Bonelli, Hugh de (1854) Travels in Bolivia: With a Tour Across the Pampas to Buenos Ayres, Hurst and Blackett, Vol. I, p. 125-126

... whilst watching from the dizzy heights its mirrored surface, my attention was directed to some strange animal, which I discovered to be one of those enormous sea-horses, to which I have already alluded, in speaking of the Island of San Lorenzo.

Its appearance, from the great elevation at which I beheld it, was extremely singular. Its body seemed to be of a prodigious length, and covered with a short, glossy coat. With the exception of two great white tusks, projecting from the mouth on either side, the form of its head resembled that of a seal. This monster swam about with great rapidity, at times showing the greater portion of his body above the water, and at other times disappearing from view altogether.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Schafer, Louis S. "The Deepstar 4000," The Compass: A Magazine of the Sea, Vol. 56, No. 1 (1986)

The bright illuminating lights were turned on as he [Joe Thompson] maneuvred the craft [the Deepstar 4000 ] along the San Diego Trough at a depth of 4000 feet [in June 1966]. Suddenly, as Thompson looked out the pilot's viewport, a giant fish swam into view under the port. He looked directly into one of its eyes, which later he described as the size of a dinner plate. As the fish quickly moved on, Thompson could see the silt swirling from the bottom of the ocean. Finally as the enormous fish passed, he saw its serrated tail and he judged it to be nearly 40 feet in length: Joe Thompson was also certain that the fish had possessed scales
Read more

Anstruther, Robert H. "A Strange Sea Reptile," The Spectactor (4 March 1922)

In the spring of 1910, when I was in command of the 'Caesar,' battleship, steaming towards the Clyde and between the coast of Ireland and the Isle of Man, I was on the bridge, in broad daylight, when a creature leapt out of the water close to the ship and shot straight up into the air about forty or fifty feet, and came down spread-eagle fashion. It had the appearance of a chameleon, though shorter in proportion, and was about the size of the skinned chow-dogs one sees hanging outside the butchers' shops of Canton. I called the navigating officer from the standard compass, and as he got to my side the creature leapt again, and we both had a good look at it. I have never been able to get any information about such a thing from books or from people, and had almost given up the quest when I saw the banner of the Ancient Town of Rye. The banner is copied from the seal of the town. The seal is very old and represents the arms of Rye (three figures, half lion, half line o' b
Read more

Beebe, William "A New Deep-Sea Fish," Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society, Vol. 35, No. 5 (1932)

On the twentieth dive in the Bathysphere, at a depth of 2100 feet, we saw two large, elongate, barracuda-shaped fish, which twice passed within eight feet of the windows, once partly through the beam of our electric light. These were at least six feet in length. No direct lights were visible on the head, yet the rather large eyes and the faint outline were distinct. There was a single row of strong, pale blue lights along the side, large and not far from twenty in number. The mouth, with strongly undershot jaw, and numerous fangs illumined either by mucous or indirect internal lights along the brachiostegals. The fish reminded me in general of barracudas, with deeper jaws open all the time. Posterially placed vertical fins were seen when they passed through the electric beam. There were two ventral tentacles, each tipped with a pair of separate, luminous bodies, the superior reddish, the lower one blue. These twitched and jerked along beneath the fish, one undoubtedly arising from a
Read more