APPENDIX. 
145 
historian says, and cost about twenty of them their 
lives ; but as the rest grew more experienced by this 
loss, they would not relinquish their enterprise, being 
in hopes of receiving a greater reward in case they 
should succeed. They conquered it at last, by mak¬ 
ing a large net of very strong ropes, and watching 
their opportunity when the creature went out in 
search of prey ; then they stopped up the way it 
usually took in its return, and made a kind of defile, 
through which it was obliged to pass. At the end of 
this they placed the net, and drove the monster into 
it. When they had thus secured it, they carried it 
to the king, who gave them a reward suited to the 
strangeness of the creature and the hazard of their 
enterprise. The serpent was saved to be a sight for 
strangers who visited Ptolemy’s court, and had every 
day a large allowance of proper food.” — Pontop- 
pidan, Natural History of Norway , sec. 10, page 
209. 
Now may not this be the leviathan mentioned in 
the Book of Job ? 
But I must leave this portion of my subject, and 
introduce here the following letter, from a gentleman 
who certainly had the best opportunity of judging 
whether this animal was a shark or a serpent, and 
whose testimony is of the very highest character. 
44 Further Evidence of the Sea-Serpent. — The 
following letter gives still further evidence of the ex¬ 
istence of this animal : — 
“ 4 Brookline, Aug. 19, 1819. 
44 4 Dear Sir: — I very willingly comply with your 
request to state what I saw of the Sea-Serpent at 
Nahant, on Saturday last, particularly as I happened 
to see it under favorable circumstances to form a 
judgment, and to considerable advantage in point of 
position and distance. 
44 4 1 got into my chaise about seven o’clock in the 
10 
