The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1875-09-13
The Sea Serpent Seen and Described.

The Sea serpent Seen and Described.
The sea is the home of many monsters. |
In the depths Of ocean the leviathan sports |
and the shark gambos i'm his eager quest |
for brain food. The sea hog, that rollick-
ing dcnizen of the deep, tosses on the top |
most wave for its own delight and that OF |
observing man. The venturesome fisher
man throws out his clam-baited hook and
catches the bass, too greedy Of the offered |
tidblt NEPTUNE drives across the waters. |
trident in hand, with mormaids ms coursers. |
He is not often seen, for he keeps stately |
dignity, and avoids the eyes of man. stu, |
there have been mariners who have at
least caught sight Of the streaming locks
of the fair four-n-haud.
BARNrM once had a mermaid on exhibit
ton. She was not beautiful, bui that per-
haps was because she wa. d"1d aud cm-
balm Il. We reject a. cynical and uuf,el-
ing the stories o. ichthyolugi.t-. that Il ,R-
NrM constructed his mermaid ont oi iutc
anda stranded shark. The inQuiring mind
may 20 too far. Its Imagination that hfts
us out of the dead lcvDl of life and peo-
pies the world with fairies and idoah-tic
men and women. from whom the hard
scrabble of earthly existence is u thing
apart. We all evidence our incoming or
our past. or prophecy our ont Going or our
future. 10y the~e fuciful imugnings.
Hence poets uul pictures. religions day
dreams. castles m SPAN, Atlantis. The gar
den of ilcsp,iidos Eden, the 81 Nir of life,
perpetual youth, the eyes wide open OF
childhood. and the visions which old men
see. Life without its romanccs would bc Il
poor exchange for no life at tail.
Ia these days when LOWELL strikes his
Tyre to melancholy notes and sings of
TWEED rather than ANrurRlrE, We
may all render Il vout thanks that over
AGAINST the realities of republican living,
So uuscductiyo, We can put tine fancie- of
the aged mariner aud people the soa,which
proclams 10 ~ re-istlc.s power and the
drowning Of oblivion. with fairy shapes
and mousirou- forms congruous with lis
immensely ana typical of It's unrcstraut.
This brings rs TO the sea serpent. That
authentic dwcllcr i'm old Occanus has been
revealed To- the willing eyes of many
mariner. The list runs back to the days Of
the cunning ILY>~ES of whom our Long
Branch chief Is the namcsnkc and comes
down 10 the last skipper who looked out
lcrward from his mackerel smack. and
with eyes not closed by Mcdford rum saw
the nnny monster career over the green
waves Of Cape Cod Bay. The Yankee skip
per il, IN fact, the main modern discovercr
of the sea serpent. 1t is Creditable to our
national seaman that ne has that distinc-
ton. To see sea serpent requires keen
eve. fancy quick and creative, ard n
f,f . IL,
men, whom Ben Butler in the days Of his
Congressional glory so grandly repre-
scented, have these essential qualities Tor
that survey OF the deep, they have gone
down into the great waters 10 some pur-
pose. Who shall blame them if. ascending
to the m@ht watch from the musty con-
fines of the forccastie, they taae first an
observation of the um bottle, aud then
casting their eyes over the dmgy cXpunse
Of waters. athwart which the moon casts "a
silver line they sight at last the coiuE
form OF the sea serpent, with thc head of u
unicorn and body long drawn out,
stretching To the remote horizon. aud no
visible tailt They have seen the monster.
Mcu see great many things in their lives.
/ but few of them catch sight Of u sea SCR
/ pcnt, and he who has enjoyed that prVi-
! 20 deserves "a Listener when lac tclls the
story.
Why should there not be n sea serpent
The world Is fun of creatures, including
some of our own species, for whose exist
cnce the short-siGhted eye Of man can
find no reason. The hippopotamu- seems
useless The rhlnoceros is not n thing OF
beauty. The mosquito apparently serves
| la
form no function that seems to conpen-
safe for bis destruction of the ,,,,ary
| edible on winch lac feeds. The curculio
| has almost destroyed the plum trees. aud
made the name of that delicious fruit "a
vague memory among men who A. boys
/ Toasted on It's tempting flesh. other ami
/ mlls aId insects sub,cIVe some discover
able purpose OF use. The COW gives US
/ mllk, the ant ;carhc- Us industry and COM
muunl thrift, the hcc makes honey for
n, the horse carrie, our burdens. the hen
provides material for the morning omrlct.
, the -nipc ami partridge giyc Us relaxation
/ IN .huutin"aud delight I'M deyourin- them.
What would our venerable lsl2-cX-G Gov
efnoi-0hoot-him -spot-Gencul DIX
do IL Ao could not put out his stools in his
back yard AT Wcsihnmpton and lure the
ycilowlcg and the duck within range of
his douhlcd-hawclicd brocch-loadcr? But
the other beasts Of earth aud air above
named perform no Observable function of
essential value 10 man. Scientific people
nowadays find fault with the eye rs a very
poor piece of optical workmanship They
could make a better Sightseeing machine
Themselves. Perhaps, therefore, we must
conclude that in hecreltions of her earlier
ages Nature made failures, as when she
constructed the hippopotnmus aud the
other hoasts we have referred to rs seem.
iugly of no available utility.
This brings us back to the sea serpent
again We think we have proved that the
lack OF his apparent necessity in the econ
! omy of the universe is no argument for
his uon-cXistcnce. The Yankee shippers
sea serpent is always very long. His head
i visible, but his tail is lost in innnity.
The most authentic sea serpent OF which
we have heard, however, is that described
by our correspondent of last Friday. 1t is
thn NpIWnuiup ia