SEA SERPENT TRACKED TO CAVE IS AN EEL

Shannon News, 22 December 1925, Page 1

SEA SERPENT TRACKED TO CAVE IS AN EEL

The world-famous and much maligned sea serpent at last has been 1 traced hack to its lair and found to oe a home-like domestic creature, according to word received from Mr. John P. Babcock, Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, from the Queen Charlotte Islands, home of thousands of sea serpents, says a Vancouver paper. Mr. J.J. Vari Valkenburg, who has spent most of the past three months trying to sift the sea serpent myth, has discovered that the creatures seen near his home recently are huge eels which the, Indians of the district have known about for genearations. They live in a cave at the northern end of the island. Occasionally, when half-grown, the eels are caught on trolling lines Sometimes they reach a length, of forty fjSet, but are harmless except when roused. When angered, however, they are terrible, the Indians say, and recall a battle between one of the monsters and an Indian brave who had ventured to enter the serpent’s home. The serpent was killed, but not until he had almost overcome the Indian, and six' dogs.