A SHAM SEA SERPENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3559, 8 May 1901, Page 4

A SHAM SEA SERPENT.

The sea-serpent, after having survived the Paris Exhibition, has just arrived at Earl's Court, London, with a Sea-Serpent Syndicate to manage his worldly -affairs. Tired of waiting for the monster to appear in something less questionable than > his ( usual marine shapes, the Parisians ' last year decided it was. necessary to invent him; but they soon found the-task required thß Teutonic imagination! to carry it out, and the creation was finally left to an Englishman, Mr Walter Stenning, of Brighton. The sea-serpent made his debut at the Jardin Zoologique d'Acclamatation, where he caused some commotion amongst the other animals. His huge body, 90ft longj. is covered with greenish skin ; and bright metallic scales and spines. His other features are "a ferocious head, a mouth large enough to swallow a boat-load of Jonahs vicious teeth and » forked tongue, horns as thick as the trunk of a tree, and glaring eyeballs the size of. washhand basins." -His- general-appear-ance is singularly like the 5 model constructed from the results of geological dis-: coveries by well-known scientists. .;";He; is an amphibious creature, and under fav-" curable circumstances can writhe along either on land" or "on water at the rate of from three to seven miles an hour. In accommodating powers Jonah's whale was nothing to him, for his whole interior is filled with seats. He is the very latest idea in trains, and runs only upon iron rails. The skeleton, formed, of eleven small waggons, is .fitted with an • iron famework: "of ribs. Each car is covered with a..woo4en shell, and connected with the adjoining, car by. means of bellows, which expand or contract at need. The whole body is covered with canvas, en-crusted-with some 8000 diamond-shaped brass, copper, and nickel scales, outlined in colour. - Head, - tail and spines are of sheet brass and copper. The head contains 1 the starting and stopping apparatus, and the driver sees through the nostrils, and listens through the ears; the eyes, 42Jn" in circumference, present a striking appearance when illuminated at night; - On the whole, this is possibly as fearsome a beast as the genuine article—if there is such a thing.