Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-07-12
SEA MONSTERS.
DENIZENS OF TIE SEA As YET UNKNOW1
STRANGE SEA MONSTERS.

in appearance to the famed
ea serpent as often described (Which is
lot saving that the creature was a ser
2ent). was seen by Captain Austin Coop
.r and the officers and crew of the Car
isle Castle, then bound for Melbourne.
A description and sketch of the monster
in the 4rgus.
On September II, at 10:30 A. NJ, the
third officer of the British steamship
Nestor. then in the Malacca Straits, an
shoal. Surprised to find
shoal in such well known track, Capt.
Webster watched the object and found
that it was in motion, keeping up the
same speed as the ship, and retaining
about the same distance as when first
seen. "The shape of the creature" said
the Captain lin an affidavit before Don
aid Spence, Law Secretary to the Danish
ish Supreme Court at Shanghai, Il would
compare to that of a gigantic frog. The
head. Of a pale, yellOwish color, was
about twelve feet in length, and six feet
of the crown was above the water. |
tried in vain to make out the mouth,
he proceeds. "but the mouth may have
been below the water. The head was
connected with the body
without any indication of a neck. The
body was about fOrty-tive or fifty feet
long and of an oval shape, perfectly
smooth, but there may have been slight
ridge along the spine. The back rose
some five feet above the surface. An
immense tail, fully $50 feet in length,
rose a few inches above the water. This
tail l saw distinctly from its junction of
its body to its extremity. 1t seemed
cylindrical, with very slight taper, and
estimate its diameter at four feet. The
body and tail were marked with alter
nate bands or stripes, black and pale
yellow in color. The stripes were dis
tinct to the very extremity of the tail.
l cannot say whether the tail terminated
in fin or not. The creature possessed
no fins or paddles so far as we could per
ceive. | can not say if it had legs. 1t
to progress by means of an I'M
dulatory motion of the tail in a vertical
plane"
1t may be remembered that in 1873 a
monster cuttlefiSh was encountered by
two fishermen in Conception Bay, New
foundland. When attacked the creature
threw its long arms across the fisher
mems boat, which it appeared to regard
as veritable object of prey; but one of
the fishermen cut off the tentacle with
an axe, on which the cephalOpOd with
drew, apparently regarding the mans
actions as unfair. The tentacle was
twenty-five feet in length; and as the
fisherman considered that it was cut off
fully ten feet from the body, the entire
length of the tentacle must have been
about thirty-five feet. They estimated
the body at sixty feet in length and five
feet in diameter.
In 1861 the French war steamer Alec
tor encountered a monster cutie at sea
about 100 miles northeast of Teneriffe.
The crew got a moose around the body,
but unfortunately it slipped to the tail,
which it pulled off. The weight of this
little bit of the creature was found to be
over forty pounds. 1t was estimated
that the body was fifty feet long and the
weight not less than 1000 pounds.
The most remarkable account of sea
monster of this kind was that given by
the Captain and officers Of the Pauline.
1t was sworn to on oath by George Ore
var, the Captain; Horatio Thompson,
chief mate, and by the steward and a
seaman.
On July s we observed three large
sTerm whales, one of which was gripped
round the body by two turns of what
appeared to be a huge serpent. The
head and tail appeared to have length
beyond the coils of about thirty feet; and
a girth of eight or nine feet. The crea-
tllre Whirled the whale round and round
for about fifteen minutes, and then sud
denly dragged it to the bottom, head
first.
Five days later the same creature, or a
similar one, was seen about two hundred
yards from the ship, darting along the
surface, head and neck being out of the
water. Only Captain Drevar and an or
minutes later the Captain, first mate
and two seamen saw the monster raise
its neck and head above the water to a
height which they estimated at 60 feet.
Some ten years ago Commandant Vii
leneuve and the officers of the French
man-Of- war the Lendre, saw creature
corresponding in appearance with the
sea serpent, travelling rapidly along, the
head slightly raised above the water,
and with sort of name streaming back
ward, while the back of long body
could be seen under the water. A crea-
ture exactly answering to this descrip-
ton was seen by Major James Harding,
then an officer in the King of Vigis's
army, passing within few yards of his
canoe, and swimming toward small
island outside of Suva Bay, known as
the home of the Big Snake. Captain
the Hon. George Hope, of the British
ship Fly, when in the Gulf of California,
the sea being unusually calm and trans
parent, saw at the bottom large marine
animal with the head and general figure
of an alligator, but the neck much long
er, and with four large paddles instead
of legs.
Ny own belief is that some, at any
rate, of the stories relating to supposed
sea serpents are to be explained by the
theory that there still exist creatures
such as Captain Hope described long
necked reptilian forms akin to the Doll
chodeiros of former ages. Such crea-
lures would present all the characters
tics recognized in the sO-called sea ser
pents, Their paddles would enable
them to advance rapidly without percep-
tible undulatlon, (Which the sea serpent
has been observed to do, and no actual
serpentine creature could dO).
The great objection to this view has
been that we find no fossil plesiosaurs in
tertiary strata. But this objection loses
its force when we note that the chimera
Ga connecting link between the sharks
and the sturgeons) is closely related to
forms existing in the secondary era, while