, 1877-09-14
The Great Sea-Serpent.

upon whose back, mistaking him for an
island, colony planted itself; and was
narrating that at wasn't till thev,d
built church, And houses in row,
That the snake he left them in the
lurch, BY diving down beloww At in
tervals he has come up again, and been
seen by astonished shippers from the deck
OF their smacks, by Summer boarders
from the verandas of Summer hotels,and,
far at sea, from the tall mast heads of the
vepturesome ships. He has been scru-
tinized through spy-glasses, and substan.
tiated in affidavits. He has eyaded boat
expeditions sent against him, and has
always gone under at the critical mo-
ment of probable capture. He has
aroused the most scornful skepticism:
he has been profoundly believed in; he
has been debated by the learned and de-
Tended by the ignorant, and on the 18th
inst he was seen once more at Nahant.
moving with vermicular velocity. Some
say that he was forty feet long, and some
say that he was thirty feet only-nobody
assigns to him lesser length than the
last. Sometimes he remained motionless
basking in the sunbeams, and then lash.
ing furiously the waters with much fuss
and foam, he has disappeared. Last
Wednesday he made a second appear.
ance, and was seen as before, and after
duly disporting himself, went below
again to rejoin the salt society of the
Tritons and to flirt with the fifty daugh.
ters of Nereus. Who knows what report
of our men he made to Poseidon, or of
our pretty seaside loungers to Queen
Amphitrite when the mermen and mer
maids poised themselves upon their final
fins to listen to his yarn2 Did the charm
ing Galatea ask him for the freshest
news from the Sicilian plains, or the
horse-taming King Of the Sea require
from him the latest turf intelligence9
But these are questions which nobody can
answer, and so we content ourselves with
fancying all the forty feet coiled up in
coral grove, with the purple mullet and
goldfish rowing about the sleeping crea-
ture.
Of course all along the shores of Mas
sachusetts Bay, and from beadland to
headland, there is infinite talk of his Ser.
pentship. Some truth is told of him,
but, alas! how many lies. Before this the
well-pickled veteran, between the puffs
Of his short pipe, has narrated tibs
enough about the monster to set an epic
poet up in business, and has declared
that he saw him with enormous head up
lifted, breathing smoke and fire, and bel
lowing like bull OF Bashanl For it
was long ago settled that our hardy mar
liners possess extraordinary powers of i'm
agination, and have caught from the
souding sea passion for mystery. II is
this well established fact which, in some
minds given to the amusement of weigh
ing evidence, has reduced the noble Sea-
serpent to the category of fable, and
ranked him with Sphynxes and Gorgons
and Chimeras dire, with Salamanders
and Phgnixes, with Griffins and Uni
corns. If he did not, now and then,
come up aud assert himself and, as it
were, demonstrate his own existence, he
would long ago have been classified with
the exploded geological curiosities Of an
tiquity. But being seen of so many, and
by some who do not do business on the
great waters, being discovered from the
shore by prosaic landsmen, and by wom-
en- who are always 80 slow to credit any
thing wonderful, he has better right to
be believed in than some rare animals,
now in every wandering menagerie, had
only a few years ago. For our own part
we are certain that the astonished Ma
hant gazers must have seen something,
and something not seen every day of the
week. Of what use is IL for man to go
to sea all the days of his life, storm-tossed
and bathed in the flying spray until his
face is of bronze and he is well nigh
web fingered, if, after all this experience,
he cannot tell serpent from a porpoise
or a horse-mackerell Let US believe In
the sea.snake of the Nahant watersI Let
US even acknowledge him to be lineal
descendant of the sinuous pair which
came out Of the blue waves to execute
the vengeance of Minerva upon LAGOON
aud his innocent boysl
These marvels Of antiquity, doubtless
made rapid passages, and the modern
specimens are not wanting in velocity
Possibly, the creature seen from II. N. o.
Osborne off the north coast OF Sicily on
the I'd of June last was identical with
our recent visitor. His picture is pub
lished in London illustated newspaper,
and he is particularly remarkable for his
paddles or flappers, which have semi-Te,
volving motion, and are fifteen feet ID
length. He has long row Of fms upon
his back, great knob-shaped nose, ana
his skin is like that Of the seal. Alto
gether, it must be admitted that seen from
distance, the sea serpent is not remark
able for fascinating personal beauty.
Still IL would be unfair TO judge him ID
this respect without clear view; and We
do entreat all who may have the oPpor-
tunity, to capture, IL possible, the neh'
serpent that may come up. The puonc'
fed 80 long upon unsatisfactory reports
pines TO see the creature In an aquarium,