1933

These appear to be the days of monsters. Tigers are reported in the bush! And by a strange coincidence come
two stories of the appearance of marine monsters—sea serpents or such creatures—from widely separated parts of the globe.

Dozens of Reports.

The sea serpent has been revived rather handsomely. During the past few months dozens of reports have reached Vancouver (B.C.) from people who say they have seen a serpent of extraordinary size in coastal waters between Vancouver and Victoria.
     The most circumstantial account was that of Cyril Andrews and a companion, who were duck shooting near Vancouver Island shore. They rowed over to pick up a duck which one of them had shot, and when within 10 feet of it they were confronted by a huge serpent which rose out of the water and gulped down the bird before their eyes. Certainly, this was a story, too, that needed swallowing, and that surpassed any previous sea serpent yarn—of which marine history reports a good many over the centuries.
     Thus the unsupported testimony of these two young men might not have gained much credence, but apparently nine other persons sitting on the deck of a yacht close by saw the entire incident ! At any rate, all of them signed a statement describing the animal, and endorsing Cyril Andrews's description of it. The return
of the sea serpent has something of a grand manner about it.
     Similar testimony—and much more of it—appears to be forthcoming from the now celebrated Loch Ness "monster," though no rational explanatoin has yet been forthcoming of the manifestations of some strange and unusual presence in Loch Ness, a great lake which, with Loch Lochy, forms the Caledonian Canal, splits Inverness in half and nearly makes the Highlands an island. However that may be stories of the mysterious beast or fish have been intriguing Great Britain for the past few weeks—some of them unusually circumstantial. Recently it is even alleged to have been photographed.
     Between fifty and sixty people claim to have seen the "monster," but not one of them has been sufficiently familiar with known specimens of submarine creatures to advance a theory that squares with possibility as the scientist sees it.
     Many of these observers had only a fleeting glimpse of a body, rolling and plunging in the waters. Others were
handicapped by darkness or mist.

Loch Ness Bunyip.

The discoverers of the monster were an Inverness business man and his wife, who declare that on April 28 they saw it plunging in the lake. The body they described as resembling that of a whale. Since then, the creature has appeared at various places along the length of the loch, which exceeds 40 miles. On September 22 it seems to have been particularly active. On that date over 20 people claim to have observed it.
     Of these, about a dozen were in two parties at places some distance apart, namely, Balnafoich and Altsigh. The others included an observer at Port Clair, which is some ten miles from Aitsigh.
     It was upon this occasion that a considerable number of observers gave the creature the description of the legendary sea serpent, with a small head on a long neck, moving through the water with an undulating motion. But only last week a scout employed by the Automobile Association averred that he had seen the monster swimming rapidly towards a rocky part of the shore where the water is 700 feet deep. He spoke of its back looking brownish in the sunshine, its swaying motion, and the stir in the water behind that suggested propulsion by a large tail.
     These descriptions are mild, compared with some that have been circulated. One observer declared that when she saw the creature at night, the eyes, prominent in a huge horse shaped head, shone like motor lamps. Others have suggested that the monster is amphibian, and there have been stories of motors on roads near
the lake shores at night narrowly escaping collision with the monster in the darkness.
     Apparently the legend has been growing that the Loch Ness bunyip comes up out of the waters to feed, probably on lambs or even sheep, although no traces of its passage on shore have been discovered, nor have shepherds in the district reported losses among their flocks.
     Scientific minds are inclined to scoff at the theory that the Loch Ness mystery is a sea serpent. They regard the suggestion as a revival of the tradition, as old a mankind, that hidden monsters hide deep in the waters of seas and lakes. Every race, indeed, has its version of the fabulous water creature.

Ancient Folklore.

The ancient Babylonians have a tradition that the earth was at first in the possession of a monster called Labbu, which came up out of a deep lake and when slain took three years, three months, one day and two hours to bleed to death. The "Rahab" of the Old Testament signified "the raging sea-monster" and probably represents the primeval dragon of the deep. The "Leviathan" of the Psalms was a denizen of the waters.
     Serbian folklore tells of a scaly monster, which, like that of Loch Ness, inhabitated a deep lake amid the pastures of sheep. Teutonic mythology largely centres about Midguard, the huge earth-serpent, cast into the sea by the All-Father, which grew so vast in size that it encircled the earth and finally, seizing its tail in its mouth, interposed between the kingdom of the Infinite and the world. Then Thor, the second person of the Teutonic godhead, went forth to battle with it, but only succeeded in wounding and driving the creature into the depths of the sea.
     The water-monster tradition persists among the primitive peoples of Australia. The Warramunga tribes performed elaborate ceremonies to appease a gigantic but mythical water snake that was said to have destroyed a number of people. Western Australian aborigines still dread lakes and refuse to approach them, believing they are inhabited by a deadly monster.
     Such myths still live, even in countries that have the greatest claims to modernity and civilisation. It is not long since the pastor of Pathstruie, on the Ochils, those Scottish islands, prayed in the pulpit on frequent occasions that the people might be delivered from "water kelpies" and all other evils."
     The Celts of Scotland are of Eastern origin, and their existing legends of sea and lake-monsters, of fairies and fiends, of demons and goblins are the folklore of the East. Perhaps the Loch Ness kelpie may owe its existence to some modern manifestation of the ancient racial mythology.
     Such is, apparently, the theory of Mr. Percy Grimshaw, Keeper of the Natural History Department of the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. He discounts all the "wild "theories" that have been put forward, and thinks that the Loch Ness monster will turn out to be a young beluga, or white whale.
     In the course of many generations the persistency with which eye-witnesses have insisted on what they saw seem to some to give credence to the existence of some deep-sea creatures not yet known to man. Even land animals of new species have only recently come to light. The Central African okapi was not known thirty years ago, the existence of the hairy-eared two-horn rhinoceros rests on a single specimen; the dragon lizards of Komodo were unknown to the outer world until Sir Alan Cobham brought news of them on his flight to Australia.
     On the whole, therefore, it would appear that the case for and against the sea serpent remains unproven, until, a specimen is actually caught and brought on shore for the examination of the scientists.