The Hillsdale Standard

NANTUCKET, Mass., July 18. - That slimy sea-serpent which has been such a terror along the New England coast during the past few years has made his debut in Nantucket waters this season. It was seen on Monday and again this morning, and the circumstances of his presence are given in such details by the astonished beholders that there is general credence given to the statement that an unusual and prodigious serpent-like monster is disporting himself in the waters of Massachusetts Bay. The first discovery was made by a pleasure party who were over on King's Beach, at about 4 o'clock Monday afternoon, who say that all of them, nine in number, observed about half a mile from shore, between themselves and Egg Rock, moving with great rapidity, what could have been nothing else but a huge fish or snake. They say it was perfectly calm at the time, and a large part of the body's length was visible above the water-line, as were also its snake-like motions. The gentlemen all declare that it was not less than forty feet in length, that it moved in nearly a straight line, and having made the mile between the point first seen and the Lincoln House, the monster suddenly turned, and with the same rapidity and the same unerring straightness, with the head not much raised, and the body more or less visible all the time, swam to a point half a mile nearer Little Nahant than that at which he was first seen. He then lay motionless for some ten minutes, evidently sunning himself, at the end of which time he lashed the water into foam for a moment, and then disappeared. The observers had glasses which enabled them to see distinctly that the strange monster was of an unusual species, and there are many around here who believe it to be a veritable sea serpent. There is of course considerable excitement all along the beach, and some old fishermen who were out early this morning have added to the general commotion by claiming that they too got a momentary glimpse of the mysterious stranger. This latter report would not be regarded of much account but for the fact that when the fishermen told their story they had not heard of the discovery made by the other parties on Monday. They say they only saw it for a moment, that it seemed to be about thirty feet in length and was meandering through the water with head slightly elevated, and at times nearly the whole of the body would seem to rise partially up out of the water. The summer visitors are not sceptical about the monster being of a snaky species, and the citizens are many of them of the opinion that he is nothing short of a veritable sea serpent.

The same or a similar one was reported along the coast several times last summer, and on one occasion his identity was vouched for in enthusiastic earnestness by the officers, crew and entire lot of passengers on board of one of the Philadelphia steamers, who sighted the strange being a few miles below Boston Light. - [Boston Globe.