antic and imaginary
creature, from the white whale, the terrible "Moby Dick" of sub-arctic
regions, to the immense kraken, whose tentacles could entangle a ship
of five hundred tons and hurry it into the abyss of the ocean. The
legends of ancient times were even revived.

Then burst forth the unending argument between the believers and the
unbelievers in the societies of the wise and the scientific journals.
"The question of the monster" inflamed all minds. Editors of
scientific journals, quarrelling with believers in the supernatural,
spilled seas of ink during this memorable campaign, some even drawing
blood; for from the sea-serpent they came to direct personalities.

During the first months of the year 1867 the question seemed buried,
never to revive, when new facts were brought before the public. It was
then no longer a scientific problem to be solved, but a real danger
seriously to be avoided. The question took quite another shape. The
monster became a small island, a rock, a reef, but a reef of indefinite
and shifting proportions.

On the 5th of March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Montreal Ocean Company,
finding herself during the night in 27 deg. 30' lat. and 72 deg. 15'
long., struck on her starboard quarter a rock, marked in no chart for
that part of the sea. Under the combined efforts of the wind and its
four hundred horse power, it was going at the rate of thirteen knots.
Had it not been for the superior strength of the hull of the Moravian,
she would have been broken by the shock and gone down with the 237
passengers she was bringing home from Canada.

The accident happened about five o'clock in the morning, as the day was
breaking. The officers of the quarter-deck hurried to the after-part
of the vessel. They examined the sea with the most careful attention.
They saw nothing but a strong eddy about three cables' length distant,
as if the surface had been violently agitated. The bearings of the
place were taken exactly, and the Moravian continued its route without
apparent damage. Had it struck on a submerged rock, or on an enormous
wreck? They could not tell; but, on examination of the ship's bottom
when undergoing repairs, it was found that part of her keel was broken.

This fact, so grave in itself, might perhaps have been forgotten like
many others if, three weeks after, it had not been re-enacted under
similar circumstances. But, thanks to the nationality of the victim of
the shock, than