SEA SERPENTS AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 104, 3 May 1926, Page 9

SEA SERPENTS AGAIN

TRUSTED OFFICER'S DESCPJPTION.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

VANCOUVER, 4th April. Seafaring men are already identifying the sea serpent seen off the coast of British Columbia a fortnight ago j •with one seen in the same vicinity 18 months ago. Captain House, of the Canadian Government fishery patrol, was oh his way north to Prince Eupert, and had leached a point near Hecate Straits, which separate Queen Charlotte Islands from the mainland, when he saw the monster. He is an officer in whom his fellows place high trust. They say, if Captain House said he saw a sea serpent, he saw one; that is enough for them. He had plenty of time to observe the sea serpent, and made a drawing of it, in three positions—as it emerged from the water, when it was most out of the water, and when it was slipping back into the depths. The following signed statement from him appeared in the Vancouver "Province": "I have prepared three sketches of the sea serpent sighted off Cape Ridge, opposite Wright Sound, at 2.45 p.m. on 16th March, coming towards the south end of Greville Channel. The head was about 18 inches wide and possibly 2ft Cm long. The thing remained erect for about half a minute, and then disappeared spirally, as it had come. When submerged, it cnurncc up the water, and left a w;tke for a long time, like a school of porpoises, moving outward towards the sea, whence it had come." The captain remarked that the sun was shining; from the clouds at the time, and gave the monster v greenishgold axtpearance. He said lie was familiar with most sea creatures, and was positive it was nothing he had seen before. It had the appearance of a telephone pole as it raised its head 30 foot above the water. The capture, last week, of a serpentlike fish at Powell River, lends colour to the belief that it is the young of Captain House's sea serpent. The Powell River Company has put it in ice, and is sending photographs to the Fisheries Department. It is five feet long, with a head like that of a wolf, about tiio size' of an English pug-dog. The end of the body tapers to ;i point, and skin-like fins at the side extend the entire length.