AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF THE PORT. SEA. MOmTEBS. Everyone who tiVrt an interest in the pea has heard ijnaint stories about the wonderful monsters alleged to. have been seen by seamen and travellers out in the deep waters. The belief in enormous serpent* dates from very early tunes, and year after year we get a repetition of the story, often told with more or les« convincing proof. The first serious and detailed accounts of the appearance of the sea-serpent of modern times comes from the early Norse writers. Olus Magnus, Archbishop of Dpsala, in the 16th century writes of it thus: "They who employ themselves in feeing or trading on the coasts of Norway do all agree in this strange story, that there is a serpent there which is of vast magnitude, namely 200 ft long and 20ft thick, which is wont to live in caves toward the «ea coast. He is black, hath tiaiy hanging from his neck a cubit long; sharp scales and flaming eyes. This sea monster disquiets the sailor; he puts np his head on high like unto a pillar and catcheth away men from their 6hips aad devours them."

We are told that Hana Egede, the Greenland missionary, saw it in 1734, and another missionary who was with him on board the ship drew a most realistic sketch of it. When it reared its head it could look over the ship's bulwarks, and when it flattened itsdf upon the water its tail was a ship's length behind its head. "Beyond a Doubt." More recently the venerable and legendary sea-serpent—{or after a time it came to be believed that there was but one, which had for ages haunted the seas, appearing sometimes in the_ Indian Ocean, sometimes in the Atlantic Ocean, and sometimes in the waters of the South Pacific—was seen several times by responsible people off the east coast of America. During the last century its existence was placed "beyond a doubt" by the multiplied evidence produced by the Linnaean Society of Kew England, established at Boston; and it actually appeared as recently as 1906 to two fellows of the Zoological Society of London, who were cruising off the coast of Brazil. And although zoologists in the main unite in denying that such a creature has ever been seen and attribute these appearances

variously to a school of porpoise* or sharks, a flight of cm birds skimming over the surface of the water, or even to a large mass of drifting kelp, they are, nevertheless, always ready to assert the possibility of its existence. For the bone* of prehistoric marine »wim«u show that something similar did once haunt the ancient seas and there is a remote and distant possibility that the degenerate descendant of some monster saurian still lurks in the uncharted depths of the mighty ocean. On the allied subjects of monster whales, the kraken and other weird marine creatures of horrible form, the Norwegian writers are equally prolific. The kraken, we are told, lives at the bottom of the deep oceans. It had enormous tentacles and horns and that its arms were big enough to draw down a big dip. When hunted or molested it darkened the waters around it by ejecting a black secretion and this suggests that the myth of the kraken was based on the appearance of some gigantic cuttlefish, whose size has been grossly exaggerated and its appearance badly described. Mr. J. G. Lockhart says in his interesting "Mysteries of the Seas": "If we can strip a legend of the coverings with which the superstitions of succeeding generations have enveloped it we may ultimately reach the hard kernel of fact; and such a fart, _ though perfectly natural, may be sufficiently unusual and astonishing to account for its later and grajjnal transformation into a myth." And there is no doubt that behind the legends of seaserpents, of kraken and other fthnlff" sea monsters there loom creatures of reality quite as fantastic and horrible, rf not so colossal, as any creations of myth and legend and fancy.

Probably the most universally beloved of all_ the curious sea monsters of legendary fame and certainly the most attractive of them all, are the fish-tailed men and womep who, functioning as tritone, mermaids, and sirens in classical fames, have appeared in varying forms throughout the succeeding years in the history and folklore of every nation. Practically every ocean chart, shipping documeiu and marine pnblieation printed during the 16th and 17th centuries was profusely illustrated with wonderful drawings of these sea creatures. »o well did our maritime forefathers believe in their existence that prayera were offered up in the churches for the deliverance of the seamen from their fatal allurements.

Stories of the Many of the old-time shellbacks had endless tales to tell of their meeting with seaserpents and mermaids. To listen to them, to hear the most minute details concerning their appearances, was to believe that these hardy old sons of the fa yere telling the truth. Many a time has the writer, when a boy, listened enraptured to such tales. That they were bewitching, these old shellbacks firmlv believed, and no modern jazz queen could show them points, even down to their scantiness ot clothing.

That there are strange monsters inhabiting the deep waters, no seaman will deny. If, all the stories we hear were closely examined it would be found that there is a considerable amount of truth in many of them. Strange eights and stranger experiences are frequently met with by men _ who navigate the deep waters, but nmortunately such- sights and experiences are often grossly exaggerated in the telling. Periodically a ship arrives ™ P° rt .* nd * ®trange story if S S some gigantic and mysterious marine denizen having been met with. An Pr tf® an « ets tol <* of it and M at world rocks with euffaws of laughter. Such a etory was told by the master and crew of the British steamer Afghanistan _in 1915. This vessel was in clo«e proximity of Kagoshima Bay, Japfn! when the tremendous volcanic upheaval occurred which devastated the coastline. The Mean hereabouts has been sounded to a depth ot over five miles. On the morning after the 'quake, the cw of hi ?t"^ n ei?ht *d the carcase of a huge snake-hke creature floating on the fuflv So? C t n U T" to be about oOrt in circumaW A, a J° ng P ectoral running a j° the greater part of the back, and ot a bluey-black colour. When the ship reached Kew York the at peared under gigantic headlines in the JStT dllSht C V" and America rocked with delight. Xow. on Januarv 28 or r the m - vst «"ons animal ° r J* h was a carcase of a sea wa «hed ashore on the island of Sakurajma, which is only 20 miles distant irom where the Afghanistan sfw it hvtkl rr ageige ***> the description given th f, Japanese tallies almost ewctlv 3*

c*^-** eCe, i t s°®''® °f the of oman Catholic Cathedral Mid<U^ br ough, said: "If anyone should feel bound to throw something bv war ot cheap compliment at wedding we are quite willing to keep a supplv of tocka for the purpose, but for goodness* * ™ end eon£etti