NOTES. 
115 
Note 5. (Page 29.) 
A gentleman of Cambridge, of the highest respectability, 
whose word cannot in any way be doubted, was called by busi¬ 
ness engagements, during the winter of 1842, to pass some 
weeks at Damariscotta, in Maine, with one of the old residents 
of that town. This man, who was one of the oldest inhabit¬ 
ants of Damariscotta, and a very respectable farmer, told him 
the following story : — “I have often,” said the farmer, “ seen 
his Snakeship swimming in the bay here, and have watched 
him as he swam about in the arm of the sea that bounds my 
land towards the ocean. On going out one morning, I dis¬ 
covered in my mowing-field, — that is bounded on one side by 
this arm of the sea, and on the other by a fresh-water pond,— 
a wide, serpentine, slimy trail, passing directly through it 
towards the pond. The grass was high, and this track was 
so unusual in its appearance, so wide, slimy, and serpentine, 
that I immediately followed it in the direction of the pond. 
There is a stone wall running across this field, not far from 
the pond, and here, to my astonishment, I found at least four or 
five rods of this wall knocked down. I then followed on to 
the pond; here I found, on its sandy shore, the sand ploughed 
deeply in the same serpentine track, until the track was lost 
in the water. I then followed back to the beach of the sea, 
where I found the same appearance in the sand where the 
animal had left the water. Now,” says the farmer, “ I give 
it as my opinion, that the animal who did this was the same 
monster that I have seen in the bay, in the shape and form 
of a serpent. I think so for three reasons: 1. The serpent 
had been seen in the bay, near the shore, abput this time ; 
the track was as wide as an ordinary swath ; the grass was 
slimy. 2. I know of no other creature in the sea, except the 
serpent, who could have made such a serpentine track. 3. 
There is no other fish that I have met with on our coast, who 
could knock down four or five rods of a stone wall ; and I 
should think the serpent that 1 have seen here could do it 
with ease.” 
My informant adds, that this worthy farmer believes this 
as firmly as he believes that the grass grows, or the rain falls; 
