Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-08-30
THE sEA-sERPENT.

Ancient Descriptions Of the Monster Far
nished by veraeious Chroniclers.
It 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, Il
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 an-
thor, CLAUS Magnus, speaks Of q sea-
snake two hundred feet long that rose
from the waves, lowered above aships
mast, and snapped up cattle and mon 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 q
head like q wild boar. and the
'Physeter," horrible freak of the
imagination, which has q horses head.
the teeth OF dragon and the blow
holes of whale. Wolfhart narrates
that in 151 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
visit, was told Of q sea-serpent that lay
coiled on some rocks at Cape Ann,
Mass And it should be observed how,
early Massachusetts waters and the
New England coast became the regions
linked with appearances Of the mystic
rious creature. Some Indians who
rowed near this one, in skin, were
sorely frightened and warned the En-
glishmen with them not to fire at 1t, or
they would be In peril. Unluckily.
Mr.. Josselyn was not Of the boat party,
and the result is that we get this 40
count only Dy nearsay.
The next narr alive OF value IL sin.
gular description by Rev. Hans Egede.
q distinguished missionary to Green
land, who records in his diary In 17S4.
the rising to the surface Of the sea near
his parish of q monster" 10 huge ii
size that, coming out OF the water, its
head reached as high as the mainmast-
II had long, pointed sn0ut, and spout
ed like q whale. The under part Of
| the body was shaped like that Of . huge
serpent. This remarkable creature
seems. to have been more like giant
squid than like any animal Of the serr
pent kind.
Two records Of our mysterious
monster, with plenty Of details, soon
follow. Joseph Kent, seaman, beheld
in Broad Bay, in May. 1761, great
serpent longer and thicker than the
main-boom Of his eighty-fve-t0n shipi
and good Bishop Pontopidan. in his
famous Natural Historysof Norway.
tells US that the Norwegian coast =
the only European shore visited BY tho
creature; and that q formidable speci-
mon, six hundred fest long, with IL
extended back looking like : row q
floating hogsheaAs, was chased ~
boats crew Of eight ssilo1 under :
certain Captain de Ferry. but that 4
i escaped.
Passing by the statement Of Eleasa1
Crabtree, who declares that IN l776 No
saw this shy swimmer on the surface
Of Penobscbt Bay. 10 reach really