DO AQUATIC MONSTERS EXIST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 131, 19 June 1937, Page 15

DO AQUATIC MONSTERS EXIST

/\.LL NATIONS have accounts of pe- j culiar monsters. Such animals are nearly always mythical and find their ideal in the sea serpent. The sea 3erpent has never laclced an audience or impHcit believers in its existence; and the tales of its manifestations, if lacking in cohesion and unsubstantiated, are to say the least vastly entertaining, w'riies E. G. Bonlenger in The Listener. All kinds and manner of things upon the sea surface may convincingly suggest a huge sea snake. Seals, turtles, echools of porpoises, masses of weed are all a cause of this illusion. What could be more suggestive of a sea serpent than the thirty foot club-tipped arm of a giant squid raised for a few moments above the waves? Such a spectacle, seen at dusk and silhouetted against the sunset, might easily convinee the most' blase teetotaller on board a ship.x The incessant appearance of the sea serpent from the year 1520 down to modern times hau be*)i tabulated, and the iist totals over two hundred and fifty cases. In 1830 one was observed in tlie Atlantic by the Master of a schooner. Jts neck was ornamented with a mane, and when its head appeared above the surface it made a noise similar to that of steam escaping from a boiler: lu 1847 a speeimen was observed off St. Helena by the Captain of H.M.S. Daedalus. The aniinal, estimated at over a hundred feet in length, was stated to have the lioad of a lizard with liuge jaws full oi' long and jagged tccth. A fow years after an accouul of an encouuter beLwccii a sea serpent and a hsbing part> in BnllycotLon Bay was given in tlie gooiogist. The niomcnt it wras shot at the beast disappeared. But before this it disgorged a shoal of fisli which when handled gave the most severe shocks. The same year a si>eeimen was observed by those on a Spanish man o' vvar to overpower a sperni whale. More convincing evidence of the existence of some huge serpent-fsiiciped animal was given some years ago by the late Mr E. G. B. Mcadc-Waldo, who was a member of the Zoological Society ,'s Council, and the late Mr. M. J. Nichol, who was, for many years, an assistant , in the Giza Garden s in Egypt. This 1 sea serpent was observed early onc 1 morning from the yacht Valhalla in the Soutli Atlantic. At first all that was

UNSUBSTANTIATED TALES But Vastly Entertaining

observed. was a dorsal fin about fourii feet long standing out of the water. Below, the outline of a snake could be distinctly seen. Suddenly a neck about i six feet in length supporting a turtle- i shaped head appeared in front of the fin.1 For a short time the animal moved ; -with the ship at about eight knots, but it suddenly dived and disappeared for ever. These modern sea serpent tales are distinctly tame compared with those told by one Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, who lived in the sixteenth century. According to this esteemed divine, the Norwegian coast was the home of an enormous sea serpent that snatched sheep from the cliff tops by way of a snack or appet'iser and would then make a isatisfying meal off a large schooner with deck fittings, eargo and so forth. This -Archbishop swore to having been an eye-witness to this incident which he set down in black and white. At that time no camera was, of course, available. but the Archbishop, nothing dauuted, commissioned an artist who did amplo justice to thc occasion. It is unlikelv, but just po'ssible, that an uiiidentified serpentine sea monstei does exist. Putting aside the invcntions of some highlv imaginativc or even intoxicated voyager, oue must take into account the deceptive distance of the open sea and the wiles plaved upon tbe human sight by light, wind. cloud and waves. Many norma! phcnomena, such as a flock of birds ir single filo, tSe long aTm of a squid, h shoal of- porpoise or a certain gianl fish. are often mistaken for a giant sea snake. Still more difiicult to believe in than the sea serpent is the Locli Ness moa ster which held the attention of t.lu world for over two years, and, accord-

ug to eome, ds still at iarge. Day bj lay, science, takdng nothing for grant 3d, adds to our sfore of facbs, demolish ing old assumptions and disposing of ancient fallacies. But the caveman who heard voices of gods in thunder and saw bones of giants in fosail lizards still d'ies dormant in us all, as the belief of so many persons of normal intelligenee in the Loch Ness monstei shows. This hump-backed giant animal with eyes like motor lamps deserves a elose study if only because it is a good example of mass hallucination. Many theories are offered to explain the Loch Ness monster. First it has been suggested that it may be some fish or lizard closely akin to forms supposed extinct for many millions of years. It has also been guggested that it is a sea serpent and, finally, that it is Some animal, unidentified and new to science. Before disoussing these possibilities foi what they are worth, Loch itself, which nearly euts Scotland in two, demands some notice. This gigantic inland .waterway is nearly twenty-five roiles long with an average depth of four hundred and thirty feet and a maximum depth of seven hundred and fifty feet. It iy said of the Loch that it never gives up its death Tako into accouib Ha wild and lonely Hature, its sudden slonns and mists. and the stage is fairly set for tlie encouuter of the monstor Now let us consider the possibilities of ihs existence, dealing first with the supposition that it is a survival of tlv olesiosaurns or some other giant animal such as lived many million years ago. The faintest contempTation of the flianges, geographical, geological and elimatical, that have been tak'ing place since the Teptilc agc, and the intervcntion of tlie iee agc, disposos of such a likolihood. Then there is n &uggeslion that a bluc whale or even a school of

porpoises nas gainea access to tne ljocii. This ds possible but not likely, sincc the passage through the canals leading to the Loch of any animals of large size would be detected. The eye-witness accounts of this animal, though always entertaining, are, one is forced to confess/ inconclusive to say the least. Further, we must beai in mind that the body of such an animal would long ago have emptied the Loch of all sustenance. The diverting pautomime began in June, 1933 and still enjoys half-hearted revi.vals. It was in October of that year that the storm burst. Many people eaw the monster and gave most conflicting accounts of it and its habits. It was of immense sfze, had arms, a mane, and eyes ldke the headlights of a powerful car. The following year enthusiasm rose to fever height. A well-known big game hunter went in search of it and was made the victim of a hoax, being led to discover footprints later diagnosed as having been made with a hippopotamus foot door stopper. One man actually broadcast an eye-witness account of the monster which he saw on the public highway with a dead sheep in its moutli — an account whieh is not unlike that of the Archbishop of Upsala. Certain pioneers of undersea motion pictures travelied specially from America with a view to takixig close-ups. The animal, still unidentified, was made the subject of endless jests and leg pubs, whilst inns within any distance of the lioch cnjoyed a boorn. Somo attempt was made to revive enthusiasm on bolialf of (ho ogopogo of the Canadian Lakes. A showman offered five thousaud pounds for a living specimen of the Loch Ness animal. One's sympathies go to the many who have seen the monster of Loch Ness but have" no tangible evidence. At worst they are only in the same boat with tlie journalists whose adventures Kipkng tells of in "A Matter of Fact." These men actually saw a sea serpent cast ' on the waves following an uphoaval. Only one of the party had tlve pluck to tako his account to a newspapcr officc. Ho was sliown the door. To-day he would probably have been welcomed with open arms.