Part 66

“G. P. MALCOLM, Ensign, ditto, August 13, 1830.

“B. O’NEAL LYSTER, Lieut. Artillery, June 7, 1816.

“HENRY INCE, Ordnance Storekeeper at Halifax.”

Mr. NEWMAN, the editor of the Zoologist adds between parentheses:

“The dates are those on which the gentlemen received their respective Commission, I am not aware of their present rank. I am indebted to Mr. W. H. Ince for this interesting communication: this gentleman received it from his brother, Commander J. M. R. Ince, R. N. It is written by their uncle, Mr. Henry Ince, the Ordnance store-keeper at Halifax, Nova Scotia.”--

We observe that the colour of the head and neck is described as “streaked with white in irregular streaks”, and that evidently the sea-serpent hunted after the grampuses “which appeared in an unusual state of excitement”.

This account translated into German is in FRORIEP’S Notizen, Third Series, III, n^o. 54, p. 148.

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=98=, =99=.--1833, July.--In FRORIEP’S Notizen of June 1834 we read that Prof. BENJAMIN SILLIMAN in a note to Mr. BAKEWELL’S Introduction to Geology, stated that

“since 1820 nearly each year the mass of evidences has increased, and that the current year 1833 has been particularly fertile in such reports.”

Dr. HAMILTON in his Amphibious Carnivora, 1839, says:

“The last notice we have seen of this American animal bears date July 1833. The Boston and New-York papers of that date state, that the Sea-Serpent had again appeared off Nahant. “It was first seen on Saturday afternoon, passing between Egg-Rock and the Promuntory, winding his way into Lynn-Harbour, and again on Sunday morning, heading for South-shores. He was seen by forty or fifty ladies and gentlemen, who insist that they could not have been deceived.”

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It is evident that many reports of great sea-serpents have been published here and there, especially in Norwegian and North-American newspapers, which I have had no opportunity to consult, and which probably will never come within my reach. As we learn from Mr. FRORIEP’S Notizen, Vol. XL, n^o. 879, p. 328, “Mr. R. Bakewell in the latest edition of his Introduction to Geology (1833?) states: that there are descriptions of the sea-serpent, wherein it is ascertained that it “has flappers like sea-turtles”. I have not been able to consult Mr. BAKEWELL’S work, but I insert this statement here, because we shall observe afterwards more than once this comparison of the flappers with analogous members of turtles.

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=100=.--1834, Summer.--In Captain SHIBBLES’ report (n^o. 101) a passage runs as follows:

“One of the crew told us that his appearance and motion are precisely like that he saw last summer while in the bay” (of Gloucester) “which was said to be a sea-serpent.”

Though no particulars are mentioned, I am convinced that the appearance took place.

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=101=.--1835, March or April.--(Amer. Journ. Sc. Arts Vol. 28, 1835, July.--)

“Captain Shibbles, of the brig Mangehan, of Thomastown, from Boston, for New-Orleans, which arrived here (Gloucester, Mass., March or April, 1835) on Saturday last, states that he saw when about nine or ten miles from Race Point light, what he, as well as the whole crew, supposed to be a sea-serpent,--he could distinctly see it with the naked eye, but to be certain, he took his glass and saw his eyes, neck and head, which was about as large as a barrel--the neck had something that looked like a mane upon the top of it; several times he raised his head seven or eight feet above the water, and for thirty or forty minutes he swam backward and forward with great swiftness. There were two other vessels near, the crews of which were in the rigging looking at the same object. Capt. S. states that it was very long, and that his head, neck and tail and his motion in the water, was exactly like those of a snake; every time he put his head out of water, he made a noise similar to that of steam escaping from the boiler of a steam-boat..... The Captain and crew attest to the correctness of this statement.”

As to the swimming backward and forward, I think that Captain SHIBBLES meant that the animal swam to and fro, and that he used these expressions in reference to the direction of the brig.

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=102=.--1836?--Mr. HEINRICH RATHKE published in the Archiv für Naturgeschichte the following evidence, which he noted down when being in Christiansund in Norway:

“The Sorenskriver Gaeschke (a kind of judge of the same rank as the German country-judges, or the British sheriffs) gave me the following evidence: I saw the sea-serpent for a considerable time in a small fjord, first from a boat, afterwards from the beach, and from there during several minutes, at a distance of from thirty to thirty-six feet. In the beginning it swam round the fjord at Torvig, afterwards it went towards the mouth of the fjord. I saw its head stretched considerably out of the water. I noticed as well two or three undulations of the forepart of the body. Its motion was not like that of an eel, but consisted in vertical undulations. They were so strong, that they caused rather large waves; they were largest at the forepart of the animal and gradually lessened towards the back. The traces of them I discerned in a length of eight to ten fathoms, and in a breadth of two or three fathoms. The head, apparently blunt in front, had the size and nearly also the shape of an anker (ten-gallon cask) and the visible coils of the body were round and their thickness was that of a good timber-stock (twelve to fourteen inches square). I could not judge the entire length of the animal, as I could not discern the animal’s hindpart. The colour of the animal seemed to me to be a very dark grey one. What I believed to be the eyes, had according to my estimation the size of the outlines of a tea-cup (3¹⁄₂ inches). At the back of the head there was a mane, which had the same colour as the rest of the body.”

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=103=.--1837, end of July.--(FRORIEP’S Neue Notizen, Vol. IV, n^o. 67, p. 7, October, 1837).

“About the much mentioned Sea-Serpent the Drontheim Newspaper contains, as is ascertained, from an enlightened and trustworthy gentleman, the following statement: “Uncommonly early in this Summer our coasts and fjords were blessed with a mass of fat herrings, of which till to-day very few were cleaned and pickled, because the uncommon greasiness of the herrings made it difficult to preserve them in the warm air, which, however, was so beneficient to agriculture. Since the beginning of the dog-days the sea-serpent appeared on different spots in this country; one of these sea-monsters seems to have constantly remained near Storfosen and the Krovaag Isles; several fishermen were terrified in the highest degree, when the sea-serpent suddenly came down so near to them, that they had no time to think, to which side they should fly. It is true this terrible visitor properly has not made an attack, but it has followed the boat for a long distance, when one has tried to fly in a great hurry, so that the men overworked themselves, and some of the runaways fell ill afterwards. It is ascertained by quite trustworthy persons, that the length of the sea-serpent may be estimated from 600 to 800 ells, or perhaps still more, because if one was near its head, the other end of the sea-animal was not to be discerned distinctly. The sea-serpent is thickest just behind the head, apparently as thick as a large horse; its black and dark eyes are as large as an ordinary plate, without being glossy or very movable; the skin is smooth and of a dark colour; on the nose there are thick hairs, as on a seal’s, two or three quarters of an ell long, also on the neck there is something movable, which resembles the mane of a horse; the mouth, as far as the writer knows, has not been seen distinctly, and it is quite uncertain whether the animal is a beast of prey or not. Rarely does the sea-serpent appear but in calm weather; its motions and shape are serpentine. These observations are distinctly made in these days, amongst others by a trustworthy and intelligent gentleman, who with his two sons had reached a small islet, where the sea-serpent, after having followed their boat, passed closely and slowly.”