NOTES. 
109 
peared above water, was like a tun ; the length of the whole 
body was vast; it reached, as far as the spectators could judge, 
the length of three Norway Danentrees, and rather exceeded/ 
This is the account. Sit jides penes authorem .” — Pontoppi- 
dan, Natural History of Norway, sec. 3, p. 39. 
Note 3. (Page 6.) 
The first verse, being translated literally, runs thus : (the 
other three verses are from the same poem:) — 
“ The great sea-snake’s the subject of my verse ; 
For, though my eyes have never yet beheld him, 
Nor ever shall desire the hideous sight, 
Yet many accounts of men of truth unstained, 
Whose every word I firmly do believe, 
Show it to be a very frightful monster. 
“ When Julius enters in his princely state, 
And Sol turns back in his aerial course, 
Then does this hideous monster first appear. 
It’s said that such is the pernicious nature 
Of this dire snake, that every boat he sees 
He first pursues, and then attempts to sink. 
“ Immense his size, enormous is his bulk; 
Which by the experience may be plainly shown 
Of those that have beheld this frightful monster. 
When on the sea he lies, stretched at his length, 
He seems a hundred loads; — so vast his bulk ! 
“ Methinks he seems another Behemoth, 
Or the Leviathan, who doth despise 
All arms, as swords, and guns, and glittering spears; 
For iron is to him like straw or flax, 
And copper like the twigs that bend or break . 
For thus he is described in sacred writ.” 
Peter Dass’s Description of Norland , (as early as 
1751.) 
