New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-03-02

irons. At first the line went 9nt fapidiys pus
iecreased gradually, nevertheless / was onhged
20 get up spare line out OF the fore -hoid ana
5end on For fear that the ship woulftp oy It's
weight on the line draw the irons, put on sew
eraI drugs and gave the line to the mate, when
it became stationary. There was ROW out four
boats lines, 225 fathoms in boat, and two
thirds of another line, 100 fathoms more--in all
one thousand fathoms, six feet in a fathom---six
thousand feet-better than one mile and an
eighth, an enormous depth, and the pressure at
that distance il inconceiyabIe.
II was now blowing furiously, and scarcely
d., red to carry sail enough to keep the ship ND,
tie boat was in peril and was obliged to take
the line to the ship again, and run the risk Of
the irons drawing made the end of the line
fast, and took in all sail but enough to keep her
steady. and waited in alarm the snakes rising.
the parting of the line, or the irons drawing.
At j PM. the wind began to shift, which
favored MS a little at 5ps ". it, to our great
10y, began to abate.
sPM-a sudden lulI; line taut. The night
was beautiful. the sky clean wind scarcely a
breath. and sea rapidiy fallirty 9F
No eve was closed in the shin we were specu-
lating on cur prey. 1t was evident he was on
the bottom. He staid down a long time; but
on reflection considered that was his forte
that he was at home there Al 4p@M. Of the
l4th, sixteen hours after he went DOWN, the line
began to slack, had it taken to the windlass,
when we got nearly two lines hand over hand,r
then there came a strain again. This strain
continuing, I told every BODY to bear hand
and get breakfast. and lust before we were
through, the cook cried ont g Here he is In
no time all were on deck. and sure enough he
had risen; but all that was visible was a bunch,
apparently the blight of the Snake, where he
had been fastened to- I lowered three boats
and we lanced the body repeatedly without
elciting any sign of life
While we were at work, he gradually rose to
the surface. and arouud him floated what took
to be pieces of his lungs, which we had cut with
our lances To make our work sure, we continued
to lance, eagerly seeking for his life. when he
drew himself ND and we pulled away, and then
witnessed the terrific dying struggles of the
| monster None Of the crew who witnessed that
terrible scene will ever forget it the evolutions
of the body were rapid as lightning, seeming
1 like the revolving of a thousand enormous black
| wheels The tail and head would occasionally
appear in the surging bloody foam, and a sound
was heard, so dead, unearthly and expressive
of acute agony, that thrill of horror ran
through our veins The eonvulsive efforts lasted
ten or fifteen minutes, when they suddenly
stopped, the head was partly raised-it fell
the body partly turned and lay still. I took off
my hat, and nine terrific cheers broke simuIta-
ueously from our throats Our prey acas dead
Luckily he hoated buoyantly. and We took
him alongside and while doing 20 he turned over.
wing belly up Every eve beamed with ioy as
we looked at him over the rail. and the crew
Il again cheered yociferously. and / ioined them.
We now held a consultation as to what we should
do. and had requested all hands to offer their
opinions. After short talk. all of us felt CON
; yinced that it would he impossible to get him
into port and then we concluded to try and
| save his skin head and bones. if possible. Ii
!, the first place, requested Scotchman VIII,
j could draw tolerably. to take sketch Of him 81
e now quite smooth, and we could work to advan
tage ASH am preparing a minute description
o of the Serpent. I wilimereIy give YOU few gene
)" raj noints Tt was n male: the ienpth 1O3 fee
r inches: 19 feet inch around the neck: Q
feet inches areund the shoulders, and tn
o LARGEST part of the ho,,y. which appeared some
V what distended. "a faet II inches The hea,
i was long and fat. With Isdres the bones of th
e lower law sepelat.: tile tongue had its end lik
d the head of n heart The tail ran nearly to 1
d p;nt, on the end of which was a Hat firm cartil
e lace The hack was black. turning brown o,
g she sides. then yellow. and on the centre of th
e belly A narrow white streak o-thirds of it
1t length. There was also scattered over the bod,
\ dark spots. On examining the skin we found, t
D our surprise, that the body was covered will
as blubber like that on the whale, but it was onl,
four iz,ches thick Tho oil wac olear dc 7sste1
ly and burned nearly as fast as spirits of turpen
en- tine.
he We cut the snake in, but found great difficult,
as and had to hense him the body would not rol
he and the blubber was so very elastic that whe
ne stretched twenty feet by the blocks, it woul
tly when cut off, shrink to five six feet We tot
gi- in the head, fearful object, and are endeavo
sly ing to preserve it with salt
as We have saved all the bones, which the mt
IL are not done cleaning yet In cutting open Il
ne Serpent We found pieces of squid and lar
lte blackfsh, the flesh of which dropped from Il
n bones. One of the serpent's lungs was thr
). feet longer than the other | should have o
DIS served that there were ninety -four teeth in Il