"A parish priest, residing on Romsdalfjord, about two days' journey south of Drontheim, an intelligent person, whose veracity I have no reason to doubt, gave me a circumstantial account of one which he had himself seen. It rose within thirty yards of the boat in which he was, and swam parallel with it for a considerable time. Its head he described as equalling a small cask in size, and its mouth, which it repeatedly opened and shut, was furnished with formidable teeth; its neck was smaller, but its body, of which he supposed that he saw about half on the surface of the water, was not less in girth than that of a moderate-sized horse. Another gentleman, in whose house I stayed, had also seen one, and gave a similar account of it; it also came near his boat upon the fjord, when it was fired at, upon which it turned and pursued them to the shore, which was luckily near, when it disappeared. They expressed great surprise at the general disbelief attached to the existence of these animals amongst naturalists, and assured me that there was scarcely a sailor accustomed to those inland lakes who had not seen them at one time or other." The Rev. Alfred C. Smith, M.A., a naturalist, who visited Norway in 1850, summarises the result of his investigations in the words: "and I cannot withhold my belief in the existence of some huge inhabitant of those northern seas, when, to my mind, the fact of his existence has been so clearly proved by numerous eye-witnesses, many of whom were too intelligent to be deceived, and too honest to be doubted." Passing from these numerous narratives, which are distinguished for a remarkable agreement in the main characteristic described, I will proceed to some of those whose scene lies on our own coast. In 1809, Mr. McLean, the parish minister of Eigg, communicated to Dr. Neil, the Secretary of the Wernerian Society, the following statement:--[259]