So 
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 
the beam. The circumstance was immediately reported by him 
to the officer of the watch, Lieut. Edgar Drummond, with whom 
and Mr. Wm. Barrett, the Master, I was at the time walking the 
quarter-deck. The ship's company were at supper. On our 
attention being called to the object it was discovered to be an 
enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet 
constantly above the surface of the sea, and, as nearly as we could 
approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main- 
topsail yard would show in the water, there was at the very least 
sixty feet of the animal a fleur d'eati, no portion of which was, to 
our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by 
vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close 
under our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance 
I should easily have recognised his features with the naked eye ; 
and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had 
passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course 
to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of from twelve to 
fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose. 
" The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen 
inches behind the head, which was without any doubt tliat of a 
snake ; and it was never, during the twenty minutes it continued 
in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water ; its 
colour dark brown, and yellowish white about the throat. It had 
no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch 
of seaweed, washed about its back. It was seen by the quarter- 
master, the boatswain's mate, and the man at the wheel, in 
addition to myself and the officers above mentioned. 
''I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a sketdi 
taken immediately after it was seen, which I hope to have ready 
for transmission to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by 
to-morrow's post. — Peter M'QuHiE, Captain." 
The sketches referred to in the captain's letter were 
made under his supervision, and copies of them, of which 
he certified his approbation, were published in the IlhLstrated 
London Nevus on the 28th of October, 1848. I am kindly 
permitted by the proprietors of that journal to reproduce 
