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320 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [N°. 1338, 184. ] 
the dimensions of an ordinary fish, was evident to all observers. 
No one, in short, had any doubt as to its being the sea-serpent, 
or one of the species to which the animal or animals so frequently 
before seen belonged. The distance at which this one was, for ten 
minutes or a quarter of an hour, visible, made it impossible to 
give a description of its apparent dimensions so accurate as to carry 
conviction to the sceptical. For us who witnessed it, it was enough 
to be convinced that the thing was a reality. But one of the spec- 
tators, Dr. Amos Binney, a gentleman of scientific attamments, 
drew up a minute account of it, which is deposited in the arch- 
ives of one of the Philosophical Societies of Boston. I was and am 
quite satisfied that on this occasion I had a partial and indistinct 
but positive view of this celebrated nondescript; but had the least 
doubt rested on my mind it would have been entirely removed 
by the event of the day followmg the one just recorded. On that 
day, a little before noon, my wife was sitting, as was her wont, 
reading on the upper piazza of the hotel. She was alone. The gentle- 
men, including myself and my son, were, as usual, absent at 
Boston, and the ladies were scattered in various directions. She 
was startled by a cry from the house of “I'he sea-serpent! the sea- 
serpent!” But this had been so frequent, by the way of joke, since 
the event of the preceding day, and was so like “The wolf! the 
wolf!” of the fable, that it did not attract her particular attention 
for a moment or two, until she observed two women belonging to 
the family of the hotel keeper running along the piazza towards 
the corner nearest the sea, with wonder in their eyes, and the 
cry of “The serpent! the serpent! he is turning! he is turning!” 
spontaneously bursting from their lips. Then my wife did fix her 
looks in the direction they ran; and sure enough she saw, appar- 
ently quite close beyond the line formed by the rising ground 
above the rocks, a huge serpent, gliding gracefully through the 
waves, having evidently performed the action of turning round. In 
an instant it was in a straight line, moving rapidly on; and after 
coasting for a couple of minutes the north west front of the hotel, 
and (as accurately as the astonished observer could calculate) look- 
ing as it stretched at full-length about the length of the piazza, — 
that is to say, about ninety feet, — it sank quietly beneath the © 
surface, and was seen no more. I'he person who was thus so lucky 
as to get this unobstructed view is one so little liable to be led 
astray by any imaginary impulse, that I may reckon on her state-_ 
ment with entirely as much confidence as if my own eyes had 
