Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1883-12-27
Rather Fishy,

why 90 so1entino men manifest such
inoredulity regarding the existence Of the
sea serpent There does not appear, to
men who ars not nsturslists, to be any
thing improbable in the existence Of such
a marine monster; and the simple fact
that no specimen has yet been caught
and Gagged or no skeleton OF the sea SER
pent has yet been dIsdgsd up does not
seem sufficient to negative the many cir
oumstsntial stories told by men of all ma
tionaliiieB and conditions in life who
have claimed to have seen the alleged
mythical big snake OF the briny deep.
Take, for example, the official report Of
the British Admiralty Of Captain
M'Quhae, Of the frigsts D@aalus, cor
roborated by Lieutenant Drummond, Of
the appearance Of sea serpent seen by
them i'll 1913, off the ooast of Africa, the
latitude and longitude of the locality
being given In the report. Captain
M'Quhae describes the creature 40 ian
enormous serpent, with head and shout
"ders kept about four feet constantly
"above the surface Of the sea-" and he
adds:
As nearly ~ we could approximate by COM
pairing it with the length OF what our MAIN
topsan yard would show in the water, there
was at the very least 10 feet of the animal
heur d'eau, no portion of which was, to our
1aadt t,y
water. either by vertical or horizontal un-
dulation. 1t passed rapidly, but 30 closely
under our lee quarter that had it been man
OF my acquaintance, l should have easily
recognized his features with the naked eye /;
and 1t did not, either in approaching the ship
or after it had passed our wake deviate in
the slightest degree from its course to the
southwest, which it held at the pace of from
~ to 10 miles per hour, apparently on some
determined purpose. The diameter of the
serpent was about 10 or Is inches behind the
head, which was, without any doubt, that of
snake and 1t WAS never, during the 20
minutes that 1t continued within sight OF our
glasses, once below the surface OF the waters
ltd color dark brown with yellowish-
about the throat. II had no fins, but some
thing like the name of horse, or rather a
bunch OF sea weed washed about its neck.
This is the story of men accustomed to
the ocean and the sights of the ocean and
1t would be an insult to their intelligence
and experience to suggest that what they
saw WAS line Of floating sea weed or a
school Of porpoises or anything Of the
kind, and there are dozens OF other
similar stories on record. Yet, notwith-
standing all the evidence In this line
which has been adduced, the average
scientific man will INTERESTINGLY sub.
| scribe TO the belief that the sun Is shrink
ing in bulk at the rate OF 30 many cubic
miles per year and will eventually burn
out and grow cold, carrying death and
destruction through all the worlds re-
volving around it, and yet the same
credulous scientist will shrug his
shoulders incredulously at the mention
of the sea serpent.
This subject is suggested by the deci
sion Of Professor Baird Of the Smithsonian
Institution, upon report made b,
Captain Green of the life saving services
in regard to the appearance OF sea ser
pent off Long Branch few weeks ago
We presume Captain Green saw tn
creature which he describes it is Ger
tain, on the other hand, that Professo
Baird did not see it. Yet the professo
declares that he has .'no difficulty il
identifying the object referred to as tn
"devil fish of South Carolina or mant
"of Spanish America. This is a hug
sting ray, fish with projections o.
"each side Of the snout, by means q
(which it sometimes picks u
"the anchor Of good size
"boat and carries it off," 81
1t may be that Professor Baird is CORE,
in his diagnosis, and it may be tn,
Captain Green has seen as many stin
rays as the professor has. But it
evident to the unscientific man that sue
sting ray would be as remarkable
creature as a sea serpent, and the quer
arises-can the scientists give any COL
vincing reason why there might, eoult
would or should not be such a creatul
as sea serpent 7