148 
APPENDIX. 
or three hundred persons on the beach and on heights 
each side, some of whom were very favorably situated 
to observe him. 
“ ‘ I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
“ ‘ Samuel Cabot. 
“‘Col. T. H. Perkins.”’ 
SEA-SERPENT IN 1817. 
Boston, August 18. 
Monstrous Serpent. — We have seen several 
letters from Gloucester, which describe a prodigious 
snake that has made its appearance in Cape Ann 
harbour. It was first seen at some distance from 
shore by some fishermen, ten or twelve days ago; 
but it was then generally believed to be the creature 
of the imagination, and of the family 
“ Of that huge snake tremendous, curled, 
Whose monstrous circle girds the world.” 
But he has since come within the harbour of 
Gloucester, and has been seen by hundreds of people. 
He is declared by some persons, who approached 
within ten or fifteen yards of him, to be sixty or 
seventy feet in length ; round, and of the diameter 
of a barrel. Others state his length variously, from 
fifty to one hundred feet. His motions are ser¬ 
pentine, extremely varied, and exceedingly rapid. 
He turns himself completely round almost instantane¬ 
ously. He sometimes darts forward with his head 
out of water, at the rate of a mile in three minutes, 
leaving a wake behind him of half a mile in length. 
His head, as large as the head of a horse, i$ shaped 
somewhat like that of a large dog, is raised about 
eight feet out of water, and is partly white, the other 
