BioFortean Review: 2007

Mugwump of the Lake

Craig Heinselman

(Jan. 2007, no. 7)

You know of Ogopogo, Memphre, Nessie, and Champ, you’ve heard of the monster from Flathead Lake, Bear Lake, and Lake Erie. But, have you heard of “Mugwump” or “Old Tessie” from Lake Temiskaming?

The lake is mentioned in a few books. John Kirk has Lake Temiskaming listed as a lake with a reported creature (within the appendix to In the Domain of the Lake Monsters), similarly Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe list it again as a lake with a reported creature in their appendix to The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. Even encyclopedic entries barely touch this creature; George Eberhart’s Mysterious Creatures lists it, as well as a single source, within a final listing on Lake and Sea Creatures. Internet resources glide over it, often listing it strictly as a lake with a creature, or applying more subtle tones to it.

The Nestle Water Institute website lists the lake and a short history on it and its “monster.” They attribute the reference to this section to a book entitled La Memoire du Lac by Joel Champetier. However, this La Memoire du Lac is a fictional work from 2001. An extract of the book is readily available online, and outlines that this is a work of fiction and not a historical record. It is based on stories and accounts, but with creative license to it. Various other internet resources, primarily in French, also delve into the mystery, but just skimming it.

So, what of Old Tessie the Mugwump of Lake Temiskaming? Is there actually an unknown denizen of the lake, or is it all fiction? The answer appears to be a mix, and needs to be viewed with tongue-firmly-in-cheek. . . .

The Lake and Its History, in Brief:

Lake Temiskaming (Lac Temiscamingue in Quebec) is in fact a deep lake, achieving maximum depths of around 720 feet (averaging around 120 feet) across its 73 square mile surface area. Geographically it is situated at 46’ 52” in latitude and 79’ 15” in longitude at an altitude of 585 feet above sea level. Sitting in a seismically active area, and is structured with clay and other mineral rich surfaces, which have made the region popular for mining operations for gold, silver, quartz and other minerals over the years. Lake Temiskaming lies in Ontario and borders on Quebec, being part of the head waters of the Ottawa River system, it is a remnant Lake Barlow-Ojibway.

The Lake was the main transportation route in northeastern Ontario until the railway and roads were constructed. Aside from mining it was also a minor fur trade route. The history of the lake, named by the Algonquins for “deep water,” is mixed by loggers, missionaries, prospectors and more. Today it is popular for outdoor activities, both in the colder and warmer months with shorelines speckled with cliffs rising 200-300 feet above the surface, and various small islands scattering its water ways.

While the Algonquins named the lake, they were not the only native people in the region. The Cree were present to the northwest, and the Ojibway to the south, with the Algonquins primarily in the northeast portion. Although these native people were more modern in time, the occupation of the land does date back several thousand years to the Shield Archaic People.

The biology of the region is rich. Consisting of parts of the Lauentian Highlands , the wooded forests offer shelter for the earth-bound animals. While the deep water of the lake, and adjoining waterways of the Ottowa River, are home to numerous species of fish, including bass, carp, pike and sturgeon.

The Creature of the Lake:

Starting in the late 1970’s, word of the denizen crept out. Perhaps first to make mention of it was the then mayor of New Liskeard Jack Dent. In an April 20, 1979 article in The North Bay Nugget he outlines the creature that is Mugwump and makes a hint towards tourism. Mike Pearson in a May 2, 1979 article in The Temiskaming Speaker continues the story, and further fleshes it out in a May 9, 1979 entry in the same newspaper.

According to Mayor Dent:

“. . . the Indian word, “mugwump” means fearless sturgeon and is all part of a very old Indian legend from an old Indian . . . "a direct descendant of Chief Wabi” who told him the mugwump was reputed to be the length of four Indian braves. Putting the average height of a brave at about five feet . . . concluded the mugwump was probably over 20 feet long. . . .”

Although Mayor Dent only heard of the animal 10 years prior (circa 1969), he was not alone. Chuck Coull outlined his encounter to journalist Mike Pearson in 1979 that occurred in the early 1960’s:

“We were cruising around in the boat, about a third of the way back from Burnt Island, when we saw what looked like a deadhead. We pulled up to it. It rolled over and swam away. . . . It was the biggest sturgeon you’ve ever seen. . . . I’d been hearing about the thing all my life. . . .”

Chuck Coull was with his father at the time and estimates the animal sighted was around 8 feet in length.

But the accounts go further back still. According to A February 2, 1982 write up by Alice Peeper in The Temiskaming Speaker, a Mrs. Kate Ardtree recalls her father telling stories about the animal as a child. Mrs. Ardtree was living in 1982 in a nursing home, so by connection her memory predates the Coull account. Although Mrs. Ardtree had never seen the animal herself, she had quite the story to tell reporter Alice Peeper:

“Sure I know about it, or should I say them?” she smiled. “I well remember my daddy talking about the monster.” Mrs. Ardtree also remembers her Dad bringing home one of its scales when she was just a girl. The scale was as big as a saucer and the family had it around the house for years. . . .”

Mrs. Ardtree would most likely have been talking about events in the 1920’s or 1930’s, putting her account as one of the oldest. But, there is more, one from the 1940’s. Dariene Wroe writes in the August 9, 1995 issue of The Temiskaming Speaker about the story of John Cobb. Cobb, then 83 years old, recalled an event from the early 1940’s when he worked on the tugboats moving logs along the lake, from the White River and Qunize River enter all the way to the southern tip of the lake in Temiscaming, Quebec.

“One night I was coming up just about dark and I seen the darn thing in the lake.” He describes a creature about 20 feet long with a round head and nose like an animal’s. “I didn’t know what it was. When we come up close it disappeared. . . .”

A smattering of stories appear in between all these events, including the 1978 account by Ernie Chartrand and his wife as they sat at a table with a view of the lake:

“Their attention was drawn to “something” moving shoreward at a fast clip. As “it” neared shore, it did a suddent and complete turn about and headed back to deep water. Both Mr. & Mrs. Chartrand noticed the large huped back, with no fin, as it swam away, and according to Ernie “the darn thing must have been 15 feet long.” (The Temiskaming Speaker of February 3, 1982)

In 1982 more accounts appeared, once more reporter Alice Peeper of the The Temiskaming Speaker presented them to the reader, this time on February 17, 1982. The first is the story of Roger Lapointe and Dan Arney who were ice fishing at the time in a borrowed hut.

“Resetting the line, they settled back with a brew and were wondering what was stirring in the depths below the fish-hut, when in about 20 minutes, or perhaps half an hour, their tackle flew right up in the air and then vanished down the hole. The men were dumb founded! . . . “To h--- with this,” Lapointe relates, “Let’s pack it in”, and Arney agreed. They were donning their parkas, when Arney said he could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck stiffen (this sixth sense had served him well in the RCMP back a dozen years), so Arney said he just knew that something was watching them. . . . Looking downward they saw a black, glistening head with protruding eyeballs, and one of these yes was staring fixedly at the men “like it was sizing us up for a snack”, Lapointe remarked. . . .”

John Sheur reported as well of an ice-bound sighting to Alice Peeper, once more published in the same edition as Lapointe and Arney’s account:

“Mr. Sheur says he was locking up his hut for the night, when he heard a crunching noise. Knowing he was the only fisherman still out on the lake, he decided to see what it was about. Thinking it was probably a dog, he almost walked into a long, dark animal, that seemed to be wrapped about several of the huts and was chewing something, said Sheur. “What did its head look like?” this reporter asked. “Something like a dinosaur,” said Sheur,” but I didn’t stay for a second look. . . .”

John Sheur left the area and went to a local hotel to try and get someone to investigate. According to Alice Peeper’s accounting two men did investigate, and uncovered a “. . . rather snakelike trail in the snow. . . .”

So what should we make of the Mugwump? Is this a true mystery animal, a true “cryptid”? Before, answering this further though, let us take a peak at the “behind the scenes” events, and some of the news accounts, terms and even names used.

Behind the Scenes:

The primary reporter who brought out such a rush of information in the early 1980’s was Alice Peeper. She was a roving reporter on assignment with the The Temiskaming Speaker. But, was she really? Alice Peeper is actually a pseudonym for an Ada Arney. Alice Peeper is even a character in one of Ada Arney’s books Northern Ontario Graffiti (Cobalt, Ont.: Highway Book Shop, c1981). Ada Arney even appears in some of the same stories written by Alice Peeper in the The Temiskaming Speaker dealing with the creature of the lake:

“And I must thank Ada Arney for her efforts in trying to get the monster accorded freedom and safety of the streets in Haileybury. . . .” (The Temiskaming Speaker, March 3, 1982)

There are even times when two articles appear together, one by Ada Arney, the other by Alice Peeper. In the March 31, 1982 issue of The Temiskaming Speaker, a story entitled “Diabetic branch organized in area” is done by Ada Arney, and “Ice rules not for fools” by Alice Peeper.

Now what of the word Mugwump? A rather catchy namesake for a lake monster, but does the term actually mean what Mayor Jack Dent said in 1979 regarding a sturgeon? The actual word does have a Native American etymology coming from the Algonquian mugquomp or mukquomp, meaning essential “important person.” The term Mugwump though has much more definition in slang and American. In 1884 the term was applied to the Republicans who would not support James Blaine’s presidential quest, rather they flipped and supported Grover Cleveland. The New York Sun quickly used the term little mugwumps and applied a new meaning, TURNCOAT. The word was used though into the 1600’s, when John Eliot translated the Bible into Algonquian and used the term to imply important people. It continued to be used as a jovial term towards a boss or one who thought themselves to be “High and Mighty.” So a Mugwump doesn’t derive from a name for a fish, but does derive from political and jovial connotation to people in power.

Things turn even longer in the tooth in an article by Pablo von McDonell entitled “Tessie the monster stirs scientific world” that appeared in the February 24, 1982 issue of the Temiskaming Speaker. Dr. McDonell (as there is a doctoral ascribed in the byline) outlines the thoughts of three prominent parazoology researchers. Dr. Johannes Liebig von Brusthalter, Dr. Boris Illych Rubiconskubaranov and I. Haggis Campbell are these prominent researchers who outline details on the “creature” for the reader.

Dr. Johannes Liebig von Brusthalter was a professor of macrobiology at the Max Planck Institute in Eseldorf, West Germany and outlines the tale of “Tessie” as:

“. . . there is really nothing unusual about your Tessie at all. Lake Temiskaming has very deep crevices that can allow many aquatic forms to live undetected by man. You can compare Lake Temiskaming’s inhabitants with the bioforms in the ocean depths. . . .”

Dr. Boris Illych Rubicskubaranov was a professor of psychobiology at the Karl Marx College in Bolshetisk, Russie and agreed with Dr. Brusthalter, but added:

“What is generally not known outside the Soviet Union . . . is that our lakes are teeming with Beluga sturgeon, which can weigh up to 2,900 pounds or more. Your Lake Temiskaming must have similar fish…No Russian noble could do without his caviar. American archaeologists have found traces of roe, positively identified as those of Beluga sturgeon, at several Russian fort sites in both states. It was only a matter of time for some to hatch and the fish to migrate and eventually settle in lakes large enough to accommodate them. Lake Temiskaming is one.”

I. Haggis Campbell was the Director of the Institute for Psychic Studies near Edinburgh, Scotland, and had this to say:

“First off . . . let me say that there is a Loch Ness Monster – several of them, in fact. We have carried out an intensive study of their eggs, which they deposit on the shoreline. We have hatched several, with satisfactory results . . . simply because they are microscopic, nor can you see them with the naked eye . . . they are nocturnal; they come out only at night, too. So it is no surprise that they are rarely seen; and their eggs, unknown… As your own historians will tell you, there was a great Scottish migration to North America, especially after the Highland Clearances. It was, and is, a custom among Scots whenever they expect to leave their homelands for a very long time, to take a handful of their home’s earth with them. You can bet that much of the auld sod – and little Nessies, too – came from the shores of Loch Ness.”

So, we have three experts outlining their ideas by way of a Dr. McDonell. Now, Dr. McDonell, at the close of this same February 1982 article, has his mask pulled aside as well.

“Dr. von McDonell is Mary Wollstonescraft Sheltey, Scientists-in-Residence at the famed Inch Block in Cobalt, Ontario. While experimenting with a new strain of mung beans one day last week, he inadvertently sprouted something else, which he immediately flushed down the drain. It was then that the idea for this article occurred to him – with a little help from Ms. Peeper.”

Well, supposition can then lead to analyzing the names and locations of the experts even further. Slight of word, acronyms and the like are all possible. In the end the article “Tessie the monster stirs scientific world” is a fun and tabloidish entry, but based on little or no hard data. Yet, within this same February 1982 newspaper occurs another article entitled “Temiskaming monster early amphibian?” Again, our roving report Alice Peeper reports on an anonymous biologist who met her and proposed another biologic explanation for the “creature”:

“Well . . . it’s quite possible that your Lake Temiskaming monster is an early amphibian called Ichthyostega, they lived in lakes and rivers, had four stubby feet and resembled a giant salamander. Their skin was tough and smooth . . . and yes, they did have a long, bony tail with a ribbed fin. . . .”

This same mystery biologist appears again in a few days and proposes another prospect for the “creature.” As outlined by Alice Peeper once more in “Of monsters and things” from the Temiskaming Speaker of March 3, 1982:

“My biologist friend called me the other day to add to his speculation on the Lake Temiskaming monster, he now claims that it could be from the reptiles, one named Elasmosaurus, which had a fishlike tail, four long flippers and a neck about twenty-five feet long and a heavy low slung body.”

What do we make of the Mugwump?

The history of Lake Temiskaming’s lake creature, the Mugwump or Old Tessie is a mixed bag. There are clear overtones of newspaper and regional in-jokes, but there are also overtones of something more. The first glance at the stories suggest a fabrication of accounts, particularly when Alice Peeper and Dr. Pablo von McDonell are in connection, however the descriptions by the witnesses lead to a more natural occurrence that was carried over for commercial and tourism aspects.

Most accounts seem to indicate a sturgeon like creature. Sturgeons are ancient fish and can reach lengths of 20 feet or more, and weights of over 2000 pounds. Present through different regions, these fish are typically classified as near shore species that spend their time in the mid-depth areas of around 30 plus feet in depth. They feed on a variety of invertebrates, and have been associated to other aquatic lake creatures including Lake Iliamna in Alaska, Lake Tahoe in California / Nevada, and Lake Washington in Washington State.

While the unknown biologist presented two additional potential explanations for Mugwump in 1982, a Elasmosaurus and Ichthyostega, neither of which correspond to the mean of the reports. In the accounts, known at this time, there is no mention of a long necked animal. Likewise, aside from the John Sheur account there is no mention of the animal being seen out of the water. Both the Elasmosaurus and Ichthyostega were real animals at one point. Ichthyostega was the classic archaic ground hugging amphibian creature from the Devonian Period (although it may not have been an amphibian at all), while Elasmosaurus was a Cretaceous style plesiosaur with a long neck and side fins. This is further coupled with the freeze over points of the lake, which make air breathing animals a less likely candidate, of which both Elasmosaurus and Ichthyostega would have required.

This leaves us then back to the most likely candidate for the Mugwump as a sturgeon. Sturgeon are present in the lake, and do rise to the surface with their archaic appearance. They have also bee caught in the past in the lake, and are known to exist there. According to a Gregory Trent Lebreton’s 1999 thesis, the nominal size for the sturgeon in the lake was 1072 millimeters (3.5 feet) at 25 years of age. While this is a far under cry to the 8-20 feet descriptions, it is simply a starting point of reference as sturgeon are long-lifers and continue to grow. We know they can reach extremes over 20 feet, this is known, and is not a severe grasp to suspect some have in Lake Temiskaming. The question of John Sheur’s account is not answered, and still is open. But, perhaps it is just another phantom of the area, a wisp of the night.

What does it all mean?

Lake Temiskaming is home to a monster. This monster is, in all rational likelihood, a series of large sturgeon. While the romantic naturalist would love to attribute the lake to the home of another Nessie or Champ, it simply does not stack up over time. Mugwump, Old Tessie, they are the Temiski Sturgeon, ruler of the deeper, forever part of the lake's history.

We should not hold Mayor Jack Dent from the 1970’s to blame for extending the story of the lake, nor the roving reporter Alice Peeper. They were simply playing off the events from that time period. Lake Champlain and Loch Ness were popular in the media due to their denizens of the deep, and tourism can always use a boost by presenting a more dramatic creature as documented for Lake George (New York) and Bear Lake (Utah). The people of the region tapped this, and carried it forth in a well presented and entertaining method. Over the years the Mugwump has reared its head, even in the 1990’s when it was proposed as a waterfront attraction, but has sat for the most part as a forgotten piece of history outside the region and neglected in the tomes of Lake Monsters and their kin.

Cryptozoology isn’t always about finding the creature reported, often times it is piecing together the story and the events, the characters and the times. Sociology, psychology, history and media interpretation are all key factors and at times they can be used to pull out the missing pieces.

Alice Peeper signed off as the roving reporter on March 31, 1982 (Temaskaming Speaker), in her final entry “Of monsters and things,” she shared a story and a farewell:

“So if you follow the path of the flowers to Devil’s Rock, chances are you may well see the monster as she swims by, forever seeking for her beloved.”

Sources

Monstre du lac, formerly at http://www.temiscamingue.net/lactemis/legendes/monstredulac.html
Nestle Water Institute; Water Legends; The Monster of Lake Temiskaming
Brock, Gordon, The Story of the Lake Temiskaming Monster, Temiskaming Speaker, May 24, 2000
Champetier , Joël, LA MÉMOIRE DU LAC, Beauport, Éditions Alire, 2001 (Ed.Or. Québec Amérique, 1994)
Clark, Jennifer A., 2006, Ichthyostega, February 2006, in The Tree of Life Web Project
Costello, Peter, In Search of Lake Monsters, Berkkey Medallion Books, New York, New York, 1975
Coleman, Loren and Huyghe, Patrick, The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep
Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, New York, New York, 2003
Eberhart, George, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., Santa Barbara, California, 2002
Frey, David G. (editor), Limnology in North America, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1963
Fry, Bert and Colton, Phyllis, Museums over Mugwump, Letter to Editor, Temiskaming Speaker, March 28, 1990
Kirk, John, In The Domain of the Lake Monsters, Key Porter Books, Toronto, Ontario, 1998
Lebreton, Gregory Trent Owen, Lake Sturgeon Growth Chronologies, Doctoral Thesis, University of Guelph, December 1999
McDonell, Pablo von, Tessie the monster stirs scientific world, Temiskaming Speaker, February 24, 1982
Pearson, Mike, Temiskaming Speaker, May 2, 1979
Pearson, Mike, Temiskaming Speaker, May 9, 1979
Peeper, Alice, Monster sighting, Temiskaming Speaker, February 3, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Lake Temiskaming monster sighted again, Temiskaming Speaker, February 17, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Of monsters and things, Temiskaming Speaker, February 10, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Temiskaming monster early amphibian?, Temiskaming Speaker, February 24, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Of monsters and things, Temiskaming Speaker, February 24, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Of monsters and things, Temiskaming Speaker, March 3, 1982
Peeper, Alice, Of monsters and things, Temiskaming Speaker, March 31, 1982
Sallenave, R.M., Barton, D.R., The distribution of benthic invertebrates along a natural turbidity gradient in Lake Temiskaming, Ontario-Quebec, Hydrobiologia, Volume 206, Number 3, October 1990
Wroe, Dariene, Mugwump witness recalls sighting, Temiskaming Speaker, August 9, 1995 (repeated again 8-18-1997)
A Background Study for Nomination of the Ottawa River Under the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, QLF Canada, 2005
A monster called Mugwump, in North Bay Nugget, April 20, 1979
The Lake Temiskaming Monster. Temiskaming Speaker, April 5, 2000
Monsters and more, Temiskaming Speaker, March 31, 1982

King Moose

Craig Heinselman

(Feb. 2007, No. 8)

Moose, the largest living members of the deer family, are a common icon in New England, especially Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. They have a pivotal role, not strictly in the natural ecology of the area, but for the economic side of tourism. A typical eastern moose maxes out at around 6 feet in height, 9 feet in length, and upwards of 1000 pounds, with an antler spread of over 4 feet on the bull. While impressive, larger moose come from the opposite side of the country into northwestern Canada and Alaska. There, moose have been recorded over the 1600-pound mark, over 7 feet in height, and with antler spreads surpassing 6 feet.

Being so large, moose are a popular hunting species. In 2006, New Hampshire had 449 moose killed legally during the season out of an estimated state population of 7000 animals. The largest recorded in New Hampshire was a bull killed in 1993 with a dressed weight of 1040 pounds, while the largest antler spread in New Hampshire comes from 1996 with a 68-inch set taken from a dressed-weight animal of 785 pounds. Both records were from the northern portion of the state. In Maine, the 2006 hunting season yielded 2329 moose out of an estimated state population of 29,000. Several of these taken in 2006 exceed 1000 pounds dressed. The Vermont tallies from hunting in 2004 show 539 animals killed out of an estimated population of just over 5000 animals, with the largest being a bull of 964 pounds dressed. So, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine all have some large animals in the woods that can be shocking to those unfamiliar.

There have been rumors though in northern Maine, from Baxter State Parks' Mount Katahdia and Lobster Lake (between Moosehead Lake and Chesuncook Lake) of an exceptional large animal that roved throughout the region for over 30 years (keep in mind the average life expectancy of a moose is less than 15 years in the wild). This moose became a legend, the Specter Moose of Maine.

Not much has been written of the animal, and it has sat in isolation for so many years now. But, recently it has resurfaced in the writings of three people: Michelle Souliere of Strange Maine via a blog, Alex Boese through his “Museum of Hoaxes” Internet site, and Loren Coleman through the website Cryptomundo and also within the pages of the magazine TAPS (“Mystery Moose,” TAPS vol. 2 no. 5, January 2007). But, this only scratches the surface of the history and odd cryptic history of the mystery moose of Maine.

From the 1890s to the 1930s reports came out of northern Maine, to the east, west, and north of Bangor, describing a large moose upwards of 2500 pounds in weight, 10-foot antler spreads, and 15 feet in height, a true monster of the north-woods. When coupled with its claimed height, the coloration description of dusky-white denotes this moose as a true oddity—the Abominable Moose of Maine.

In 1889, a large moose was killed near Ashland, Maine. This specimen was reported to be 1600 pounds in weight, with a six foot antler spread, a true giant by any comparison, and impressive even if mismeasured by a factor of two. In Washington County, Maine, in January 1900, a snow-white moose was reported in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier.

But, the origin for the legend of the Specter Moose comes from Lobster Lake in 1891. There, a guide, Clarence Duffy, reported the brute. However according to later accounts two brothers actually first reported the animal, Joe and Charlie Francis. The Francis brothers came across the animal, described as being 15 feet at the shoulders and 10 feet across the antlers. The brothers even reportedly shot at the animal, but missed. Known for their marksmanship, the brothers fled the area and did not return, superstitious of the encounter. John Ross also saw the animal a few months later in the same vicinity as Mr. Duffy and the Francis brothers.

In 1892, Howard Van Ness from New York City ran across the large beast some 30 miles northeast of Norcross, Maine. After being separated from his party, Mr. Ness reportedly came across an animal weighing nearly a ton and the size of a camel with a magnificent head of antlers. Mr. Ness shot at the animal, striking it over the shoulder. Wounded, but not killed, the animal circled the area where Mr. Ness had hidden, and finally moved on after a time.

1893 saw Granville Gray of Bangor, Maine, encounter the animal in the same general area of Lobster Lake. 1894 saw another shot fired by an unnamed New York hunter, again striking the animal but not killing it. The hunter hid in a cave, and reported the animal to be 15 feet in height.

In late 1899, Gilman Brown of West Newbury, Massachusetts, was hunting near the Roach River (located in Piscataquis County of Maine) when he encountered the animal. Mr. Brown was so close to it, he counted 22 points on its antlers. Firing five times at the moose, the animal seemed unfazed and walked away. Mr. Brown swore that each shot made contact to the 10 foot tall, 2500 pound, and 12 foot antlered monster.

Shortly thereafter George Kneeland reported being treed by the beast along the road between Sherman and Moawahoc, Maine. His encounter is as follows:

“As I had to go to Moawahoc, I borrowed a bicycle and started at 4 p.m. over the woods road. I had gone only a little way when I came across three foxes. I gave a whoop and they started on the run down the road, with me in hot pursuit. I covered the distance of eight miles to Moawahoc in quick time to the return trip. When I reached the place where I saw the foxes I slowed down a bit.

“Coming to a long stretch of rising ground I dismounted and walked. I had to go to the top and was just going to mount again, when I saw, as I thought, a horse in the road some distance ahead. I looked again and saw it was a monster moose. I waited a moment to see what he was going to do. Suddenly he lowered his head and came straight for me. He roared like a bull and the snorts which he made sounded like a locomotive exhausting steam. I dropped the bicycle and hustled for a tree. The first tree I came to was too small to climb, so I tried another and a limb broke, and I landed on my back. The third one I succeeded in climbing.

“The moose had lost no time in getting to where I was and I watched him closely. His antlers reached across the road in one place and I should think that they had a spread of at least eleven feet. When he reached the bicycle he stopped, nosed it, then trodded off into the woods. . . .”

In September of 1902, M.A. Cushing of Boston recounted his encounter while hunting in August near Chairback Mountain of Maine.

“I’ve been up on Big Houston pond for a number of weeks past… and when I first arrived there I commenced to hear stories of a white moose which was said to have been seen not many miles from that locality. I laughed at these stories at first and thought that they had originated in the mind of some imaginative woodsman for there is nothing that most of them delight in so much as getting a man from the city on the end of a good sized rope.

“As time went on, however, I continued to hear stories of this strange white animal from almost every woodsman I encountered. At last I determined to go out and look for myself and see if I could discover him.

“Seeing is believing I told my guide and when I’ve laid my eyes on a white monster I’ll believe that such an animal exists. Until that time though, I shall continued to doubt its existence.

“The next morning I started out from camp with my camera, hoping if I ran across the animal to get a snap shot of him to take back home with me. I went in the direction of Chairback Mountain where the white moose was said to have been last seen. I reached about half way up the summit by noon without having seen anything and sitting down I made ready to eat my lunch when suddenly I saw something.

“First I heard the undergrowth to the left commence to rustle and then, imagine my surprise, when it parted and one of the strangest sights I ever saw in my life was in full view.

“The white moose, for it was nothing else, was a full grown bull and was one of the largest that I have ever seen. He was dusty white in color everywhere save under the chin which was a dirty brown. The moose appeared to be even more surprised at seeing me than I was at seeing him and at once turned and dashed back into the woods. . . .”

Sadly, while Mr. Cushing snapped a picture, the plate registered poorly and the animal was not visible.

The moose appeared again in late 1908. George Houston sighted the animal, along with 16 other moose, near Chesuncook Lake. The largest moose, the monster one, again had a point count on its antlers of over 20.

In 1917, New York hunter J.G. Sullivan reported seeing a white bull moose in the area near Mount Katahdin while hunting. The moose was described as standing a foot or so higher than an ordinary moose, with a tremendous spread and swoop of its antlers.

These histories sadly are jumbled through newspaper accounts of the time. Some are localized, some nationally published. And their time frames mix together. The Charleroi Mail from March 15, 1938, for instance, shows the time for Mr. Houston’s encounter to be in 1938, when actually the account first appeared in 1908 (one such appearance was in the Syracuse Herald of November 21, 1908), making it an older account and not a recent account. Equally puzzling is that most accounts credit Clarence Duffy with the first encounter in 1891, but this gets blurred by the timescale outlined in the Galveston Daily News of November 19, 1911, wherein the Francis brothers are reported instead of Clarence Duffy as being the first.

Regardless of the cross-information, the history of the Maine Moose is an intriguing piece of folklore from the area. It appears to be a mix of fact, folklore, and tale tales. As the years went on the stories stayed the same, and at times an odder “fate” befell the moose.

Earlier it was noted that Gilman Brown in 1899 swore he made contact with the moose with several of his bullets, yet they had little impact. This was not the first case from Maine of reported imperviousness of a moose. In February 1908, the Chicago Heights Star ran an article entitled “That Ghost Moose” and outlined several instances from northern Maine of such phenomena, creating the “Phantom Moose.”

All these events happened near the Molunkus River—the same generalized area discussed previously, and includes the following:

A moose was shot, and believed to have been killed, by the members of a hunting group led by Sandy Hill. The moose was killed, but due to the time of day it could not be dressed, and was left hanging overnight after being cut to bleed out. The next day the hunters found the moose gone, and tracks showed it walking away. The next night the hunters reported seeing the animal in their camp, with its throat slit. Sandy Hill fired at it, striking the target—the moose fell, and then stood up again and walked away. Tracks were reported showing its trek the following day.

This same moose was reported again by Burt Peggins, near Ashland, Maine. Mr. Peggins felt the breath of the animal on his neck, and turning, stood nose to nose with a moose. The moose’s throat was cut. Running inside, Mr. Peggins watch the animal through the window. The moose picked up his gun with its teeth, fired the weapon, and then vanished from sight.

Arthur Hill also came upon a phantom moose near Mud Pond. The moose grabbed his gun after Mr. Hill missed his shot, and then vanished.

The most amazing encounter was by Harry Porter who reported that after his horse had dropped dead, a moose appeared. He harnessed the moose, and the moose pulled him and his “best girl” five miles into town, and then left.

Maine, however, is not the only place monster moose have been reported, even phantom-like, and unable to be killed by man.

In Minnesota, there are stories of the “Devil Moose,” a moose that not only is large, but has been attributed with killing at least one black bear. The kill occurred in late 1904, when a Mr. Parker reported seeing a large moose near Little Fork, Minnesota, with the claw of a bear in its side. The bear was later found in a tree, dead of apparent blood loss from the severance of its arm.

In Montana, around the Wise River, were stories from the 19^th and 20^th century of a phantom moose that could not be killed by bullets, and longed for its dead mate.

Loren Coleman also makes note in his “Mystery Moose” article in the January 2007 issue of TAPS of a Massachusetts mystery cervid. Dubbed the “Swamp Elk,” this animal was reported from the Hockomock Swamp most recently in 1999 by Ric and Lisa Oliveira. Massachusetts has had an increase in the moose population in the last decades, but while moose accounts are rare in the state, they are not quite like what the Oliveira’s reported. Their animal was described as larger than a two-ton bull, antlers that curved back to the nape of the neck, standing eye to eye with Ric Oliveira as he was seated in his Toyota 4-Runner.

What are we to make of these moose— “Ghost Moose,” “Specter Moose,” “Phantom Moose,” or “King Moose”? The stories suggest a real animal from northern Maine that was pushing the maximum known size limitations. With human population densities lower in the late 1800s and early 1900s, moose were less commonly encountered, though not unknown. But, when seen at night as most accounts were, and when alone hunting, could one misconstrue a large moose for a monster moose? That is surely one possibility, and with the spread of timeframe, exceeding a moose’s life expectancy, it would strongly suggest such a scenario.

The coloration issue is also intriguing. Typically, albino or “white” animals survive less frequently in the wild, due to exposure to predators. While the moose is the largest deer, and a striking species, it is prey to other animals such as bear, wolves, and mountain lions. But, albinos or “white” animals are not unknown and there is the possibility one could have lingered on. Note, not all accounts describe a white animal. This did not appear in the stories until the early 1900s.

Then we have the true phantom Moose from Maine, as well as Montana. Killed, but returning in mournful manners. They appear as subsections to the phenomenon, as side notes, but also as part of the evolution of the stories.

Perhaps the easiest assessment of the moose is simply that the entire phenomenon is a compilation of all of the above. Stories of large moose and the occasional sighting of an albino or white animal are mixed with phantom spirit animal folklore. This creates a legend, a rural “urban tale” that floats through the counties of Piscataquis, Somerset, Penobscot, Aroostook, Hancock, and Washington. The rash of accounts dwindles in the 1930s as other events fill their gaps, populations increase, and hunting of the areas increases further—leading to a time when a large moose becomes a record breaker, and no longer a monster, where an albino, or white, moose becomes just another media interest story and not a ghost story of the woods.

But, stay calm if you’re near Baxter State Park at night and feel a breath on your neck, or hear a rustling in the woods. It could be the Mighty Phantom of the Woods, the Specter Moose, out for a jaunt—or seeking vengeance for being killed so many years before.

Sources:

Boese. Alex, Museum of Hoaxes, http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/the_specter_moose
Coleman, Loren, Mystery Moose, TAPS, Volume 2, Number 5 , January 2007
Coleman, Loren, Cryptomundo, Internet location http://www.cryptomundo.com
Souliere, Michelle. Strange Maine, http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/2006/03/specter-moose-haunts-woods.html
Banger Daily Whig and Courier, Bangor, Maine, October 24, 1887
Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas, February 2, 1889
Banger Daily Whig and Courier, Bangor, Maine, January 19, 1900
King Moose Seen, in Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, Iowa, September 28, 1900
Maine’s Specter Moose, in Freeborn County Standard, Albert Lea, Minnesota, November 14, 1900
Seek Huge Moose, in Daily Review, Decatur, Illinois, November 17, 1900
A White Moose, in Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, September 9, 1902
Saw the White Moose, in Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 13, 1902
The Great Specter of Maine Woods, in Coshocton Age, Coshocton, Ohio, September 23, 1902
Maine’s Big Moose, in Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, October 3, 1902
Saw the Devil Moose, in New York Times, New York, New York, November 11, 1904
Devil Moose Hunting, in Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, Nebraska, December 1, 1904
The Phantom Moose, in Wisconsin Valley Leader, Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, December 28, 1905
That Ghost Moose, in Chicago Heights Star, Chicago, Illinois, February 20, 1908
The Specter Moose, in Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, November 21, 1908
Specter Moose Seen Once More, in Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas, November 19, 1911
Specter Moose Seen Once More, in Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 18, 1911
White is Moose Exciting, in Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, November 12, 1917
White Moose is at Large Again, in Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, December 24, 1917
The Phantom Moose, in McKean Democrat, Smethport, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1918
Specter Moose is Maine Sensation, in Charleroi Mail, Charleroi, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1938
Maine Fish and Game Department, Internet site, http://www.state.me.us/ifw/index.html
Vermont Fish and Game Department, Internet site, http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/
Massachusetts Fish and Game Department, Internet site, http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/
New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Internet site, http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/

A Mystery Feline from Guyana with Possible Relevance to Hocking's Speckled Tiger

Chad Arment

(March 2007, no. 9)

In two articles in Cryptozoology (the late journal of the International Society of Cryptozoology), Peter J. Hocking set investigators' mouths watering with accounts of several fascinating ethnoknown species from Peru that are as yet unidentified by science. Given that at least two skulls of unusual felines were obtained by Hocking (photographs included with comparison jaguar skull in the vol. 12 Cryptozoology article), it seems that serious investigation is warranted for the Yanachaga region (Pasco province, Peru).

[As yet, it does not appear that the skulls have been properly studied—they were to be sent to a specialist at an out-of-country museum, which may have lent difficulties due to South American policies limiting export of potentially significant scientific finds. I would be interested in any update on this matter.]

One of the mystery felines that Hocking noted, however, was what he termed the Speckled Tiger. This is reported to be a jaguar-sized cat, possibly with a larger head, having a light gray pelage covered by solid-black speckling. Hocking gathered three accounts of hunters killing this cat from Peru, noting his frustration in unsuccessful attempts to track down surviving pelts and skulls.

I recently came across a newspaper clipping that may describe the same mystery feline, though it is from another region of South America. The description is certainly reminiscent. From the New York Times (November 2, 1933):

"Gray 'Tiger' Is Shot
"Black-Spotted Species in British Guiana Not Yet Identified.

"Georgetown, British Guiana, Nov. 1 (AP)—An appeal may be made to the New York Zoological Society for aid in identifying a rare species of tiger, slain in the jungle of British Guiana.
"The tiger, shot by Vincent Roth on a survey expedition, is of a peculiar gray color with black spots. It is not unlike the treacherous black panther, but has a narrower skull.
"Mr. Roth, who, like his father, the late Dr. Walter Roth, the anthropologist, has spent most of his life in the hinterland, said even aboriginal Indians were unable to identify the animal, which is something like a puma. The natives, he said, particularly feared this species."

Roth was a well-known surveyor, writer, publisher, museum curator, and naturalist in what is now Guyana. I don't know if he was able to forward the specimen to New York, but I suspect not. If it was held in the National Museum in Guyana, it was certainly destroyed in the 1945 fire that destroyed the natural history collection. (Roth, in fact, helped rebuild the museum after that event.) I plan to locate copies of some of Roth's memoirs—perhaps there is more information to be gleaned from his own writings.

Guyana does not share borders with Peru, but given that they are separated by a vast expanse of Brazilian rainforest, there seems to be plenty of potential territory for a large scarce feline. This particular cryptid is noteworthy in that all known accounts are from cats that were killed, rather than quick glimpses of strange felines in tropical shadows. That certainly suggests a physical, rather than folkloric, beast. New species or not, only a specimen will tell. Hopefully, Hocking will continue his research (and publication) of Peruvian mystery animals, so that we can finally put the mystery of the Speckled Tiger to rest.

References:

Hocking, Peter J. 1992. Large Peruvian Mammals Unknown to Zoology. Cryptozoology 11: 38-50.
Hocking, Peter J. 1993-6. Further Investigations into Unknown Peruvian Mammals. Cryptozoology 12: 50-57.

Mystery Reptiles of the Samoan Islands

Chad Arment

(May 2007, no. 10)

The Samoan Islands are located in Polynesia, in the south-central Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are now separated into Samoa and American Samoa. Samoa is comprised of the "twin" islands of Savai'i and 'Upolu. The eastern group of Tutuila, Ofu, Olosega, Ta'u, Rose Island, and Swains Island make up American Samoa.

The island nature of Polynesia means that reptiles are limited to those species which have good invasive capabilities. (Discounting, of course, marine visitors like sea turtles and sea snakes.) This means they are usually small, unobtrusive, and can take advantage of new environments. Lizards, in particular, are good stowaways and rafters. So, it is no surprise that small geckos (Gehyra, Hemidactylus, Lepidodactylus, Nactus) and skinks (Cryptoblepharus, Emoia, Lipinia) have found a home in the Samoan Islands (per the EMBL database).

Snakes are less likely to invade, but at least two species have managed to make a home on some of these islands. The Pacific tree boa, Candoia bibroni, reaches its eastern limit in American Samoa, where it is called gata. It is known from the islands of Ta'u, American Samoa, and Savai'i and 'Upolu, Samoa (Boulenger 1893; Steadman and Pregill 2004). Lever (2003) notes that the population on Ta'u is extremely melanistic. Lever suggests that while this population may be the result of natural colonization, it is possible they were originally brought to the island deliberately as clan totems or curios. These tree boas once inhabited Tutuila, as well (Steadman and Pregill 2004), but were eradicated, probably through the introduction of rats, cats, and other predators. There is speculation (Austin 2000) that the eastern population of C. bibroni (Loyalty Islands, Fiji, Samoans) may be a different species from the western population (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu).

A second species of snake known from the Samoans is the recently introduced Brahminy blind snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) on Tutuila. This small earthworm-like snake is often introduced via imported plants, so is sometimes called the flowerpot snake. It was first noted on Tutuila in the 1990s (NPS).

I should point out that some online mentions of the python, Liasis mackloti, incorrectly note Samoa as a distribution locality, when they should be noting Semau, Indonesia.

One of the earliest mentions of snakes in the Samoan Islands is from a missionary account (Williams 1837):

"I found that a species of serpent abounded in the Samoa Islands; and having expressed a wish to take a specimen with me to the Society islanders, who had never seen one, the ladies immediately ran out of the house, and returned about half an hour afterwards, each having a live snake twined about her neck."

and,

"Snakes also, which are unknown at the Tahitian and Hervey groups, abound here. I was informed that there were several species of them, some of which are beautifully variegated. Those procured for me were of a dark olive colour, about three feet long. There are also water-snakes, some of them beautifully marked with longitudinal stripes of yellow and black, and others with rings, alternately white and black."

Clearly, the terrestrial species here is Candoia. The "water-snakes" are various sea-snakes, and shouldn't be confused with freshwater water-snakes.

Candoia bibroni reaches four to six feet in length as an adult. Through much of its range, it is variable in coloration and pattern. It is also capable of changing hue in response to the environment and other conditions. That probably explains the next account (Steinberger 1874):

"There are no poisonous reptiles in the Samoan group, but there is a considerable variety of harmless snakes upon the islands of Savaii—white, red, green, black, and spotted."

However, Steinberger goes on to mention another snake:

"I saw the first reptiles in the islands at the village of Asou, in Savaii, and there learned of the 'crowing snake,' (Vivimi gata.) It is the subject of native songs. The testimony of both whites and natives points directly to the fact that they have a snake which crows like a cock. I did not see or hear one. The apparent physical impossibility of such an anomaly made me skeptical, but the unequivocal testimony of the missionaries to the existence of such a reptile seems too strong to be rejected."

This same snake is noted again a few years later (Mulligan 1896):

"There are persons whom I should regard as reliable, who stoutly maintain the existence in these islands of a very large serpent, which gives out a noise somewhat like the crowing of a cock—a serpent which have heard spoken of as a crowing snake. Other persons of long residence speak of it as a myth. A party of laborers at work in a clearing near this town, not long since, were scattered by the appearance of a large serpent, which swung itself from the branch of one tree to that of another. The men united in the assertion that it made a crowing sound, was of enormous size, and moved with great rapidity. I vouch for none of these assertions, but give them for what they are worth; but the existence of the crowing snake is by some held to as firmly in Samoa as it is by others abroad believed to belong in these islands."

Now, anyone who has paid attention to reports of lesser-known mystery animals from around the world will recognize the folkloric nature of the "crowing serpent." From Jamaica, South Africa, and other locations, native peoples claim that certain sounds, bleating in some areas and clucking in others, come from large dangerous serpents. For example, from Africa (Andersson 1856):

"The story of the cockatrice, so common in many parts of the world, is also found among the Damaras; but instead of crowing, or, rather, chuckling like a fowl when going to roost, they say it bleats like a lamb. It attacks man as well as beast, and its bite is considered fatal. They point to the distant north as its proper home. In Timbo's country it is termed 'hangara,' and is said to attain to twelve feet, or even more, in length, with a beautifully variegated skin. On its head, like the Guinea-fowl, it has a horny protuberance of a reddish color. It dwells chiefly in trees. Its chuckle is heard at nightfall; and people, imagining that the noise proceeds from one of their own domestic fowls that has strayed, hasten to drive it home. But this frequently causes their destruction; for, as soon as the cockatrice perceives its victim within reach, it darts at it with the speed of lightning; and if its fangs enter the flesh, death invariably ensues. Timbo informed me that he once saw a dog belonging to his father thus killed. Moreover, the cockatrice, like the wild dog, wantonly destroys more at a time than it can consume."

Of course, there is no attribution of a "crown" or "wattle" in the Samoan mystery snake, just the odd sounds. There is a natural tendency to ascribe unknown sounds to specific creatures even without seeing that animal make the sound. Birds, insects, and especially frogs and toads, can make very strange noises in the dark. I noted a similar situation in Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation, where anthropologist Ralph Bulmer (1968) found that the Karam people lumped several frog species' calls together under the same term, gwnm, while attributing a few frog calls to earthworms.

Could there be an unidentified snake on Savai'i? If we remove vocalizations from the picture (Karl Shuker has noted that some snakes do have limited capability for odd sounds, in any case), we really aren't left with enough of a picture of the snake (how big is "enormous"?) to make any real suggestions. There are only a handful of large snakes known for successfully island hopping to remote areas, and there is little biogeographic evidence that any species other than Candoia made it out to the central Pacific. If I had to stretch, there is the possibility of an early introduction of Boiga irregularis, which would not be happily met by most modern conservationists. I have not run across any modern reports, so cannot be certain there is anything left to investigate. It would of great interest to see any historical accounts that attempt to describe the Samoan crowing snake.

Besides the crowing snake, there is an additional mystery reptile for which I've seen only one early reference. Again, from Williams (1837), where he notes:

"Very large lizards are found on the mountains of Savaii and Upolu; and from the description I received, I should conclude that they were guanas. None, however, of these reptiles are venomous."

As noted previously, only small geckos and skinks are known from Samoa. There are no known varanids ("guanas") or other large lizards. I wish Williams had been more detailed, as there is little to go on. We do know, however, that gigantism occurs on some islands, and there are some larger geckos and skinks. (Not to mention the cryptozoological giant gecko of New Zealand . . .) Perhaps there is, or was, an endemic giant? There are several endemic birds in Samoa. One, the Samoan moorhen, has not been confirmed alive since 1873, according to BirdLife.org, with possible sightings in 1987 and 2003. Savai'i, though one of the largest islands in Polynesia (almost 700 square miles), is also one of the least populated (about 50,000 people). Cryptozoological research should next focus on speaking with Savai'i islanders to determine whether any such reptiles have been reported in modern times, and if so, which habitat (e.g., lowland rainforest, cloud forest, etc.) would be best targeted for field work.

References

Andersson, Charles John. 1856. Lake Ngami, or, Explorations and Discoveries During Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of Southwestern Africa. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Austin, Christopher C. 2000. Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of Pacific island boas (Candoia). Copeia 2000(2): 341-352.
Boulenger, G. A. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum. Vol. 1. London: Taylor & Francis.
Bulmer, Ralph. 1968. Worms that croak and other mysteries of Karam natural history. Mankind 6(12): 621-639.
Lever, Christopher. 2003. Naturalized Reptiles and Amphibians of the World. Oxford University Press.
Mulligan, James H., Consul-General. 1896. Samoa: Government, Commerce, Products, and People. Consular Reports, May 1896. LI (188). Washington: GPO.
National Park Service. Snakes in Samoa! http://www.nps.gov/archive/npsa/5Atlas/partza.htm
Steadman, David W., and Gregory K. Pregill. 2004. A prehistoric, noncultural vertebrate assemblage from Tutuila, American Samoa. Pacific Science 58(4): 615-624.
Steinberger, Albert Barnes. 1874. Report on Samoa: or, the Navigation's Island, made to the Secretary of State. Washington: GPO.
Williams, John. 1837. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands. London: J. Snow.

Did a Sea Serpent Kill a Man?

Craig Heinselman

(May 2007, No. 11)

“I never saw a set of people so prone to sea serpent yarns as the New England coast fishermen and sailors. Those chaps have a sea serpent tale to spring with the advent of each season, and there are generally two or three of them who agree on the one story, which arrangement sort of gives the tale standing before the public. Now, if all these sea serpents, real or imaginary, that have appeared from time to time along the New England coast were corralled and placed out there in this fine river of yours there wouldn’t be room for the shipping to get to the docks. But I’m not throwing stones at the New England sailors or attempting to cast reflection upon their veracity, for I have a sea serpent story myself to hand out, and if you care for the narrative I’ll let you have it.”

So begins the story of one G.H. Hight, a “promoter, mining engineer, prospector, and globe trotter,” one night in late February of 1909 in the lobby of the New Denechaud Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the fall of 1889, Hight was in Madagascar looking over some plantation property. During his stay he traveled the area, and for several weeks stayed in a town called Majanga (Mahajanga) located at the northern end of the Bambataska Bay (Bombetoka Bay). It was in that location that Hight and two companions, an Englishman, Cane, and a Frenchman, Laselle, encountered a serpentine creature in the bay. Their story, as relayed by G.H. Hight is as follows.

“One morning the village was thrown into a state of great excitement. Several natives came to the government house, where Cane and I sat on the broad gallery with Laselle, and began to jabber away at a terrible rate in their queer lingo. Laselle understood the language as well as he did his native tongue or English, and we saw at once that he was very much interested.

"The native who acted as spokesman had a fund of very eloquent and expressive gestures. He repeatedly motioned toward the sea, and , with his arms extended, worked his hands up and down, and curved and twisted his body with the skill and ease of a contortionist. The whole village gathered around to hear the statement, whatever it was, that was being made, and as the spokesman crossed his arms, making a hideous face at the same time and emitting from between his clenched teeth a sort of bellow, several women in the front row of the crowd howled dismally, fell to the ground, rolled over and over, beat their breasts, and tore out their hair.

"With an imperious sweep of his hand and a few guttural words, Laselle dismissed the villagers and then, turning to us, said in French, “Serpent de mer!” He saw that we were still in the dark, having small knowledge of the Johnny Crapaud talk, and resorting to his excellent command of English, gave us an astonishing bit of information.

"The natives have seen a great serpent down in the bay, he said, and the monster overturned a boat and gobbled up one of the fishermen. From the statement made by the villagers it seems that four of them were out in the bay fishing in one of their long bark canoes. They were a quarter of a mile or so from shore, and were just about to head in toward the beach when the water at the stern was violently agitated, and above the surface was thrust an awful serpentine head about the size of a hogshead.

"The head had rounded sides, but was inclined to flatness at the top, and there was a bony ridge, like a crest, extending from the point between the eyes to the neck. About five feet of the neck and body of the serpent protruded from the water, and the horrible-stricken natives were close enough to see that the monster was a dark greenish shade and was covered with scales with size of a silver dollar. The eyes of the snake were set far apart and were glazed over like the eyes of a fish, and on the whole he was a most fearsome sight.

"The fishermen with one accord plunged their paddles into the water and sped their light craft toward the shore, but as they did so the serpent lowered its head, plunged beneath the sea and came up in an instant in hot pursuit of the boat. The waters of the bay were violently agitated as the huge coils of an undulating movement appeared and disappeared above the surface, and to the frightened eyes of the natives the snake looked to be a hundred feet in length and thicker than a large barrel.

"When the boat was still some distance from the sloping beach the serpent overtook it, and, seizing its frail stern in its foam dripping jaws, raised it clear of the water and sent its four screaming occupants floundering in the bay. The natives as they struck the water heard the cracking of the bark as the sides of their canoes were ground to pieces in those terrible jaws.

"The men were all good swimmers and raced through the bay as thought water was their natural element, but, the awful presence behind them steadily lessened the slight lead the fugitives had, and in a moment a scream of agony was heard as the serpent claimed a victim. The native who had told the story to our party was in the lead at the time, and his feet were just beginning to touch the sloping sandy shelf. He instinctively turned and saw a sight that he will never forget. The serpent’s head reached eight or ten feet above the water on an arching neck, and struggling in his jaws was one of the unfortunate boatmen. The cruel teeth had fastened in his flesh and blood in solid streams dripped from the snake’s jaws. Even as the first native looked the victim seemed to double up, his head met his feet and his whole body disappeared in the cavernous mouth of the monster, drawn inward by some powerful suction in the serpent’s mouth.

"The monster, after its disgusting meal, shook itself violently, remained motionless for a moment, as though its appetite was satisfied, and then darted in after another victim. But the brief pause the monster made had given the three survivors the bare time to gain the shallows and run up the beach. The snake paused when it encountered the bottom, emitted a bull-like bellow from its blood-dripping jaws, turned in a sweeping circle and sped out to sea. That was the substance of the story the native told, and the motions he went through were descriptive of the movement of the serpent and the struggles of the victims. The women who had made the display of grief were the wife, mother, and sister of the dead man.

"Well, the whole village went down to the beach and followed the sandy stretch for a mile or more in the direction of the channel, vainly scanning the waters for a glimpse of the serpent. We three white men, each with an improved elephant bore rifle in the bellow of his arm, led the procession, and for a time we were greatly disappointed at not getting a glimpse of the serpent.

"Finally one of the natives called out attention to the commotion in the water about a third of a mile from shore, and snatching Laselle’s strong glasses from his hand, I trained them on the spot. The bay was very calm, but at the spot where my gaze rested the waters were tossing and tumbling about as though over a volcano. ‘There’s something there!’ I cried; and hardly had the words left my mouth when something rose above the surface and the water eddied and boiled like a maelstrom. The something was the head of an enormous serpent and as I passed the glasses back to Laselle and raised my gun I said, with a catch in my breath, ‘The n----r didn’t exaggerate’. The serpent was very plain, even to the naked eye, and all the natives set up weird cried, and, running back and forth on the beach waved their fists at the monster, cursing it in their strange jargon and some few even hurled javelins at it in their impotent fury.

"The snake must have heard the noise, for it started in our direction, and then, to our unspeakable surprise, lowered its head and swam closer to shore, evidently intending to attack us. It came to within several hundred yards of where we stood, coil after coil of its great length rising and falling on the water, looking for all the world like some fabled dragon of antiquity. Its course was stopped, however, at the shallows, and it contented itself with lashing about in the water and bellowing furiously like a great bull.

"Gentlemen, I am not drawing on my imagination one iota when I tell you that the head of that animal, fish, or reptile, call it what you will, was as big as a hogshead, just as the natives had described the thing to us. Once or twice it opened its mouth and we saw four great pronglike teeth, and a smaller row of grinders, which convinced us that the thing was large enough to swallow a man easily. I noticed one thing that the native, in his fright, had overlooked. Attached to the monster, several feet from its head, were thick bristles in two rows that might have served for fins.

"We were able to get a good idea of the serpent’s size as it tried to navigate in the shallows, and it tried to navigate in the shallows, and it could not have been less than 100 feet in length. I was about to fire at the thing, but seeing it coming in toward shore waited for a closer range. The natives for the best part fled like sheep before a leopard upon the snake’s approach, and only Laselle, Cane and myself were close to the water’s edge.

"We could see that the serpent was endeavoring to feel its way up the incline beneath the water, and as it curved and splashed about churned the bay into foam. It was then our time, and raising our rifles simultaneously we fired. The huge bulk made a splendid target for our guns and our shots must have connected. But to our astonishment the serpent only splashed and struggled more to get through the water to us, and it seemed altogether unhurt. Had we been aiming at a rhinoceros the beg beast would have certainly toppled over, but the sea snake had a shot proof hide, and nothing short of an eight-pound shell would have fixed its clock.

"We stood there for an hour or more watching the serpent and wasting shot on it, and finally the monster, as though despairing of ever reaching is, turned about and raced madly out to sea. We could see it diving and circling as it went, and we watched it until it was only a speck on the distant horizon.

"I left Majanga a few days later, and the next year I received a long letter from my friend Laselle. The serpent, he wrote, had been seen in the bay twice after my departure, and a week or so later it made its appearance at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel. Whether it ever was seen again I cannot say. Yes, gentlemen, I am one of the few men who have used a sea serpent for a target, and if you doubt my word just pen a line to Laselle in far off Majanga; he will corroborate every word I have said.

"Why should we doubt sea serpents, I’d like to know? The seas cover two-thirds of the earth, and they are big enough and deep enough to hide any number of mysteries."

A fanciful tale of newspaper fiction aimed at drawing it the readers during popularized times of the sea serpent? Or perhaps a real life encounter embellished for flavor? That is the question one must ask after reading such a story which includes elements of travelers tales, pulp adventure and specific anatomic details.

Pulp adventures, so named based on the inexpensive paper they were printed on, started in the late 1800’s, and ran strong for over 50 years. Authors as diverse as Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Robert W. Chambers flourished in this new medium of creativity, each in turn creating new realms and lands. The stories from this period in literary history were a mix of love, war, western, mystery, horror and science-fiction; they touched on the changing world and the culture it was breathing life into. Explorers searched the globe for new wonders, and tantalizing mysteries from the far corners of the globe beckoned the romantic zoologist or explorer. Pulp fostered stories of exploration, mystery and the unknown lands and animals present.

Such a story as detailed by G.H. Hight fits within the definition of a pulp story. We have the exotic land and locales, the intrepid explorer and hunter who has traveled the world, and the solid and steady calm of a military man. Mix in a comrade and others like himself, and an extraordinary event, and the story reads like a first-person narrative written by any number of classic pulp authors. The reader is propelled, and feels as if they are there in the hotel in New Orleans hearing it first hand, the sections transfer smoothly and the end result is a captivating tale of wonder.

But, is this a short coming to exclude the tale from the annals of sea-serpent evaluations? After all, any number of stories and tales can be read in such a manner: compelling and narrative in form. The entry in The Washington Herald for Sunday, March 7, 1909, is not attributed to G.H. Hight, rather an unnamed correspondent out of New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 6, 1909. Is it therefore a mix of reality and fallacy?

In order to view the story's potential reality, a characteristic review omitting the romanticism must be done. Then, a comparison to other reports or historical anecdotes can be further reviewed. Therefore, as extracted from this 1909 newspaper account:

Length of approximately 100 feet
Rounded sides to the head with flatness at the top
Bony ridge, like a crest, extending from between the eyes to the neck
Dark greenish color
Scales the size of silver dollars
Far set eyes
Glazed over eyes, like a fish
Undulating motion
Coils
Thicker than a large barrel
Arching neck above the water (reaching eight to ten feet)
Pronglike teeth with smaller grinding teeth also present
Thick bristles in two rows several feet from its head
Bullet-proof hide
Consumed meal whole (human)
Bellowing like a bull

Those descriptions when reviewed alone offer some tantalizing behavioral and anatomic appearances, matching nothing known in nature. They present a chimera appearance, a mixture of characteristics from different animal groups, yet aspects are similar in description to other serpentine reports throughout the years: a long thick body undulating through the water with visible coils, potential fin-like appendages at the front, arching neck with the ability to be held above the water’s surface.

The other portion of the cursory review is a connection to other accounts or anecdotes from the region or elsewhere. There is in fact a tale from Madagascar of a creature called the Tompondrano. Now the Tompondrano is a folkloric creature, and is the final step in the transformation of a worm according to the stories. Bernard Heuvelmans broke this down in his In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents as follows:

“The family tree of the tompondrano (or Lord-of-the-Sea) is more complicated. The worms that eat the entrails of a man of high caste turn into a special kind of snake, fananina. These grow to a prodigious size, and when they are too big to move on land, they dive in the sea where they become tompondrano.”

Dr. Georges Petit in his L’Industrie des Peches a Madagascar outlines the Tompondrano further and postulates a connection, perhaps, to an unknown sea-animal in the area. The description provided to Dr. Petit is as follows, again taken from Heuvelmans’ In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents.

“The Lord-of-the-Sea appears rarely. But he shows himself, whenever the time may be, by always moving against the wind. He is 70 to 80 feet long, and his wide flat body is covered with hard plates, rather like the bony armour on the back of a crocodile, but bigger. The tail is like a shrimp’s tail with its terminal flap. The mouth is ventral, the animal must turn on its back to attack. A sort of hood which the animal may raise and lower at will protects its eyes which look forwards but are placed well to the side. The head is luminous and shines light as it comes to the surface. It moves in vertical undulations.

“Some Malagasies say the animal has no legs. Others say it has front flippers like a whale’s. Finally the body is striped in a longitudinal direction, with stripes of different colours, white, red, green or darker. It has no smell. . . .”

While the accounts may not correspond completely between Dr. Petit’s Tompondrano description and GH Hight’s, they do have some intriguing similarities. Both describe a long, wide animal that moves with undulations. The Tompondrano is described as having an armor like that of a crocodile, while GH Hight notes that his bullets did not penetrate his serpents tough hide. Both have a description of off-set eyes, and a hood or crest in the area of the eyes. GH Hight describes potential fin-like appendages, while the Tompondrano is sometimes noted as having fins like a whale.

Circumstantial, granted, yet it does spark the idea that what GH Hight reported was the locally-named creature, Tompondrano. Some aspects can be fleshed further and supposition allowed to run a bit off its leash, yet without more data this becomes purely speculative.

The final piece of the puzzle falls in the realm of prey. GH Hight’s serpent consumed at least one man and appeared to be intent on consuming more men during the event in question. A severe sign of aggression, which is rare if unheard of in the realm of “sea-serpent” reports, yet not isolated completely. Edwin McCleary reported in an article within the May 1965 issue of Fate Magazine a first-hand account of a sea-serpent attack.

According to McCleary, his encounter, and nightmare, took place on March 24, 1962, off Pensacola, Florida. There McCleary and four friends were diving from a raft when a storm arose keeping them from land. From the fog a creature emerged, a classical style plesiosaur creature with a long neck, that was described as follows:

“The neck was about 12 feet long, brownish-green and smooth looking. The head was like that of a sea-turtle, except more elongated with teeth. There appeared to be what looked like a dorsal fin when it dove under for the last time. Also, as best I am able to recall, the eyes were green with oval pupils.”

One by one this creature of the fog attacked and killed the men. Only McCleary survived. Evidentiary basis is slim, and this case too has the ear-marks of the classic pulp story. Yet, could it be true? Matt Bille makes a valid point in regards to this case on a February 3, 2007 Internet Blog at Cryptomundo.

“As so often happens in cryptozoology, we are left with a story with no corroborating evidence. That story, as unbelievable as it sounds, still could be true. But we don’t know. Until and unless we get a specimen of a creature that matches McCleary’s beast, the death of four young men will remain a mystery of the sea.”

We are left then in the same quandary as to acceptance or rejection of GH Hight’s account of a sea serpent from Madagascar decades predating McCleary’s account. An event that both reads of amazing truth and as well rounded popular fiction, yet has earmarks of both situations.

Hight’s creature corresponds in a general sense to the Tompondrano from Madagascar, which in turn can be grouped into debatable categories as Bernard Heuvelmans, Gary Mangiacopra, Bruce Champagne, Loren Coleman, Patrick Huyghe and others have. Would it be a multi-finned, multi-humped, or a great sea centipede, or something else entirely. Unfortunately, as Matt Bille pointed out in the McCleary case, we are left with the unknown and until such a time as more data or objective information is provided or found, there is only supposition.

G.H. Hight relayed an entertaining tale, and the author of the newspaper account should be congratulated for writing it up in such an eloquent manner. Was G.H. Hight real, and did the event occur, for now that must be set aside and we must simply remember the closing passage of that very same newspaper account:

"The seas cover two-thirds of the earth, and they are big enough and deep enough to hide any number of mysteries."

Sources:

Bille, Matt, Death by Sea Serpent?, Cryptomundo Blog, February 3, 2007
Champagne, Bruce, A Classification System for Large, Unidentified Marine Animals Based on the Examination of Reported Observations, in Elementum Bestia, Crypto, Peterborough, New Hampshire 2007
Champagne, Bruce, A Preliminary Evaluation of a Study of the Morphology, Behavior, Autoecology, and Habitat of Large, Unidentified Marine Animals, Based on Recorded Field Observations, in Dracontology Special Number I, Crypto, Francestown, New Hampshire, 2001
Coleman, Loren and Hughe, Patrick, The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep,Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, New York, New York, 2003
Eberhart, George M., Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 2002
Heuvelmans, Bernard, In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents, Hill and Wang, New York, New York 1969
Mangiacopra, Gary, The Great Unknowns of the 19^th Century, Of Sea and Shore, 1975-1981
McCleary, Edward Brian, My Escape from a Sea Monster, Fate Magazine, May 1965
Sea Serpent Eats Man, The Washington Herald, March 7, 1909

Notes on a Minor Set of Correspondence from Bernard Heuvelmans

Chad Arment

(June 2007, no. 12)

The role of Bernard Heuvelmans in the organization and popularization of cryptozoology will rarely be overstated. While he has left us with numerous texts and articles, there is also a sense in which we (as cryptozoological researchers) really don't have enough. From an English-language perspective, several of his books are as yet untranslated, and I don't know that any investigator has yet examined what he left to a Swiss archive to determine the extent of any unpublished work, correspondence, or miscellaneous writings.

I was able to obtain two brief letters that Heuvelmans wrote to a man from Carmel, California, in 1960. It appears that the man had originally written Heuvelmans with descriptions of strange animals which he either saw or heard about while in Vietnam. Unfortunately, having only one side of the correspondence, we don't have access to those original descriptions (though they might just be in that Swiss archive). Heuvelmans, however, gives his brief opinions on these animals, which at least gives us an idea of what the California man reported. Heuvelmans' notes from this first letter (postmarked July 18, 1960) are as follows:

"Rhinos in Vietnam. This is very important, because the present status of these animals, now becoming desperately rare, is very ill-known. Do you remember whether de Cohos were referring to a one-horned or a two-horned species?
"Giant Bat. This leaves me a little sceptical because it is very improbable that a bat with a body like a 6 years old child could fly. This is probably much exaggerated. Such a heavily built bat must have a wing-span of at least 30 or 40 feet. Of course it might be an unknown species of bat, bigger than the Edible Fruit Bat, which has already a 5 feet wing-span. But what puzzles me then: all the Megachiroptera are not carnivorous. Is it some sort of entirely different animal? A Pterosaurian? The matter is worth investigating.
"Large lizard: This does not look like a legend at all: its description is so matter-of-fact. Such a big lizard capable of running erect like the small Frilled Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingi) from Australia would be something entirely new. Who knows if it is not some small-sized dinosaur!
"Indo-Chinese long-tailed bird: As I am more a mammalogist than an ornithologist I cannot even try to identify the bird you happened to see. But I will -- with the aid of the proper books -- as soon as I will be back in Paris."

The second letter, dated in writing Sept. 25, 1960, is briefer, noting that Heuvelmans is "snowed under" with letters and is still "struggling desperately" with the last chapter of his book on sea serpents. He does note, "About the Annam tombs, I will get in touch with a friend of mine, an ethnologist working at the Musée de l'Homme, in Paris, M. Georges Condominas . . ." Nothing is stated about why these tombs might be of interest, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that there might be some tomb carvings of cryptozoological interest waiting to be examined.

Why is older correspondence of interest? There are several reasons, from the historical documentation of the development of cryptozoology, to off-the-cuff insights or speculations that might point current investigators to a new direction for research. Unfortunately, a lot of older material in the field (from both investigators and investigative societies) has been lost or thrown out, or is otherwise unavailable to the average investigator. I would urge those who have been long-time investigators not to discard old correspondence, and to make provision for it, perhaps an archival collection, where it can remain useful to the next crop of investigators.

The New Siberian Roc

Chad Arment

(June 2007, No. 13)

In 1819-1820, a report of a strange specimen made the rounds of various scientific and philosophical publications. Published in full in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and in The Philosophical Magazine and Journal, and in edited versions elsewhere, the report stated:

"Enormous Bird.—Mr. Henderson has discovered, in New Siberia, the claws of a bird measuring each a yard in length; and the [Yakuts] assured him, they had frequently, in their hunting excursions, met with skeletons, and even feathers, of this bird, the quills of which were large enough to admit a man's arm. This is a fact in support of the tradition, that the earth was formerly inhabited by giants, for men, not exceeding ourselves in stature, would have been helpless against birds of prey of this magnitude. Captain Cook mentions having seen a monstrous bird's nest in New Holland, on a low sandy island, in Endeavour River, with trees upon it, and an incredible number of sea fowl; he found an eagle's nest with young ones, which he killed, and the nest of some other bird, of a most enormous size; it was built with large sticks upon the ground, and was no less than six and twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high."

Nothing is heard again about these giant "claws," though a brief note in Thomas W. Knox's Overland Through Asia (1871) may refer to the same case:

"Bones of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus abound in Northern Siberia, and like those of the mammoth are found in the frozen earth. In the last century the body of a rhinoceros of an extinct species was found on the river Vilouy, a tributary of the Lena. In the museum at St. Petersburg there is a head of the Arctic rhinoceros on which the skin and tendons remain, and a foot of the same animal displays a portion of its hair. The claws of an enormous bird are also found in the north, some of them three feet long, and jointed through their whole length like the claws of an ostrich."

New Siberia is part of the Anzhu Island group that is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Laptev Sea to the west, and the East Siberian Sea to the east. (These and nearby islands have been referred to as the New Siberian Islands, so it may not be wise to specify a particular island for Henderson's find at this point.) Arctic conditions bring nine months of snow cover every year. Massive amounts of fossil ivory were taken from the New Siberian Islands during the early 1800s. Remains of other ice age creatures were also discovered, with the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica noting mammoth, rhino, bison, stag, saiga, antelope, horse, reindeer, and tiger. No other mentions of giant birds appear to be made for this region, and the New World teratorns have not been documented in Asia.

The idea of three-foot claws on a bird seems far exaggerated. It doesn't appear that many writers about large birds like Aiolornis or Argentavis have speculated on the size of the claws of those species; perhaps due to lack of physical evidence. But, if Argentavis magnificens, the largest known flying bird, stood five to six feet high, running perhaps 9 foot from tip of bill to tip of tail, three-foot claws would be far oversized and unwieldy.

But, does the story necessarily have to be a hoax? Setting aside unsubstantiated rumors of giant feathers, there's a good possibility that the "claws" were actual specimens, but misidentified. As noted by Tregear (1894):

"Rhinoceros horns brought to Europe by ancient travellers were supposed to be claws of griffins, those great four-footed birds with claws like lions, spoken of by Herodotus and Ctesias. The Siberians also think that the fossil horns of the rhinoceros are the claws of an enormous bird, and thence has grown a myth that monstrous birds in olden times fought with the ancestors of men."

So this Mr. Henderson, whoever he might have been, probably did not recognize the woolly rhinoceros horn specimens in hand (which could reach almost three feet in length), and let his imagination carry him to a wrong conclusion. A similar mistake occurred in South America, where a prong from the shell of the Indo-Pacific Chiragra spider conch was discovered in the Gran Chaco and misidentified as the fossil rear-fang of a giant snake (Shuker 1997). At least one online image of a woolly rhino's horn shows a banded pattern that might, out of context, remind someone of the scaled feet ("jointed throughout their whole length") of an ostrich.

References:

Anonymous. 1819-1820. Enormous Bird. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 6(Oct. 1819-March 1920): 215.
Woolly Rhino Skeleton. http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/Wooly_Rhino_Fossils/Wooly_Rhino_Skeleton/
Knox, Thomas W. 1871. Overland Through Asia. Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life. New York, Astor House. Gutenberg E-text.
Shuker, Karl P. N. 1997. From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.
Tregear, Edward. 1894. Myths of Observation. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 27: 579-593.

Notes on the Minhocão

Chad Arment

(August 2007, no. 14)

"I never fail to feel astonished, when I receive one of your letters, at the number of new facts you are continually observing. With respect to the great supposed subterranean animal, may not the belief have arisen from the natives having seen large skeletons embedded in cliffs? I remember finding on the banks of the Parana a skeleton of a Mastodon, and the Gauchos concluded that it was a burrowing animal like the Bizcacha." (Excerpt from letter, Charles Darwin to F. Müller. May 9th, 1877)

Thus we have, as far as I am aware, the only direct connection to cryptozoology from Charles Darwin. (Darwin's correct prediction of a giant hawk moth with a 10-inch proboscis used to pollinate a Madagascan orchid is well-known to cryptozoology enthusiasts, but the moth was not ethnoknown, merely speculative, so not strictly cryptozoological.) Many of the well-known names in early science (biology and paleontology, at least) had some interest in reports of unknown animals, especially sea serpents and the like. Lyell wrote on the sea serpent, Owen critiqued the sea serpent, O. C. Marsh had a copy of Oudemans' classic monograph in his library, etc., so it shouldn't be too surprising to discover a connection to enigmatic species, sceptical as it may be, from someone like Darwin who corresponded regularly with scientists all over the globe.

But what is this "great supposed subterranean animal"? Francis Darwin, in the compilation of his father's correspondence in which this letter is noted, mistakenly connects this comment to reports in 1898 of the possible existence of the giant ground sloth in Patagonia. That is not what this letter refers to. Fritz Müller, rather, was investigating reports of the Minhocão, a giant underground worm-like monster, in Brazil. In 1877, he sent a report to the German publication Der Zoologische Garten, and an English summary was soon published in the journal, Nature, after which the story quickly spread to popular journals and newspapers in a vein similar to this (Burke 1879):

"The footman in Punch who desired a new animal, as he was tired of beef, pork, and mutton, would be gratified to hear that a new if not true animal has been heard of in Brazil. Fritz Müller, of Itajahy, in Southern Brazil, gives an account of a gigantic worm, known in the highlands of that country as the 'Minhocao.' The Minhocao is supposed to be about fifty yards long and five broad, and the evidence that some such animal does exist is strong. Another account speaks of the Minhocao as nearly a metre in thickness, with or without legs, with a snout like a pig. The traces of this animal were trenches, which were seen by Herr Kelling, a merchant of Lages. Herr Odebrecht, while surveying near Itajahy, came across traces of the same sort some years ago. Similar trenches were found by Antonio Branco terminating, like some of the former, in a morass. The waters of the pool in the morass appeared at times strangely troubled. The accounts, however, varying, point to the existence of some monster hitherto supposed to be extinct."

The Minhocão has been the subject of some speculation by cryptozoological writers like Bernard Heuvelmans and Karl Shuker, but it remains a "lesser-known" mystery animal because there aren't any sightings after the 1800s. Whether this is because the animal is so elusive, or is now extinct, or never existed, is indeterminable. (Even that last possibility has a puzzle, in that if folkloric animals are purely imaginary and represent improbable explanations for unusual natural occurrences, what now stands in for the Minhocão as an explanation? Why does it not continue to be used in an explanatory manner within the folklore of that region?)

Müller's report, as published in Nature, is as follows:

A New Underground Monster

A recent communication from Fritz Müller, of Itajahy, in Southern Brazil, to the Zoologische Garten contains a wonderful account of the supposed existence of a gigantic earthworm in the highlands of the southern provinces of Brazil, where it is known as the "Minhocao." The stories told of this supposed animal, says Fritz Müller, sound for the most part so incredible, that one is tempted to consider them as fabulous. Who could repress a smile at hearing men speak of a worm some fifty yards in length, and five in breadth, covered with bones as with a coat of armour, uprooting mighty pine trees as if they were blades of grass, diverting the courses of streams into fresh channels, and turning dry land into a bottomless morass? And yet after carefully considering the different accounts given of the "Minhocao," one can hardly refuse to believe that some such animal does really exist, although not quite so large as the country folk would have us to believe.

About eight years ago a "Minhocao" appeared in the neighbourhood of Lages. Francisco de Amaral Varella, when about ten kilometres distant from that town, saw lying on the bank of the Rio das Caveiras a strange animal of gigantic size, nearly one metre in thickness, not very long, and with a snout like a pig, but whether it had legs or not he could not tell. He did not dare to seize it alone, and whilst calling his neighbours to his assistance, it vanished, not without leaving palpable marks behind it in the shape of a trench as it disappeared under the earth. A week later a similar trench, perhaps constructed by the same animal, was seen on the opposite side of Lages, about six kilometres distant from the former, and the traces were followed, which led ultimately under the roots of a large pine tree, and were lost in the marshy land. Herr F. Kelling, from whom this information was obtained, was at that time living as a merchant in Lages, and saw himself the trenches made by the "Minhocao." Herr E. Odebrecht, while surveying a line of road from Itajahy into the highlands of the province of Santa Caterina, several years ago, crossed a broad marshy plain traversed by an arm of the river Marombas. His progress here was much impeded by devious winding trenches which followed the course of the stream, and occasionally lost themselves in it. At the time Herr Odebrecht could not understand the origin of these peculiar trenches, but is now inclined to believe that they were the work of the "Minhocao."

About fourteen years ago, in the month of January, Antonio José Branco, having been absent with his whole family eight days from his house, which was situated on one of the tributaries of the Rio dos Cachorros, ten kilometres from Curitibanos, on returning home found the road undermined, heaps of earth being thrown up, and large trenches made. These trenches commenced at the source of a brook, and followed its windings; terminating ultimately in a morass after a course of from 700 to 1,000 metres. The breadth of the trenches was said to be about three metres. Since that period the brook has flowed in the trench made by the "Minhocao." The path of the animal lay generally beneath the surface of the earth under the bed of the stream; several pine trees had been rooted up by its passage. One of the trees from which the Minhocao in passing had torn off the bark and part of the wood, was said to be still standing and visible last year. Hundreds of people from Curitibanos and other places had come to see the devastation caused by the Minhocao, and supposed the animal to be still living in the marshy pool, the waters of which appeared at certain times to be suddenly and strangely troubled. Indeed on still nights a rumbling sound like distant thunder and a slight movement of the earth was sensible in the neighbouring dwellings. This story was told to Herr Müller by two eye-witnesses, José, son of old Branco, and a step-son, who formerly lived in the same house. Herr Müller remarks that the appearance of the Minhocao is always supposed to presage a period of rainy weather.

In the neighbourhood of the Rio dos Papagaios, in the province of Paranà, one evening in 1849 after a long course of rainy weather, a sound was heard in the house of a certain João de Deos, as if rain were again falling in a wood hard by, but on looking out, the heavens were seen to be bright with stars. On the following morning it was discovered that a large piece of land on the further side of a small hill had been entirely undermined, and was traversed by deep trenches which led towards a bare open plateau covered with stones, or what is called in this district a "legeado." At this spot large heaps of clay turned up out of the earth marked the onward course of the animal from the legeado into the bed of a stream running into the Papagaios. Three years after this place was visited by Senhor Lebino José dos Santos, a wealthy proprietor, now resident near Curitibanos. He saw the ground still upturned, the mounds of clay on the rocky plateau, and the remains of the moved earth in the rocky bed of the brook quite plainly, and came to the conclusion that it must have been the work of two animals, the size of which must have been from two to three metres in breadth.

In the same neighbourhood, according to Senhor Lebino, a Minhocao had been seen several times before. A black woman going to draw water from a pool near a house one morning, according to her usual practice, found the whole pool destroyed, and saw a short distance off an animal which she described as being as big as a house moving off along the ground. The people whom she summoned to see the monster were too late, and found only traces of the animal, which had apparently plunged over a neighbouring cliff into deep water. In the same district a young man saw a huge pine suddenly overturned, when there was no wind and no one to cut it. On hastening up to discover the cause, he found the surrounding earth in movement, and an enormous wormlike black animal in the middle of it, about twenty-five metres long, and with two horns on its head.

In the province of São Paulo, as Senhor Lebino also states, not far from Ypanema, is a spot that is still called Charquinho, that, is, Little Marsh, as it formerly was, but some years ago a Minhocao made a trench through the marsh into the Ypanema River, and so converted it into the bed of a stream.

In the year 1849, Senhor Lebino was on a journey near Arapehy, in the State of Uruguay. There he was told that there was a dead Minhocao to be seen a few miles off, which had got wedged into a narrow cleft of a rock, and so perished. Its skin was said to be as thick as the bark of a pine-tree, and formed of hard scales like those of an armadillo.

From all these stories it would appear conclusive that in the high district where the Uruguay and the Paranà have their sources, excavations, and long trenches are met with, which are undoubtedly the work of some living animal. Generally, if not always, they appear after continued rainy weather, and seem to start from marshes or river-beds, and to enter them again. The accounts as to the size and appearance of the creature are very uncertain. It might be suspected to be a gigantic fish allied to Lepidosiren and Ceratodus; the "swine's snout," would show some resemblance to Ceratodus, while the horns on the body rather point to the front limbs of Lepidosiren, if these particulars can be at all depended upon. In any case, concludes Herr Müller, it would be worth while to make further investigations about the Minhocao, and, if possible, to capture it for a zoological garden!

To conclude this remarkable story, we may venture to suggest whether, if any such animal really exist, which, upon the testimony produced by Fritz Müller, appears very probable, it may not rather be a relic of the race of gigantic armadilloes which in past geological epochs were so abundant in Southern Brazil The little Chlamydophorus truncatus is, we believe, mainly, if not entirely, subterranean in its habits. May there not still exist a larger representative of the same or nearly allied genus, or, if the suggestion be not too bold, even a last descendant of the Glyptodonts?

Shuker (1995) noted that a similarly described animal was reported in 1866 in Nicaragua.

One enterprising fellow followed up on Müller's report (Anonymous 1880):

Mr. T. J. Moore read the following note from Mr. E. Dukinfield Jones, C.E., Corresponding Member, dated São Paulo, Brazil, December 6th, 1879:—

"When I was at Ypanema, in the Province of São Paulo, I made enquiries from the Manager of the Works there about the supposed new underground monster, noticed by the eminent naturalist, Fritz Müller, in Nature, for Feb. 21st, 1878, p. 325.

"Mr. Moore asked me to find out whether there was any foundation for the report. The 'bicho' was said to be an immense Earthworm, over three feet in diameter, and none knew how long, that ploughed up great furrows and diverted the beds of streams.

"The Manager said he never heard of any such 'bicho,'* or any other 'bicho' out of the common in Ypanema, and he has been there twelve years." (* Bicho is a general term for vermin.)

Of course, as any field investigator is aware, knowledge of mystery animals within a community is often heterogeneous; some may have heard of reports, while others have no idea that sightings exist.

Müller's account is not the earliest published record of the animal, as the Minhocão was reported several decades earlier (Ainsworth 1856), though in more generic terms (the "local lake monster" story):

"The fishermen of the Araguay and its tributaries declare that a snake, which they compare in shape to an earthworm, but which attains from thirty to forty yards in length, roars so as to be heard many leagues off. They call it Minhocao, and are so much in dread of it as to have abandoned several lakes that abounded in fish, merely because they were frequented by this dreaded ophidian."

And, an even earlier paper was published in 1847:

On the Minhocao of the Goyanese, an enormous species of Lepidosiren

M. Auguste de Saint Hilaire

Luiz Antonio da Silva e Souza, whose acquaintance I made during my travels, and to whom we owe the most valuable researches on the history and statistics of Goyaz, says, in speaking of the lake of Padre Aranda, situated in this vast province, that it is inhabited by minhocôes; then he adds that these monsters—it is thus he expresses himself—dwell in the deepest parts of the lake, and have often drawn horses and horned cattle under the water.

The industrious Pizarro, who is so well acquainted with all that relates to Brazil, mentions nearly the same thing, and points out the lake Feia, which is likewise situated in Goyaz, as also being inhabited by minhocôes.

I had already heard of these animals several times, and I considered them as fabulous. When the disappearance of horses, mules and cattle, in fording the rivers, was certified by so many persons, it became impossible for me to doubt it altogether.

When I was at the Rio des Piloes, I also heard much of the minhocôes. I was told that there were some in this river, and that at the period when the waters had risen, they had often dragged in horses and mules whilst swimming across the river.

The word minhocao is an augmentative of minhoca, which, in Portuguese, signifies earth-worm; and, indeed, they state that the monster in question absolutely resembles these worms, with this difference, that it has a visible mouth; they also add, that it is black, short, and of enormous size; that it does not rise to the surface of the water, but that it causes animals to disappear by seizing them by the belly.

When, about twenty days after, having left the village and the river of Piloes, I was staying with the Governor of Meiapont, M. Joaquim Alvez de Oliveira, I asked him about these minhocôes: he confirmed what I had already been told, mentioned several recent accidents caused by these animals, and assured me at the same time, from the report of several fishermen, that the minhocao, notwithstanding its very round form, was a true fish, provided with fins.

I at first thought that the minhocao might be the Gymnotus carapa, which, according to Pohl, is found in the Rio Vermelho, which is near to the Rio des Piloes; but it appears from the Austrian writer that this species of fish bears the name of Terma termi, in the country; and, moreover, the effects produced by the Gymnoti are, according to Pohl, well known to the mulattoes and negroes, who often felt them, and have nothing in common with what is related of the minhocao.

Professor Gervais, to whom I mentioned my doubts, directed my attention to the description which P. L. Bischoff has given of the Lepidosiren; and, indeed, the little we know of the minhocao agrees well enough with what is said of the rare and singular animal discovered by M. Natterer.

That naturalist found his Lepidosiren in some stagnant waters near the Rio da Madeira and of the Amazon. The minhocao is not only said to be in rivers, but also in lakes. It is, without doubt, very far from the lake Feia to the two localities mentioned by the Austrian traveller; but we know that the heats are excessive at Goyaz. La Serra da Paranahyba e do Tocantim, which crosses this province, is one of the most remarkable dividers of the gigantic water-courses of the north of Brazil from those of the south; the Rio des Piloes belongs to the former, as does the Rio da Madeira.

The Lepidosiren paradoxa of M. Natterer has actually the form of a worm, like the minhocao. Both have fins; but it is not astonishing that they have not always been recognised in the minhocao, if, as in the Lepidosiren, they are, in the animal of the Rio des Piloes, reduced to simple rudiments. "The teeth of the Lepidosiren," says Bischoff, "are well fitted for seizing and tearing its prey; and to judge of them from their structure, and from the muscles of their jaw, they must move with considerable force." These characters agree extremely well with those which we must of necessity admit in the minhocao, since it seizes very powerfully upon large animals, and drags them away to devour them. It is, therefore, probable that the minhocao is an enormous species of Lepidosiren; and we might, if this conjecture were changed into certainty, join this name to that of the minhocao, to designate the animal of the lake Feia and of the Rio des Piloes.

Zoologists who travel over these distant countries will do well to sojourn on the borders of the lake Feia, of the lake Padre Aranda, or of the Rio des Piloes, in order to ascertain the perfect truth—to learn precisely what the minhocao is; or whether, notwithstanding the testimony of so many persons, even of the most enlightened men, its existence should be, which is not very likely, rejected as fabulous.—(Comptes Rendus, Dec. 28, 1846.)

The last account of a Minhocão appears to be from an anonymous newspaper story in 1899:

"A Binghamton (N.Y.) soldier, who enlisted in a regiment that was before Santiago, wrote home to his family that a Cuban scout told of a wonderful monster he had encountered in the mountains in the extreme eastern part of the island. It lived near a water course, he said, and burrowed through the earth beneath the stream like an earthworm. It was timid, and when he came suddenly upon it through a jungle of undergrowth it hurried away. In a fleeting glimpse he saw it had a snout like a hog, was covered with scales and, as near as he could judge, was 3 feet in diameter.

"The Cuban's story was looked upon as a Spanish dream, and no attention was paid to it, though the scout was vehement in his declarations of truthfulness and his statements were backed up by comrades whose homes were near that section and who, while not having seen the animal, had witnessed its trenchlike burrows. This tangible evidence in the shape of burrows is enough for a claim that dragons are among Uncle Sam's new acquisitions."

The newspaper article continues on, connecting this tale to the Müller stories. I suspect this Cuban story is pure newspaper fancy, a writer filling space by giving an old story a new (and at that time, politically relevant) setting. Unless firm corroboration is discovered, I would not include Cuba as a likely source for Minhocão sightings.

Is there any likelihood of modern day accounts? Difficult to say—given Brazil's recent political fiasco with regard to Dr. Marc van Roosmalen, I wouldn't personally recommend outsiders doing cryptozoological research in that country, except with great caution. Strictly folkloric interviews, perhaps. The abrupt end in sighting reports at the turn of the twentieth century is certainly odd, but there may be legitimate reasons that haven't been adequately explored. It will probably require intensive regional-focused investigations by Brazilian cryptozoology researchers to determine if the Minhocão is still viable as a cryptid in that country—other countries with Amazon rainforest are also worth a closer look.

Resources:

Ainsworth, William Harrison. 1856. Travels in the Central Parts of South America. The New Monthly Magazine 107: 388-404.
Anonymous. 1878. A New Underground Monster. Nature (February 21): 325-326.
Anonymous. 1880. Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, during the Sixty-Ninth Session, 1879-80. No. XXXIV. p. lv.
Anonymous. 1899. Monstrous Minhocao. The Mansfield (OH) News (January 11): 7.
Burke, Edmund, ed. 1879. The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad, for the year 1878.
Darwin, Francis, ed. 1903. More Letters of Charles Darwin: A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters. Vol. II. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
de Saint Hilaire, M. Auguste. 1847. On the Minhocao of the Goyanese, an enormous species of Lepidosiren. The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Exhibiting a View of the Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the Sciences and the Arts. XLII(Oct. 1846-April 1847): 278-281.
Shuker, Karl P. N. 1995. In Search of Prehistoric Survivors. London: Blandford.

Mythical Animals from Greenland

Chad Arment

Greenland, with an area of land mass exceeding three times the area of Texas, is the largest island on Earth. About 85% of Greenland is covered in an ice cap, which severely limits species diversity on the island. Only on ice-free edges of the island are animals able to survive. The WWF has classified Greenland's ecoregions (excluding the ice cap) as high arctic tundra in the north and low arctic tundra in the south. Only nine species of terrestrial mammals are recognized as native (or occasional) to Greenland:

Arctic hare
Greenland collared lemming
Ermine
Wolverine
Arctic fox
Arctic wolf
Polar bear
Musk-ox
Caribou

Most of these terrestrial mammals are only found in northern Greenland, not being able to traverse the inhospitable ice cap region. Some human introductions (musk-ox and caribou) led to southern Greenland populations.

Six seals are regularly found in Greenland's waters:

Ringed seal
Bearded Seal
Hooded Seal
Harp Seal
Harbor Seal
Walrus

The zoological folklore of the Kalaallit Inuit has only occasionally been discussed with an attempt to reconcile ethnoknown animals and what science currently recognizes to exist. Because of inherent difficulties with folk taxonomies (as I've discussed in Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation), this sometimes prompts outright dismissal of anything that isn't immediately identifiable.

One early review of folkloric Greenland species came from Scottish explorer Robert Brown, published in 1868:

On some of the doubtful or mythical Animals of Greenland.

Otto Fabricius used to spend his summers roaming about with the Eskimo, until he had learned to manage a kayak and strike a Seal with a skill which few Europeans can ever acquire. On one of these excursions he found in "Sildefjord, north of the colony of Fredrikshaab," a piece of a skull, about which the natives told him something; and from what they related to him, and what he thought himself, he entered no less than two species in the Greenland fauna, "Trichechus manatus" (Rhytina gigas) and "Phoca ursina" (Callorhinus ursinus), being, apparently, not certain to which it belonged. The Greenlanders called this animal Auvekæjak, or Auikæjak, and said it was like a Walrus and broke things easily to pieces. He was sure that the piece of skull belonged to the first of these animals; and again he repeats the same under the head of Phoca ursina; so that it is now difficult to arrive at any conclusion regarding the species of animal to which it belonged. However, I think there can be but one opinion, that neither the Sea-Bear nor the Rhytina can be entered in the Greenland fauna on such fragmentary evidence. The confused stories of the Greenlanders can give the critic no great hold.

This piece of cranium is not now to be found in Fabricius's Museum. In a posthumous zoological manuscript, entitled "Zoologiske Samlinger," written in Copenhagen during the period between 1808 and 1814, and now preserved in the Royal Library, he has again spoken about the Auvekæjak (Bd. ii. p. 298, no. 286), and has thus written about the skull he found in Greenland:—

"The head which I found was full of holes, and looked like that of a Walrus (no. 82), without tusks."

There were many long small teeth in the head (1); and if such was the case, we cannot be wrong in saying that the animal was not a Mammal. We have, however, no right, when we remember the clear comprehensive style in which Fabricius wrote regarding the Greenland fauna, however much we may be inclined, to say that the whole was erroneous.

It is unfortunate that when Fabricius referred his Auvekæjak to the Sea-cow of Steller, he was not acquainted with that animal, and did not know of the horn-plates; for, if he had, it is impossible that he could have found a resemblance to it in the Auvekæjak. His words regarding it are clear enough, so far as they go— "Rarissimum animal in mari Grœnlandico, cujus solum cranium ex parte conservatum commune cum sequenti specie ab incolis dictum nomine Auvekæjak, jak, vidi, inque hoc dentes spurios tales confertim congestos quales Steller" (vid. loc. cit. Adel.(2) § 189). Again, immediately under the head of "Phoca ursina," he says:— "Grœnl. Auvekæjak.—Illam esse animal quod sub nomine hoc memorant incolænon est dubitandum. Dicunt illud in Australiori Grœnlandia, licet raro, dari quadrupes pilosum, ferociter omne occurrens dilacerare, et si visum consumere: ursi maritimi more terra marique degere, impetuosissime natare, venatores valide infestare. Dentes ut amuleta contra ulcera, nec non quodammodo ad instrumenta venatoria adhibentur." There is an evident uncertainty in Fabricius's mind; and he has listened too much to the idle fables of the natives (who have, as I shall presently show, many of that nature); whatever it is, there can, I think, be scarcely a doubt as to the exclusion of Trichechus manatus and Phoca ursina from the Greenland fauna; nor can their place as yet be supplied by any other species. Prof. Steenstrup thinks that it was a portion of the skull of the Sea-wolf (Anarrhichas). The situation of the teeth and the nature of this fish's cellular skull well agree with his description of the skull as "full of holes" (forhulret (3)). Hr. Bolbrœ, who understands the Eskimo language intimately, tells me that the word means a "little Walrus," and that in all probability it was only the skull of a young Walrus, an animal not at all familiar to Fabricius, as they are chiefly confined to one spot, and the natives fear to go near that locality. Fabricius may have only written the description from recollection; and memory, assisted by preconceived notions, may have led him into error in the description of the long teeth, which after all might, without great trouble, be made to refer to the dentition of the young Walrus as described by Macgillivray (4) and Rüppell (5).

This opinion is strengthened by a passage in Fabricius's account of the Walrus, when he again is in doubt whether a certain animal is the young of the Walrus or the Dugong, "De varietate dentibus exertis brevioribus loquuntur incolæ, quam minus recte (ut videtur) ad Phocas referunt, si non pullus rosmari, an animal Dugong" (Buff. 205, 245, tab. lvi). So that, after all, perhaps the Auvekæjak was only the young of the Walrus; and this opinion I am on the whole inclined to acquiesce in.

Fabricius enters, under the name of "Mustela gulo, L." (Gulo borealis, Retz.), an animal which the natives talked about under the name of Kappik. It was said to be found in south Greenland, among high mountains, particularly besides streams, and was especially fond of the hearts of Reindeer. He considered it to be the well-known Wolverine, the Jerf of Scandinavia (Norse Arv, Erv, and Jærv; Swedish Jerf, Gerf; Finnish Kamppi and Kamppi-Karhu).

If so, it must be exceedingly rare, for since his time no one has been able to obtain or hear of a specimen. We more than suspect, however, that here, as elsewhere, he was only reproducing in a zoological dress the stories of the natives. So little was then known of the zoology of the Arctic regions, that he might well be excused for entering such animals in his fauna, there existing no reason why they should not be found in Greenland. If Fabricius could have lived to this day, he would have been the first to erase these from his list. The reason why I think so is this:—Under the head of "Ursus luscus" he has inserted a very doubtful and problematical animal, talked of long before his day, and equally so now, under the name of "Amarok" ("Ursus luscus, Eg. (6) 33, Cr. (7) 99, ex descriptione pellis ejus. Cf. Continuation. (8) 287, ubi dicitur subfusca, forsitan etiam veterum Hyæna Torf. (9) 82"). This animal seems the same as that which he indicated in his fauna under the name of "Mustela gulo." He describes it as very fierce, corresponding in this respect with the character of the Wolverine. Depending upon the natives being in the habit of distinguishing animals by different names very clearly, he considered that Amarok and Kappik were different animals. Neither of them he appears to know anything about. I found the Greenlanders talking to this day about the Amarok all over Greenland; and wonderful stories they tell of its ferocity. It is the terror of the Greenlanders, as Fabricius truly enough remarks; everybody knew about it; but I could find nobody who had ever seen it (10). Graah (11) found the natives of the east coast equally familiar with the name of the Amarok; the name Kappik, however, was unknown in north Greenland.

Finally I discovered a man in Claushavn who declared he had seen the Amarok; it hunted in packs, he said; and this man made no secret of his belief that it was only native dogs which had escaped and returned to their wild state. In proof of this, he told me that, as frequently happens during the annual Reindeer-hunting-season, one of his dogs escaped and could not be captured again. Three years after, one severe winter, when "looking" his fox-traps, he found the identical dog captured, much subdued by hunger, but still very fierce after living for so long a period out of the reach of the merciless lash. It served its master for many a day after in harness. This man described the "Amarok" as all grey. It has been supposed to be the Wolf (Canis occidentalis albo-griseus), and to have crossed over the ice in Smith's Sound; but, from what I have said about the Eskimo Dog, it will be apparent that to distinguish between a wild Dog and a Wolf is a matter of some difficulty. I think, therefore, that you will agree with me that the Wolverine has no place in the Greenland fauna, and that the Kappik (12) and Amarok must be regarded as synonyms of Canis familiaris, var. borealis, tinctured with a deep hue of fable. Murray portrays the distribution of the glutton (Gulo borealis) on both the east and west coasts of Greenland up to nearly 67° N. lat. (13); but if I am right in excluding this animal from the Greenland fauna, this distribution is erroneous.

Here I may remark, what must by this time be self-evident to you, that the Greenlanders cannot be relied upon (independently of the principle in the abstract) for the names of animals. They are not the excellent cetologists we have always been led to suppose, confounding as they do several animals under one name, as I shall have occasion to notice at a future time when discussing the errors which Fabricius was led into by trusting too much to their nomenclature, and which to this time have entangled the history of the northern Cetacea in an almost pathless maze. Fabricius has notified in his Fauna many species of supposed Seals &c. under various Eskimo names, but which he was unable to decipher (14). Hr. Fleischer, Colonibestyrer of Jakobshavn, has aided me in resolving these:—

1. Siguktok, "having a long snout and a body similar to Phoca grönlandica, perhaps P. ursina." This is apparently some Eskimo perversion, if they have been interpreted properly; for I am assured that it is only the name of the Eider Duck (Somateria mollissima).

2. Imab-ukullia, a Seal with a snow-white coat, "the eye presenting a red iris, probably P. leporina," is a rare albino of the Netsik (Pagomys fœtidus). The meaning of the word is the Sea-hare.

3. Atarpiak or atarpek, "the smallest species of Seal, not exceeding the size of the hand, of a whitish colour, and a blackish spot of the form of a half-moon on each side of the body." This description does not correspond to the meaning of the word, which is "the Brown Seal." Hr. Fleischer thinks that it is only a myth, as is—

4. Kongesteriak, which has, "according to the description given by the natives, some resemblance to the Sea-ape described by Mr. Heller" (15). This is one of the northern myths. The natives say it is a Bear which is so covered with an ice-coat that it never comes on land, but is always in the water, &c. These myths, both in the pseudo-Mammalia and in other groups, are endless; but I have given enough to show that no dependence can be placed on their idle superstitious tales.

I may as well close these notes on supposititious or non-existent animals by some remarks on other species, which though not mammals, yet come fairly under the headings I have given to this section of my paper. The Great Auk (Alca impennis, Linn.), once so common in Greenland, in the days of Egede, Cranz, and Fabricius, as, indeed, it was in many other parts of the northern portion of Europe and America, there can be little doubt is now quite extinct in Greenland. I made every inquiry regarding it, but could learn little or nothing about it. The natives about Disco Bay do not now even recollect it by name, though when the old Eskimo name of it (Isarokitsoc) was mentioned they immediately repeated it, and said, "Ah! that means little wings!" Though the Royal Museum in Copenhagen has offered large rewards for a specimen, hitherto their efforts have been in vain. One of the stories I was told at Godhavn, on Disco Island, if true, would afford some hope of its yet being found:—Eight years ago (1859), on one of the little islets just outside of the harbour, in the winter time, a half-breed named Johannes Propert (a nephew, by the way, of the well-known interpreter Carl Petersen) shot a bird which he had never seen before, but which, from description, could be no other than the Great Auk. He and his companions ate it, and the dogs in his sledge got the refuse; so that only one feather could afterwards be found. I know the man well. He is rather an intelligent fellow, and was not likely to destroy a bird of such rarity that he had never seen it before, when he knew that it would command a price from the Governor. Moreover Johannes bears the reputation of telling wonderful tales now and then. He says that he saw two, but that one escaped among the rocks. Mr. Frederick Hansen, Colonibestyrer (Governor) of Godhavn, has offered a reward for it, and is very sanguine that he will yet obtain a specimen of the Geirfugl (16).

Depending on the native stories of a jumping animal found in the southern part of Greenland, on grassy meadows, and called by them Piglertok ("the springer"), Fabricius thought that he recognized the Common Frog, and has accordingly entered the Rana temporaria as a member of the Greenland fauna. He, however, saw no specimens, nor is such an animal known in Greenland, where there are no species of Reptiles or Batrachians found. About the southern portion of Disco Bay, the natives use the name as a sort of slang title to the Nisa (Phocæna communis, Brookes), the Marsvün of the Danes in Greenland (17), from its tumbling or springing movements while disporting itself. Jansen (18) gives the word in the south Greenland dialect as pisigsartut or pigdlertut, and translates it a Grasshopper (græshopper).

I will not stop to inquire into their grosser myths, which, though relating to animals, are yet only remotely connected with zoological science, and wander away into the domains of mythology, interesting enough, no doubt, but with which we as zoologists have but little to do. For instance, as far back as the days of Fabricius, they used to talk about men living away in the glens off from the coast. "They tell tales" (fabulantur), he says, "of other people living away among the mountains, rarely seen by them, never by the Europeans, whom they call Torngit or Tunnersoit, and even say that they have the appearance, stature, and clothing of Europeans. If they speak truly, which I am not in a position to deny, perhaps they are the remnants of the former Icelandic colonists, who have fled in among the mountains" (19). About Jakobshavn they still talk of these people, and I collected many such stories. Some of these superstitions describe the Torngit as little men; and I know a man who says he saw one of these little men "pop out of a hole and in again" most agilely, and he tells a long story about it. Others describe them as tall men; so that these are undoubtedly only traditions of the old Norse-men. During the Norse possession of the country, the population appears to have got much amalgamated (as indeed we know, because when Paul Egede came, there were many traces of the white stock; and to this day there come down from the east coast natives with fair hair and blue eyes (20)) with the Icelandic adventurers who came with red-haired Erik, and subsequently imbibed much of their superstition. Indeed most of the best Eskimo traditions (as related by Rink in his 'Eskimoiske Saga og Eventyrn') are of Scandinavian parentage. Accordingly we find the old Norse tale of that fearful Kraken (21) which drew stout ships down to the bottom of the sea, in a Greenlandic version, still terrifying the squat seal-hunters who gather round the blazing Kotlup during the long winter nights; but I need say nothing further about it. It is one of the old trols of Scandinavia, familiar enough to all of us.

Still less will I stop to inquire regarding that "sea monster" which good Paul Egede saw, and Pastor Bing sketched "off our colony in 64° north latitude" (22).

I have said enough to show that, though there is yet much to be done to the legitimate zoology of Greenland proper, there is still more to be done in what may be called the illegitimate zoology—the history of zoological myths and errors.

(1) Reinhardt, loc. cit. p. 6.
(2) Adelung: 'Geschichte der Schiffahrten und Versuche zur Entdeckung des nordöstlichen Weges nach Japan und China' (Halle, 1768) is the book Fabricius refers to. There is a wrong reference in F. G. to Adelung, viz. 189 for 148.
(3) Reinhardt, loc. cit. p. 8.
(4) Naturalists' Library, (Mammalia) vol. vii. (vol. xiii. of series), p. 220. M'Gillivray's Edin. Journ. of Nat. Hist. and Physical Sciences, Aug. 1838. p. 153; Hamilton in Nat. Lib. vol. viii. p. 102.
(5) Bulletin Scien. Nat. vol. xvii. p. 280.
(6) Description of Greenland. Eng transl.
(7) History of Greenland, Eng. transl.
(8) Continuation of the above.
(9) Grœnlandia Antiqua.
(10) Mr. Tegner informs me that one of the natives declares that in July 1867 he saw the marks of the foot of an Amarok at the head of the Tessiursak, an inlet near Claushavn.
(11) Lib. cit. p. 90
(12) Jansen in his 'Elementarbog i Eskimoernes Sprog til brug for Europærne ved Colonierne i Grönland (Kjöbenhavn, 1862). p.55, translates "Kappik" as "en Gravling."
(13) Op. cit. Map xxiv.
(14) Vide also Giesecke in his "Greenland," in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia. This article, which is the only original one, as far as I know, ever written upon Greenland in the English language, is a most trustworthy account, for the time it was written. The author, however, copies Fabricius in all his errors as well as excellencies.
(15) I suppose Giesecke means Steller's account of the "Sea-ape," vide Pennant, Quadr. ii. p. 301 (Trichechus hydropithecus, Shaw. Zool. i. p. 247; Manatus simia, Illig.: M. ? hydropithecus, Fischer, &c.)
(16) Swedish Garfogel, Norse and Icelandic Geirfugl and Goiful. It is also called in Norse Stor-Ommer.
(17) Called in Sweden Marsvin and Tumlare, in Finnish Merisika, and in Norse Ise and Nise, from which, apparently, the Eskimo name Nisa is derived, as are not a few of the Greenland words, from their intercourse with the old Norsemen prior to the Middle Ages. I suspect Piglertok, now the vulgar term, was originally the native one.
(18) Lib. cit. p. 59.
(19) Fauna Grœnl. p. 4.
(20) A Moravian Missionary at Pamiadluk, near Cape Farewell told Captain Carl W. Neslon, who told me, that, in 1850, a party of natives came to that settlement from the east coast, and declared that it was two years since they had left their homes. They were described as tall and fair-haired. Almost every year some come down and permanently settle in the Danish colonies.
(21) Kraken, Kraxen, Krabben, and Horven, vide Pontopiddan. Nat. Hist. of Norway, vol. ii, p. 211: Ancker-Trold. Olaus, Wormius, Torfæus, &c.
(22) Lib. cit., p. 86.

Strange Ark

STRANGE ARK