Singapore, September 1'.—The entry in her diary read like this:—
"Headed 10 points east of south, and making 10 knots against a four knot current, as the Captain said. I saw a sea-serpent in the Bay of Bengal when I crossed fiom Calcutta to Be-nang on the str, Kumsang. He was not very big around the body but he made up for his thinness in length, for he was at least 150-ft. long. I say at least' as quite that length was in sight, but as his tail and head were invisible T have no doubt the reptile measured over 200-ft. over all. He was distinctly visible, travelling within half a mile of the steamer on what was apparently a set course and was in sight more than an hour. We could have kept him in view - several hours had not Capt. Buller changed our course so as to keep away from him. The captain tells me these hideous rep. tiles are not infrequently seen in this part of the world, in fact Mr, Buller says they are seen so often by the masters of ships running between Hongkong and Calcutta that no mention of sighting them is ever made in the ships' logs.
"I endeavoured to take a photograph of him but that was impossible, as he was so Tow in the water and only half exposed to view. I consider this the most remarkable sight I have seen since I felt Ohio, Iam so glad been so fortunate as to see a real, live sea-serpent in his own native element, I never believed such things really were. I always thought sea-serpents were pure fabrications, but now T have seen one with my own eyes I shall never again doubt the truth of what I read in the Sunday papers. Really, I would rather have missed seeing mys tical India than to have missed seeing this monster.
Before getting nearer the sea. serpent it will be necessary to explain that the tourist whose diary is referred to was a certain Miss Brady who came from a little town in the south-west corner of the state of Ohio, U. 8. A. She had taught school for a sufficient number of years to have saved enough money for a trip around the world. (This was in 1908, mind you, when travelling was less a luxury than now). She had "done" Europe, Egypt, Palestine, India, and joined us at Calcutta bound for China. She was spectacled and inseparable from a kodak and a_leather-bound notebook diary, and she was continually asking questions, the sort of questions that cause sea captains to seek the seclusion of the bridge.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.