Library of Cryptozoology

It may have been a brother of the Stronsay monster that Alec Groundwater saw one summer day in the 1830s, rising out of Scapa Flow. I'll tell you the story exactly as Alec's daughter told it to me. He was a boy at the time, she said, and was sitting on one of the high banks at the 'Binks o' Birnorvie' in Orphir. It was an afternoon of calm sunshine; the water below him was lippering gently on the rocks; when suddenly it seemed to come to boil a stone's throw from where he was sitting, and the strangest sea creature he had ever seen raised its head out of the sea and glared at him. After regarding him thus for a few seconds, it reared itself up and tried to catch hold of his bare dangling feet. It was fortunate for Alec that he was out of reach, for he was ronted to the spot by fear and surprise.<br>The creature had a broad head, and a wide mouth with large teeth or tusks, and cold baleful eyes. There was a long mane down the back of its neck that reminded ...

The kraken or horven, which appears like a floating island, sending forth tentacula as high as the masts of a ship, and the great sea-snake with his formidable mane, are monsters that have been occasionally recognised [in the Shetlands], and their occurrence is much connected with the demonology of the Shetland Seas ... I have heard, in Shetland, of a sea-serpent being seen off the Isle of Stennes, Vailey Island, and Dunrossness.

As a set off against the decrease of our four-footed fauna, news has been sent me of a new Scotch animal found in Banffshire, called the earth-hound or earth-hund. Till within the last two years I never heard of such a creature. It was described to me as larger than a rat, having a greyhound's head and a short tail. My imformant [sic] stated that one could be easily secured at the autumn ploughing season, which would be forwarded to me at once. Four autumn and winter ploughings are come and gone, and yet no earth-hound has arrived! I begged to be told of any museum where it was preserved, or to be referred to any who possessed a stuffed specimen of the animal, but in vain. What was Tom Edward [a Banffshire naturalist] about if there were such a creature in his own country, and no notice taken of it in his 'Life'? This is inserted that any naturalist, who is able , may unearth this mysterious hound. When a turnip is found to have been penetrated through a small hole three-q...