Event: the Loch ness monster
When: 1933
Where: Loch Ness, Scotland
Mystery: Loch Ness is a huge lake, 750' miles deep, twice the depth of the North Sea. It is 24 long and varies in width from 1 to 3 miles.
For 1,500 years, people have been seeing a monster in it. Long ago, on ST. Columbus's day, legend has it, people saw a "very odd looking beastie, something like a huge frog, only it isn't a frog."
In 1933, several people saw the monster, it was a patrolman in Inverness-shire who described it as a series of humps above the water preceded by a long thick neck on which there was a small snake-like head. It's skin was gray-black. On May 22, John Mackay, who ran the hotel at Drunnadrochit, saw it too. The water frothed as it vanished, he said.
Two monthes later, to the day, a couple from London saw the monster cross the road. The size astounded them-- it's body was 5' inches high and as wide as the road. It moved like a snail in a picture of a plesiosaurus marine reptile, the man said the monster looked like it.
During the early 1930's, several photographs were taken of the monster. Sir Edward Moutain, who lived near the lake, arranged for people with binoculars to watch the lake, appearances, of the monster. The vigil paid off. A few weeks later, he was even able to make a movie of it.
Since WW 2, the monster has been taken seriously. In October, 1954, passengers on a bus driving by the lake were able to observe the monster for 10 minutes as it surfaced not more than 100 miles away.
In December, 1954, a fishing boat was crossing the lake when its echo sounder began to chart something swimming at the depth of 540'. It was recorded as a creature with a small head on a long neck, 8 short legs and a 15' tail. It measured 50' in length. Experts analyzed it was living thing.
Four years later, the british broadcasting company, attempting to produce a program about the monster, recorded an object on the echo sounder that moved 12' deeper, then disappeared at 60'. Two days after, 4 men riding by on a bus saw humps emerging in the same spot; there was a big wash as the humps submerged.
Since then, various scientific teams have investigated the monster. In 1937-1974, Japanese scientists using deep-water equipment began a major study.
Possible solutions: there seems to be little doubt that there is something big living in Loch Ness. What manner of nature is another matter.
Lt. Comdr R. Gould, and expert on sea serpents, felt the creature was a huge newt, perhaps a leftover from prehistoric times, which had been trapped in the lake. Others, including Dr. Maurice Burton, think that it is some kind of otherwise extinct reptile, possibly a plesiosaur.
It is possible, experts believe that the monster divides its time between the lake and the ocean, going from one to the other through an underwater route. It might seek the lake at breeding season or to escape predators in the sea.
