[1817.] REPORTS AND PAPERS, 191 
learned Society which has inherited its archives, either to publish 
all reports, accounts and letters in their hands, or to send them 
all to me, that I may enlarge, correct and rectify this work in 
case a second edition is called for. 
The Committee, after having published the various exceedingly 
interesting reports, was of course morally bound to explain the 
phenomenon. What kind of beast could it be!? And before the 
question had become embarrassing, a deus ex machina in the form 
of a sick, illformed and lame little snake presented itself suddenly 
in a field near Loblolly Cove. It was killed by a labourer at that 
place. And as the people believed that this was a spawn of the 
great sea-serpent, it was bought by a certain Dr. and presented 
to the Committee to examine it. The Committee really examimed 
and dissected it, and gave a full account of their experience 
in their Report. They considered the little snake to be new to 
science, Closely allied to the Coluber constrictor or Black Snake, 
a species common in those regions, and gave it the name of 
Scohophis atlanticus. This account is followed by “two documents 
relating to the appearance of the Scohophis, while living, and to 
the circumstance under which it was killed.” 
Next they gave “a few remarks on the question” (raised by the 
public) “whether the great Serpent, seen in the Harbour of Glou- 
cester, be the Scoliophis atlanticus’. These “few remarks’ fill three 
pages and a half, and end with their conclusion that this is indeed 
the case, “until a more close examination of the great Serpent 
shall have disclosed some differences of structure, important enough 
to constitute a specific distinction.” 
Now, my readers will probably say that I have not yet explained 
why none of the eye-witnesses of the animal seen near Cape Ann 
saw a mane. | hope my readers will be satisfied when I tell them 
that I am convinced that the female Sea-Serpent has no mane, 
and that the mane is only a character of full grown males. So 
most of the eye-witnesses saw a female. It is only the individual 
witnessed by Messrs Jamus Guion and Tnos. Herrrent which was 
most probably a male and had a mane. Seen from a distance its 
back was uneven, and deeply indented. 
