"Why, do you know that in some parts out here the water's over four
miles deep? They've measured it, my lad, and they know."
"Say, Mas'r Harry, that's more than your two mile," cried Tom.
"Ay, and I dessay there's parts where it's more than twice as deep, and
when you come to think of the thousands of miles you can sail without
nearing land, I say there's room for thousands of things such as nobody
has ever seen."
"That's very true," I said.
"Why, I remember, down at home in Norfolk, when I was a boy, there was a
big pool that people never fished, because they said there was no fish
in it, and so it had been longer than anybody could recollect; and at
last there was a plan made to drain a bit of bog close by, and a great
dyke was cut. This set the farmer the pool belonged to thinking that if
he cut a ditch to the big dyke, he could empty the old pool, and if he
did he would get 'bout three acres of good dry ground instead of a black
peaty pool; so he set a lot o' chaps at work one dry summer when they
weren't busy, and we boys went to see it done. Now, you may believe me
or you mayn't, my lads."
"Oh, we'll believe you; won't we, Mas'r Harry?" said Tom grinning.
"Well, I shall," I replied, and the sailor went on.
"When the water began to get low in that pool we used to see that there
were fish in it, and at last there was a regular set out catching of
them in the bits of holes where the water had left them."
"Oh, I say, Mas'r Harry, don't I wish we had been there!" cried Tom.
"Ay, it was fun, my lad, for we got scores of tench, some of 'em three
and four pound weight, and there was six or seven carp ever so much
bigger. One of 'em weighed nine pounds."
"That was a fine un," said Tom.
"But the biggest fish we got was a pike, and he was the only one there.
That chap must have eat up all that had been before him, and he weighed
three-and-thirty pound. He was close upon four foot long, and a
gentleman there said if he had been in good condition he would have
weighed five-and-forty, for he was as thin as a lath."
"I should have liked to see that fish," said Tom.
"Ay, it was a fine one. We boys daren't tackle him, he was so big,"
continued the sailor; "and then out of the mud they got bushels of great
eels, some of the biggest I ever saw."
"Did you though?" said Tom.
"Ay, we did. When the water had got right down low, you could see 'em
squirming about like snakes, and when they'd got all we could see they
laid down boards over the mud, and punched about in the soft places when
great fellows kept coming up to the top, and they got no end more. They
were the biggest eels ever I see, and as fat as butter."
"Were they though?" said Tom.
"Ay, they were, my lads; and what I wanted to say was this--If so be as
those fish could live in that bit of a three-acre pool without people
knowing of their being there, don't you think there can be no end of big
fishes and things in the great waters, thousands of miles from shore,
such as menfolks has never seen?"
"Well, it do seem likely," said Tom; "but I never could swallow the
sea-serpent."
"No, my lad, more likely to swallow you," said the sailor drily.
"But come now," said Tom drily. "Did you ever come across the great
sea-serpent?"
"A mate o' mine," said the sailor, "told me he once saw out Newfoundland
way part of a great cuttle-fish that had been washed ashore after a
storm. It was a great jellyfish sort of thing, and it was thirty foot
long; and he said he was sure it couldn't have been more than half of
it, and the next day he saw one of its arms all full of suckers, and it
was twenty foot long."
"Well, that must have been a pleasant sort of thing," said Tom, as I sat
there listening thoughtfully, for the sailor seemed disposed to go on
talking.
"I remember one year, fifteen years ago I daresay it is, we were going
from Singapore to Hong Kong, and it was a strangely hot calm time, when
all at once away about a mile on our lee bow I saw something rise up out
of the sea five-and-twenty or thirty feet, as it seemed to be, but it
went down again directly; and I rubbed my eyes, thinking it was fancy,
but directly after out it came again, making a curious kind of thrust
like as if it was a long neck of something under the water. Then down
it went again, and I called the officer of the watch to look at it; and
he came with his glass, laughing-like, but just then out it came again
and he tried to get a glimpse of it through his glass, but he never
could be quick enough, for there was no telling where the thing would
dart out its head, and when it did come up it went down again directly.
"I was in hopes it would come nigher, but it went the other way,
shooting out its head once when it was a good way off, and then we did
not see it any more."
"And what do you think it was?" I said eagerly.
"Not knowing, can't say," he replied quietly. "Our officer said,
half-laughing, half-puzzled like, that he should have said it was the
sea-serpent, only no one would believe him if he did."
"Did you ever see anything else?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, my lad, I've seen a good many things that people wouldn't
believe. I remember once seeing a curious thing off the muddy Malay
coast, a long way north of Malacca, where you have mangrove swamps right
down about the mouths of the rivers, places where the crocodiles go in
and out."
"I say, how big's a crocodile?" said Tom sharply.
"All sizes, mate," said the sailor. "I've seen 'em two foot long and
I've seen 'em twenty."
"Oh, not bigger than that?" said Tom contemptuously.
"No, my lad, that's the biggest I ever see, but I've heerd of 'em being
seen five or six and twenty."
"But tell us about the strange thing you saw off the Malay coast," I
said impatiently.
"Oh, ah! yes," he said, "that was just as the mist was lifting that lay
between us and the coast. It was in a shallow muddy sea, and three or
four of us was trying to make out the trees ashore, and wondering
whether there would be any chance of our getting some fresh fruit and
vegetables before long; when, all at once, one of my mates claps his
hand on my shoulder, and he says--`Lookye yonder, mate.' `Why, it's the
sea-sarpent!' says another. `Well, that is a rum un,' says another.
And then we stood looking at what seemed to be a great snake swimming,
with twenty or thirty feet of its neck outer water; and it was holding
it up in a curve just like a swan, and sometimes its head was right up
high and sometimes curved down close to the water with its neck in a
loop, and all the time it was going along five or six knots an hour.
`Why, it _is_ the sea-sarpent!' says another of our mates, `look all
behind there; you can see its back as it swims, 'tis a hundred foot
long, see if it isn't!' I looked, and sure enough it did seem to be a
great length behind, nearly covered by the water; but, as I stood, it
didn't seem to me like a snake swimming, for it seemed more than ever as
if what we saw was a great slimy slaty-coloured thing, the make of a
swan, swimming with its body nearly all under water and its head out;
or, as I afterwards thought, just like one of the big West Indy turtles,
such as you'll see by and by if you're lucky."
"Like a turtle?" I said.
"Yes, my lad," he continued, "a great flat-bodied turtle, that might
have been thirty or forty foot long and half as much across, while it
had a great neck like a swan."
"But what made you think it was like that?" I asked.
"Because you could see its back out of the water now and then, and it
wasn't like a serpent, for it rose over like a turtle's, and sometimes
it was higher out of the water sometimes lower; and what I saw as plain
as could be was the water rippling up fore and aft, just as if the thing
had nippers which it was working to send it along."
"Did your captain see it?" I asked at last.
"No, my lad, for we was too full of wonderment just then to do more than
stare at the thing, till all at once it seemed to stretch its neck out
straight with quite a dart, as if it had caught something to eat, and
then it wasn't there."
"Didn't it come up again?" said Tom.
"No, my lad, we never see it no more."
"How far was it from the shore?" I asked.
"Five or six miles, my lad, more or less," he replied; and just then
there was a call for all hands to take in sail, and our yarn-spinner
went away.