The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-09-27
The Sea-Serpent.

1t is hardly necessary to say how old |
is the notion that huge monsters OF
the snake sort make their home deep |
in the seas, now and then showing
themselves to terrify mankind. In
fact, if the notion were not so old as
to seem to find its source in fables and
NEUROLOGICAL legends, one reason for
doubling the reality of the creature
would be removed. Most of these ex-
tremelv ancient descriptions come from
the Northern lands, and the cold
oceans of Scandinavia. Thus, one an
cient author, CLAUS Magnus, speaks of
a sea-snake two hundred feet long that
rose from the waves, lowered above
ships mast, and snapped up cattle
and men in its jaws. In the old
s.Chronicle of Prodigies and Portents,"
by Conrad Wolfhart, a German of the
sixteenth century, we find strange, rude
pictures of serpentine creatures. in
which he put all due faith; there is the
..Alcete," an animal with scaiy body
and head like wild boar, and the
..Phvseter," horrible freak of the
imagination, which has horses head,
the teeth of dragon, and the blow
holes of the whale. Wolfhart narrates
| that in Isl B. c., on the coast of Sar-
dinia, several mighty snakes came up
from the sea and attacked vessels; but,
as his picture shows the alarmed crews
diseharging cannon at the foe some
twelve centuries before cannon were
in use, there may be other errors.
To come to later accounts. In 1859
an English traveller named Josselyn,
who came over to New England on a
visit, was told of sea-serpent that lay
coiled on some rocks at Cape Ann,
Massachusetts. And it should be OBJ
served how early Massachusetts waters
and the New England coast became
the regions linked with appearances OF
the mysterious creature. Some lndl-
ans who rowed near this one. in
skiff, were sorely frightened and warn
ed the Englishmen with them not to
fire at it, or they would be in peril.
Unluckily, Mr.. Josselyn was not OF the
boat party, and the result is that we
get this account only by hearsay.
The next narrative of value is a sim
gular description by the Rev. Hans
Egede, distinguished missionary to
Greenland, who records in his diary in
1884, the rising to the surface of the
sea near his parish of a monster SO
huge in size that, coming, out of the
water, its head reached as high as the
mainmast. 1t had a long, pointed
snout, and spouted like whale. The
under part of the body was shaped ike
that of huge serpent. This remark
able creature seems to have been more
like giant-squid than like any animal
of the serpent kind.
Two records of our mysterious mon
ster, with plenty of details, soon fol-
, | laxry Tnoonh Kant hQhQId
Broad Bay, in May. 175l, great SER
pent longer and thicker than the main
, boom of his eighty-five-ton ship; and
good Bishop Pontoppidan. in his fam
Gus Natural History of Norway, tells
us that the Norwegian coast is the only
European shore visited by the creature;
and that formidable specimen, six
hundred feet long, with its extended
back looking like a row of floating
hogsheads, was chased by boats
crew of eight sailors under certain
/, Captain de Ferry, but that it escaped.
Passing by the statement of Eleazar
Crabtree, who declares that in 1873 he
saw this shy swimmer on the surface
of Penobscot Bay. we reachAa really
, important record dated the next year.
1879. In that year Commodore Preble
(afterward so famous rs one of our
naval heroes, but then young mid
shipman) pursued with a boat and
twelve seamen, a monSter-a sea-ser-
pent between one hundred and one
hundred and fifty feet in length, with a
huge head Its motion was SO rapid
,, that it could not be overtaken. 1t was
observed at intervals for an hour. 1t
is at least odd, if there was any decep-
tion, that one year later MIR. George
Little sighted what seems to have been
the same snake. in Round Pond Broad
Eda0nrd Irendus !SteUeatsOa iH st.
l Nicholas.