Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-10-20
THE sEA.sERPENT.
Ancient Descriptions Of the Monster Fur
nished by veracious Chroniclers.

Ancient Descriptions OF the Monster Fur
nished by verAcious Chroniclers.
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 them
selves to terrify mankind. In fact, if
the notion were not so old as to seem
to find its source in fables and mytho-
logical legends, one reason for doubt
ing the reality Of the creature would
be removed. Most OF these extremely
ancient descriptions come from the
Northern lands, and the cold oceans OF
Scandinavia. Thus, one ancient au-
thor. CLAUS Magnus, speaks OF u 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 "Chronicle Of
Prodigies and Portents," by Conrad
Wolfhart, 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 scaly body and
head like wild boar, and the
''Physeter, n horrible freak of the
imagination, which has a horse's head,
the teeth of a dragon and the blow
holes of whale. Wolfhart narrates
that in Isl b. c., on the coast of
Sardinia, several mighty snakes came
up from the sea and attacked vessels:
, but, as his picture shows the alarmed
, crew discharging 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 sca-serpent that lay
| coiled on some rocks at Cape Ann,
. Mass. And it should be observed how
p early Massachusetts waters and the
n New England coast became the regions
a linked with appearances of the myste-
:. rious creature. Some Indians whc
n rowed near this one, in skif, were
a sorely frightened and warned the En-
glishmen with them not to fire at it, OF
a they would be in peril ,Unluckily
g Mr.. Josselyn was not of the boat party
. and the result is that we get this ac
!. count only by hearsay.
(, The next narl ative of value is sin
d gular description by Rev. Hans Egede
). IA distinguished missionary to Green
II land, who records in his diary in 1884
,r the rising to the surface of the sea nea
"a his parish Of II ''monster" so huge i
a size that, coming out of the water, it
w head reached us high as the mainnast
in 1t had "a long, pointed snout, and spout
IN ed like whale. The under part G
u the body was shaped like that of hug
an serpent. This remarkable creatur
,o seems to have been more like giant
ia squid than like any animal of the sci
al pent kind.
Two records of our mysteriou
monster, with p'elty of details, 500
follow. Joseph Kent, seaman, behel
in Broad Bay, in May. 175l, gre;
m serpent longer and thicker than til
main-boom Of his eighty-fve-ton shil
us aad good Bishop Pontopidan, in h
hg famous Natural History of Norway,
~ tells us that the Norwegian coast
On the only European shore visited by Il
vi. creature; and that formidable spec
gu men, six hundred feet long, with i
ne extended back looking like a row
ha floating hogsheads, was chased by
l boats crew OF eight sailors under
WI certain Captain de Ferry, but that
ier escaped.
he Passing by the statement OF Eleazi
ho Crabtree, who declares that in 1913
saw this shy swimmer on the surfa
ast of Penobscot Bay, we reach real
VI. important record dated the next yea
'ae 1879. In that year Commodore Preb
I'M (afterward so famous rs one OF OF
'as naval heroes, but then II young mi
ito shipman) pursued with boat al
'iit twelve seamen, a monster-a sea-se
pent between one hundred and o
Leo hundred and fifty feet in length witt
lea huge head. Its motion was so rap
Tx that it could not be overtaken. II W
'ea observed at intervals for an hour.
ieo Is at least odd if there was any dece
wv ton, that one year later Mr.. Geor
cry Little sighted what seems to have be
de- the same snake, in Round Pond, Bro
'ss. Bay--EdWard Iren9us Stevenson,
me 81. Nicholas.