Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-06-23
IOWA, FRIDAY, JUNE %, 1876
A MONSTER OF THE DEEP.

A MONSTER OF THE DEEP.
The Thing as Seen and Described b.
a Missionary. Was It Sea Ser
pent, or What in the World
was IT.
From the Bombay Gazette.
STEAMSHIP HYDAsPEs, March 22.-
As missionary, l have travelled owe
a great part Of the world, but I cal
safely aver that what I saw on Satul
day, the 18th day of March, was in
comparably the most marvellous phe
nomenon that has ever met the eye
We steamed out of Bombay harbo
on the evening of Monday, the 13t1
of March, in the steamship Hydaspes
Captain Reynolds. On Tuesday, a
II o'clock, we had made 1872 miles
on Wednesday, at midday, 429; Oh
Thursday, 7o7, and on Friday, nearl,
1000, so that Oh Saturday we wer'
about 1900 miles from Bombay.
Nothing of remark had occurred
up to Saturday. The weather wa
cool and nearly every one slept be
low, only one passenger, Captain
Davidson, and myself remaining OF
deck for the night. l was reused
from sleep at six by the men washing
and scrubbing the decks. I took my
plate of broken biscuit to the ster1
and sat there munching them ant
looking at the sun rising. l wa.
quite alone, Captain Davidson still
sleeping in peace on the port side
There was a thick bank of clouds OF
the horizon, and as the sun rose from
the sea behind the great bank, great
masses of color, red and blue anG
yellow, lit up the whole expanse Of
sky and sea. l was looking at 6
strange, ruddy, blot of red on the
water right astern, when l saw ap
parently near the horizon, but in the
red blot, a dark moving shadow
1t did not seem to move with the
other shadows on the sea, and this
fixed my attention on it. Soon 1 saw
that it was steadily approaching the
vessel. l could distinguish no form
only dark shadow, but l made out
certainly that it was advancing to
wards us and at great rate.
Fifteen minutes must have passed
when at last became able to distin
gulsh the form of the advancing
object. Il spoke to the captain after
ward as to the distance the object
could have been from us when l first
distinguished it, and he told me that
I must have been deceived by the
moving light in SUPP osing it nearer
the horizon, and he guessed from
what l said it was then only three
or four miles distance. Mistakes OF
a like nature he said are commonly
made by the inexperienced) 1 can
not describe my feelings on behold
ing that hldeous sight. At first
turned to call out to bring others to
look on with me, but before a cry
could pass my lips, second feeling
of selfish pleasure that l alone saw
that fearful thing seized me and ]
turned my eyes again to the sea, and
l kept them fixed there. Within a
hundred feet of the stern of our yes.
sci, not now approaching us, but
simply following steadily in oul
wake, was this hideous thing.
THE MONSTERS HEAD.
A great mass of what looked like
tangled seaweed, on which a turtle
attempt at combing had been made
rose out of the water. This mass
must have been twenty or thirty feet
IN length and ten feet in width, and
as it came on it caused wide ripple
in the water, that showed there must
be still greater part below the sur
face. From the center of this mass,
raised just clear above it and facing
it, was a great black head. The top
was quite flat, in shape not unlike
that of a monstrous toad. A thick
fringe of coarse, reddish hair hung
over the mouth, quite concealing it.
But the eyes were the most awful
part of this fearful thing. They
were placed far apart at either ex-
tremity Of the flat head, distant from
each other about three feet.
must here state that all the pas
sengers and all the crew, except the
Captain himself, saw the thing after
ward, but there were scarcely two
who could agree as to the color and
nature of those eyes. l can only
therefore, write as they appeared to
me. The eyeballs were enormous;
they must have been four or five in
ches in diameter. They sciutillated
constantly. Every one knows the
extraordinary appearance of sur
face covered with small alternate
squares of bright red and bright blue,
the quivering, uncertain, unfixed
look such a surface has, the Difficult.
ty, the impossibility experienced by
the looker-on to fix the color of any
particular square. The eyeballs of
this thing had such a quivering, un-
certain look, but they were not red,
not blue, not red and blue; they were
of a bright, burningly bright, copper
hue; they panied our eyes-and In
this we were all agreed-as we look
ed at them. In the center of each
eyeball, mere speck, but visible
from it's extreme brightness, was a
point of light-of white light. 1t
was impossible to tell whether these
points were or were not material
points of the eye, or merely caused
by reflection, but they were clearly
defined, and seemed to remain in the
same place. The motion, however,
of the thing was so steady that no
deduction could be fairly drawn
from their not changing their posi-
ton.
TERRIFIED SPECTATORS.
l had been so absorbed in the pleas
ing pain of looking at the thing that
l had quite forgotten the other people
on board, and was first aroused by
hearing Captain Davidson step up
on the stern by me, giving one look
below, and then hurriedly 60 back.
In few moments every passenger
was crowded on the stern, even the
ladies appeared in unfinished cos
tune. Exclamations of the extre-