MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9696, 4 March 1910, Page 6

MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL.

The following details are supplied by a correspondent of the Buluwayo Chronicle, concerning native reports as to the existence of a living dinosaurns or brontosaurus, in the unexplored swamps of Rhodesia. The correspondent of the Chronicle spent some 18 months in the Kafue Valley, and it was the statement of Mr Chubb, of the Rhodesian Museum, repudiating Herr Carl Hageabeok’s published remarks as to native rumours, that led him to take the matter up, though, personally, he confesses himself a sceptic, “Anyone' who has spent much time In the Kafue Valley,’’ he says, “and has 'been at all observant of native customs, or interested in their folk-lore, will bear me out when I say that all their legends and superstitions teem with reference to such a reptile, and that, especially from the Longa and Kafue junction upwards, they firmly believe there Is such a creature. Whilst there I constantly heard about it. Most accounts, I must say, were legendary, or of the ‘told by our fathers order, but I came across two natives who said they had actually seen it, though unknown to one another, and some hundreds of miles . apart. Gut of several imaginary sketches I drew, they both picked the same one without hesitation, and both commented on the fact that I bad omitted to pnt in the paddles or flappers it used to propel itself with. The general [description was : The head of a erocodliie, with rhino horns, a neck like a python, body of a hippo, and a crocodile’s tail, all of tremendous size. I could get no information as to its legs. “Between the Lnnga and Kafue Rivera, 70 odd miles from the Silver King mine, is a small lake two or three miles in circumference. This lake is held sacred by the natives round about as a dwelling-place of the spirits of their dead, and there are many concerning it. Among others is one that it has no bottom, and another that fish caught in it will not die, not even if roasted on the hottest fire. They say that at times the water becomes violently agitated, and that, shortly after the reptile above described makes an appearance. It suns itself, and swims abont now and again, rolling over and over, screaming and snorting at a terrible rate, and lashing the water with tremendous fury. Then suddenly it disappears, and is not seen again for many moons. Among others who told me this was an old man living at a kraal a few miles away, who swore he had seen it with his own eyes. Another self-styled eye-witness told me that he had seen one on the Kafue River, near the Lumkanga, at flood time. He, with others, was in a canoe spearing fish, when he heard a tremendous crashing among the reeds and grass, which at that time grew 18ft and over above the water. They looked up and saw, not far away, the fearfni form. They watched it*nntil it reached the open channel in the middle of the river. Overcome with terror, they watched it raising and lowering its head, which reached higher than the nearest trees, until they recovered presence of mind enough to push their dug-out co land, when they cleared for all they were worth.’’