Mr. Bullen then—and I quote him as an authority—says at page 188 of his _Idylls of the Sea_: “As the result of personal observation extending over a good many years, I assert that the Exocetus _does fly_. I have often seen a flying-fish rise two hundred yards off, describe a semicircle, and, meeting the ship, rise twenty feet in the air perpendicularly, at the same time darting off at right angles to its previous course. Then, after another long flight, when just about to enter the water, the gaping jaws of a dolphin gave it pause and it rose again, returning, almost directly, upon its former course. This procedure is so common that it is a marvel it has not been more widely noticed. A flying-fish of mature size can fly a thousand yards. It does not flap its fins as a bird, but they vibrate like the wings of an insect, with a distinct hum. The only thing which terminates its flight involuntarily is the drying of its fin-membranes and their consequent stiffening.” CHAPTER XXIII THE SEA-SERPENT—MANY OCCASIONS ON WHICH IT HAS BEEN SEEN—CONSCIENTIOUS SCEPTICISM OF SCIENTIFIC MEN—A FIGHT BETWEEN MONSTERS—THE LARGEST LAND-SERPENT—SNAKES AND SNAKE-STONES—MEDICAL EVIDENCE—A COLONIAL REMEDY. It used to be thought that the great whales—the cachalot, the rorqual, and the Greenland whale—were the largest of ocean’s dwellers, but if evidence is of any value whatever, there is one marine creature that is larger even than they—indeed, so much larger and more powerful that he is able to make them his prey, conquering them—even the mighty sperm-whale himself—by main strength put forth in single combat. This portentous monster is, of course, the great sea-serpent, which has been seen, at intervals, probably from time immemorial, and recorded also from, at least, as far back as 1734. In 1740 we have Bishop Pontoppidan’s word for its appearance—and we know now that he was right about the kraken—who describes it as having a length of 600 feet; and in 1822 it was again seen off Norway, and again it was 600 feet long; so, perhaps, it was the same one.