In the summer of 1871, some large creature was seen for some time rushing about in Lochduich, but it did not show itself sufficiently for anyone to ascertain what it was. Also, some years back, a well-known gentleman of the West Coast, now living, was crossing the Sound of Mull, from Mull to the mainland, “on a very calm afternoon, when,” as he writes, “our attention was attracted to a monster which had come to the surface, not more than fifty yards from our boat. It rose without causing the slightest disturbance of the sea, or making the slightest noise, and floated for some time on the surface, but without exhibiting its head or tail, showing only the ridge of the back, which was not that of a whale or any other sea animal that I had ever seen. The back appeared sharp and ridge-like, and in colour very dark, indeed black, or almost so. It rested quietly for a few minutes, and then dropped quietly down into the deep, without causing the slightest agitation. I should say that about forty feet of it, certainly not less, appeared on the surface.”
It should be noticed that the inhabitants of that Western Coast are quite familiar with the appearance of whales, seals, and porpoises, and when they see them they recognise them at once. Whether the creature which pursued Mr. McLean’s boat off the island of Coll in 1808, and of which there is an account in the Transactions of the Wernerian Society (vol. i. p. 442), was one of these Norwegian animals, it is not easy to say. Survivors who knew Mr. McLean, say that he could quite be relied upon for truth.
The public are not likely to believe in the creature till it is caught, and that does not seem likely to happen just yet, for a variety of reasons, one reason being that it has, from all the accounts given of it, the power of moving very rapidly. On the 20th, while we were becalmed in the mouth of Lochourn, a steam-launch slowly passed us, and, as we watched it, we reckoned its rate at five or six miles an hour. When the animal rushed past us on the next day at about the same distance, and when we were again becalmed nearly in the same place, we agreed that it went twice as fast as the steamer, and we thought that its rate could not be less than ten or twelve miles an hour. It might be shot, but would probably sink. There are three accounts of its being shot at in Norway; in one instance it sank, and in the other two it pursued the boats, which were near the shore, but disappeared when it found itself getting into shallow water.
It should be mentioned that when we saw this creature, and made our sketches of it, we had never seen either Pontoppidan’s Natural History or his print of the Norwegian sea-serpent, which has a most striking resemblance to the first of our own sketches. Considering the great body of reasonable Norwegian evidence, extending through a number of years, which remains after setting aside fables and exaggerations, it seems surprising that no naturalist of that country has ever applied himself to make out something about the animal. In the meantime, as the public will most probably be dubious about quickly giving credit to our account, the following explanations are open to them, all of which have been proposed to me, viz.:—porpoises, lumps of sea-weed, empty herring-barrels, bladders, logs of wood, waves of the sea, and inflated pig-skins! but as all these theories present to our mind greater difficulties than the existence of the animal itself, we feel obliged to decline them.
The editor of the Zoologist adds:—
I have long since expressed my firm conviction that there exists a large marine animal unknown to us naturalists; I maintain this belief as firmly as ever.
I totally reject the evidence of published representations; but I do not allow these imaginary figures to interfere with a firm conviction.
Here, again, we have the same general resemblances, observed under the same conditions of weather, as in the case of the Norwegian serpent. As to the pursuit, which may either have been urged from motives of curiosity or of anger, it is curious to find a remarkable account of a similar incident in Kotzebue’s Vogages, where it is stated that M. Kriukoff, while in a boat at Beering’s Island, was pursued by an animal like a red serpent, and immensely long, with a head like that of a sea-lion, but the eyes disproportionately large. “It was fortunate,” observed M. Kriukoff, “we were so near land, or the monster would have swallowed us; he raised his head far above the surface, and the sea-lions were so terrified, that some rushed into the water, and others concealed themselves on the shore!”
The last notice of its appearance in British waters is extracted from Nature, as follows:—
Believing it to be desirable that every well-authenticated observation indicating the existence of large sea-serpents should be permanently registered, I send you the following particulars:—