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The lock ness monster reappears periodically in the newspapers. This
monster seems to belong in the general category of "sea serpent." As a
museum zoologist I've had little to do with such things. The stock in
trade of a museum is specimens and if someone sends us a "sea serpent"
(and I don't mean a water snake or a sea snake), we'll identify it.
If it doesn't have a name we'll give it one and make a place for
it in our classification. Until then we are aloof. We've had some
little experience at times with "sea serpents" and the following will
illustrate the sort of investigation and the results that we've had.
Years ago Sir Frederick Jackson was an administrator in East Africa.
In addition to his official duties he was an enthusiastic and an able
naturalist. So when a "sea serpent" was reported there he investigated.
IN KENYA The sea serpent was said to frequent Lake Naivasha in the Rift
Valley of Kenya Colony. Up until 1909 there were many rumors of it, and
Europeans had seen it with their own eyes. It always appeared on the
lake about the same time each day, about five o'clock in the afternoon,
always about the same distance from the shore, and was always traveling
in the same direction, from north to south. All descriptions agreed
that it was long, black, and reptilelike, and that it kept appearing
and disappearing on the surface of the water at short intervals.
Sir Frederick kept watch with one of the people who had reported it.
And, sure enough, what appeared like a long black reptile appearing and
disappearing, or like a school of porpoises, rising and disappearing,
came into view. But Sir Frederick had binoculars and was able to make
out that what to other people had been a long black reptile was in
reality a long line of white-breasted cormorants in flight, on their
way to their roosting quarters. As they flapped steadily along they
were plainly evident, to the naked eye, as a moving black line; as they
paused in their flapping and sailed on motionless wings they became
invisible to the naked eye, though, of course, still visible through
the binoculars.
IN NEW GUINEA Once, for a few startled moments, I thought I had a sea
serpent before my very eyes. It was on the middle Fly River in south
New Guinea. We were camped on a bamboo-covered bluff overlooking the
river. Though about one hundred miles from the mouth, the tide made
itself strongly felt here, and there was an abundance of driftwood.
This driftwood, varying from freshly uprooted trees that had fallen
into the river to waterlogged timber that had been long in the river,
went up and down on the tide until it got out in the main channel and
so on to the sea. One day at lunch, sitting in front of my tent, I
was idly watching the driftwood. One piece in particular caught my
fancy. Apparently it was the root of a partly submerged log, projecting
about three feet above the water, and curved at the end so that it
looked like the neck and head of a reptile with a casque on its head.
Knowing it was a waterworn root, in fancy I even saw its eye. I called
my companion's attention to it, as here was as close as we were ever
likely to get to a sea serpent. Then, the "head" turned. It was alive.
For a few startled moments it was a sea serpent. You can imagine our
amazement at having a piece of driftwood that we had in fancy turned
into a sea serpent come to life. Investigation became the order of the
day. The binoculars that were constantly at hand were trained on it.
The reality came as a further surprise. Our sea serpent was the head
and shoulders of a cassowary which was swimming the river. Later I
found that these large, ostrichlike birds, which have a large casque on
their heads, are well known to swim, but I didn't then.
This seemed an ideal opportunity to collect a specimen. These birds may
weigh up to 150 pounds. When shot in the forest there is the question
of lugging them perhaps miles to camp. Here was one swimming up to our
door.
We sat quietly waiting for it. But our native boys had seen it too, for
next I saw them rowing the dinghy to it. An oar was brought into play
to stun it. And then both the boys and ourselves found out something
else. Dead cassowaries sink. When the bird was stunned by a blow of an
oar, it disappeared below the surface and was never seen again.