Giant Serpent Killed?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 10th, 2010
Lac des Chats (Lake of Cats) is reportedly, today, one of the best catfish holes in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario. Chats Falls (in French: Chute des Chats, meaning “Cat Falls”) were a set of waterfalls on the Ottawa River, near Fitzroy Harbour, Ontario, and Quyon, Quebec, Canada. A hydroelectric generating station is now located here, owned and operated jointly by Hydro-Québec and Ontario Power Generation.
Hudson Bay Canoes at Chats Falls on the Ottawa River, Canada, 1838.
Stevens Point Daily Journal
Stevens Point, Wisconsin
August 26, 1882
One of the Sea Serpents Killed.
It is but a few years ago since Mr. Robert Young, one of our most worthy and
respected citizens, caught a glimpse of an aquatic monster in Chats Lake,
near Arnprior [Ontario], Canada, which he described as being of enormous
size and proportions. Captain Brown, of the steamer Alliance, also got a
view of these monsters in the same waters the summer before last, and
various other people claim to have seen large specimens at different times
and at divers places. But this week we are in a position to announce the
capture of what is probably one of the progeny of the original old Chats
Lake serpent, which has often struck terror to the hearts of the
superstitious river men. While coming down from the Snow Rapids with a tow
last Monday evening, and while off Blackwell’s Island, the crew of the Levi
Young noticed a huge serpent swimming ahead of the boat. Mr. John Durgan,
chief engineer, and a deck hand, named Shaw[,] jumped into a boat and
started in pursuit of the reptile. They succeeded in getting within
striking distance of the serpent when Mr. Durgan struck it a blow over the
head with his oar. The beast then turned and made for the occupants of the
boat, literally churning the water with his tail in his fury. Another
powerful and well-directed blow with an oar on the neck of the serpent laid
it out dead when it was taken in tow and brought aboard the steamer. The
crew of the boat stretched it out on the rail and measured it with a rule.
Its total length was eleven feet, while the body was thirteen inches in
circumference. Its jaws were pried open and a pair of compasses inserted,
which were opened out to a distance of six inches. The description given of
this reptile is the same as that given by Mr. Young and Captain Brown, so
that [it] is possible that the one just killed is a lineal descendant of the
old king snake who has sported himself in Chats Lake for years past. –
Arnprior Chronicle.
Thanks to Jerome Clark for the article.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
A few years back my wife and I visited the finger lakes. Standing at the north end of Lake Cayuga looking south I was flabbergasted to see an enormous head rise up above the surface with triangular saw-tooth-like teeth with long drippings of whatever plants were growing on the lake bed. The head must have been four feet long and that was all that broke the surface. The observation lasted no more than three seconds; just long enough for me to yell; “Look at that!!” to my wife; who, with her back turned to it only saw the ripples of where it submerged just before she turned around.
The head resembled some artist’s drawings of a certain type of Pleisiosaur with much the same body covering as that of a crocodile. The angle I viewed from was it’s left side and one enormous unblinking eye appeared to stare straight at me! It was only about 100 feet away and for a split second my concern was for my life; but the creature made no sudden movement toward us and didn’t reappear for the next twenty minutes we were in the area.
When we returned to our home in Pennsylvania I wrote a letter to an Ithaca, NY newspaper describing my observation which they printed and two weeks later I got a letter from a local dentist near the lake telling me I didn’t see what I thought I saw. He said it was either a log or a beaver. Infuriated with his audacity I searched out his phone number and gave him a piece of my mind which mellowed him somewhat to explain the reason he refuted my observation was to keep scientists away from the area because he didn’t want his fishing environment disturbed!
Three seconds of observation allowed no time for a photo even if I had been alert enough to think about taking a picture; at a time like that one has no time to think!