Year: 1876

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 A MONSTER OF THE DEEP.

 Tho Thina as Seen and Described by 1 NIissiOnary--A Sight that Fascinated Passenger mt Sunrise on the Sea.

 Saysa 8 correspondent of the Bomba,

 Gazette: As 8 missionary, l hav'

 travelled over great part of the world

 but can safely aver that what I saw ol Saturday, the eighteenth day of March

 was incomparably the most marveloul phenomenon that has ever met my eyes

 We steamed out of Bombay harbol on the evening of Monday, the thir teenth of March, in the steamship Fly daspes. On Tuesday at twelve we hsc made 162 miles, on Wednesday at mid day 429, on Thursday 7O7, and on Fri day nearly 1000, so that on Saturday morning we were about 1, ,550 miles from Bombay. Nothing of remark had. oc cured up to Saturday. The weather was cool and nearly every one slept be- low only one passenger, Capt. David son, and myself remaining on deck fol the night. was reused from sleep al six by the men washing and scrapine the decks. I took my plate of broken biscuits to the stern and sat there munch- ing them and looking at the sun rising. I was quite alone, Capt. Davidson still sleeping in peace on the port side. There was 8 thick bank of clouds on the hori- zon, and as the sun rose up from the sea behind this dark bank great masses of color, red and blue and yellow, lit up the whole expanse of sky and sea. l was looking at strange ruddy blot of red on the water right astern, when l saw apparently near the horizon, but not in the red blot, 8 dark moving shadow. It did not seem to move with the other shadows on the sea, and this fixed my attention to it. Soon I saw that it was steadily approaching the vessel. I could distinguish no form, only dark shadow, but made out cer- tainly that it was advancing towards us and at great rate.

 Fifteen minutes must have passed when at last became able to distinguish the form of the advancing object.

 I cannot accurately describe my feel ings on beholding that hideous sight. At first I turned to call out to bring others to look on with me, but, before a cry could pass my lips, a second feeling of selfish pleasure, that alone saw that fearful thing, seized me, and I turned my eyos again to the sea and kept them the stern of our vessel, not now ap- preaching us, but simply following steadily in our wake, was this hideous thing.

 A great mass of what looked like tan gled seaweed, on which futile attempt at oombing had been made, rose out of the water. This mass must have been twenty or thirty feet in length and ten feet in width, and as it came on it caused wide ripple in the water, that showed there must be still greater part below the surface. From the center of this mass, raised just clear above it and facing the vessel, was a great black head. The top was quite fiat, in shape not unlike that of monstrous toad. A thick fringe of coarse, reddish hair hung over the mouth, quite concealing it. But the eyes were the most awful part of this fearful thing. They were placed far apart, at either extremity of the fat head, distant from each other at least three feet.

 I must here state that all the passen- gers and all the crew, except the captain himself, saw the thing afterward, but that there were scarcely two who could aglee as to the color and nature of these eyes. I can only, therefore. write as they appeared to me. The eyeEalls were enormous; they must have been four or five inches in diameter. They scintillated constantly. Every one knows the extraordinary appearance of surface covered with small alternate squares of bright red and bright blue, the quivering, uncertain, un6xe1 look such @ surface has, the difficulty, the impossibility experienced by the locker on to fix the color of any particu- lar square. The eyeballs of this thing had such 8 quivering, uncertain look; but they were not red, nor blue, nor red and blue; they were of a bright, burningly bright. copper hue; they pained our eyes-and in this we were all agreed-as we looked at them. In the center of each eyeball, 0 mere speck, but visible from it's extreme brightness, was point of light, of white light. It was impossible to tell whether these points were, or were not material points of the eye or merely caused by reflection, but they were clearly defined, and seemed to remain ill the same place. The motion, how ever, of the thing was so steady that no deduction could fairly be drawn from their not changing their position.

 had been so absorbed in the pleasing pain of looking at the thing, that I had quite forgotten the other people on board, and was first reused by hearing Capt. Davidson step up on the stern by me, give one look below at the water, and then hurriedly go back. In 8 few minutes every passenger was crowding on to the stern, even the ladies appear ing in unfinished costume. Exclama- tions of the extremest astonishment broke from all, and then silence fell, as the crowd stared at the hideous crea- ture. The children, at the first sight, ran back below screaming, and some re- fused to come again on deck, though their nurses and ayahs-desirous of looking on themselves-use all possi- ble means to make them. Some, now ever, returned, curiosity overcoming fear, but even these looked on in per petual tremor of terror, and held them selves ready at the first movement of the thing to rush away. noticed at this time that the captain was not present, and turned to an old European sailor who stood by me and asked him to go and tell him.

 Captain won't come; no fear of that, sir, replied the man.

 :! asked if he was navigating the ship?

 "No, he was not navigating the ship," Faid the sailor, "but he would not come for all that; however, he would go and tell him.

 But though he went, the captain would not come.

 We all remained absorbed in the strange sight till the first breakfast bell rung, at half past eight, when we had perforce to hurry away and take our