ride with his wife in a chair, the road taking them close to a 
bank which overlooks the harbour (and is nearly a perpendicular 
precipice), he saw an uncommon appearance, which induced him 
to descend from the carriage, when he saw the sea-serpent, in 
which until then he had been an unbeliever. The animal was 
stretched out, partly over the white sandy beach, which had four 
or five feet of water upon it, and lay partly over the channel. 
He desired his wife to get out of the chair, which she did. He 
said he had made up his mind as to the length of the snake, 
but wished the opinion of his wife on the same subject. He asked 
her what she should consider his length; she answered that she 
could not undertake to say how many feet in length he was, but 
that she thought him as long as the wharf behind their house, 
