Library of Cryptozoology

The monster taken at Fortune Bay was still unidentified two days after it was killed in a 48-hour battle against fishermen's guns and harpoons, and was lying lashed to Capt. Earl Noble's motor vessel Golda awaiting an offer of purchase. If no museum or institution buys the huge carcass, its nine-inch deep coat of fat will be fried into oil. The exact length of the creature is 34 feet. It is finless, but has several pairs of four-foot long flippers. Its tail is nine feet in extreme width; while the mouth, three feet, eight inches across, extends nine feet from the tip of the snouth. The immense fish differs greatly from any whales frequenting Newfoundland waters, and does not fit descriptions of any known fish.

The account given in the Union yesterday of a mammoth sea monster seen by Capt. Charlesworth, of the yacht Cygnet, and the venerable Dr. Squills of this city, last Tuesday in a cove on the Peninsula, created considerable commotion, especially among the members of the Academy of Sciences. The Academy held a special meeting, and the UNION’s account was read by the Secretary. Several members spoke of the serpent-fish, and all confessed themselves unable to classify it with any of the known families of the great deep. When they adjourned they all went sailing over to the Peninsula, in hope to obtain a glimpse of the wonderful visitor to our harbor. Every sailing and row boat on the bay was out with parties all day long, the occupants being anxious to obtain a glance at the serpent-fish, but keeping a respectful distance from the cove where he was seen. Charlie Kauffman, of this city, and Pete Thompson, of Los Angeles, who happens to be here visiting, went prospecting for sights on the Bay ...

A party consisting of Messrs. E.A. Veazie, J.M. Spencer and Dr. Squills went out sailing on the yacht Cygnet (formerly Pilot boat No. 2), Captain George Charlesworth yesterday morning and returned about one o'clock P.M. From them our reporter has obtained the following particulars of a remarkable sea monster which was seen by Capt. Charlesworth in a cove on the Peninsula almost opposite this city. After sailing up to the end of the Peninsula and back as far as this cove, the yacht was brought to an anchor and the parting, taking their three shot guns, when off to the sore in the skiff. It was agreed upon that Messrs. Veazie and Spencer should remain concealed at that point until Capt. Charlesworth and Dr. Spills should go up and around the cove in search of curlews. These birds, which are considered very choice game, have been shot in considerable quantities at this place, and by keeping them flying back and forth across the cove the party expected to bag several messes. At the upp...

The good people of Nahant and other eastern localities can no longer boast of the sole proprietorship of a great "sea serpent." We have one on the California coast, and he was lately seen in St. Simeon Bay, San Luis Obispo county, about two miles from the shore. At that distance he appeared to be about 80 feet in length. He carried his head high out of water, the sea being perfectly smooth, travelled swiftly, and in half an hour after first being seen, disappeared at sea. He was seen by at least a half dozen gentlemen and ladies, all of whom had a good view of the monster.

The 16th I went out in a canoe which Captain Kendrick purchased of the natives and made me a present of shooting I left the ship [Columbia] early with an intention of seeing the village of Okerminna [in Clayoquot Sound] it was noon before I arrived at Inistuck ... before which is a clever snug cove in which there were many geese, ducks and teal sporting here I landed in order to get a shot at them one of the people that was with me who also landed in creeping along the edge of the bush saw an animal which I conceiv'd to be an alligator the man was so agitated as not to be able to give any description of what he had seen than that it was a huge animal very long with a large mouth and teeth the neck about as thick as his thigh and so tapered of to the tail with a black back and light yellow belly I immediately repaired to the place where this animal had been seen but could not get a sight of him from this circumstance I was induced to think it was only a burnt log (of which there are...

In their dual capacity as foresters and wildlife officers, the rangers of the 1920s and 1930s kept meticulous records that make riveting reading ... An early supervisor wrote: On several occasions this summer, Ranger Paul Gilbert has discussed with me the matter of there having been found in Lily Lake, in the southern end of Blanca district, from two to four or five "Duck-bills." I have not been anxious to report this earlier, thinking that some mistake might have been made in the identity of these mammals. However, on my last trip to his station, and in a a trip over his district, I found that the existence of the mammals is known to several men and that several men are making an attempt to trap them. As I understand it, these are egg-laying, burrowing, aquatic mammals and are supposed to exist largely, and possibly only, in Australia. I have read somewhere that North America has none of these mammals, and if this be the case, I think the matter should be immediately invest...

From Wales to beyond Point Barrow the Eskimo have many tales of two monsters, a ten-legged white bear, qoqogaq or qoqogiaq, and a walrus dog. A Wales native living near Point Barrow, who claimed to have seen the bear, said that the distance between its ears is the full stretch of a man's two arms. It is so big and heavy that it can break through ice as thick as a man is tall. Sometimes it lies on its back and waves its ten legs in the air so that from a distance they appear like men in motion; hence hunters are warned to be careful if they see anything that looks like a man on the ice. In the spring and summer it lies in wait to drag the hunter's kayak under the water. Whether there is only one of these animals, or more than one, the Eskimo cannot agree. A party travelling eastward from Point Barrow in the autumn of 1913 heard one swimming beneath their sleds, and when they coughed loudly and moved away from the trail, the monster poked its head through the ice, which was too ...

A curious animal was believed to roam over the marshes [near Marblehead], making a roaring sound. I never knew one who claimed to have seen it, but a very clear idea of its appearance prevailed; a person who looked unkempt or fierce was compared to "a rumbling marsh lion," or one who talked boisterously was said to roar like "a rumbling marsh lion." The old people were sure that it was a real live thing wandering around, and not altogether canny. Could a sea-lion have strayed up some of the salt creeks in days long ago, and so given rise to the legend?

A killer elephant, which some have interpreted as possibly a mammoth, was tricked onto thin ice on this lake [Lake Watson] by a resourceful boy. The elephant went through and drowned, thus saving the remaining people from its ravages ... Elder Mida Donnessey ... then continued with the story of another elephant, whose lair was in the upper Hyland River, which was also killed by humans.

When asked to describe Kátcheetohúskw, the [Naskapi] informants said he was very large, had a big head, large ears and teeth, and a long nose with which he hit people. His tracks in the snow were described in their stories as large and round. One Indian who had seen pictures of the modern elephant said he thought that Kátcheetohúskw was the elephant ... the older Indians question were unanimous in declaring that such had always been the description of the Kátcheetohúskw so far as they had any knowledge. ... Dr. Frank G. Speck has kindly sent me an interesting tale which he recently secured from the Penobscot Indians of Maine. The myth concerns the adventures of Snowy Owl, a Penobscot culture hero ... He saw what seemed to be hills without vegetation moving slowly about. Upon closer scrutiny he saw that these masses were really the backs of great animals with long teeth, animals so huge that when they lay down they could not get up. They drank for half a day at a time. Snowy Owl went ...

There was a tradition among the Indians [northwest of the Ohio] of the existence of the mastodon; they were often seen; they fed on the boughs of a species of lime tree, and they did not lie down, but leaned against a tree to sleep.

... [28 September 1807:] The Old Chief & others related that in the Woods of the Mountains there is a very large Animal, of abt the height of 3 fms & great bulk that never lies down, but in sleeping always leans against a large Tree to support his weight; they believe, they say, that he has no joints in the mid of his Legs, but they are not sure as they never killed any of them, & by this acct they are rarely or never seen--this is no doubt some Animal of their Nurses Fables, as they cannot say they ever saw the least remains of a dead one. ... January 5 [1811]: ... we are now entering the defiles of the Rocky Mountains by the Athabasca River... strange to say, here is a strong belief that the haunt of the Mammoth is about this defile... I questioned several, none could positively say they had seen him, but their belief I found firm and not to be shaken.... All I could say did not shake their belief in his existence... ... January 7: Continuing on our journey in the aft...

A long time ago [according to the Chitimacha] a being with a long nose came out of the ocean and began to kill people. It would root up trees with its nose to get at persons who sought refuge in the branches, and people lived on scaffolds to get away from it. It made its home in a piece of woods near Charenton, and when guns were introduced the people went into this wood to kill the monster, but could not find it. When the elephant was seen it was thought to be the same creature, and was consequently called Neka-ci ckami, 'Long-nosed spirit'.

Many years before the discovery of the elephant in the bayou called Carancro an Atakapas savage had informed a man who is at present in my service in the capacity of cow-herd that the ancestors of his nation transmitted to their descendants that a beast of enormous size had perished either in this bayou or in one of the two water courses a short distance from it without their being able to indicate the true place, the antiquity of the event having without doubt made them forget it. The fact has realized this tradition.

Some of the Upper Crees, a tribe who inhabit the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca river, have a curious tradition with respect to animals which they state formerly frequented the mountains. They allege that these animals were of frightful magnitude, being from two to three hundred feet in length, and high in proportion; that they formerly lived in the plains, agreat distance to the eastward; from which they were gradually driven by the Indians to the Rocky Mountains; that they destroyed all smaller animals; and if their agility was equal to their size, would have also destroyed all the natives, &c. One man has asserted that his grandfather told him he saw one of those animals in a mountain pass, where he was hunting, and that on hearing its roar, which he compared to loud thunder, the sight almost left his eyes, and his heart became as small as an infant's.

The Tartars maintain that the mammoth still exists in their country at the mouths of rivers ... It is also claimed that hunters have pursued them [mammoths] west of the Mississippi.

Having been shown a number of the Edinburgh Magazine by a gentleman in this neighbourhood, which gives some account of an uncommon animal seen among the mountains of North America, and signifies a hope that some person who has actually seen the animal will come forward and describe what he knows of it, I take this opportunity of testifying, that, in so far can judge from the description, I have seen the very animal in question. In the year 1803, I was sergeant in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in that capacity accompanied the late Louis in an incursion into the interior, with view to open a direct communication with the Indian nations immediately to the west of us. We left York fort on the 19th of May 1803. About fortnight after, having been sent across a river, the name of which I do not now recollect, by Mr Louis’s orders, the guide and myself suddenly came upon animal of an enormous size. It appeared about 20 feet in height, and had a very heavy and unwieldy appearance...

Mr. Editor, the following short notice relative to what seems to me to be a subject of no slight interest may probably be deemed worthy of insertion either among your customary memoranda of natural history, or in some vacant corner of your instructive miscellany. You know that specimens of what has been denominated the wool-bearing animal have lately been transmitted from the rocky mountains of North America, to the professor of natural history in this city. This animal had not been described in any of the great works on natural history; and though it is a remarkable quadruped, not only from its haunts, which are among the high precipices of stupendous mountains, but from the great beauty and value of its fleece, it has till within few years been altogether unknown to any of the numerous scientific individuals who have been so actively engaged in investigating the wonders of every quarter of the globe. The fact is, however, that this animal, which we are informed is intermediate betwee...

There is also a rather amusing tradition among these [Algonkian] barbarians of a great moose, next to which the others are like ants. They say it has legs so high that eight feet of snow do not hinder it. Its skin is proof against all sorts of weapons, and it has a sort of arm coming from its shoulder that it uses as we do ours. It never fails to have a large number of moose following it that make up its court and that render it all of the services it requires of them.

Tis also advised from Louisiana, that the Natives advancing into some uninhabited Countries found some Elephants that had perish'd in a marshy place; which had given rise to a question whether this country does not border upon Asia the rather because the Natives say, they never saw nor heard that there were any Animal of that kind in that Country.