Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-01-04
A WONDER OF THE DEEP.
A Marine Frog Fifty Feet Long Follows
a. British Steamship,

A Marine Frog Fifty Feet Long Follows
British Steamship.
In the, month of October last the
British steamship Nestor arrived at
Shanghai from the Straits of Malacca.
Shortly after the anchoring of the YES
sci at Shanghai, John X. Webster, the
Master and James Anderson, the ships
Surgeon, appeared before Mr.. Donald
Spence, Acting Law Secretary in her
Britannia Maiesty's Supreme Court,
and made affidavit to the following
marvellous statement of facts:
We JohnKeiller Webster, of Liver
pool, and James Anderson, surgeon, of
Liverpool, do solemnly and sincerely
declare as follows: And, first, l, the
said John Keller Webster, in command
of the steamship Nestor, do declare
that on Monday, the 18th day OF Sep
TENDER, at 1890, a. M, fifteen miles
northwest of North Sand Lighthouse,
in the Malacca Straits, the weather be-
ing fine and the sea smooth, the air also
perfectly clear, L saw a little forward
of the beam, on the starboard side,
about 200 yards distant from the ship,
an object first pointed out to me by my
third officer, who remarked: "There
is a shoal." Surprised at finding 8 shoal
in such a well known track, | watch
ed the object and found that it was in
movement, keeping up the same speed
with the ship, and retaining about the
same distance as when first g The
speed of the ship was 81 knots,
and the object was NOV
ing parallel with us during six
minutes. just after I observed it, the
Chinese deck-passengers discovered it
and raised a great cutlery, and about
the same moment it was deserted by
three saloon-passengers and the Sur
geon. The shape of the creature, for
that it was alive there is no doubt, I
would compare to a gigantic frog. Re-
ferring to the head and body, as far as
they were apparent above the water
the head, of a pale yellowish color, was
about twelve feet in length, and six feet
of the crown was above the water; Oc-
casionally the head subsidized, until only
o foot or q foot and a half remained
above the water. l tried in vain to
make out the eyes and mouth; the
mouth, however, may have been below
water. The head vas Immediately con-
nected with the body, without any in
dication of n neck. The body was
about forty-hve or fifty feet in length,
and of an oval shape, perfectly smooth,
but there may have been a slight ridge
along the spine. The back rose some
five feet above the surface. An i'm
mense tail, fully $50 feet in length, rose
a few inches above the water. This tail
[ saw distinctly from its junction with
the body to it's extremity; it seemed
cylindrical, with q very slight taper, and
| estimated its diameter at four feet. The
body and tail were marked with alter
nate bands of stripes, black and pale
yellow in color. The stripes were dis
tinct to the very extremity Of the tail.
| can not say whether the tail termi.
mated in a fin or lot / examined it
carefully at the aforementioned dis
lance, but could not satisfy myself how
the tail terminated. The creature pos
sessed no fins or paddles, as far as we
could perceive, neye having seen any
part of its belly. l can not say if it had
legs. 1t is very possible that the crea-
ture was much broader and more
sive than the dimensions above given,
for the greater part of it was evidently
under water, and we never caught a
| glimpse of any but the extreme upper
parts. 1t appeared to me to progress
by means of an undulatory motion of
the tail in a vertical plane. The tail
seemed to have al independent motion;
that is to say, a quicker and Il different
one from the body. The head would
| rise slowly and the body become
simultaneously lower, and vice versa.
The undulations OF the tail were brisker
and very distinct, and [ closely watch
ed them through good glasses. | had for
some moments the idea of running the
creature down, but / shortly dismissed
the intention OF account Of the danger
of breaking the screw-blades. The
creature showed no sign of fear. lean
not even say if it was conscious Of our
presence. 1t finally dropped under our
stern and passed over to the port side,
somewhat s~lackening its speed. Some
time afterwards, however, it increased
it's pace, and when last seen was on our
port beam, at about one and a half to
two miles distance. The creature
formed a distant wake, and seemed to
exude an oily matter as he moved. And,
secondly, |, the said James Anderson,
do solemnly and sincerely declare as fol-
lows, namely, that the shape and color
of as much as was distinguishable of
the creature bore an almost exact re-
semblance to the upper part of a sala-
mander; the stripes, however, were
rather more definite, yellow (the pecu-
liar yellow of a salamander) alternating
with deep black. There were eight to
ten stripes on the back. l almost i'm
mediately said, 1t is ar enormous sal
amander," and the more | examined it
the more / was satisfied of the resem-
blance. The back was much higher,
some eight or ten feet at times, and
from my position | could not form any
opinion of its mode of progression. 1t
was apparently of a g%elatinous e. e.
fabby) substance. Though keeping up
with us, its movements seemed lethar-
gic. IsawnO eyes or fins, and am GER
tain that the creature did not blow or
spout in the name of a. whale. /