64 
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 
men that a cable * would not be long enough to measure the 
length of some of them when they are observed on the surface of 
the water in an even line. They say those round lumps or folds 
sometimes lie one after another as far as a man can see. I 
confess, if this be true, that we must suppose most probably that 
it is not one snake, but two or more of these creatures lying in 
a line that exhibit this phenomenon.' In a foot-note he adds : 
' If any one enquires how many folds may be counted on a sea- 
snake, the answer is that the number is not always the same, but 
depends upon the various sizes of them : five and twenty is the 
greatest number that I find well attested.' Adam Olearius, in his 
Gottorf ^luseum, writes of it thus : * A person of distinction from 
Sweden related here at Gottorf that he had heard the burgomaster 
of IVtalmoe, a very worthy man, say that as he was once standing 
on the top of a very high hill, towards the North Sea, he saw in 
the water, which was very calm, a snake, which appeared at that 
distance to be as thick as a pipe of wine, and had twenty-five 
folds. Those kind of snakes only appear at certain times, and 
in calm weather.' " 
I believe that in every case so far cited from Pontoppidan, 
as well as that given by Olaus Magnus, the supposed coils 
or protuberances of the serpent's body were only so many 
porpoises swimming in line in accordance with their habit 
before mentioned. If an upraised head, like that of a horse, 
was seen preceding them, it was either unconnected with 
them, or it certainly was not that of a snake ; for no ser- 
pent could throw its body into those vertical undulations. 
The form of the vertebrae in the ophidians renders such a 
movement impossible. All their flexions are horizontal ; 
the curving of their body is from side to side, not up and 
down. 
The sea-monster seen by Egede was of an entirely dif- 
ferent kind ; and his account of it — let sceptics deride it 
* Six hundred feet. 
