THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. 
71 
magistrates, one of whom had himself seen the creature, 
and who confirmed the statements. All agreed that the 
animal had the appearance of a serpent, but estimated its 
length, variously, at from fifty to a hundred feet. Its head 
was in shape like that of a turtle, or snake, but as large 
as the head of a horse. There was no appearance of a 
mane. Its mode of progressing was by vertical undulations ; 
and five of the witnesses described it as having the hunched 
protuberances mentioned by Captain de Ferry and others. 
Of this, I can offer no zoological explanation. The testi- 
mony given was apparently sincere, but it was received 
with mistrust ; for, as Mr. Gosse says, " owing to a habit 
prevalent in the United States of supposing that there is 
somewhat of wit in gross exaggeration or hoaxing in- 
vention, we do naturally look with a lurking suspicion 
on American statements when they describe unusual or 
disputed phenomena." 
On the 15th of May, 1833, a party of British officers, 
consisting of Captain Sullivan, Lieutenants Maclachlan and 
Malcolm of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Lister of the 
Artillery, and Mr. Ince of the Ordnance, whilst crossing 
Margaret's Bay in a small yacht, on their way from Halifax 
to Mahone Bay, " saw, at a distance of a hundred and fifty 
to two hundred yards, the head and neck of some denizen 
of the deep, precisely like those of a common snake in the 
act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown 
forward by the curve of the neck, as to enable them to see 
the water under and beyond it. The creature rapidly 
passed, leaving a regular wake, from the commencement of 
which to the fore part, which was out of water, they judged 
its length to be about eighty feet." They " set down the 
head at about six feet in length (considerably larger than 
that of a horse), and that portion of the neck which they 
