when it suddenly disappeared for about
half a minute, and then made its appearance
in the same manner again, showing us
distinctly its neck and head about ten or
twelve feet out of the water. Its head was
shaped like a long nun-buoy; and I
suppose the diameter to have been seven or
eight feet in the largest part, with a kind
of scroll or tuft of loose skin encircling it
about two feet from the top. The water
was discoloured for several hundred feet
from its head, so much so that on its first
appearance my impression was that the
ship was in broken water, produced by some
volcanic agency since the last time I
passed the island; but the second appearance
completely dispelled these fears, and
assured us that it was a monster of
extraordinary length, which appeared to be
moving slowly towards the land. The ship
was going too fast to enable us to reach the
mast-head in time to form a correct
estimate of its extreme length; but from
what we saw from the deck we conclude
that it must have been over two hundred
feet long. The boatswain and several of the
crew, who observed it from the topgallant
forecastle, state that it was more than
double the length of the ship, in which
case it must have been five hundred feet.
Be that as it may, I am convinced that it
belonged to the serpent tribe; it was of a
dark colour about the head, and was
covered with several white spots. Having
a press of canvas on the ship at the time, I
was unable to round- to without risk, and
therefore was precluded from getting another
sight of this leviathan of the deep." Now,
this precise description, whatever we may
think of it theoretically, was endorsed by
the chief and second officers of the ship,
William Davies and Edward Wheeler.
Admiral W. A. B. Hamilton, in a brief
comment on this extract, adverted to the fact
that sight only, and that a mere passing
sight, is just the kind of testimony " which
naturalists may be slow to receive as
evidence of any new fact; nevertheless," he
adds, " the practised vision of the Castilian's
commander should go for something." We
decidedly think so. Captain Harrington
responded: " I could no more be deceived
than (as a seaman) I could mistake a
porpoise for a whale. If it had been at a great
distance it would have been different; but
it was not above twenty yards from the
ship."

In the same year (1858), according to
the Amsterdam Courant, Captain Bijl, in
command of the Hendrik Ido Ambacht,
was voyaging in the South Atlantic, when,
on the 9th of July, the ship was followed
for nine days by a (so-called) sea monster,
ninety feet long by twenty-five or thirty
broad. The animal struck the ship so
forcibly as to make it vibrate, and blew
much water. " The captain, fearing lest
the animal might disable the rudder, did
his utmost to get rid of his fearful
antagonist, but without success. After it had
received more than a hundred musket balls,
a harpoon, and a long iron bar, blood was
seen to flow from various wounds, so that
at length, from loss of strength, the monster
could swim behind our vessel no longer, and
we were delivered of it. By its violent blows
against the copper sheathing, the animal's
skin had been damaged in several places."

The readers of a New Zealand newspaper,
in August, 1864, were in breathless
haste to know about a sea-serpent
which was said to have made its appearance
in the sea thereabout. The length was
given at an enormous amount; and as the
animal moved along with great rapidity,
its body appeared many yards above the
surface of the water. But the strange
thing was, that the animal bore exactly the
form and look of a well-rigged vessel.
Good: the newspaper had had its joke,
for the monster was a smart brigantine
called the Sea Serpent. Yet the joke
scarcely proves, or disproves, much.

The latest claim to attention in matters
of this kind was put forth in a narrative
contained in the London newspapers a little
before the recent Christmas. On the 23rd
of November, 1869, the barque Scottish
Pride, was sailing in the Atlantic, when
Captain Allen, seated in his cabin, was
summoned on deck by the second mate. He
found the crew looking over the starboard
side of the vessel into the water, very intent
upon something. This something proved
to be a (so-called) sea-serpent, about
twenty-five feet long and of proportionate
thickness, with a very large and flat head,
two bright scintillating eyes at the outer
edges of the head, and a tawny yellow
belly. The back was covered with large
scales, like those of the crocodile, about
three inches in length, which hooked
together to form a kind of impenetrable armour.
When the creature disappeared by plunging
head downward, the body described a
circle like a hook, thus exposing a tail that
tapered off to a sharp point. There was a
baby serpent by its side, only a few feet in
length, but similar in shape and colour.
Not seeming to like the proximity of the