The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-06-15

| hurry away and take our chance of bath
ing at that late hour. Up to this time the
thing had kept steadily in our wake, its
movement continuing absolutely smooth
and constant, and the two specks of light
in the glaring eyes never changing a hairs
breadth from their position.
At breakfast sat one remove from the
Captain. We began, Of course, talking
of the thing we had seen, but the Captain,
for some reason we could not then under
stand, seem ed to dislike the slbject, and
soon we abandoned it, falling then into
absolute silence, for we could talk OF
nothing else. When we went on deck
again-we were only few minutes at
breakfast-we found the thing following
in our wake The children had, in a
great measure, got over their fear, and
had made long line by joining hands,
and the whole lot of them would now
crouch down and then suddenly rise up,
| open their mouths at the thing, and cry
out at it. No notice apparently being
taken of this, they grew bolder, and at
last their cries increased till they shrieked
shrilly.
Suddenly the hideous creature seemed
reused by those cries, it raised its head in
the air, uttered strange below, and
came forward at great pace toward the
ship. None Of us could at first move
from fear; the thing seemed to have grown
n, ciya hic aha1 ~ srlx
bright; the children fell on the deck cry
ing, and some of the women tainted. 1t
came swiftly up to the ship, always utter
ing the same peculiar cry or below
When but a few feet from the stern, it
suddenly turned and came up close on
the port side. Here the side awnings had
been put up to keep off the sun; but three
of us had rushed up to the awning and
quickly got it down, that we might the
better watch the thing. For myself l
must say that while doing this I was still
suffering from extreme fear, but my curl
osity was so intense, so irresistible, that
could only act as l did. No sooner was
the thing level with lis than it raised it
self with a sudden movement out of the
water, till its head was thirty or forty feet
above us. 1t still uttered the same pc
culiar cry or below. We stood out on
the bulwarks to follow its movements. 1t
opened great mouth, cried more loudly
than before, and made three blows at the
mainmast. The last of these touched it,
and caused the ship to sway violently, so
that We were nearly cast off into the water.
When we again looked for the thing it
had gone. There was no ripple, no dis
turbance of any kind in the water to show
where it had been. 1t was gone absolute
ly. We looked constantly for the rest of
that day, but not the slightest trace did
we again discover.
And now let me state shortly why I, not
over facile in writing, or fitted for the
subject by knowledge, write this. At
Tifin of that same day, just as we were
rising to return on deck, the Captain rose
and asked us to remain for few min
utes. Then he shortly referred to the
strange sight we had seen that day, lay
ing stress on the fact, however, that he
himself had not seen it, and he went on !:
Now none of you can doubt what you
saw; but | advise you not to talk about it.
That was the sea serpent you saw. But |
wouldn't talk about it if saw it. 1t only
leads to making people laugh, and the pa
pcrs take it up and cut jokes on it, and it
won't do you any good, and it would not
do me any good But, then, remember
| did not see it, SO I've nothing to do
with this one. But, if you take my ad-
vice, you won't talk abOutit. Punch took
up one sea serpent, and that Captain
never got over it-never. Remember,
though, l didn't see this one"
You will see now, Mr.. Editor, that if
you don't publish this, a most eXtraGrdi-
nary fact may be lost to the world. This
account, may state, has been read over
by some Of the passengers. and their dis
agreement from what I have written is
only what would necessarily, under the
circumstances mentioned, be expected.
To show that I have no fear of ridicule,
give my name MATTHEW STRONG.
may state that when the thing raised
itself up and struck the mast, it was ap
parent that the a-weedlike mass was
long, coarse hair, covering dark, thick
neck But the thing could not possibly
have been serpent; for, to raise so pro-
digious a length of neck above the sur
face, huge body below the surface was
of course required.