Nessie: Land Evidence
Posted by: Nick Redfern on June 5th, 2012
In a new post over at the Loch Ness Mystery blog, Glasgow Boy begins with the following:
“Moving on from our overview of Loch Ness Monster Land Sightings, we have an aspect of these cases which turns up now and again and is best exemplified by the one case ascribed to the late monster hunter, Ted Holiday in 1962. We take up the story in his own words from his book, The Great Orm of Loch Ness:
“‘Passing the stony beach I moved on to prospect the wooded shore beyond Inverfarigaig which is hard to reach and seldom visited. A black fir-wood led down to a tract of bracken which ended in a beach. It was narrow, steeply-angled and overgrown with saplings. I examined this beach for some distance in both directions but the only organic object discovered was the drowned carcass of a wildcat. However, at one spot there was a curious patch of bent and broken bushes several yards wide beside the water for which it was hard to think of an obvious explanation. Years later, I learned that local people do occasionally find these patches and they associate them with the Orm.”
And, with that last sentence of Holiday firmly in mind, check out Glasgow Boy’s complete – and intriguing – latest post on what may be evidence of the Loch Ness creatures occasionally leaving the waters…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Should have weighed in on this before, but you know…life goes its merry way.
If Nessie should turn out to be mammalian, then coming ashore isn’t all that odd. Seals and the like do it for a variety of reasons (I doubt Nessie would have to worry about any kind of predator, but it could be an old reflex).
If Nessie is some sort of reptile that has adapted to the cold temps, then it could come ashore to sun itself or maybe even lay eggs like a turtle.
If it’s some sort of giant eel–I think eels have been known to come ashore (correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I read that once upon a time) for short stretches.
And if it’s something else altogether, then who knows?
Either way, there have been enough land sightings to raise an eyebrow.
Yes, at least european eels are able to come ashore and travel surprisingly long distances over wet(!) land. They’re able to absorb oxygen through their skin.