east," continued the old sailor, "when we saw it on the 1st of
August, 1848, and they in latitude 24 degrees 44 minutes south, and
longitude 9 degrees 22 minutes east, when they saw it on the 6th of the
same month; so the curious reptile--for reptile he was--must have put
the steam on when he left us!"

"Stirred up, probably, by your starboard broadside?" said I.

"Jest so," went on Jim. "But, he steered just in the direction to meet
them when he went off from us, keeping a southward and eastward course;
and I daresay, if he liked, he could have made a hundred knots an hour
as easy as we could sail ten on a bowline with a stiff breeze."

"And so you really have seen the great sea serpent?" said I, when the
old man-of-war's man had shifted his quid once more, thus implying that
he had finished.

"Not a doubt of it, sir; and by the same token he was as long as from
here to the Spit Buoy, and as broad as one of them circular forts out
there."

"That's a very good yarn, Jim," said I; "but do you mean to say that you
saw the monster with your own eyes, Jim, as well as all the rest of
you?"

"I saw him, I tell you, Master Charles, as plain as I see you now; and
as true as I am standing by your side the sarpint jumped right over the
_Amphitrite_ when Gil Saul and I was a-looking up, and carried away our
maintopmast and everything belonging to it!"

"Well, it must have been wonderful, Jim," said I.

"Ay, ay, sir," said he, "but you'd ha' thought it a precious sight more
wonderful if you had chanced to see it, like me!"

I may add, that, shortly afterwards, I really took the trouble to
overhaul a pile of the local papers to see whether Jim's account of the
report made by the captain of the _Daedalus_ to the Lords of the
Admiralty was substantially true; and, strange to say, I discovered
amongst the numbers of the _Hampshire Telegraph_ for the year 1848, the
following copy of a letter forwarded by Captain McQubae to the admiral
in command at Devonport dockyard at the date mentioned:--

"Her Majesty's Ship _Daedalus_

"Hamoaze, October 11th, 1848.

"Sir,--In reply to your letter of this day's date, requiring
information as to the truth of a statement published in the _Globe_
newspaper, of a sea serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been
seen from her Majesty's ship _Daedalus_, under my command, on her
passage from the East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for
the information of my Lo