The morning news., 1894-11-02
TALES OF SEA MONSTERS.
Some Substantial Stories Concerning
Their Existence.
An Eighty-Foot Kraken Stranded on
the Danish Coast-A Mermaid That
Was Captured and Taught to Spin.
From the London Standard.

From the London Standard
II Is humoropsiy alleged that the sea
serpent has been laughed out of exis-
tenee; but, in truth, it is the evidence
which has been suppressed by mockery.
Men of standing refuse to tell what they
have seen when conscious that their state
ments will be made Jest and treated as
downright falsehoods. But one argument
is advanced against the reality Of sea
serpents, and that is not worthy the name.
Directors ask why they have not been
heard of before this century. As matter
of fact they are recorded continually from
the earliest time. but the unthinking do
not apply those endless tales Of monsters
in antiquity to a creature actually assert
ed in their own day. There is another of
the same sort, the great kraken, only less
ridiculed because no witness has publish
! ed report of it in the papers" Pontop-
| pidan's account of the kraken was thought
as divertlng by those who read it as ever
was story of the sea serpent. But we
| know now to a certainty that the giant
| squtd exist; we have his photographs his
! weight and measurement and natomical
description. observation-disclosures and New
| Workers possess the very thing itself. The
time Is not distant, probably. when the
| story of the sea serpent Will be confirm
| ed with like precision
| 1t is strange indeed that Pontoppidan's
account of the kraken should have been
| unsupported for so many years, seeing
| now fast proofs have accumulated since
| the earliest of them came to hand. I'm
! less some natural causes have set these
beasts on the move, lately, many thous-
| ands OF fishermen dwelling on the sea-
| shore must always have been able to give
testimony beyond dispute. Forty years
! ago kraken was stranded on the Danish
! coast, and the scientific world heard of it
! from that time year by year-montn by
month almost of late-the awful creatures
nf cd Tw, . fIsaI n-saa. "a .s,-
| steamship AlectOn pursued one for three
| hours lighting all the time; killed it al
length, but lost the carcase in drawing it
! aboard. The size was roughly estimated
| at eighty feet from tip to tip of the arms.
Ihis is quite credible The Rev. Nh.
harvey measured an arm which, three
! Newfoundland fishermen secured as a
| trophy in 1873, after a hand-to-hand
| battle with the monster Six feet of 1t
| had been cut off in the struggle, ten feet
| remained upon the body, as the fishermen
| computed; and the intermediate portion
was nineteen feet long One measuring
| htty-six feet was actually landed soon
| afterwards, and 1t now lies Iii he museum
| at st. Johns. The New York Aquarium
| had fine example taken in 1877. It's body
| is nine feet SIX inches long and seven feet
! in circumference; the arms stretch sixty
rect from tip to tip; Bigger specimens are
reeorde !; largest OF all that taken in Logic
Bay, and anchored to the shore by giap-
nel-a suls arm measuring not less than
forty-nVe feet. But we need not go to DIS
tant lands. In 1915 some Conn arnara fish
ermen saw enc Of these giants asleep and
assalled It, Though the only Weapon thu,
had aoo1sd was knife. Two hoHts the
nght lasted, until the men, ke spifg oHt of
reach, had cut eff its limbs one By one
The tentacles proved to be thirty feet long
each the eyes fifteen inches in diameter
the 'beak four inches long. 1t was sick
or wounded before the discovery other
wise the tale would probably have been
untold
With these astounding facts before us
II seems strange to the unprejudiced that
IRe seaserpent should still be an object
9i ,dSin,IIe ,IlSnilcuIe. Inc kraken might well be
olsbelieVd while there was no evidence of
ITS existence. But every one who sails
not steams-in small vessel around the
shore or any troptc country must see hun
dreds of snakes In the Brazilian Seas
| they have been caught thirty feet long
That some objects taken for sea serpents
should nave proved to be shoals of por--
poise, drifts of weed, or strings of aquatic
birds in flight is beside the question. The
9aarratlVes OF CaPts. MQuhae and Hen
derson, Dr. Davidson, the passengers of
the Durham, the officers of the royal yacht
osborne, and such old stories, are too well
known for repetition. But the very Gu
ABOARD the Pauline has not been so COM
monty noticed. 1t was in the Indian Ocean
july, 1919. Ihree large sperm whales came
In sight, one of which was struggling in
the grip of a serpent The coils appeared
to be eight feet or nine feet in diameter
both head and tail We're visible. The
struggle lasted about fifteen minutes
when the snake sank with its victim.
But we must not dwell on the sea-ser-
pent Capt. Hon. George Hope, command
ing her majesty's ship Fly in the Gulf of
california ~ 1854, saw an extraordinary
oiear cL as grass when, looking
as it seemed at first, an enormous
alligator moving quietly along the Bottom.
But alligators do not live in salt water, and
looking more closely he observed that its
: neck was Very long and thin like a snake )
ard its legs were fiappers similar to those
or turtle, moreover it could not be less
than forty feet long. Nothing mas since
been heard OF this creature
Fabulous monster-kelpies, water bulls
! water hoTses, and the hke-are so vaguely
described as a rule that little definite can
be said about them. Not so in the case
OF mermaids. There are honest folks who
J not only express, but feel surprised that
human beings ever put faith in that le-
| gend. To us IT seems natural that If
there was no evidence on the subject we
should not doubt that such belief had
prevailed. 1t was at least as probable
formerly that creatures after our likeness
Inhabited the sea as that such inhabited
, the stars. and those good people do not
see anything extraordinary in that. We
have learned now by experience that they
do not exist in the sea; we have not yet
any certain information about the stars
| that is the difference. 1t is safe to say
2 that all mankind believes or onceN be.
lieved in mermatds. In Europe the fancy
- is tmmemortal; and it was sustained BY
. categorical testimony to a date which is
| not little striking. Nalentyn published
. his excellent Natural History Of Am
| boyna' in 1927, when scepticism began tc
make way, and incidentally he. a firm be-
, | lever, cites much evidence, old and new
| When a dixie burst in Holland in l404 a
3 mermaid was washed inland. Fishermen
took 1t to Haarlem, and many great ladies
were interested in the creature. They
taught IL to spin, and in the course of sew
] eral years made 1t a good Christian-ot
81 the Roman Catholic persuasion, as Valen-
tyn grieyes to record; but he adds, this
does not impugn the truth of the story"
Our English priests were not so success.
| full with a Norman taken near oxford, as
Stowe relates. 1t was kept by Bartholo-
. NEW de GlanVille, custos of the castle al
| Oxford, for six months and more "He
spake not a word. All manner Of meates
he did cate, but most greedily raw fish
after he had crushed out the moisture
I | Oftentimes he was brought TO the church
where he showed no tokens of alteration d
| 1t is pleasant to record that this Door
r | beast escaped. Returning to Nalentyn
he gives other instances In Europe and
| then proceeds to heap up testimony from
- | the lands with which he was familiar
| the Dutch Indies. 1t is, indeed. a striking
. | list, and few readers who knew that this
| was a very distinguished man Of science
! CbuDlaiD 10 the factory a A NH ,t