Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-03
REAL SEA SERPENTS
May Turn Up Any Day Along the
Shores Where Beauty Bathes.
THE MONSTER FOUND In FLORIDA.
Scientists Believe Many of the Stories Told
by the Sailors.
TERRoRS WITH EYES IS INCHES WIDE

time of wear when the sea serpent may be
reasonably expected to make its appearance
off the Atlantic coast, and keepers of the
hotels that fringe the sandy strand of Jer-
sey scan the ocean horizon hopefully for
monster which may be turned into dollars
and cents as a seashore advertisement
Increased faith in the existence of an un-
known marine reptile of vast size is felt
since the recent announcement by Prof
Holder of the discovery of the actual car
cass of such creature in Florida Accord
ing to his account the Rev. DR.. Gordon, of
Milwaukee, President of the United States
Humane Society, was fishing in New River
Inlet when the f1ukes of his anchor caught
and pulled to the surface the dead body of
a snake-like animal AZ feet long, though
lacking both head and tail. 1t was partly
decomposed and the belly was ripped open.
Two small flippers were remarked. With
the intention of preserving its bones 1t was
dragged up on shore and left to rot; but
most unfortunately hurricane came and
this invaluable find was swept away by the
waves and lost
Science Recognizes a Possibility.
Nevertheless, the record of it confirms
the attitude of science in this matter, which
has never denied the possible survival of
certain gigantic reptilian types of past ages
which would correspond fairly we'll with
the numerous descriptions of the alleged
sea serpent. Although such a theory is
pooh-poohed by the ignorant, Agassiz be-
lieved it, as do many eminent thinkers to-
day, basing their opinions upon the affirm
ative testimony of eye witnesses When it
Is considered that two-thirds of the earth's
surface is covered with water the depth of
which, miles and miles beneath the waves,
has never been approached by human e1-
nloration, who can say what huge and FORM
less monsters may not lurk in the darkness
Of an aqueous night never illumined by
suns ray?
The description given by Rev. DR.. Cor
don of the carcass found by him in New
River Inlet might apply veiy well to GER
tain gigantic reptiles of the Cretaceous
epoch, exceedingly numerous in those days,
which are supposed to have been the an
cestors of modern snakes and lizards. One
species, tine clidastes, was of about the same
size, attaining a length OF As feet An
other, the mosasaurus maximus, was nearly
twice as big, measuring when full grown
not less than so feet.
The Greatest Sea Serpent of Geology.
Yet larger was the iodon, hugest of all
the mighty saurians of the vanished era,
which had long muzzle that is surmised to
have been used as a ram in fighting. These
enormous creatures, in general form re-
sembling eels, ploughed the waters with
four paddles and a propeller-like tail in
pursuit of the fishes which were their food.
Their heads were large and fiat and they
swallowed their prey whole, being able
TO take in animals of greater girth than
themselves, owing to the arrangement
of their jaws, which were provided mid
wry in their length with hinges. When
they lived this continent was lower than
it is now. New Jersey and Delaware, as
we'll as most of the Southern States, were
under water and the Rocky Mountains,
in places 10000 feet less elevated than
at present, appeared as a range separated
from the valley of the Mississippi bv
broad expanse of salt water that was in fact
an inland sea teeming with animal life
In those days reSl sea serpents not only
existed, but their numbers were almost in
ealculable, as is proved by their bones left
behind in the rocks of subsequent forma-
tlons and IN many cases so perfectly pre-
served that entire skeletons have been
found and are mounted in the museums
Pref. o. c. Marsh, of New Haven, speaks
of having seen as many as six Of these fossil
monsters in view at the same time in one
small valley out West
Thousands of Snakes in q ShoaI.
After all, the question is merely one of
size, inasmuch as marine snakes are verv
plentiful at present in some parts of the
world. They swarm in the Indian Ocean,
and naval officer was telling me the other
day that be had seen them in shoals of
thousands together in the Gulf of Siam. So
numerous were they that it was necessary to
thread the cables while at anchor through
barrels, in order to prevent the reptiles
from climbing up the ropes and coming
aboard while the ship was at anchor. Nor
was such a precaution BY any means super
fuous, owing to the fact that, as any one
may learn by turning to the Standard Nat
ural History. these serpents are most dam
gerously poisonous
In the work referred to their habit of
travelling in great numbers together is
spoken of. The seas from Madagascar to
Panama aad from Japan to New Zealand are
thickly infested with them. Dr. Steineger,
the reptllian expert of the Smithsonian In
stitution, tells me that they are among the
most poisonous of all known serpents, their
venom being not less deadly than tnat of the
cobra and rattlesnake. Furthermore, they
are very fierce and aggressive, and will COM
monty attack human beings If thew get a
chance. They do not frequent the shadows,
unless possibly for breeding, but live in the
open ocean. When full grown they are from
to s feet long. Fishermen in the waters
where they are found are greatly afraid of
them. Their bodies are fiat, and the inside
of them is almost wholly filled by the lungs,
which are large in order that thev NAV
be enabled to stay beneath the surface for q
long time without coming up to breathe.
They have eyes modified for seeing in the
water, SO that when they are taken out of
their native element, they seem blinded
and strike wildly. Their fangs, like those of
the cobra, are always erect
The Giant Squid of Indian Seas.
Undoubtedly the giant squid, which has
only become Familiarity known to science
within q few years, has frequently been
mistaken for a sea serpent In all qualities
which can render a marine monster horrible,
this huge and frightfu] moilusk may be said
to compare very favorably with any creature
of fact or fiction. When full grown, it
weighs 10, 600 pounds, having body so feet
long and two arms each 100 feet in length.
as well as eight smaller tentacleS A model
Of u diminutive individual measuring only
AZ feet from the end of its tail to either
tentacular extremity, is on exhibition at the
National Museum in Washington.
Specimens of this kind are not infre-
quently encountered by fishermen in the
Indian Ocean, where "the humble toiler of
the sea must be prepared at any time to see
monstrous creature with enormous gop-
CLING eyes rise out of the depths and fling
across his boat a gigantic tentacle armed
with scores OF suckers so powerful that
nothing short of horse power can pull them
off from the object to which they have been
once fastened. For such an adventure the
fisherman hae a 1yro NJ hon L.;