APPENDIX. 
167 
mainder refused to come up, saying there had been 
too many hoaxes of that kind already. I was too 
eager to stand parleying with them, and I returned 
to the captain. In the same slow style the serpent 
passed the vessel at about the distance of fifty yards 
from us, neither turning his head to the right nor 
left. As soon as his head had reached the stern of 
the vessel, he gradually laid it down in a horizontal 
position with his body, and floated along like the 
mast of a vessel. That there was upwards of sixty 
feet visible is clearly shown by the circumstance, 
that the length of the ship was upwards of one hun¬ 
dred and twenty feet, and at the time his head was 
off the stern, the other end (as much as was above 
the surface) had not passed the main-mast. The 
time we saw him, as described in the drawing, was 
two minutes and a half. After he had declined his 
head, we saw him for about twenty minutes ahead, 
floating like an enormous log of timber. His mo¬ 
tion in the water was meandering like that of an 
eel, and the wake left behind was like that occa¬ 
sioned by the passing of small craft through the 
water. We had but one harpoon on board, and the 
ship’s long-boat was, for the time being, converted 
into a cow-house. We had two guns on board, but 
no ball. 
4< c Two days after we saw him, he was seen by 
another vessel off Cape Cod, about two hundred 
miles from where he made his appearance to us. 
This intelligence reached New York about four days 
after we arrived there, and the description given ex¬ 
actly corresponded with the foregoing. I dined one 
day at the hotel of New York with Sir Isaac Coffin, 
who discredited the existence of such an animal, 
which was reported to have been seen by Capt. Ben- 
net, of Boston, about five years back ; but, as I as¬ 
sured him I had never heard, previously, even the 
report of such a monster, and that I was an English - 
