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An example to justify that is the existence of the Loch Ness monster, or as it is widely known “Nessie”. Nessie’s story begins from the first century A.D, when Romans first went to Northern Scotland and found carved, standing stones (which are still found in the region around Loch Ness) that represented animals, which were all easily recognizable, except one. The exception was a strange beast with an elongated beak or muzzle and flippers instead of feet (see photograph 1) Described by some as a swimming elephant, this beast is the earliest evidence that Loch Ness is home to a mysterious animal. The earliest written reference that verified the existence of a mysterious aquatic animal in Loch Ness is in the biography of Saint Columba, who in A.D. 565 on his way to visit the king of Picts (the people who lived at the coast of Loch then), stopped along the shore of Loch Ness to rest and saw a large beast ready to attack a man who was swimming in the lake. He immediately raised his hand, calling the name of God and commanded the beast to “go back with all his speed”. The beast obeyed and the swimmer was saved. However it was in 1933 that a sighting occurred that made Nessie famous. In 1933 Mr. Spicer and his wife were driving by Loch Ness when they saw a creature crossing the road, a creature unlike any they had ever seen before. They described the beast as having a long neck followed a large body (see photograph 2) and they watched it until it left the road and entered the water. Besides the Spicer sighting there was a plethora of sightings of Nessie. One of those is the sighting of a motorcyclist, Mr. Grant, on the 4th of January 1934. It was around one a.m. and was bright because of the moonlight when he saw a large object on the right side of the road. As he approached the object he saw a small head attached to a long neck. The animal must have seen Mr. Grant and went back to the Loch. Another event on the 5th of June 1935, which is considered to be of importance, involved a young girl who worked as a maid in a large house close to a monastery. It was around 6:30 a.m. and she was looking out of a window down the Loch. She saw on the shore “one of the biggest animals she had seen in her life” at an extend of about 200 yards. Her description was similar to those of the others: “long neck, small head, skin like an elephant and two very short fore legs or flippers”. She watched for about 20 minutes when it entered the water and disappeared. Another eyewitness account happened in October 1955, by Colonel Patrick Grant of Knockie estate. He saw near the bay “a great commotion in the water between 100-200 yards from the road”. He stopped his car and he could see “a black object above the surface 10 or 15 feet long. In less than a minute the object suddenly started swimming eastwards, parallel with the shore and very near the surface submerged. Moving at a great speed it traveled 200-300 yards and disappeared completely”. Although there have been hundreds of sightings of Nessie as the above, lots of people tried to take evidence so as the existence of Nessie will truly be a mystery. Many photographs have been taken and from that time more and more people start discussing about that mystery. The first photograph was taken in 1934, a year after the first sighting of Nessie, and it was the one that stood above the rest because it is the only photograph that actually shows Nessie. It shows the thin neck of an animal rising from the surface of the water (see appendix 3). From the moment it was published in the “London Daily Mail”, it became the very image of the Loch Ness monster and, for many, the strongest evidence that Nessie actually exists. One reason that this photograph had such an impact on the Loch Ness legend is that it came from a trustworthy source. The photo was sold to the “London Daily Mail” by a London physician named R. Kenneth Wilson, who said he had taken the picture when he noticed a commotion in the water as he was driving up from London to photograph birds with a friend near Inverness. Few believed that such a respected doctor could have deceived the people, but to get absolutely sure they send the photograph to be examined. The photo was examined and was determined to be genuine, no camera trickery was involved, and investigation of the creature in comparison to the wave sizes put the creature’s neck to be a couple of feet in length. After that everyone was convinced of the existence of the Loch Ness monster, until it was proved that the “creature” in the photo was nothing more than a fake serpent neck attached to the back of a toy submarine (see appendix 4). The information about the faking of the photo was discovered when one of the people involved with the hoax made a death bed confession in 1994 to that issue. Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY “A tale of two monsters”. 8 May 2000 http://yasd.com/articles/monsters4.htm “Cryptozoology”. 5 May 2000 http://my.athenet.net/felinda/Cryptozoology.html “Loch Ness map”. 5 May 2000 http://www.myspace.co.uk/nessie/nessie/map.html “Loch Ness monster”. 4 May 2000 http://www.myspace.co.uk/nessie/nessie/lochness.html “Loch Ness mystery”. 4 May 2000 http://www.inficad.com/jacreding/lochnss/html “Loch Ness Mystery”. 4 May 2000 http://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lochness.html “Zoology”. 5 May 2000 http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/zoology/project/index.html Word Count: 944
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