Part 58

The Editor of the American Journal, Prof. BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, adds:

“It is almost superfluous to add, that Mr. Cabot and his friend Col. Perkins, are gentlemen of the first standing and consideration.”

On Oct. 13, 1820, Col. T. H. PERKINS, when on board the Ann Marie, wrote a letter to his friend Mr. JNO. P. CUSHING; he published it in the Boston Daily Advertiser of 1848, Nov. 25; a passage of it runs as follows:

“Besides the instances I have mentioned, there were many others reported of his having been seen the same year. In that year, 1817, although there were several reports of his having been seen, yet they were not well authenticated, nor do I place any confidence in them.”

“In the month of August, in the last year, he again made his appearance in our vicinity, and under very satisfactory circumstances. The weather being hot, many of our citizens resorted to Nahant to pass a few weeks. On the number were Mr. and Mrs. Cabot and their children. Mr. Cabot had a view of him for more than half an hour at one time. He was in a chair, and had reached what is termed the long beach, when he saw several persons collected half a mile from him, which called his attention to the object which occupied them. Mr. C. had heard me often describe the view I had had of the serpent in 1817, and recognized in what was visible just without the breakers, and within a quarter of a mile, the monster which was supposed by many to exist nowhere but in the imaginations of those who had reported to have seen him. Mr. Cabot immediately rode back to Nahant; took Mrs. Cabot into his chair and returned to the beach; but the animal was no longer visible. By this time the inhabitants of Lynn had assembled to the number of some hundreds, on and near the beach, and all the visitors of Nahant were upon the alert. Having given over the hope of seeing him, Mr. Cabot was returning to leave his wife at her lodgings, when, to their mutual delight, he came in view just without the surf of the little beach, and within a quarter of a mile or less of where they stood.”

“Marshal Prince, James Magee, and many persons of my acquaintance had a fine sight of him, and all agreed in their account of him in the principal particulars. They all agreed as to the rapidity of his movements, being very much beyond anything living they had ever seen. The apparent bunches on his back they consider as arising from the construction of his body, and that the movement was vertical and not horizontal. At one time his head was about two or three feet above water, but soon depressed to the level of the sea. When not swimming to be in pursuit of his prey, his motion was not rapid. They saw him turn and bring his body into a letter S, the head being at right angles with the tail. From fifteen to twenty three bunches, or apparent bunches, were counted by the different persons who saw him, and his size round they thought to be that of a common firkin or half barrel”.

“No one thought they saw the whole of the body at a time, the tail seeming always to be considerably under water. The greatest length given to him was one hundred feet and no one who had a good sight of him thought him less than eighty feet in length. If the number of protuberances is twenty-three (and it seems there are at least this number), and calculating them to be distant from centre to centre four feet (and I think, considering their thickness, they cannot be less than this), he would be ninety two feet long. They all agreed, too, as to the colour being quite dark, approaching to black.”

In a letter from Dr. BOOTT to Dr. HOOKER, dated London, Nov. 4, 1826, part of which was published in the Edinb. Journ. of Sc., we read that he visited Boston to gather testimony from eye-witnesses. He then says:

“During this visit I distinctly remember the news coming from Nahant one morning, of the Serpent being in the bay of that place, distant about sixteen miles from Boston. Many hurried down to see it, and among them my brother Mr. James Boott. I was prevented from some cause leaving Boston. My brother reported that he distinctly saw a large serpent, about a mile from the shore; and that thousands were watching its motion on the beach and rocks. The first idea that occurred to my brother was that it was a horse swimming, its head at the time bearing a resemblance to that of the latter creature. He afterwards saw the undulating line of its back, and remained several hours watching the animal. Colonel Perkins of Boston, his wife, and family, were present at this time, as far as I recollect.”

So we have of this appearance three different statements of respectable persons, who distinctly saw the animal on the same spot.

This appearance of the sea-serpent near Nahant is also mentioned in Dr. HAMILTON’s Amphibious Carnivora, 1839.

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=64=.--1819, August.--Mr. A. DE CAPELL BROOKE says in his Travels through Sweden, &c., at p. 207:

“I there” (Stenesöen) “obtained from his” (PEDER GREGER’S) “son John Greger, a young man, who employed himself in the fishery, still further information respecting the sea-serpent; it was in August of the preceding year, while fishing with others in the Vieg or Vegfjord, that he saw it; at that time they were on shore, hauling in their nets, and it appeared about sixty yards distant from them, at which they were not a little alarmed, and immediately retreated. What was seen of it above water, he said, appeared six times the length of their boat, of a grey colour, and lying in coils a great height above the surface. Their fright prevented them from attending more accurately to other particulars. In fact they all fairly took to their heels, when they found the monster so near them. The weather at the time was very hot and calm. Farther to the south (at Stenesöen) he said it was seen several times, and it remained there for a considerable period.”

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=65=.--1819, August.--The same author at p. 216 of his volume relates:

“My honest boatmen who had brought me all the way from Leköe, a distance of near sixty miles, now left me. Previous to their departure they gave me the following account of the sea-serpent, which is here inserted as they related it, without the least variation. They were fishermen and had been up at the North Cape. During the time they remained there they saw the serpent twice, once at no very great distance from them. It was of a grey colour; the head blackish, with teeth. What they discerned of it they judged to be at least five times the length of their boat, which is about thirty feet. It moved in large folds on the water; and when they saw it, they rowed away from it as fast as they could. The weather was very calm at the time.”

This is the most northern appearance of the sea-serpent. The teeth are mentioned here, though not described.

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=66=.--1819? August?--The same author at p. 222 of his Travels tells us:

“To the testimony of others respecting the existence of the sea-serpent, I shall now add that of the bishop” (of the Nordlands and Finmark) “himself, who was eye-witness to the appearance of two in the bay of the Shuresund, or Sorsund, in the Drontheim fjord, about eight Norway miles from Drontheim. He was but a short distance from them, and saw them plainly. They were swimming in large folds, part of which was seen above the water, and the length of what appeared the largest he judged to be about 100 feet. They were of a darkish grey colour; the heads hardly discernable, from their being almost under water; and they were visible for only a short time. Before that period he had treated the account of them as fabulous; but it was now impossible, he said, to doubt their existence, as such numbers of respectable people, since that time had likewise seen them on different occasions.”

Not a single fact that need astonish us. That two were seen together is not reported for the first time, as the reader will remember. The swimming “in large folds, part of which was seen above water”, is a very accurate description of the effect made by the swimming animals. The colour is described as a darkish grey, which is exactly the colour of the animal, when seen at a short distance. Their holding their heads very low, only just above the surface of the water, is a common habit of them too.

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=67=.--1819? August?--The same author relates (p. 403):

“The last account respecting the existence of the sea-serpent I received from him” (the sexton of Maasöe) “during our journey. He was fishing, as he said, with others in the Mageröe-Sund, when they discerned the monster of the deep, stretching out his bulk in many a spiral fold, and basking on the surface of the water. Its colour was dark and as to its length, he assured me, with looks of wonder and almost of alarm, that it nearly reached from the Mageröe side to the mainland opposite. In this measurement fear, doubtless, was the principal agent; for as to any accurate observations made by himself, they were out of the question. My friend the sexton was much too prudent a man, to hazard any at such a juncture. A glance was sufficient for him to commence his flight forthwith, as fast as his arms would enable him.”

Of course I agree with Mr. DE CAPELL BROOKE as to the exaggerated dimensions attributed to the animal by the sexton of Maasöe. The words “spiral folds”, of course, are wrong, the author meant the sinuosities in which the animal moves. Its colour is here described dark, which corresponds with so many other testimonies.

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=68=.--1819? August?--At page 406 of the volume of this author we read in a note: