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monster and the “fluctuating” appearance about him.
Such undulation and fluctuation are the invariable
concomitants of the illusion described, and are produced by
the rising of the heated air. The experiment of holding
a red-hot poker before a printed paper will illustrate
this.
The time of year, the state of the weather, and the
locality of the monster’s appearance are similarly
confirmatory. He is usually seen in these low, rocky,
island-spotted coasts. I allude to the real kraken with
his " mile and a half" of circumference and some miles
of length, not the puny sea-serpents of a few hundred
yards’ length. The only part of these accounts that I
find difficult to reconcile with my explanation are those
describing how boats have been chased by the monster;
but it is rather curious that such an immense beast
should never have succeeded in catching these boats :
if the rapidity of its movements bore any proportion to
its magnitude, a rower should stand but a poor chance.
I suspect the truth is that the fear of the kraken has
been sufficient to convince the boatmen that the monster
was after him, but not strong enough to swamp the
boat or kill the rower in calm weather and in presence
of spectators on shore.
We were now fairly in the region of the midnight sun,
and according to our calculations, taking the declination
and refraction into account, the sun should just touch
the horizon or dip a little below it. We watched it
anxiously till about half-past eleven o’clock, when its
lower limit is still considerably above, but we lost it
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