Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-26
THE sEA-sERPENT LEGEND
sailoes Generally Manifest Disbelief in
Their Existence.
Plenty Of Sea Snakes, but the Limit OF
Their Size In Six
Feet.
From the London Star.

To the curious in such matters It must
be intensely interesting to note how Wig
orcus, even in these latter days, and In the
most prominent centers of civilization, Is
the craving after one of the most ancient
Of all the worlds myths. An immense
volume might be written upon the persist
ence of the sea-serpent legend, beginning
away back in the twilight of history and
carried right down into this present year
of grace. And such a mountain of appar-
emily unimpeachable evidence might be col
lected in favor of the existence Of such
monster monsters that the most skepti-
cal of mankind. being unpossessed of any
personal experience Of the matter, might
well be excused for giving in their allie
glance to the belief in sea serpents, even
though they were repI esented as hugely in
credible the Misunderstanding speci-
men portrayed in the Brahmic account Of
the universal deluge.
But 1t will be found that, although, of
course, all the reports of sea serpents hav-
ing been seen are received from seafarers.
seamen. as a class do not believe in the
existence of any such creature Moreover,
If those reports be submitted to careful in
vestigation, it will invariably be found
that there are so many elements Of doubt
attaching to the description of the mon
sters seen that by-and-by the only clear
thing remaining about such yarns will be
that something has been seen under certain
pronounced serpentine in character. After
ward. with the natural tendency to erbel
fish a story which all narrators are prone
to. definite details have been added until
some hideous worm, worthy to take its
place among tine Nightmares of the "elder
Slime has been evolved.
In the course of my wanderings in little
frequented parts of the watery world l
have come in contact with many queer fish,
so queer, In fact, that feel bound to make
every excuse for those who, having been
brought In contact with such strange
shapes for the first time, have brought
home Embarrassing stories about sea ser
penis, aye! and have taken affidavits as to
the truth of their reports, too. But it
must be said, also, that many of these
yarns leave their concocters without eX-
cuse. for it should at once have been evil
dent to a seaman that the monster viewed
was nothing more serpent1ike than ror-
quail. one of the long. slender whales that
are found on the coasts of nearly every
country in the world. The latest story
from Campbeltown bears all the marks of
being built up out of a rorqual, its Tug
sail' fins having doubtless sprung up mush-
room like under the eye of the observer.
Or, more likely still 1t may have been
baskfng shark, of which many specimens
have been seen in British waters twenty
feet long, length that would most easily
and naturally lend itself to triple expan-
sion.
Undoubtedly the basis Of the majority
of ea-serpent stories is the gigantic cuttle-
handed down to from the remotest
tines, although, strange to say. within the
last century even scientific men found it
easier to accept sea-serpent fables as true
than accurate details about huge cuttle-
fish. On June 4. 1885, I published. in ma
tUre," an account of a conflict between
sperm whale and immense cuttlefish,
being moved thereto by reading transla-
ton of a paper read by the Prince of
Monaco before the Academic des Sciences
at Paris on his discovery of fragments of
a huge cuttlefish in the ejecta of a sperm
whale which he saw killed off Terceira.
And then stated that such a sight would
abundantly Justify any number of sea-ser-
pent yarns, with waving names glazing
eyes. saillike fins, in fact, all the usual APP
pendageS My sober account drew forth
from the veteran DIR. Andrew Wilson the
remark in 1.-The Illustrated London News
Of July IL. 1896. that I had finally settled
the sea-serpent question. The good pro-
lessor was oversanguine. Popular myths
don't die as easily that Perhaps in this
unitarian and unbelieving age it is Just
well they shouldn't. And to the majority
Of people the cea. vast, mysterious, I'M
known that it is. is the sole remaining pre-
serve of the huge, the eerie and the mon
strous left us. Undoubtedly this Is so. and
If 1t could be proved beyond possibility of
doubt tomorrow that no such reptile as
sea serpent ever existed, the marvels of
the deep-sea fauna would still remain.
Not but what consider that the gigantic
cuttlef1sh is even more marvellous and awe
At the Natural History Museum a small
specimen about three feet long ttenacles
and alb may be seem Go and look at It,
and imagine 1t increased to twenty-five
times its present size. and say then wheth-
er you think that the mind of man ever
conceived anything more calculated to
make the hair of your flesh stand up.
Sea snakes there are, of course, plenty
of them, but the utmost limit of their size
is six feet in length. They are closely
alike to the land serpents that there is con-
siderable difficulty in distinguishing them
apart, and except that there are few
wel1-marked differences, one would be in
cljned to think that they were land snakes
taking swim, especially as they are never
seen far from shore. In tropical seas, too.
during long Gains, there are great num-
Der Of large serpentine shapes that rise to
the surface of the stagnant waters; slug
gish. Shiny, indefinite things that seem
bred out Of the general decomposition
around them. But these have no soidity:
they are mere plasma, and any attempt to
secure them only results in their melting
away. The fancy naturally incines to the
idea Of unthinkable monsters inhabiting
the abysses of ocean, an idea splendidly
worked out by Kipling in one of his stories,
but from what we know of the conditions
Of pressure, etc, at those vast depths, 1t
Is impossible to conceive of any life in
habiting them. And what Is even more
comforting. to those who go down to the
sea In ships at any rate, IS the knowledge
that If those tremendous depths We're the
abode of horde of awful monsters. they
would certainly not be able to live under
the radically altered conditions existing at
the surface of the sea-
NOT ALWAYS JOYFUL.