This is what they say as to the length of the monster: "eighty to ninety feet," "forty feet at least," "forty to sixty feet in length," "fifty feet at least," "nothing short of seventy feet," "seventy feet at least," "not surprised if one hundred feet," "at least a hundred feet."
And this as to his size: "size of a man's body," "size of a half barrel," "joints from head to tail," "joints about the size of a two-gallon keg," "large as a barrel," "bunches on his back about a foot in height," "two and a half feet in circumference."
His movements are thus described: "slow, plunging about in circles, and sometimes moving nearly straight forward," "sunk directly down and appeared two hundred yards distant in two minutes," "did not turn down like a fish, but settled directly down like a rock," "moved at the rate of a mile in two or three minutes," "turned short and quick till his head came parallel with his tail," "sinuosities vertical," "in different directions, leaving on the water marks like those made by skating on the ice," "a mile in a minute," "vertical, like a caterpillar," "turns short and quick, head and tail moving in opposite directions and almost touching," "a mile in five or six minutes," "a mile in three minutes," "turned short, head and tail moving in opposite directions, and not more than two or three yards apart," "twelve or fourteen miles an hour," "swifter than any whale," "rising and falling as he moved," "head moving from side to side," "a mile in four minutes."
His head is "like the head of a sea-turtle," "carried ten to twelve inches above the water," "larger than the head of any dog," "like the head of a rattlesnake, but nearly as large as the head of a horse," "head two feet above the surface of the water," "top of his head flat," "a prong or spear about twelve inches long which might have been his tongue," "as large as a man's head," "large as a four-gallon keg," "about a foot above the water," "eye dark and sharp," "tongue like a harpoon thrown out two feet from his jaws," "mouth open ten inches," "like a serpent."
And his color is "dark brown," "black or very dark," "white beneath," "head, top brown; under part nearly white."
In some respects more interesting than the report of the Linnæan society are the statements published in New York in the fall of 1817, under the title of "Letters from the Hon. David Humphreys, F.R.S., to the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, London, containing some account of the Serpent of the Ocean frequently seen in Gloucester Bay."
Mr. Humphreys, a citizen of Connecticut apparently, visited Gloucester repeatedly in August, and, though he did not succeed in getting a look at the great snake, had many interviews with those who did, and was present when the depositions were taken.
The narrative of his experience at Gloucester, with some letters from Mr. Nash, a detailed account of efforts to catch the serpent, and some statements in regard to its visit to Long Island Sound later in the year, make eighty-six pages of pleasant reading, which those curious to know about the matter will find well worth their attention.
His version of the depositions is also interesting, varying somewhat as it does from that published by the Linnæan Society, and he goes at length into the reasons for believing the small captured serpent to have been the offspring of the large one.
It is easy to account for the variations in the evidence taken before Mr. Nash, when we find from the statements of the parties that the distance at which the serpent was seen varied from thirty feet to one hundred and fifty yards. But there is agreement in the important points which clearly separate the animal described from all well-known fishes. The undulating vertical motion producing the appearance of humps upon the back, the small size of the body compared with its length, the sharp turns when the head and tail moved in opposite directions, the elevated head, and the protruding tongue, are more or less recognized in every description.