Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-08-02
The DAKOTA SNAKE.
SatcrtOwn's Marvellous Mystery
Attracting Much Attention.

vyatcrtown's Marvellous Mystery
Attracting Much Attention.
ST. Paul Pioneer Press: The usual
summer announcement of the appear
'ance OF tEa sea serpent slnRnlarly enough
does not come from any point on the
Atlantic coase this year, bat from Lake
kamp D -ska in Dakota. Dakota ls O land
oi maryefS Ia Mtnter, and In summer
producing the seyerest congelation In
Hlntur aud Last luulwu heat III summer,
with cyclones ana na4 unprecedented.
it Is not surprising, the,store, that the
sea serpent Is reported W have been
visible 10 u select clrcie Of .Dakotslans
gazing upon the blue watei% of Lake
kunpeska. As u general thingthc eye.
witnesses Of tuis marine moustee. have
been mYriners who traverse the salt seas !;
cut . 10 not mposslble that the venera-
bic curiosity may be provided WITH
wings and is able occasionally to trans
fer ltf elf from salt to fresh water. AT
any rate, citizens of WATERFOWL, which
Ia an entirely reputable town, have
actually seen q large and .rightful, scaly,
sinuous, snake-llke form moving through
the water with its head exposed.
The description which has been tele-
graphed from Watertown does not go
sufficiently into detail to enable the
naturalist to identity the monster with
the one seen by Egede IN 1874, cf the
Greenland coast, or the half-horse seen
by the parish priest in Norway waters
u l746, The LaEe Kanptskn serpent is
somewhat like the one seen off the Nova
Scotia coast IN 1883 by some british
officers. This creature WAS fully one
huuored feet long, with o large black
and whlte head. few years after he
appeared off the coast oil Massachusetts,
and has been regularly seen every year
st some point on the Atlantic coast and
occasionly on interior waters. In 1913
Prof. Richard Owen took mp the subject
seriously and denied the existence of the
sea serpent on the ground that there is
an utter absence of any of the fecnet
remains Of great sea serpents, ktnkens or
enaliosaurla. lie asserted that larger,
body OF eye witnesses could be jtten
together IN proof oil ghosts than OF sea
serpent. This opinion, from o high
scientific source, enteged the sen ser
pcnt seers, and net long after the p1o :
fesBur'o utternnce the monster began to
make appearance annually. Now the
question ls: Could all theHe people have
peen dece we'd as Prof. Owen says? Is it
possible that sturdy, virile Dahotaiaps,
who certnlnaly are not given to sup, r.
stitions fears huve heen subjects to IN
hallncinatio I? Cay t. McQuhoe, who s. W
the serpent off Nova Scotia, twore II at
there was no possibility of optical IL
lnslon In that case, and it is likely that
the same statement viii be made by the
persons who have lr-t seen the creature
OF kampeska 1t Is hoped that the
Kampeska serpent will be seen ut such
hort distance that skepticIsm may be
disarmed: Let an instantaneous photo
graph be taken of him SO hat donbt
may be allayed. Is it not possible that
some marine sautian of the secondary
deposits may have escap d the cata-
clysm which destroyed his brethren and
lived MP to the present time? The mys-
terry of Lake kampeeka should bo un .
raveled IN the interest OF sci nee.