The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1904-05-13
MONSTERS OF THE DEEP.
Sea Serpents Are Not Snakes, But Gu
rious Creatures Left Over
from Ages Past.

AOA' ohul 100 IL GuN diuS, vi
Trinity college, told the Hartford
Scientific society recently lot
about the sea serpent and had
shown on screen pictures of the
monsters calculated to scare an
innocent youngster out of a years
growth, says the Hartford Conn.,
Courant. Unfortunately, none OF
the pictures was an actual photo
graph, but the lecturer seemed to
tend to the belief that there was
something doing in the monster
line, and Rev. James Goodwin,
the president OF the society, said
at the close of the lecture that he
for one believed more in the thing
than he had before. AS to how
great that previous belief had
been he did not say.
Prof. Edwards in the first part
of his lecture had thrown on the
screen pictures of sea monsters
as represented in years past. He
explained in his talk that while he
spoke of "sea serpent" the so
called and oft-repeated sea SER
pent could not be big snake, but
some other kind of a monster Gf
it was anything. As back as far
as Job mention is made of great
leviathan and accounts of some
great things are found in all early
histories. One myth seems to
have come from a sperm whale
and another from the squid. Even
the Indians had a belief in a mon
ster serpent and thought one
lived in the great lakes and
broke up the ice in the winter
when it became irritated.
Prof. Edwards gave a long list
of dates when the great sea ser
pent has been reported, and re-
lated some of the circumstances.
They stretch from 1859 down to
1903. a bishop, Commodore
Preble, crews of British warships
and many other persons have
made the reports. a notable ap-
pearance was at Gloucester and
Nahant, Mass, in 1917, when hun
dreds of reputable citizens saw
something and testified to it and
people even drove along the beach
In crowds, keeping up with it as it
swan along off the shore. Prof.
Edwards said there was no doubt
that something was seen at that
time.
1t is always described as black
or brownish, with eyes in the up
per part of the head, swimming at
speed of five or six knots, carry
ing its head out of the water, gen
orally with a name, and proceed
ing with a humping motion like a
caterpillar. A curious appear
ance was one reported in 1898 1899
in Swedish lake where, it was de-
clared, huge animal had been
seen a number of times and had
been watched through glasses for
long periods. Finally a newspa-
per sent an eminent naturalist to
investigate and he reported as his
conclusion that several monsters
from six to forty feet long had GER
tainly been seen in the lake.
Prof Edwards said that prob
ably in all the many cases report
ed something had been seen, for it
is impossible to believe that all
these people were liars. The uni
versal declaration that the thing
proceeded with a undulating mo-
ton does away with the theory of
its being actually big snake. He
showed that the stories might
arise from the appearance of a
manatee, a big stingray, a gigan-
tic squid lone that was caught
with arms and body 100 feet long,.
a basking shark, whales or school
of porpoises. A few years ago
what was called the Florida mon.
ster was found near st. Angus
tine, with arms nearly 100 feet
long. The hasking sharks GROW To