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The Sea-Serpent: Egede

Hans (afterwards Bishop) Egede, in his Full and Particular Relation of my Voyage to Greenland, as a Missionary, in the year 1734, figures and describes a sea-monster which showed itself on his passage. He says: "On the 6th of July 1734, when off the south coast of Greenland, a sea-monster appeared to us, whose head, when raised, was on a level with our main-top. Its snout was long and sharp, and it blew water almost like a whale; it had large broad paws; its body was covered with scales; its skin was rough and uneven; in other respects it was as a serpent; and when it dived, its tail, which was raised in the air, appeared to be a whole ship's length from its body."

In another work, The New Survey of Old Greenland, Egede speaks of the same monster, with the addition that the body was full as thick and as big in circumference as the ship that he sailed in. The drawing (which I reproduce, Fig. 68) appears to have been taken by another missionary, Mr. Bing, who stated that the creature's eyes seemed red, and like burning fire. The paws mentioned by Egede were probably paddles like those of the Liassic Saurians.

MYTHICAL MONSTERS.

FIG. 68.-SEA-SERPENT SEEN BY HANS EGEDE, IN 1734, OFF THE SOUTH COAST OF GREENLAND. Pontoppidan considers this to be a different monster from the Norway sea-serpent, of which he gives a figure furnished him by the Rev. Hans Strom, made from descriptions of two of his neighbours at Herroe, who had been eye-witnesses of its appearance.