NOTES. 
123 
monster. We fired off the cannon, and threw up bombs, 
raised all sail, and fled as from a fleet of enemies ! ” 
I give next the statement of Pontoppidan on this subject. 
“ The next question,” says he, in sec. 8, page 202 of 
his valuable work, “ is, whether they do mankind any in¬ 
jury, and in what manner they hurt the human species. 
Arndt Bernsen, in his account of the fertility of Denmark 
and Norway, page 308, affirms that they do; and says, that 
the sea-snake often sinks both men and boats. The North- 
traders inform me of what has frequently happened with 
them, namely, that the sea-snake has raised itself up, and 
thrown itself suddenly across a boat, and sometimes even 
across a vessel of some hundred tons burthen , and by its weight 
has sunk it down to the bottom . One of these aforesaid North- 
traders [who, by the way, spins a pretty tough yarn to the 
venerable bishop, which beats the stories of our own hardy 
skippers out and out] says, that he has been near enough to 
some of these sea-snakes (alive) to touch them with his hand, 
and that they sometimes will raise up their frightful heads 
and snap a man out of a boat, without hurting the rest. But 
I will not affirm this for a truth, because it is not certain that 
they are a beast of prey. Yet this and their enmity to man¬ 
kind can be no more determined than that of the land-snake 
by the words of the prophet Amos, chapter ix., verses 3 and 5 : 
* And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the 
sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite 
them.’ 
u It is said that these serpents fling themselves in a wide 
circle round a boat, so that the men are surrounded on all 
sides. The monster, I observed before, generally appears on 
the water in folds or coils; and the fishermen, from a known 
custom in that case, never row towards the openings, or those 
places where the body is not seen, but is concealed under the 
water; if they did, the snake would raise itself up quickly, 
and overset the boat. On the contrary, they row full against 
the highest part that is visible, which makes the snake dive 
immediately ; and thus they are released from their fears. 
This is their method when they cannot avoid them; but 
