152 
APPENDIX. 
a great agitation on the smooth surface of the water; 
it seemed to approach us rapidly ; but as it came 
nearer we were convinced we had been in an error, 
and that what we took for a shoal of black-fish was 
nothing less than the bunches on the back of the 
celebrated SEA-SERPENT! He made directly 
for the boat until he came within fifty yards; he then 
sunk under water, and we were much alarmed lest he 
should rise under us, as we had no power of getting 
from him, we lying becalmed. When he came up he 
was thirty feet from us; we had then a perfect and 
distinct view of this monster of the deep. His head 
was elevated from three to five feet; the distance 
was about six feet from his neck to the first bunch; 
we counted twenty bunches, and we supposed them 
on an average about five feet apart, and his whole 
length could not be less than one hundred and twenty 
feet. When we first saw him, there appeared a rip¬ 
pling in the water, which made a noise not much un¬ 
like water running rapidly over loose pebbles; on 
his nearer approach, when we knew it to be the 
Serpent, we imagined it to proceed from his mouth, 
and it appeared as though he was hissing ; but on his 
nearing still more, we found it proceeded from the 
ripple made by the bunches on his back. It was 
twelve o’clock, noon, when we saw him ; the weather 
was clear, and the sea smooth, and no deception could 
have been made. His head was of a dark brown col¬ 
or, formed like a seal’s, and shined with a glossy 
appearance. He seemed to be indifferent as to us, 
and went a steady course for Rye Beach about N. 
by W., and we lost sight of him at about four miles’ 
distance. Mr. Joseph Chase, of Brunswick, N. H., 
and two lads, were with me in the boat, and saw him 
as distinctly as myself. His body was of the size of a 
sixty or eighty-gallon cask, his head as large as a 
barrel; for we could see it when he was about four 
miles from us. I believe he is perfectly harmless, 
