Difference between revisions of "Loch Ness Monster"

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===Other Scottish Monsters===
 
===Other Scottish Monsters===
There is another creature reputed to be living in Loch Morar. It may be a close relative of the monster in Loch Ness. The Scottish parliament has recently initiated an investigation to determine if a breeding program could be established.
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There is another creature reputed to be living in Loch Morar.<ref>http://www.cfz.org.uk/expeditions/morag/morag.htm</ref> It may be a close relative of the monster in Loch Ness. The Scottish parliament has recently initiated an investigation to determine if a breeding program could be established.
  
 
Whatever the Loch Ness monster may be, nearly all mainstream evolutionist scientists are still unconvinced of its existence.
 
Whatever the Loch Ness monster may be, nearly all mainstream evolutionist scientists are still unconvinced of its existence.

Revision as of 23:36, March 23, 2007

Perhaps the most famous cryptid is the Loch Ness monster also known as Nessie.Since 1933 Nessie sightings have been regularly reported. There are three possible explanations for such reports:

  • Nessie really does exist, and the sightings are evidence of this.
  • People eager to believe the legend of the Loch Ness monster are interpreting any unusual movement or shape in or near the water as Nessie
  • A lot of people are lying about what they've seen.

Loch Ness itself is the largest lake in Great Britain. It is 23 miles long, one mile wide, and almost 900 feet deep in places thus making a full search of the lake unfeasible. The present day Loch Ness is about 10,000 years old and dates from the end of the last Ice Age (which lasted more than 20,000 years). During that age, the Great Glen was occupied by a huge glacier which filled the valley above the level of the present watershed, and extended into the Moray Firth. This glacier found the shattered along the fault easy to erode, which accounts for the great depth of Loch Ness to 600 feet below sea-level. The underwater perimeter of the lake is glacially smoothed and very steep. Above Foyers Bay at the deepest section, there is 500 feet of water only 60 feet out from the bank.

Sightings

What may be the first sighting of the Loch Ness monster was in 565 AD by the missionary Saint Columba, who was visiting Scotland to spread the Gospel. He needed to cross the loch, so one of his followers swam out in the water to reach their boat, which had not been tied properly and had floated away from shore. Then a large creature arose from the water and seemed that it was going to devour the man. Saint Columba ordered the rest of his followers to be quiet, and in the name of Jesus rebuked the monster. The creature drew back "as if pulled by ropes" and the man was left unharmed.

The modern history of Nessie began in 1933 when a new road was completed along the northern shore of the Loch, providing easy access to unobstructed views of the water. Soon after this, a couple spotted an "enormous animal" in the Loch. The Inverness Courier wrote up their sighting, describing what they saw as a "monster;" intense media interest followed; and thus was born the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

On November 12, 1933, Hugh Gray was walking back from church when he saw an "object of considerable dimensions—making a big splash with spray on the surface" of the Loch. Luckily he had his camera with him, so he began taking pictures. Only one of the pictures showed anything. Nessie believers hailed it as the first photographic evidence of the monster. Skeptics, however, dismissed it as a blurry mess that doesn't show anything at all

On April 19, 1934, Colonel Robert Wilson, a surgeon, was driving along the north shore of the Loch early in the morning when he noticed something large moving in the water, so he stopped and took a picture of it. At least, that was his story. For the next sixty years this picture was regarded as one of the best pieces of evidence of Nessie's existence and was known as the Surgeon's Photo. It wasn't until 1994 that the full truth came out. What Wilson had taken a picture of was not the Loch Ness Monster. It was a toy dinosaur's head attached to a toy submarine . Moreover, Wilson hadn't even taken the infamous photograph. He had simply been the frontman for an elaborate hoax.

In the March of 2005 two American students visiting Scotland claimed to have found an enormous tooth (possibly belonging to Nessie) lodged in the carcass of a deer along the shore of the loch. However, (so they said) a game warden who happened to be passing by almost immediately confiscated the tooth from them, though not before they got a few pictures of it. The students subsequently created a website to publicize their find and lobby for the return of the tooth. But animal experts identified the "tooth" from its picture as the antler of a roe muntjac deer. The website and accompanying story then turned out to be a publicity stunt for a Nessie-themed novel by Steve Alten titled The Loch.

Nessie's Identity

There are numerous theories on what the identity of Nessie is, but each one has its problems. Undoubtedly the favorite theory of Loch Ness monster enthusiasts is the plesiosaur.

The Plesiosaur

Plesiosaur is actually a broad term for extinct marine reptiles with long necks and flippers, but no one knows what type of plesiosaur the Loch Ness monster is. The elasmosaur, one of the largest of the plesiosaurs, is the considered to be the best candidate of those animals. There are others that also fit the description.

The infamous photographs taken by Robert H. Rines fit the plesiosaur theory, but there are two facts against it. The plesiosaur was supposed to have died out almost 70 million years ago, but of course there are problems with that too. Unless killed off by man, like whales, sea dwelling creatures tend to do very well, they have a nearly unlimited space to live in and a virtually unending food supply. Because plesiosaurs were found all around the world a single catastrophe such as a meteorite, supervolcano eruption, disease, or predation may not be able explain why all plesiosaurs died. Another problem is that it is hardly ever seen at the surface, and since plesiosaurs were air breathing animals, they would have to come up for air many times a day.

The Eel

Probably the most scientifically plausible theory is that the Loch Ness monster could be an eel. Eels fit the hump description much better than the plesiosaur, but one of its faults is that the monster often sticks its head up out of the water, a characteristic not usually attributed to the eel. Another is that no eel has been found that reaches the alleged length of the Loch Ness monster. The largest known eel, the conger eel, reaches about 10 feet long and about 250 to 350 pounds.

The Zeuglodon

The zeuglodon, or the basilosaurus, is considered to be another likely candidate for the Loch Ness monster by believers. It is a long, slender whale, which is believed to have died out long ago, but it a few may be around today. The alleged monster of Okanagan, referred to as Ogopogo, also seems to be this sort of creature. The zeuglodon may actually be too large however; they grew to over 70 feet in length, yet tales of the size of the Loch Ness monster do not seem to exceed around 50 feet in length. It also shares one of the problems that the eel has; it doesn't have a long neck to stick out of the water.

Other Scottish Monsters

There is another creature reputed to be living in Loch Morar.[1] It may be a close relative of the monster in Loch Ness. The Scottish parliament has recently initiated an investigation to determine if a breeding program could be established.

Whatever the Loch Ness monster may be, nearly all mainstream evolutionist scientists are still unconvinced of its existence.

References

  • http://www.cfz.org.uk/expeditions/morag/morag.htm