268 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, [N° a 
shore in the same way as when a steamer is passing by. Neither 
of them say that they saw anything like eyes or fins, or indeed 
anything projecting from its round form, but they declare that the 
colour of the animal was dark brown, and that it often rose up 
with gentle undulations, sometimes, however, sinking below the 
surface so that merely a stripe indicated the rapid course of the 
gigantic body. — On the same morning a lad, by name Abraham 
Abrahamsen Hagenoes, was out fishing in the Rognefjord, not far 
from Lundenoes, and just ready to throw out his line, when he, 
as he asserts, became aware that on about one hundred fathoms a 
monster with a head as large as a Foering boat (about twenty feet 
long) and a long body lay upon the sea like large kegs and was 
nearing his boat: seized with a panic he exerted all his strength 
to reach the shore, and as the animal, apparently following him, 
was only about forty fathoms off, he leaped ashore, drew up the 
boat and ran up the bank, whence he viewed the monster which 
had by this time approached the shore within twenty fathoms. He 
says that that part of the body which was visible was about sixty 
feet in length, and that its undulating course was similar to the 
eel: that the colour of the back was blackish, shining strongly, and 
as far as he could distinguish there was a whitish stripe under’ 
the belly.” 
“Report also says that the sea-serpent was seen by several persons 
in Biornfjord causing a great deal of dread, but of this our in- 
formants want authentic accounts. Our informant further says that 
he has no reason whatever to doubt the truth of the story of the 
man and his wife, or the truthworthiness of the lad Abraham, 
except as far as that his fears may have caused him to see several 
things through a magnifying glass.” 
I am convinced that by a head as large as a Foering boat 
(about twenty feet long) must be meant the head and a great 
part of the neck. The other characters are mere repetitions of what 
we have so often observed. Very interesting again is the statement 
of the lad that the animal had a white stripe “under the belly”. 
As the lad cannot have seen the proper belly of the animal, it 
must have been the throat; the boy thought that he saw a snake, 
and I think that he, being questioned, would tell me that a 
snake has a head, a trunk and a tail, and hardly any neck and 
throat. I am also convinced, that the boy has not seen with a 
magnifying glass: the measurements, he gives, are not exaggerated. 
