THE GREA T SEA SERPENT. 
65 
as they may — is worthy of attention and careful considera- 
tion. The Rev. Hans Egede, known as " The Apostle of 
Greenland," was superintendent of the Christian missions to 
that country. He was a truthful, pious, and single-minded 
man, possessing considerable powers of observation, and a 
genuine love of natural history. He wrote two books on 
the products, people, and natural history of Greenland,* 
and his statements therein are modest, accurate, and free 
from exaggeration. His illustrations are little, if at all, 
superior in style of art to the two Japanese wood-cuts 
shown on page 29, but they bear the same unmistakable 
signs of fidelity which characterise those of the Japanese. 
In his * Journal of the Missions to Greenland' this author 
tell us that — 
"On the 6th of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and 
frightful sea monster, which raised itself so high out of the water 
that its head reached above our main-top. It had a long, sharp 
snout, and spouted water like a whale ; and very broad flappers. 
The body seemed to be covered with scales, and the skin was 
uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a snake. 
After some time the creature plunged backwards into the water, 
and then turned its tail up above the surface, a whole ship-length 
from the head. The following evening we had very bad weather." 
The high character of the narrator would lead us to 
accept his statement that he had seen something previously 
unknown to him (he does not say it was a sea-serpent) 
even if we could not explain or understand what it was 
that he saw. Fortunately, however, the sketch made by 
Mr. Bing, one of his brother missionaries, has enabled us to 
do this. We must remember that in his endeavour to 
* 'Des alten Gronlands neue perlustration,' 8vo., Frankfurt, 1730, 
and ' Det Gamle Gronlands nye perlustratione eller Nature! Historic' 
4to.. Copenhagen, 1741. 
F 
