at the rate of 12 or 14 miles an hour; he was of a dark choco¬ 
late colour, and from what appeared out of water I should sup¬ 
pose he was about two and a half feet in circumference ; he made 
no noise ; his back and body appeared smooth ; a small bunch 
on each side of his head, just above his eyes ; he did not appear 
to be at all disturbed by the vessel; his course was in the direc¬ 
tion for the Salt Islands ; his motion was much swifter than any 
W'hale that I have ever seen, and i have seen many—did not ob¬ 
serve any teeth; his motion was very steady, a little up and down. 
To this account I am willing to make oath 
ROBERT BRAGG. 
xin. 
I, William SoMERByofthe schooner Laura, testify and says 
That on Thursday last about 10 o’clock, A. M. as I was coming 
in said schooner from Newburyport, bound to Boston, off Brace’s 
cove, a little eastward of Eastern point, (Cape Ann) about two 
miles from land, the sea calm, I was at helm. Robert Bragg, one 
of the crew, asked me if that was not the snake coming, pointing 
out a break in the water, south of us; a strange animal of the 
serpent form passed very swiftly by us—the nearest distance I 
should judge to be between 30 and 40 feet—the upper part of his 
back and head was above water—the length that appeared was 
about 12 or 15 feet, his head was like a serpent’s, tapering off to 
a point. He threw out his tongue a number of times, extended 
about two feet from his jaws—the end of it resembled a harpoon— 
he threw his tonuue backwards several times over his head, and 
let it fall again—I saw 011c of his eyes as he passed ; it appeared 
very bright, ar:d about the size of the eye of an ox. The col¬ 
our of all that appeared was very dark, almost black. He did 
not appear to take any notice of the vessel, and made no noise. 
There appeared a bunch above the eye—Should judge him to 
be about two and a half feet in circumference. Have often seen 
whales at sea. The motion of this animal was much swifter 
than that of any whale. The motion of the body was rising and 
