Sea Serpent

a more or less hypothetical serpent of great length, thought by some to inhabit the deep sea. There are numerous marine serpents inhabiting tropical waters. They are all venomous. They live on fish, which they pursue in the water. They give birth to their young on rocky shores. So far as scientists are informed, none of these serpents exceed five feet in length. Various rock formations, particularly limestone, once at the bottom of the sea, contain the fossil remains of serpent-like animals up to seventy feet in length. There are numerous seemingly well authenticated reports of huge serpents seen at sea. One was reported off Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1815 and 1817. Fishermen reported a similar monster off the coast of Norway in 1819, 1822, and 1837. In 1848 a sea serpent was reported by the officers of a British brig off the coast of Africa. It was said to have a diameter of about fifteen inches behind the head, and to have, at a moderate estimate, a length of not less than sixty feet. According to the report given, it passed very near the ship and had the form of a large serpent or eel. Various explanations of these and hundreds of other reports have been given.

Tide rows of seaweeds acquire an undulatory motion by reason of the waves, and may be mistaken for sea serpents. Not infrequently schools of porpoises have been seen following each other in single file. At a distance they might be taken very excusably for the successive undulations of a serpent's body. There is also a deep sea fish known from its shape as the ribbon fish. Specimens over twenty feet in length have been cast ashore. Others of much greater length have been observed swimming. The long, slender, eel-shaped shark, known as the basking shark from its habit of basking in the sun, has been observed swimming in pairs one closely behind the other. Without doubt, these subjects furnish the true explanation of a number of sea serpent stories. Scientists are not ready to deny, however, that the deep sea may still shelter a few monstrous serpents similar to those whose fossil remains have been studied.