{ N°. 46.] REPORTS AND PAPERS. 185 
the surface of the water, so that its nose was also above it, which 
enabled the animal to breathe and to remain motionless, but 
at the distance of forty rods, though with a good spy glass, these 
particulars cannot have been distinctly seen by one who was not 
acquainted with the animal’s external features, and so he believed 
its head was invisible. That its tail was under water, I will believe 
with him. 
4g. — 1817, August 24? -— In the letter from Col. T. H. 
Perkins to Mr. Cusaine, dated Oct. 18, 1820, Col. P. mentions 
the appearance of the sea-serpent as seen by Mr. and Mrs. Mans- 
FIELD on the 22th. of Aug., 1817 (n°. 45), and he. continues: 
“Subsequent to the period of which I have been speaking, the 
snake was seen by several of the crews of our coasting vessels, and 
in some instances within a few yards.” | 
I have therefore chosen the above date. 
4s — 1817, August 28. — (Report of a Committee, 1817). 
“Sewell '[oppan, Master of the schooner Laura, declares: That 
on thursday morning the 28th. day of August, at about 9 o'clock 
A. M. at about two miles, or two and half miles east of the 
eastern point of Cape Ann being becalmed, I heard one of my 
men call to the man at the helm, “what is this coming towards 
us’; bemg engaged forward, I took no further notice till they 
called agam. — I then got on top of the deck load, at which 
time I saw a singular kind of animal or fish, which I had never 
before seen, passing by our quarter, at distance of about forty 
feet, standing along shore. I saw a part of the animal or fish ten 
or fifteen feet from the head downwards including the head; the 
head appeared to be of the size of a ten-gallon keg, and six inches 
above the surface of the water. It was of a dark colour. I saw 
no tongue, but heard William Somerby and Robert Bragg, my 
two men, who were with me, call out, “look at his tongue”. 
The motion of his head was sideways and quite moderate; the 
motion of the body, up and down. I have seen whales very often; 
his motion was much more rapid than whales or any other fish I 
have ever seen; he left a very long wake behind him; he did not 
