Our first century: being a popular descriptive portraiture of the one hundred great and memorable events of perpetual interest in the history of our country, political, military, mechanical, social, scientific and commercial: embracing also delineations of all the great historic characters celebrated in the annals of the republic; men of heroism, statesmanship, genius, oratory, adventure and philanthropy . d the crew andpassengers awe-struck by the sudden appa-rition of a creature having a cylindricalbody of enormous length, and which liftedup its head eight feet above the story was
Our first century: being a popular descriptive portraiture of the one hundred great and memorable events of perpetual interest in the history of our country, political, military, mechanical, social, scientific and commercial: embracing also delineations of all the great historic characters celebrated in the annals of the republic; men of heroism, statesmanship, genius, oratory, adventure and philanthropy . d the crew andpassengers awe-struck by the sudden appa-rition of a creature having a cylindricalbody of enormous length, and which liftedup its head eight feet above the story was so lihely to be discredited,that the captain would only relate it tointimate friends. One of the most readable and reliablenarratives concerning this gigantic fish, isthat contained in a letter written by JamesPrince, formerly United States marshal, toJudge Davis, of Massachusetts. His head(writes Mr. Prince,) appeared about threefeet above water, and on his back wereto be seen thirteen bunches. He passedthree times, at a moderate rate, across thebay, but so as to occasion a foam in thewater; and in length the monster wasjudged to be from forty to not more thansixty feet. Whether, however, the wakemight not have been added to the appear-ance of his length, or whether the undu-lation of the water or his peculiar mannerof propelling himself might not, also, havecaused the appearance of protuberances,. could not be positively determined. Thefirst view of the animal occasioned someagitation on the part of the observers, andthe novelty of the scene perhaps preventedthat precise discrimination which after-wards took place. As he swam up thebay, the spectators moved on and keptnearly abreast of him. He occasionallywithdrew himself under the water, andthe idea occurred to those who witnessedhis movements, that his practice of nowand then raising his head above the levelof the water was to take breath, as thetime he kept under was, on an average,about eight minutes; and, after beingaccu
Size: 1852px × 1349px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishersprin, bookyear1876
