_Rougemont Villa, Crookhaven._
DEAR SIR,--The halibut-cormorant episode has attracted undue
attention, since many similar but far more extraordinary incidents
have occurred during the War, but have passed unrecorded owing
to the claims of Bellona. I will confine myself to one which was
witnessed by my daughter Anna in course of bathing at Sheringham
in August, 1917. While swimming underwater she collided with a
middle-sized sea-serpent, which was evidently in difficulties and
made its way to the beach, where it expired. The post-mortem,
which was conducted by Professor Darcy Johnson, F.R.S., revealed
that the serpent had been choked by a gigantic gooseberry, which
had formed part of the cargo of a Greenland tramp torpedoed by an
enemy submarine. The serpent was actually being stuffed when a
bomb dropped by a Zeppelin blew it into infinitesimal smithereens,
to the profound disappointment of the Professor and my daughter
Anna, who has never been quite the same woman since. Permit me to
subscribe myself
Yours faithfully,