All crowded to the river side, when told by the barber,
That a terrible Sea Monster had got into the harbour.
It happens very frequently that barber’s news is fiction, Sir,
But the wond’rous news this morning was truth no contradiction, Sir;
A something sure enough was there among the billows flouncing,
Now sinking in the deep profound, now on th’ surface bouncing.
True as Gazette or Gospel were the tidings of the barber,
That a terrible Sea Monster had got into the harbour.
Some thought it was a Shark, Sir, a Porpus some conceived it;
Some said it was a Grampus, and some a Whale believ’d it;