Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1898 — THE LATEST SEA-SERPENT. [ARTICLE]

THE LATEST SEA-SERPENT.

am Bratty Seta Of the Coaat of Scotland. Very little has been heard of the sea serpent for some time; but a creature which, it is stated, closely resembled that monster of tradition, has, it appears, been discovered off Stonehaven, a small town about 16 miles south of Aberdeen. Near the end of the past week, at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the fishing ! boat Lily was returning to Stonehaven from the haddock grounds, when the attention of the skipper, Alex Taylor, was directed to some"•‘•J ’ •» ’ 4 ■ ’

thing floating on tne suriace oi tne sea, about 100 yards off the coast, in very deep water. Thinking that the object might be a body, the skipper ordered one of his crew to be in readiness with a boat hook to take it on board when passing, for it was right in their course. But what was their consternation, when they approached closer, to &e the thing rear itself partly out of the water and swim seaward across their bows. The boat was now only 15 yards away, and the crew could see the strange inhabitant of the water quite clearly. The skipper describes it as having a back somewhat like the upturned bottom of a ship on which were two fins, 20 feet apart, aibout the size of the sails of a small boat, which they closely resembled. Behind one fin was a protuberance of the shape of a carnet’s hump. The body was of a bluish color, and in appearance the head was flatter than that of a whale. The monster went a short distance out to sea, and, describing a circle, turned and passed the boat again, this time in the rear. At intervals it raised its head high out of the water and spouted in the manner of a whale, the only difference being that it took a shorter period to blow. The skipper of the boat describes the part of the creature that was visible as being twice the length of a 34-foot boat. He did not see its tail end, so that there is no knowing what its total length might have been. It seems impossible that the fishermen could have mistaken the animal for a whale at so short a distance, as whales are quite familiar to the trawlers of the northeast coast of Scotland. Taylor tells his story clearly and without hesitation, and his crew vouch for the veracity of his statements, which are, in a measure, corroborated by the fact that in the early morning of the same day the crew of another boat heard an unusual splashing and blowing as they were leaving Stonehaven harbor. Owing to the dense fog prevailing at that early hour, however, they were unable to discover the author of the disturbance.—London Daily News.