Part 74

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Though they don’t touch our subject directly, the following words of Mssrs. H. E. STRICKLAND and A. G. MELVILLE, treating of the Dodo, are well worth our notice; they say (Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2d. Series, Vol. II, p. 444, Nov. 15?, 1848):

“In proof of the existence of the Dodo we have--unlike the assumed evidence of the existence of some other anomalous monsters of which we have lately heard much--every canon of cautious truthseeking fully satisfied. With no traditional superstition or belief to give an origin to such a story (a point of no little importance in such an investigation), we have here fifteen or sixteen separate and independant authorities all alluding incidentally to the Dodo, each different in language and description, yet each of which has points of resemblance that cannot be mistaken as referring to similar objects. We have moreover drawings of the creature itself, made by different hands, and at different times, and with different objects; some of them rude and coarse to grotesqueness, other finished works of art. Yet throughout all these there run characters which it is impossible to mistake, and which satisfy us that the draughtsmen drew, not from imagination, but from something real, and from individuals of one and the same species.”

I am obliged to remark here that the proof of the existence of the Dodo, quoted by them, is not unlike the proof of the existence of great sea-serpents. If they, however, had known and mentioned that a head and a foot of the Dodo are preserved in Kopenhague, they would have been right. This is not the case with the sea-serpent. As far as I know, there is not one material proof of the existence of sea-serpents. But it is with the sea-serpent just as with the different accounts and pictures of the Dodo, “throughout all which run characters which it is impossible to mistake, and which satisfy us, that the draughtsmen drew, not from imagination, but from something real, and from individuals of one and the same species”.

I hope that every-one who has read all the accounts I have collected and published in this volume, and thoroughly studied the figures, will grant that there is no question of “assumed evidences of the existence of some anomalous monsters”.

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=119=.--1848?--In the Zoologist of 1849, p. 2356, we read:

“Enormous undescribed animal apparently allied to the Enaliosauri, seen in the Gulf of California.--Captain the Hon. George Hope states that when in H. M. S. “Fly”, in the Gulf of California, the sea being perfectly calm and transparent, he saw at the bottom a large marine animal with the head and general figure of the alligator, except that the neck was much longer, and that instead of legs the creature had four large flappers, somewhat like those of turtles, the anterior pair being larger than the posterior; the creature was distinctly visible, and all its movements could be observed with ease; it appeared to be pursuing its prey at the bottom of the sea; its movements were somewhat serpentine, and an appearance of annulations, or ring-like divisions of the body, was distinctly perceptible. Captain Hope made this relation in company, and as a matter of conversation. When I heard it from the gentleman to whom it was narrated, I enquired whether Captain Hope was acquainted with those remarkable fossil animals Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, the supposed forms of which so nearly correspond with what he describes as having seen alive, and I cannot find that he had heard of them; the alligator being the only animal he mentioned as bearing a partial similarity to the creature in question.”

Mr. NEWMAN, the Editor of this Journal, considers this testimony “in all respects, the most interesting natural-history-fact of the present century” (Zoologist, 1849, Preface, Nov. 11).

Though I think that all reports of sea-serpents are very interesting natural-history facts, it is indisputable that this testimony is a very important one. If the reader for a moment brings before his mind the animal of the Daedalus, about eighty feet long, with a head of about three feet, a neck like the body of a serpent, the thickness behind the head being somewhat smaller than that of the head itself; at twenty feet in the rear of the head the body becoming at once much broader and provided there with two flappers; twenty feet more backwards again two flappers, and then a tail of about forty feet, ending in a point. If the reader now imagines this animal to be on the bottom of the sea, whilst he himself is placed on the deck of a vessel, the sea perfectly calm, is it not true that such an animal must make the impression of an alligator with a long neck, and having instead of paws flappers like those of a sea-turtle? If moreover the animal moved in vertical undulations, is it not very well conceivable and clear that, by the light and shadow falling on the animal from above, the curves of the animal’s back (called bunches when it swims on the surface) must be taken as distinctly perceptible annulations or ring-like divisions of the body? I think that there can be no question but this animal was a sea-serpent. The reader will remember that PONTOPPIDAN relates an account of a very young sea-serpent, eighteen feet in length, entangled in a fisherman’s net, “a worm with four paws on the belly”, and that the learned Bishop himself made the comparison: “thus it resembled a crocodile”!

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=120=.--1848, December 31.--(Illustrated London News of 1849, April 14.)

“To the Editor of the Illustrated London News.”

“H. M. S. Plumper, Plymouth Harbour, April 10, 1849.”

“Not having seen a sketch of the extraordinary creature, we passed between England and Lisbon, and being requested by several gentlemen to send you the rough one I made at the time, I shall feel much obliged by your giving it publicity in your instructive and amusing columns.”

“On the morning of the 31th. December, 1848, in lat. 41° 13′ N., and long 12° 31′ W., being nearly due West of Oporto, I saw a long black creature with a sharp head, moving slowly, I should think about two knots, through the water, in a north westerly direction, there being a fresh breeze at the time, and some sea on. I could not ascertain its exact length, but its back was about twenty feet if not more above water; and its head, as near as I could judge, from six to eight. I had not time to make a closer observation, as the ship was going six knots through the water, her head E. half S., and wind S. S. E. The creature moved across our wake towards a merchant barque on our lee-quarter, and on the port tack. I was in hopes she would have seen it also. The officers and men who saw it, and who have served in parts of the world adjacent to whale and seal fisheries, and have seen them in the water, declare they have neither seen nor heard of any creature bearing the slightest resemblance to the one we saw. There was something on its back that appeared like a mane, and, as it moved through the water, kept washing about, but before I could examine it more closely, it was too far astern.--I remain, yours very truly

A Naval Officer.”

Evidently the Naval Officer did not send the description of the appearance and the figure, before he was repeatedly requested by several gentlemen to do so. These gentlemen would not have been so pressing, if an appearance like that of the Daedalus had not happened very recently. How many written testimonies of the existence of sea-serpents will not be found in log books and private journals of navigators!

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=121=.--1849, February 18.--In the Zoologist of 1849 we read, p. 2459:

“Captain Adams, of the schooner Lucy and Nancy, which arrived at Jacksonville, Florida, on the 1^{st} of April, from New York, had sight of a monster in many respects resembling the sea-monsters described by many others. Captain Adams states that on the morning of Sunday, the 18th. of February, about nine o’clock, when off the south point of Cumberland Island, about twelve miles from the St. John’s (Florida) bar, the attention of himself, crew and passengers, was suddenly rivetted upon an immense sea monster, which he took to be a serpent. It lifted its head, which was that of a snake, several times out of the water, seemingly to take a survey to the vessel, and at such times displayed the largest portion of its body, and a pair of frightful fins or claws, several feet in length. His tail was not seen at any time; but, judging from the dimensions of the body, the captain supposes the leviathan to be about 90 feet in length. Its neck tapered small from the head to the body and it appeared to measure about seven feet across the broadest part of the back. The colour was that of a dirty brown. When first seen it was moving towards the mouth of the St. John’s. The monster moved from the side of the vessel, and placed itself athwart its track, in front of her bows; but Captain Adams, not feeling partial to an encounter with his snakeship, ordered the vessel to be kept off. A boy on the deck, not knowing his antagonist, had seized a harpoon, and was in the act of striking, when he was prevented by the vessel’s moving off”--“Boston Atlas”.

At a glance we recognize the sea-serpent, as it appeared to HANS EGEDE. “The largest portion of its body” was seen, “and a pair of frightful fins or claws, several feet in length”. The reader may compare the fig. 19 in our report n^o. 5.--

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=122=.--1849, May 30.--(Illustrated London News, 1850, January, 19.--)

“The following is an extract from the private log of Captain Edwards of the Alpha.--“Wednesday, May 30, P. M., strong breezes at N. N. W., and a sharp sea on; about 1.15 I felt a strange shaking of the ship. Mr. Thomson, my chief officer; Mr. George Park, civil engineer, cabin passenger on board, ran on deck as well as myself, when we beheld immediately under our lee quarter a monster of huge dimensions. It had no fins or broad tail, as whales have. It was of a light fawn colour, with large brown spots behind the shoulders; the head pointed like that of a porpoise. It had large glossy eyes; the shoulder was much darker than the rest of the body, which was the thickest part of it, (say twenty feet in diameter), from thence diminishing to the tail, to about the size of our mainyard in the slings (say twenty-four inches diameter). He took a turn round, and we afterwards saw him astern, and he went away in a S. E. by S. direction, at about thirty miles an hour.”--Melbourne Daily News, July, 1.--(“A correspondent, who sends us the above, adds that he believes this to be the first time the sea-serpent is stated to have been seen so far south.”)

Evidently the animal remained under water for a long time, and struck the vessel in coming to the surface. Seen from very near the colour evidently did not seem dark brown, but of a lighter hue. The absence of visible fins, the pointed tail, the brown spotted skin (no scales are mentioned, so it must have been smooth), the pointed head, the appearance of shoulders, the large eyes, its astonishing rapidity in swimming, all these statements characterize the sea-serpent. Alarmed at its having struck the vessel, off it went! Evidently Captain EDWARDS did not see the tip of the tail, which is rather pointed; he described, it is clear, what he took for the end of it, the extreme end being under water. No latitude is given in this report, but we may conclude that the appearance took place more towards the south than Melbourne is situated. This town is situated at about 38° S. lat., so the appearance may have taken place between 40° and 45° S. lat., and of course between 110° and 145° W. longitude, in the common track of vessels.

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=123=.--1849, September 15.--(Illustrated London News for 1850, January 12).--Extract from a letter, dated “H. M. S. Cleopatra, Singapore, Oct. 26, 1849”, from an officer of that ship:--“Sept. 15. This evening they reported the Sea-Serpent: several of the men, as well as the officer of the forecastle, saw the monster; and they all ran aft to see it from the stern: they say it was about thirty feet long. After the report, all hands came to deck; but the evening was fast drawing to a close, and the ship going at eight knots, soon left the monster astern, going through the water very quickly to the N. W.”--(From a Correspondent.)