OF REPTILES® 
301 
the bottom of the sea, except in the months of July and 
August, which is their spawning time; and, that then, 
they only come to the surface in calm weather, but 
plunge into the water again, a^ soon as the wind raises 
the least wave. 
The documents furnished by the committee of the Lin- 
nasan Society, detail reports of other different periods, in 
which great serpents have been seen. One, which was 
immediately taken from the lips of the Rev. Mr. Abra- 
ham Cummings, June 28th, 1809; and which states, 
u that, in Penobscot bay has been occasionally seen, with- 
in these thirty years, a sea serpent supposed to be about 
sixty feet in length, and of the size of a sloop’s mast,” 
One is reported to have been seen in 1780; one in 1811; 
another was seen in June, 1815. Thus, it appears, from 
the documents, that the enormous reptile, which is die 
subject of our present inquiries, is not the first visitant of 
the kind on our coast; but that they have been seen at 
different periods, for a number of years past: and that 
their visits are for the purpose of breeding and feeding. 
Much speculation, doubt, and conjecture have agitated 
the public mind concerning this extraordinary serpent. 
Its existence has been, and still is, doubted by many: but 
to such a volume of testimony as that, furnished by the 
committee of the Linnsean Society, the most obstinate 
incredulity must yield. It has been distinctly observed, 
a number of times, by persons of undoubted veracity: 
and in every instance, the circumstances attending its 
appearance, seem uniformly correspondent with those 
detailed in Bishop Pontoppidan’s History. The weather 
was warm and calm, and the surface of the sea smooth. 
The times of his appearance also are in correspondence: 
he was seen at various times during the months of August 
and September; the earliest notice of the creature seems to 
be about the tenth of August, and he was seen the latter 
end of September. Its appearance was variously imagined 
and described by the different observers; but those va- 
riations of appearance might be owing to different degrees 
of distance, and different powers of vision. Its general 
appearance, however, was that of the serpent form. Its 
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