that the neck being under water, I could perceive no shining filaments thereon, if it had any. Its progressive motion under water I took to be very rapid. About the time I saw it, it was seen near the Isle of Canna. The crews of thirteen fishing boats, I am told, were so much terrified at its appearance, that they, in a body, fled from it to the nearest creek for safety. On the passage from Rum to Canna, the crew of one boat saw it coming towards them, with the wind, and its head high above water. One of the crew pronounced the head as large as a little boat, and its eye as large as a plate. The men were much terrified, but the monster offered them no molestation."* Dr Hibbert mentions that the Great Sea-Serpent has occasionally been recognized in the Shetland Seas; and specifies one which was seen off the Isle Stonness, Vaeley Island, and Dunvossness.†

We now turn to several instances of the appearance of the Sea-Serpent which have been witnessed off the coast of America; and we do so by referring first to the Report published by a Committee appointed by the Linnean Society of New-England, to collect all the evidence they could obtain on the subject. In the month of August 1817, it was generally reported that a very singular animal of prodigious size had been frequently seen in the Harbour of Gloucester, Cape Ann, about thirtymiles from Boston. In general appearance it ro

See Trans. of the Wernerian Soc. vol. i. 442. + Shetland Islands, p. 565.

sembled a Serpent, and was said to move with astonishing rapidity. It was visible only in calm and bright weather, and floated on the surface of the water, like a number of buoys following each other in a line.

In the report to which we have referred, the affidavits of a great many individuals of unblemished character are collected, which leaves no room to apprehend any thing like deceit. They do not agree in every minute particular, but in regard to its great length and Snake-like form, they are harmonious. The first person who makes deposition saw it for nearly half an hour, at the distance of 250 yards. At that distance he could not take in the two extremities with his glass. The second witness depones, that he observed a strange marine animal, which he believed to be a Serpent: it continued in sight for an hour and a half, and moved through the water with great rapidity, at the rate of a mile in two, or, at most, three minutes. another occasion he saw it lying perfectly still, extended on the water, and displaying about fifty feet of its body. The third witness judged it to be between eighty and ninety feet in length, with the head formed somewhat like the Rattle-Snake, but nearly as large as that of the horse. At one time it showed about fifty distinct portions of its body. The fourth witness saw it open its mouth, which appeared like that of a Serpent. Another shot his gun loaded with ball at it, at the distance of thirty feet; when he found the monster immediately

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turned round, as if intending to approach him, and passed very near the boat. The tenth deposition we shall give somewhat more fully. "On the 20th of June 1815, my boy informed me of an unusual appearance on the surface of the sea in the Cove. When I viewed it through the glass, I was in a moment satisfied that it was some aquatic animal, with the form, motions, and appearance of which I was not previously acquainted. It was about a quarter of a mile from the shore, and was moving with great rapidity to the southward; it appeared almost thirty feet in length. Presently it turned about, and then displayed a greater length, I suppose at least 100 feet. It then came towards me very rapidly, and lay entirely still on the surface of the water. His appearance then was like a string of buoys. I saw thirty or forty of these protuberances, or hunches, which were about the size of a barrel. The head appeared six or eight feet long, and tapered off to the size of a horse's head. He then appeared about 120 feet long; the body appeared of a uniform size; the colour deep brown. I could not discover any eye, mane, gills, or breathing holes; I did not see any fins or lips." We add, that there are many other depositions equally pointed as to the occurrence of this extraordinary creature, and several letters respecting it; one from the Honourable Lonson Nash, one of the committee of the Linnean Society, and himself an eye-witness, and another addressed by a clergyman to Judge Davis, the president of the society. General Hum

phreys, by whom the affidavits were taken, transmitted a copy of them, and a detail of the whole circumstances, to the late Sir Joseph Banks, in whose library the documents are still preserved.

An animal of similar appearance was again seen in August 1819, off Nahant, Boston, which remained in the neighbourhood for some weeks. When first seen, it was stationary for four hours near the shore, and two hundred persons assembled to view it. Thirteen folds were counted, and the head, which was Serpent-shaped, was elevated two feet above the surface. Its eye was remarkably brilliant and glistening. The water was smooth, and the weather calm and serene. When it disappeared, its motion was undulatory, making curves perpendicular to the surface of the water, and giving the appearance of a long moving string of corks. 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 Promontory, 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."

In connection with the animal thus seen in America, we must not omit the authentic account of a previously undescribed species of Serpent, which has a striking resemblance in some of its features

to the apocryphal animal on which we are now dwelling. The Boston Society of Natural History has the merit of having first brought this Serpent under the notice of Zoologists, and the committee who described it unhesitatingly regarded it as a specimen of one of the young of the Great Sea-Serpent. It was seen and killed in September 1817, near Sandy Bay, between a salt lake and the sea, at no great distance from the shore, and was speedily brought to Boston for the examination of the Society. It was a yard long all but half an inch. The contour of the back exhibited its most singular feature, for here was found a waving line, produced by a series of permanent risings, which commenced near the head, and extended, almost without interruption, to the tail, their total number being forty. The body could be bent with the greatest facility in the vertical direction, especially at the undulations, but not without great difficulty latterly. The Society applied to this animal the name of Scoliophis Atlanticus, of which, at the conclusion of this chapter, we subjoin a representation. M. de Blainville, in analyzing the various documents which have been published concerning this Serpent, remarks-" That a new species of Serpent has been discovered in America, which is really very singular, especially as it regards its vertebral column, ribs, and mode of progression, appears certain; but that this small Serpent is precisely of the same species as the great marine animal which has appeared off the coast, and whose

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