SEA MONSTERS

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 10

SEA MONSTERS

OTHER MYSTERIOUS CREATURES On tho question of sou monsters and sea serpents, which in the summer sea- ' son are apt to bo discussed, Mr 0. If. i Haines writes an informative article in j the ‘ Quarterly Review.' After reviewing many stories and records of tho past, he writes: — j “In J 912 several observers at differcub points and times round about Yar- | mouth and southwards as far as Rye and Bexhill reported a ‘ sea serpent,’ according to one record COft long, which swam at tho rate of a mile a minute. “ Tho mass of evidence requires to be skilfully resitted, and in particular tho sketches made by observers, which aro scattered about in all sorts of publications, collected, and compared, before wo can form any conclusive opinion ns to tho nature of tho various animals comprehended under the one generic name of sea serpents. Even on land animals of huge size may exist which have never been captured or classified. “It is only quite lately that the Okapi, a zebra-liko horse of some size, long known to tho natives, has been proved to exist, and has made its ap- ! pcarancc in our museums. From tho discovery of tho skin of a Giant Sloth or Mvlodon in a cave of Patagonia, at tho beginning of this century, it has been supposed that this creature of prc-liistoric days may still linger on. Tho existence of tho hairy-eared twohorned rhinoceros rests upon a single specimen secured at Chittagong in 18G8. Tho Dragon Lizard of Java, which has always boon known to its inhabitants, has only lately been brought to the knowledge of the world, and is already in danger of extinction. “ Another Giant Lizard Zululnnd, seen by tbo hunters of King Lewanika, was described in an official report , to tho British Resident as making a track as wido as a full-sized trek wagon, and being ten times tho size of,a crocodile. ! In tho swamps of tho Upper Nile a gigantic brown and yellow snake 40ft to 100 ft long, called tho Lau, has been seen, it is averred, even by European hunters. The footprints of a creature in Kenya Colony, called by the natives Chi unset, showing three toes, prove tho existence of an unknown animal of largo size, as to the existence of which oven the late F. C. Selous was not quite sceptical, i “ Another mysterious creature, tho i Nipumasimba, with most curious foot--1 prints, partly like those of man and partly like those of a Hon, lias been I hunted in Tanganyika. It preys on ' cattle, dogs, and children. There arc also waiting to bo caught in Africa a lingo ape and a gigantic eat, both unknown to science; and in Java and ‘ Tibet creatures with native names, that walk upright yet aro not moil, hairy as hoars. But those animals rest for their existence on native hearsay. “ Let us conclude with two unconvertible facts. In November, PJ2I, olf Capo May, a great creatine was washed ashore. It was a mammal weighing 15 tons, and as largo as five fully-grown elephants. None of tho scientists who saw it could identify it with any known creature. Photographs showed that it resembled an elephant in some ways, and could host be described, says Mr Mitchell Hedges, as a sea elephant of colossal proportions. | “ Tho other fact is tho lately demon- | strated existence in Africa of a pigmy j raco of men, mentioned by the ancients but not previously verified. All this being so, what a priori difficulty can | tbore ho to believing that fhc marine

monsters so often seen by many observers, and in numerous instances sketched, aro real creatures? But not until one is actually brought home, exhibited, and dissected will the matter be sot finally at vest.”