Reptiles. 



6017 



" Notwithstanding the assertions of men of science to the contrary I am now sure 

 that such animals exist. I couhl no more be deceived than (as a seaman) I could 

 mistake a porpoise for a whale. If it had been at a great distance it would have been 

 different; but it was not above 20 yards from the ship. 



" I am of opinion that this animal makes its appearance at the surface at long in- 

 tervals only. I am informed by Messrs. Lamport and Holt, shipowners of this place, 

 that one of their captains reported a similar thing about two years ai^o, off the Island 

 of St. Helena ; but they took no further notice of it, supposing, as your friends seem 

 to do, that he might have been deceived. 



" Twenty people, including Mrs. Harrington and my two officers, saw it as dis- 

 tinctly as I now see the gas light which I am writing by. I am well known in Lon- 

 don, having commanded a steam transport during the Russian war belonging to the 

 North of Europe Steam Navigation Company. 



" Capt. Claxton, R.N., of the Priory, Battersea, is a personal friend of mine. I 

 am also well known to Sir Colin Campbell, who is now in the East. My present ship 

 is 1064 tons new measurement, and a new ship, of which I own a good part myself. 

 There are, therefore, many reasons (in addition to my holding a first-class certificate 

 in the mercantile marine) to hinder me from propagating a report which can do me no 

 good, and, if untrue, do injury to science in the room of assisting it to elicit the truth 

 in so important a matter as the discovery of the inhabitants of the deep. 



" I shall be in town for three or four days in the early part of next week. A letter 

 addressed to me at the Jerusalem Coffee-house will meet with attention, and, if my 

 limited time permit, I should be glad to have an interview with yourself, or any of 

 your friends who might wish to have a verbal explanation in this matter. 

 " I have the honour to remain. Sir, your obedient servant, 



" G. H. Harrington. 



" To Rear- Admiral W. A. B. Hamilton." 



From the * Times of February 2Srd, 



" Sir,— I beg to explain, in answer to Rear-Admiral Hamilton, that in the water, 

 before being divested of its extraordinary-looking living appendages, the diameter of 

 my marine capture was above three feet. Some buckets full of splendidly-coloured 

 blue and crimson crabs, varying from the size of a shilling to that of a man's hand, 

 were collected from it; and that this quantity of such animal life could be furnished 

 with a refuge in the mats of snaky-looking creatures which constituted the moving 

 monstrous-looking external will assist those who read my account in believing what I 

 before stated, that even when the object was laid on deck we had difficulty in making 

 out what it was. Now, sea-weeds of gigantic growth abound near the islands of the 

 group of Tristan d'Acunha. From decay or other causes, these will from time to time 

 become detached at the roots, and with their living attachments will then, floating 

 horizontally, be carried by the well-known currents into the very positions where the 

 sea-serpent delights in exhibiting himself. It is not disputed that such was the mon- 

 ster picked up by the boat's crew of my ship. I do not doubt that more monstrous 

 specimens may be seen from time to time, and I expect that your insertion of this 

 correspondence will cause more attention to be given to their capture than, as on 

 board of Her Majesty's ship * Daedalus,' to the forming of sundry ' guesses,' causing 

 XVI, Y 



