14 
) 
\ 
t 
Q. What parts of it were above the surface of the water, and 
how high ? 
A. I did not count the number of bunches, but they appear¬ 
ed about six inches above the surface of the water. 
Q. Were its sinuosities vertical or horizontal ? 
A. Vertical. 
Q. Did it appear to pursue, avoid, or notice any thing ? 
A. It did not appear to avoid any thing. He appeared to 
be amusing himself, though there were several boats not far from 
him. 
Q. Did you see more than one? 
A. I did not. 
< 2 - How many persons saw it ? 
A. There were fifteen or twenty persons, near where I was. 
EPES ELLERY. 
Essex ss, August 25, 1817. Personally appeared Epes Elle- 
17, and made oath to the truth of the foregoing facts by him sub¬ 
scribed. Cor. Lon son Nash, Jus. Pacis. 
VI. 
I, William H. Foster, of Gloucester, in the county of Es¬ 
sex, merchant, depose and say 1 That on the fourteenth day of 
August, A. D. 1817, I first saw an uncommon sea animal, that 
I believe to have been a serpent, in the harbour in said Glouces¬ 
ter. When I first discovered him, his head was above the sur¬ 
face of the water, perhaps ten inches, and he made but little 
progress through the water. He was apparently shaded with 
light colours. He afterwards went in different directions, leav¬ 
ing on the surface of the water, marks like those made by skat¬ 
ing on the ice. Then he would move in a straight line west, and 
would almost in an instant, change his course to east, bringing 
his head, as near as I could judge, to where his tail was; or in 
fact, to the extreme hinder part visible, raising himself as he turn¬ 
ed, six or eight inches out of water, and shewing a body at least 
forty feet in length. On the seventeenth of August instant, I 
\ 
