The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-16 00:00:00

THE SEA SERPENT.

The following letters have been addressed to the
Edit )r of the Times:—

Sir,—Observing in your paper of yesterday's date a letter
from a correspondent relative to the marine animal com-
monly galled the sea serpent, in the concluding paragraph
of which he mention, that he has no doubt the object sees
from Her Majesty's shipDndalus in the month of August,
1848, when on the passage from the Cape of Good Hope to
St. Helena, was a piece of the same seaweed observed by
himself, I beg to state that the object seen from Her Ma-
jesty's ship on that occasion was, beyond all question,
living animal, moving rapidly through the water against a
cross sea, and within five points of a fresh breeze, with
such velocity that the water was surging under its chest as
it passed along at a rate probably of not less than 10 miles
per hour. Captain M`Quhae's first impulee was to tack in
pursuit, ourselves being on a wind on the larboard tack,
when he reflected that we neither could lay up for it or
overhaul it in speed. There was nothing to bo done, there-
fore, but to observe it as accurately as we could with our
glasses as it came up under our lee quarter and passed
away to windward, at-its nearest position being not more
than 200 yards from us ; the eye, the mouth, the nostril,
the colour, and form all being most distinctly visible to
us. We all felt greatly astonished at what we saw,
though there were sailors among us of 30 and 40 years'.
standing, who had traversed most seas and seen mazy
marvels in their day. The captain was the first to exclaim,
" This must be that animal called the sea serpent," a
conclusion which, after sundry guesses, we all at
last settled down to. My impression was that it was rather
of a lizard than serpentine character, as its movement was
steady and uniform, as if propelled by fins, not by • any
undulatory power. It was in sight from our first observ-
ing it about ten minutes, as we were fast leaving one ano-
ther on opposite tacks, with a freshening breeze and a sea
getting up.
I feel, Sir, I have already occupied more of your time
and space than is justifiable, and have the honour to re-
main your obedient servant,
AN OFFICER or H.M.S. DAWALIIII.
Feb. 13.

Sir,—A letter appears in the Times of to-day, signed
" Frederick Smith," on the subject of the sea serpent.
The writer has this advantage over others who have re-
ported the occasional appearance of what he fairly ealll
" this queer fish"—that he has handled as well as seen it.
Still there would seem to be a conbiderable variety in the
genus, for, while the specimen obtained by the Pekin in
1848 was 4 inches in diameter and 20 feet in length, that
seen from the Circassian is described, if I remember
rightly, in your paper of the 4th inst., as 10 feet or 11 feet
in diameter, and upwards of 200 feet in length.
In this latter instance it was seeing only, and but a pees'
ing sight; and testimony of this kind is just that which
naturalists may be slow to receive as evidence of any new
fact; nevertheless, the practised vision of the Circassian'a
commander should go for something, and as it would ap-
pear from the following letter that Captain Harrington is
to be in town next week and ready to answer any ques-
tions, it might be worth the while of some of our philo-
sophers to examine a little into the question of what
Captain Harrington and his officers really did see.
I have the honour to be, Bir, your most obedient servant,
W. A. B. HAMILTON.
Blackheath, Feb. 12.