Research source

Now in the whole dissertation there is not one single proof of the non-existence of the sea-serpent

Date of account: Late nineteenth-century survey
Source: The great sea-serpent: an historical and critical treatise
Reference: The great sea-serpent: an historical and critical treatise · selected passage 52
Rights: public_domain
Language: English edition of a European scholarly compilation
Translation: English edition of A. C. Oudemans's historical survey
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Now in the whole dissertation there is not one single _proof_ of the non-existence of the sea-serpent. Mr. MITCHILL gathered some _hoaxes_, which no doubt greatly amused his audience, but his statements are sadly wanting in correctness. He says, that the sea-serpent _first_ haunted the coast of Massachusetts, while if he in October 1828, had taken the trouble to look up the literature on the subject, he would have found that the sea-serpent had already appeared on the coasts of Norway, in the Northern Atlantic, in Davis’ Straits, in the Northern Pacific near Behring’s Isle, and all along the Eastern coasts of the United States. The Linnaean Society, he further asserts “published a book on the subject, with the figure of the enormous reptile under the name of _Scoliophis_”. This is also untrue, for the Society only figured an individual of a sick and ill-formed _Coluber constrictor_, the so-called Black Snake, having only the length of about one yard! The “mutilated specimen of a snake” which was brought to him in alcoholic spirit, was the same figured by the Linnaean Society; and where Mr.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical compilation of unusual-animal reports and argument. Witness testimony, repetition between publications and the author's zoological assumptions all affect independence and reliability.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares morphology, behaviour and setting while keeping misidentification, folklore, exaggeration, error and known animals available as alternatives.

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