FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46  
47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   >>   >|  
ew England," whose prompt action caused the various reports about the matter to be carefully sifted, and the result placed before the public in an authentic manner. This society met at Boston on the 18th of August, and appointed a committee to collect evidence in regard to the existence and appearance of the strange animal. The committee consisted of the Hon. John Davis, Jacob Bigelow, M.D., and Francis C. Gray, Esq., all men of the highest respectability, and of undoubted fitness and capacity for the work they were to undertake, and the result of their labors was published in a pamphlet of fifty-two pages, the title of which cautiously states that the report is "relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August, 1817." It was accompanied by an engraving of the "_Scoliophis Atlanticus_," the small snake captured near Loblolly Cove, representing the animal at full length, about three feet, and also in parts after dissection, with full explanations. From this pamphlet it appears that on the 19th the committee wrote to Hon. Lonson Nash, a magistrate of Gloucester, asking him to examine upon oath some of those who had seen the animal, not allowing them to communicate with each other the substance of their respective statements till they were all committed to writing, and proposing certain rules with regard to the method of conducting the examination, as well as a list of twenty-five carefully prepared questions to be put to the persons examined. Eight depositions received from Mr. Nash, and three others taken in Boston, all read before the Society on the 1st of September, are given in full, as well as further correspondence with Mr. Nash, and various accounts of similar appearances in former years and at other places. The committee seem to have no doubt but that the depositions were truthful and accurate, and suggest that the small serpent which they describe may have been of the same species as the larger one, and possibly its progeny. The eight depositions taken at Gloucester were those of Amos Story, mariner; Solomon Allen, 3d, shipmaster; Epes Ellery, shipmaster; William H. Foster, merchant; Matthew Gaffney, ship carpenter; James Mansfield, merchant; John Johnston, Jr., a boy of seventeen; and William B. Pearson, merchant. The deponents were selected for their probity; each of them saw the serpent at different times and under different circumstances, and t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46  
47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
animal
 

committee

 

depositions

 

serpent

 

merchant

 
pamphlet
 
William
 

shipmaster

 

Gloucester

 

result


Boston

 
August
 

regard

 

carefully

 

respective

 

received

 

persons

 

examined

 

September

 

substance


Society
 

method

 

conducting

 
Mansfield
 
proposing
 
committed
 
Johnston
 

writing

 

examination

 

prepared


questions

 
twenty
 

circumstances

 

statements

 

similar

 
possibly
 

progeny

 

Foster

 

larger

 
Matthew

species

 

probity

 

deponents

 
Ellery
 

Solomon

 

selected

 

mariner

 

places

 

Pearson

 
carpenter