The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-25
MYTHICAL MONSTERS.
Some Bases of Truth, However, in the
Stories of sea Serpents.

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Stories OF sea Serpsnts.
From ST. Nicholas for august.
1t is hardly necessary to say how old is
the notion that hugo monsters of the snake
sort make their home deep in the seas, and
now and then showing themselves to ter
rify 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-
tremely ancient descriptions come from the
northern lanas ami the cold oceans of Scan
dinavia. Thus one ancient author, CLAUS
Magnus, speaks of a sea-s1ake 200
feet long that rose from the waves,
snapped up cattle and men in its jaws. In
the old Chronicle of Prodigies and Por-
tents by Conrad Woifehart, a German of
the Sixteenth injury, We find strange, rude
pictures Ot SCRIP antine creatures, il winch he
put ali due faith; there is the "alcete," an
animal with a Scaly body and a head like a
wild boar and the ''physeter," horrible
freak Of the imagination, which has a
horses head, the teeth OF dragon, and the
blow holes of the whale. Wolfehart mar
rates that in Isl B. c., on the coast of Sar-
DINA. several mighty snakes came up from
the sea and attacked the vessels; but, as
this picture.show the alarmed crews dis
charging cannon at the foe some twelve
centuries before cannon were in use, there
may be other errors.
10 come to later accounts. In 1899 an
English traveller named JOsselyn, who came
over to New England on a visit, was told
of a sea serpent that lay cooled on some
rocks at Cape Ann, Mass. And it should be
observed how early Massachusetts waters
and the Now gland coast became the re-
glons linked with appearances of the mys-
a. a
near this one in skiff were Sorely fright
ened, and warned the Englshmen with
them not to fire at it, or they would be in
peril. Unluckily, Mr., Josselyn was not of
the boat party, aGd the result is that we
get this account only by hearsay.
The next narrative Of value is a singular
description by the Rev. Hans Egede, a dis
tinguished missionary TO Greenland,
who records in his diary in 1854 the rising
to the surface Of the sea near his PARISH
monster" so huge in size that, coming out
of the water, its head reached as high as
the mainmast. 1t had long pointed snout,
and spouted like whale. The under part
of the body was shaped like that of a huge
serpent. The remarkable creature seems to
have been more like giant squid than like
any animal Of the serpent kind.
Two records of our mysterious monster,
with plenty of details, soon follow. Joseph
Kent, seaman, beheld in Broad bay in May,
175i, q great SeTpent longer ana thicker
than the main-boom of his S5-ton ship; and
good Bishop Pontopitian, in his famous
Natural History OF Norway" tells us that
the Norwegian coast is the only European
shore visited by the creature, and that
formidable specimen 800 feet long, with its
extended back looking like a row of float
ing hogSheads, was chased by boats crew
of eight sailors under a certain Captain de
Ferry, but that it escaped.
Passing by the statement of Eleazar Crab
tree. who declares that in 1778 he saw this
shy swimmer on the surface Of Penobscot
bay, we reach really important record
dated the next year, 1779 In that year
Commodore Preble Eafterward so famous as
one Of our naval heroes, but then a young
midsnipman) pursued with a boat ana
twelve seaman d monster-a sea serpent be-
tween 100 and $50 feet in length, with a
huge head. Its motion was SO r pid that it
could not be overtaken. 1t was observed at
intervals for an hour. 1t is at least odd, if
there was any deception, that one year later
Mr.. George Little sighted what seems to
have been the same snake in Round Pond,
Broad bay.