374 THE VARIOUS ACCOUNTS , [1884.] 
“After all I heard and saw at Bergen, I don’t doubt im the 
least that in the Atlantic and on the coasts of Norway really 
appear from time to time immensely large mammals of the seal- 
kind, known by the name of “great sea-serpent’, though I there- 
fore don’t admit all fabulous tales about it.” 
The words “mammals of the seal-kind” are explained by the 
following circumstance. In November, 1881, appeared from my 
pen, then a student’s pen, a little article on the sea-serpent, 
in which I tried to show that a sea-serpent is a yet undescribed 
long marine animal, closely allied to the pmnipeds , with a long neck 
and a long tail. Mr. Honiteu, in preparing his paper for the Gids 
requested me to let him have a copy of my article, which | sent 
him, and he evidently accepted my supposition. 
In a letter Mr. Hontex tells me: 
“In the literature of the Norwegians the sea-serpent or soe-orm 
is repeatedly mentioned, and in such an indisputable manner, 
that in my opinion there is no doubt of its existence.” 
“On my return I learned from a gentleman of Bergen, that 
some time ago there was a part of the skeleton of a sea-serpent 
in the Museum of Natural History of Bergen.” 
Though I begged Mr. Honten, teacher at the National Agri- 
cultural School at Wageningen, to communicate to me further par- 
ticulars about the sea-serpent and about its literature, learned by 
him on his travels through Norway, and repeated this my question 
in February 1889, I am still waiting for an answer. 
157. — 1885, August 16.— (Nature of September 10, 1885). 
“It was hardly to be expected that the season should pass with- 
out the appearance of the sea-serpent somewhere, and if we are to 
believe the information forwarded to us from a correspondent in 
Norway, it has just visited the coast of Nordland. Three sundays 
ago some lads were returning to the Island of Rod from the church 
at Melé, in the middle of the day, when they saw far out in the 
fjord a streak in the sea which they believed to be a flock of 
wild ducks swimming. On proceeding further, however, they heard 
a whizzing as of a rushing fountain and in a few moments per- 
ceived a great sea-monster with great velocity making straight for 
the boat. It appeared to be serpentine in shape, with a flat scaly 
head, and the lads counted seventeen coils on the surface of the 
