Tastevin, Constant "Le Riozinho da Liberdade," La Géographie, Vol. 49 (March-April 1928), pp. 205-215

I have heard talk on the Liberdade of the mysterious little carnivorous boule-boule. It seems that an old Amazonian mesitzo who knew the nheen gatú dialect of the Tupi-guaraní tongue, called it anga i uára, which would probably signify "the greedy devil" or the "eater of souls."

I also heard mention of a terrestrial caiman who lived in holes under the tree roots. They cited a seringueiro whose hand it had bitten and who had been maimed for life. It is said to be dark brown, almost black with a rather broad back. But the description is very vague. A literate seringueiro who had seen it found that it closely resembled the monotreme in his text book. Every person who had glimpsed it thought it a rare and strange animal.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Schafer, Louis S. "The Deepstar 4000," The Compass: A Magazine of the Sea, Vol. 56, No. 1 (1986)

The bright illuminating lights were turned on as he [Joe Thompson] maneuvred the craft [the Deepstar 4000 ] along the San Diego Trough at a depth of 4000 feet [in June 1966]. Suddenly, as Thompson looked out the pilot's viewport, a giant fish swam into view under the port. He looked directly into one of its eyes, which later he described as the size of a dinner plate. As the fish quickly moved on, Thompson could see the silt swirling from the bottom of the ocean. Finally as the enormous fish passed, he saw its serrated tail and he judged it to be nearly 40 feet in length: Joe Thompson was also certain that the fish had possessed scales
Read more

Anstruther, Robert H. "A Strange Sea Reptile," The Spectactor (4 March 1922)

In the spring of 1910, when I was in command of the 'Caesar,' battleship, steaming towards the Clyde and between the coast of Ireland and the Isle of Man, I was on the bridge, in broad daylight, when a creature leapt out of the water close to the ship and shot straight up into the air about forty or fifty feet, and came down spread-eagle fashion. It had the appearance of a chameleon, though shorter in proportion, and was about the size of the skinned chow-dogs one sees hanging outside the butchers' shops of Canton. I called the navigating officer from the standard compass, and as he got to my side the creature leapt again, and we both had a good look at it. I have never been able to get any information about such a thing from books or from people, and had almost given up the quest when I saw the banner of the Ancient Town of Rye. The banner is copied from the seal of the town. The seal is very old and represents the arms of Rye (three figures, half lion, half line o' b
Read more

Beebe, William "A New Deep-Sea Fish," Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society, Vol. 35, No. 5 (1932)

On the twentieth dive in the Bathysphere, at a depth of 2100 feet, we saw two large, elongate, barracuda-shaped fish, which twice passed within eight feet of the windows, once partly through the beam of our electric light. These were at least six feet in length. No direct lights were visible on the head, yet the rather large eyes and the faint outline were distinct. There was a single row of strong, pale blue lights along the side, large and not far from twenty in number. The mouth, with strongly undershot jaw, and numerous fangs illumined either by mucous or indirect internal lights along the brachiostegals. The fish reminded me in general of barracudas, with deeper jaws open all the time. Posterially placed vertical fins were seen when they passed through the electric beam. There were two ventral tentacles, each tipped with a pair of separate, luminous bodies, the superior reddish, the lower one blue. These twitched and jerked along beneath the fish, one undoubtedly arising from a
Read more