MYTHS OF THE SEA

Evening Star, Issue 20312, 22 October 1929, Page 12

MYTHS OF THE SEA

LEGENDARY SERPENTS OLD STORY REVIVED In the course of the summer “ silly ” season, the sea serpent is certain to make himself known This year the report comes from Lake Champlain, which is reputed to have been the haunt ot sea seipents ever since Samuel de Champlain reached its shores, says a writer in the New York ‘Times.’ The savages told that intrepid explorer of the water animal” called “ chaousarou, which they said grew to a length of Bit or 10ft. His snout alone , was Jilt long, with a double set of long and dangerous teeth; his body, silver grey in appearance, was so armed with scales and panels of horny plate that a poniard could not pierce it. This famous serpent, according to people of that locality, lives in the depths of Lake Champlain, opposite Essex, though, back in 1915, he ventured as far as Bnlwagga Bay, imar the Crown Point fortifications. _ One oil-server, who, it is said, saw him apparently stranded on a reef at the entrance of the hay, said he was 40ft long. After a short time he released himself, and making a lew wild plunges which lashed the water into foam, ho headed for ill© Vermont shore in great semi-circular sweeps, finally sinking, submarine-like, and leaving a we.T defined wake on the glassy surface. PLACE IN LOCAL HISTORY. Tin’s strange creature, which the less imaginative among the natives believe is cither a huge gar pike, an enormous sturgeon, or a pickerel, has attained the dignity of a place in local histories. He is described as being anywhere from -Oft to 50ft long, us large around as a keg, of a drab colour, with a row of spiky projections along the back, and horns like those of a huge catfish projecting from his head. He has also been reported off the Four Brothers Islands and in Willsboro Bay, near the end of Willsboro Point. Two maiden ladies who lived seventy-five years on the end of Willsboro Point have told later generations of how on summer evenings they watched the esoteric performances of the huge serpent. He was harmless they thought. Never once were they alarmed at his antics. Later, when a railroad was chiselled through the rock cliffs on the west shore of Wiilisboro Bay, the old serpent changed his haunts. Perhaps the rumbling trains frightened him away. In the deep waters off the Vermont shore he is reported to have found a more quiet place. Tho first really spectacular appearance of the sea serpent in American waters was made along the New England coast in August, 1817. A thorough investigation followed. Those who had seen this denizen of the deep were placed under oath to give an exact description of it. The inquiry was conducted by the Linneart Society of Boston Numerous papers were collected in which the witnesses told of an enormous snake 50ft in length—some said a hundred. He had thirty bumps on his back, which rose and fell on the water as he meandered through it. His elongated head with bulging eyes jutted out of the water frequently to survey his surroundings Pictures were made and designs were drawn up in the interests of science. A few irresponsible people wrote romances and poems describing in the first person the pacetious serpent who had disturbed the staid Now Englanders. In time tho story of the great American sea-serpent, as it came to be called, reached England. At first it was a serious matter, but year after year story succeeded story, each more stupendous than its predecessor. One seaserpent was sighted near the Bermudas, tho subsequent appearance of his tail being some hundred miles to the north-east. This, however, was a hoax not discovered till some years later. But the hoax persisted, so that in 184 S, when what might be thought a most circumstantial story was given by Captain M'Quhao in a report to Admiral Sir W. H. Gage, it caused a great sensation, not unmixed with amusement. SERPENT IN MID-ATLANTIC. The officers ami crow of H.M.S. Daedalus, on this occasion, saw in midAtlantic “an enormous sea-serpent with head and shoulders kept about 4ft above the surface of the water.” There was, at the very best, Captain M'Quhae stated. 60ft of the animal almost level with the surface, no portion of which was, in their perception, used in propelling the monster through the water. The diameter of Hie serpent was estimated at about loin or I6in behind the head. He had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse or a bunch of seaweed washed about his neck. Another story arose in 1877 which rivalled that of the Daedalus. The master and half the crew saw a. gigantic serpent rise out of the water and wind itself in two mighty coils around a huge whale, which it crushed in genuine boa-constrictor fashion. Ohms Magnus, tho venerable Bishop of Upsala, has left us startling details of a great sea-serpent more than 200 ft long and with a girth 20ft that lived in rocks and holes near the shore of Bergen. He left his cavern only on iiot summer nights and in fine weather to devour calves, iambs, and hogs. Or he slid into the sea to eat lobsters, cuttles, and sea crabs. He had a row of hairs 2ft in length hanging from his nock; sharp scales, and flaming eyes. Raising himself out of the water, he attacked boats and snatched men, devouring them before their companions. A VAST-HEADED MONSTER. Hans Egede, who afterward became a bishop, travelled to Greenland as a missionary in 1734. The monster lie reported had a head, which, when raised, was on a level with the maintop. His snout was long and sharp, and he blew water almost like a whale; he had large, broad paws or paddles; his skin was rough and uneven. In other respects. Egede tells us, he was a serpent. When he dived the end of his tail, which was raised in the air, seemed a full ship’s length from his body. ' Egode’s companion made a sketch of the monster, the first drawn from life. But one by one the ancient and hoary myths of the sea have faded as science has advanced. The old talcs wrought from the strongholds of tradition, steeped in the romance of the deep, are but a source of amusement in the twentieth century. Numerous explanations have Been offered to those who have a sea-ser-pent. A basking shark had deceived them; a row of seals, sea lions, or walruses ; hump-backed whales in single file; a string of porpoises, or tho floating carcasses of ribbon fish made undulations on a choppy sea. Manatees, dugongs, gigantic squids, or colomaries have also been suggested. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and* his wife recently saw a creature i closely resembling a plesiosaurus swimming near his ship off the coast of Aegina, in the Mediterranean, he was moved to reflect that he fancied “the depths of

the ocean hare still some surprises for us.” If the sea could be drained of its waters and emptied by some extraordinary accident, what incredible members, what infinite variety of uncommon and amazing sea monsters now entirely unknown would exhibit themselves to our view! The appearance of a surviving form of plesiosaurus may account for some of the sea-serpents reported by thor-

oughly credible eye-witnesses. Reptiles were dominant forms in the closing period of the Mesozoic Age. In the unfathomable depths of the sea may yet be found a horned dinosaur, a y -s, unwieldy creature 25ft to 30ft in length, whoso large head was grotesquely armed with horns and bony frills; the ichthyosaurus or mesof urus with flappers and powerful tails, that once lived a predatory life in the open sea.