Thought It Was Sea Serpent

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 174, 26 July 1938, Page 7

Thought It Was Sea Serpent

But it Was Only a Whale! SCIENTISTS CALLED TO STRANDED MONSTER Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Hearing that a aea serpent had been washed ashore at Flat Point, on tho oast coast, Dominion Museum scientists made a hurried expedition at the weekend to inspect it. On arrival, however, they found that it was the carcase of a whale, probably a cachalot, deeply buried in the sand. The find was reported by a surveyor, who informed the museum officials that some strange marine monster, possibly tlio fabled sea-serpent, had been stranded near Flat Point. From the description the interest of scientists was aroused and they lost no time in visiting tho scene. The creature was on the shore below Mr. C. Cameron’s homestead, about 25 miles south of Castlepoint. By the courtesy of Mr. Geoff. Cameron, manager of the farm, the scientists wero able to gain access to the place. At first glance the sea-serpent theory appeared justified, for in one place a hump of blubber projected from tho sand and some 55 feet distant a second section as of a tapered tail could be discerned. Closer investigation, however, revealed tho carcase of a great whale buried under the shifting sands of the shore. The whale had evidently been on tho beach for some three months, for it was largely decomposed. Little remained of it but bone and blubber, the bones being deeply embedded. The carcase measured 55 feet long. Later, when the processes of decomposition are completed and the circumstances permit, it is hoped to recover the skeleton, believed to be that of a sperm whale.