ALL ABOUT TEE SEA SERPENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10786, 25 October 1895, Page 6

ALL ABOUT TEE SEA SERPENT .

The Strand Magazine for August contains an article by Mr A. S. Story on this subject. Mr Story believes the serpent to be “ a living fact,” and not a mere trail of sea-weed or procession of porpoises. { His point is that the evidence for the | existence of this sea-monster has now accumulated beyond the reach of scoffing; and he proceeds to enumerate the principal witnesses with their stories, which date from the sixteenth century. Thus a Norwegianbook of travals describes its appearance in 1522, and the Norwegian fishermen regard its existence as beyond dispute. Olaus Magnus describes the sea-serpent as 200 ft long and 20fb in circumference, with fiery eyes and a short mane; and ho gives a picture wherein the serpent is represented curling about, entirely out of the water, and reaching over to snap a man from tho dock of a ship. Coming to the Eighteenth Century, we have a description of this monster from Bishop Hans Egede, who travelled to Greenland in 1734. “Its head when raised was on a level with our main-top. Its snout was long and sharp, and it blew water like a whale; it bad large broad paws or paddles; its body was covered with scales; its skin was rough and uneven; in other respects it was as a serpent; and when it dived tho end of its tail, ! which was raised in the air, seemed to be a full ship’s length fx’om its body.” A | sketch was made of THIS MONSTER by a companion of Egede’s, a missionary. It depicts a terrible creature, but not so large as that of Olaus Magnus. Another bishop, Erik Pontopiddan, the famous naturalist, confesses in his book (1755) that he believes in the sea-serpent. Ho identifies it with the leviathan of Scripture, and accounts for its appearance in July or August (which seems to have been the traditional time) by saying that this is its spawning time, and that at other periods it stays at the bottom of the sea. Ha estimates its length at 6Qoft, and gives it a high and broad forehead, sometimes | with a flat and sometimes with a sharp snout, and large bluish eyes like pewter I plates. j For the purposes of evidence, however, our main attention is directed to the appearances recorded in the sceptical | nineteenth century. In August, 1848, t occurred’ the famous observation by the I officers and crew of H.M.S. D.edalus. Mr | Story looks upon the official report of S Captain M’Quhae to Admiral Sir W. H. j Gage on tbia event as “ unassailable evidence.” In lat. 24deg 44mxn south and | long! 9deg 22min east “something very i unusual” was sighted; and it proved to he (in the words of tbe official report to “My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty ”) “an enormous serpent, with ■head and shoulders kept about four feet through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. “THE DIAMETER OF THE SERPENT was about fifteen or sixteen inches behind tho head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in eight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water; its colour, a dark brown with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed, i washed about its back,”

On July 30,1877, Captain Nelson, of the American ship Sacramento, claims to have sighted a strange monster in lat. 30deg 59uxin north and long. 37deg west. Tne helmsman saw it first, and he estimates that some 40ft of the creature was above tbe surface, its girth about that of a flour barrel. The next appearance mentioned is outside the “silly season.” In December, 1848, an officer of H.M.S. Plumper saw “a long, black creature with a sharp head moving slowly in a north-westerly direction,” in Ist. 41deg 13min north and long. 12deg 31min west. This creature had “ something on its back that appeared like a mane.” But this “ something like a mane ” is quite outdone _by the next appearance, to the ontire ship’s crew of the ship Princess, in July, 1853. According to the account of the captain, this beast had “ a head like a walrus, and twelve fins similar to those of a black fish, but turned the contrary way.” We find no mention of any such mane or fins in tbe account of Dr Biccard, of Cape Town, who in February, 1857, saw a vary long sea-aerpant from the lighthouse at Green Point. This serpent was 200£t long, and its head ’ was “ maculated with white spots.” Passing over a sea-serpent seen by Major Senior frem tbe City of Baltimore in 1879, we coma to one of

THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY. OF ALL THE ACCOUNTS. In July, 1875, Captain Drevar, of the barque Pauline, testified before a magistrate, together with his officers and crew, that they had witnessed a fight between a sea-serpent and a whale in lat. sdeg ISmin south, long. 35deg west. A monster seaserpent was seen coiled twice round a large sperm whale; bis bead and tail parts, each about 30£t long, acting as levers and twisting itself and victim around with great velocity. “They sank out of sight about every two minutes, coming to the surface still revolving, and the struggles of the whale and two other whales that were near, frantic with excitement, made the sea in this vicinity like a boiling cauldron, and a loud and confused noise was distinctly heard. This strange occurrence lasted some fifteen minutes, and finished with the tail portion of tho whale being elevated straight in the air, then waving backwards and forwards and lashing the water furiously in the last death-struggle, when the whole body disappeared from our view, going down head foremost towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpent’s leisure. * * * Then two of the largest sperm whales that I have even seen moved slowly thence towards the vessel, their bodies more than usually elevated out of tbe water, and not spouting or making tbe least noise, but seeming quite paralysed with fear; indeed, a cold shiver went through my own frame on beholding the last agonising struggle of the poor whale that had seemed as helpless m the coils of the vicious monster \ as a small bird in the talons of a hawk, j Allowing for two coils round the whale, I ' think the serpent was about 160 ft or 1 170£t long, and 7ffc or Bft in girth. It was ! in colour much like a conger eel, and the head, from the mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body.” ANOTHER FAMOUS OBSERVATION was that of Captain Cringle, of the ‘ steamship Umfuli, in 1893, a little south > cf the Canary Islands. “It was rushing

through the water at great speed, and was throwing water from its breast as a vessel j throws water from her bows. I saw full | 15ft; of its head and neck on throe several occasions.” Asked what its body looked | like. Captain Cringle said he could liken it ] to nothing so well as to a hundred-ton guu ! partly submerged; it showed three distinct bumps or swellings above the waves. But even Captain Cringle’s log is rolled “ one better ” by Dr Farquhar Matheson, of London, whose experience in September of the same year is narrated now for the first time. He was sailing on Looh Alah, which separates the Isle of Skye from the mainland, when “ suddenly I saw something rise out of the loch in front of us—a long, straight neck-like thing as tall &s my mast "It was then 200 yards away, and was moving towards us. Then it began to draw its neck down, and I saw clearly that it was a large sea-monster—of THE SAURIAN TYPE, I should think. It was brown in colour, shining, and with a sort of ruffle at the' junction of the head and neck. I can think of nothing to which to compare it so well as the head and neck of the giraffe, only the neck was much longer f and the head was not set upon the neck like that of a giraffe; that is, it was not so much at right angles to it as a continuation of it in the same line. It moved its head from side to side, and I saw the reflection of the light from its wet skin.” Curiously enough. Dr Matheson did not claim this monster as “ the sea-serpent.” On the contrary, ho maintains that “it was not a sea-serpent, but a much larger and more substantial beast—something of the nature of a gigantic iizard, 1 should think.

“An eel could not lift up its body like that, nor could a snake.” But whatever else it was, it was not an optical illusion.