Library of Cryptozoology

The blacks [of the Bloomfield River, Queensland] say that they have watched this animal's mode of attacking the kangaroo. It only does so when its victim is isolated from its mates and then only by stealth. It keeps at a distance from its prey until it can frighten it by suddenly rushing towards it, uttering screeches. As soon as the kangaroo turns its back or is in the act of jumping away, the cat springs on its back and crushes the base of its skull in its jaws, which the blacks describe as very powerful. I have never seen this animal myself, but I have seen its tracks, which are very similar to those of a large dog and seem to be provided with long claws. The blacks describe it as about the size of a bulldog with long brindled fur and very large eyes. They are frightened of it and will not go near any cave or hole where they think one might be, as they say it does not hesitate to attack a man and often kills their dogs. [ - Robert Hislop]

"Then there is another animal [in New Guinea] like a leopard, but instead of the ordinary colouring it has a black coat with white spots."

Prof. Edgeworth David : ... I have been told by one of the comrades of Sir William Macgregor, who has done so much to explore New Guinea, and whose work has been so gracefully acknowledged by Dr. Lorentz–that comrade was the Hon. Anthony Musgrave–that the spoor of some large herbivorous animal was observed some years ago in British New Guinea. These spoors were traced by him around the edge of a swamp at an altitude of about 9000 feet; they measured 4 inches in one direction and 4 1/2 in the other. The natives said they knew this animal, and called it the pig-devil, or devil-pig, but Mr. Musgrave was never able to get a sight of it. I should like to ask Dr. Lorentz if he could perhaps say whether any such trace of a large herbivorous animal had been noticed in Dutch New Guinea. ... Dr. Lorentz : ... No traces were met with of a large animal in the mountains.

It is possible, says Professor [Edgeworth] David, that some of the supposed extinct beasts that once lived in Australia may still be alive in the wilds of tropical New Guinea. Mr. McCabe told how the huge prehistoric monsters that once inhabited the earth crept off, in the ice ages, to the tropical belts. Speaking of the British Museum's expedition in Dutch New Guinea, Professor David told how some years ago in British territory an exploring party found the spoor of what may have been a nototherium–a wombat-like small elephant. Traces of the kangaroo-lion, a flesh-eating beast that has left its tooth-marks on the bones of other big animals, may also, he says, be found there. "The high snow-capped ranges of eastern New Guinea," said Professor David, "are certainly amongst the least known of the important ranges of the world ... The Hon. Anthony Musgrave, secretary of Sir William MacGregor, Governor of Queensland, told me that when some years ago exploring Eastern New...

There can be no doubt that besides the mammalia already known to inhabit New Guinea, many remain to be discovered. Some very large animal is reported to occur in the mountains. Its presence was first indicated by Mr. C. A. W. Monckton, who, during his ascent of Mount Albert Edward in the west of British New Guinea, discovered the huge footprints and very large droppings of some cloven-footed monster which had evidently been browsing on the grassy plains surrounding the lakes on the summit, at an elevation of about twelve thousand five hundred feet. Unfortunately, he was unable to gain any information respecting this animal from the natives, who hunt all over the mountain, as they proved extremely hostile to his expedition. Among the Europeans at Port Moresby this creature is now commonly known as Monckton's "Gazeka," but up to the present time no one has attempted to return to Mount Albert Edward and procure a specimen. Mr. Monckton stated that Sir William Macgregor had...

... a Dutch explorer (Dr. Lorentz) is said, two years ago actually to have seen the animal [the devil pig], which is described as being very large, striped black and white, and having a proboscis like a tapir's.

Animals are rare. The wild dog, an occasional wallaby, a stray tree-kangaroo, and a long-snouted animal not yet obtained, form the bulk of the quadrupeds.

Friday, 17th November. ... they drew the attention of the men to the tracks of a wild animal in the bush, showing great terror of it. This is the first indication of such being in existence. I have seen the tracks; what kind of an animal it is I can't explain, but there is not the slightest doubt in my mind, or in the mind of all our party, that such is in existence. The tracks had the appearance of horse's hoofs with shoes on–quite as large, but with this difference, there was the impression of four toes. We all know well the impression of the alligator, and it does not in the slightest resemble it. It must be a heavy animal, as we saw the impressions of where it had laid down on the sand, and the natives informed us it lived in the bush, not in the river.

At the head of Collingwood Bay we found a good anchorage, and remained two days cutting wood. Here Lieutenant Smith observed the droppings of some large grass-eating animal in a spot where the bushes had been heavily trampled and broken. Our opinion was decided that a rhinosceros [sic] had haunted there; and we were much surprised, as this animal has-never been believed to exist in New Guinea. It would have been very satisfactory to have set the question thus started at rest, but time failed us.

I was no doubt wrong in speaking of the occurrence of the rhinoceros in Papua as a fact without the qualification "if confirmed;" but I wrote in a hurry. From the details supplied by Mr. Smith, which I annex, I think there is at least a very strong possibility that there is a rhinoceros in Papua, and the object of my letter will have been attained if it causes explorers on the north coast of that island to look after it, and at the same time places Mr. Smith's name on record as the discoverer of its indications. "1. The heap of dung first seen, which was quite fresh (not having apparently been dropped more than half an hour), was so large that it excited Mr. Smith's curiosity, and he called Captain Moresby to see it. Neither of them knew what animal to assign it. Quantities of dry dung were afterwards seen. "2. Shortly afterwards, the Basilisk being at or near Singapore, Capt. Moresby and Mr. Smith paid a visit to the Rajah of Johore, who had a rhinocero...

I am quite of your opinion that the occurrence of a rhinoceros in New Guinea is very seriously to be doubted (see NATURE, vol. xi. p. 248), but I beg leave to mention a report of a very large quadruped in New Guinea , which I got from the Papuans of the south coast of the Geelvinks Bay. When trying to cross the country from there to the south coast, opposite the Aru Islands,–in which I did not succeed, but only saw the sea-shore at a great distance from the height of a mountain chain (I afterwards succeeded in crossing the continent of New Guinea from the Geelvinks Bay more to the north, over to the Maclure Gulf),–and when hunting wild pigs along with the Papuans, they told me, without my questioning them, of a very large pig , as they called it, fixing its height on the stem of a tree at more than six feet. I could not get any other information from them, except that the beast was very rare, but they were quite precise in their assertion. I promised heaps of glass pearls and knives ...

Lieut. Sidney Smith, late of H.M.S. Basilisk , reports that while engaged in surveying on the north coast of Papua, between Huon Bay and Cape Basilisk, being on shore with a party cutting firewood, he observed in the forest the "droppings" (excrement) of a rhinoceros in more than one place, the bushes in the neighbourhood being also broken and trampled as if by a large animal. The presence of so large an animal belonging to the Asiatic fauna in Papua is an important fact. (We should be inclined to doubt very seriously the occurrence of any rhinoceros in New Guinea. At any rate, the important fact , as our correspondent terms it, cannot be considered as established.–Ed.)

An interesting letter appears in yesterday's Daily News from Mr. Smithurst, the engineer of the steamer which made the voyage up the newly discovered Baxter River in New Guinea, referred to in Sir Henry Rawlinson's address at the Geographical Society last week. The river seems to be a magnificent one, and could evidently be made navigatable to a considerable distance inland. The exploring party found the banks to consist mainly of mangrove swamps, though, near the end of the journey, high clay banks with Eucalyptus globulus were found. Scarcely any natives were seen, though there were frequent signs of their being about. Mr. Smithurst refers to a very remarkable bird, which, so far as we know, has not hitherto been described. The natives state that it can fly away with a dugong, a kangaroo, or a large turtle. Mr. Smithurst states he saw and shot at a specimen of this wonderful animal, and that "the noise caused by the flapping of its wings resembled the sound of a locomot...

Early in the month of May, when the shooting season begins, I was residing, as usual in the autumn, at Dannevirke, in the Forty-mile Bush, and I heard the friendly warning given to "Lookout!" or "Beware!" at a certain notorious lagoon, pool, or deep-water swamp, frequented by ducks, lying about three miles from Dannevirke, and not far from the bridge over the River Manawatu. Curiosity being aroused, I made inquiry, and I found that during the shooting season of the last year (1893) a young man of Dannevirke named George Slade, out shooting, had there seen a taniwha (unknown watery monster), and had fired at it and wounded it. Through the kindness of the resident clergyman (Rev. E. Robertshawe) I had an interview next day with the young man, who related the whole matter very clearly, temperately, and coherently; and, briefly, it was as follows: He was out shooting, and, having fired at a duck there swimming, and killed it, his dog went into the water after it; but ...

... indigenous hunters of the higher altitude Star Mountains can clearly describe a shy, present day, "extinct" thylacine. They say it is rarely seen but exists at altitudes of 4,000 metres or more, and there are local language names for the animal.

The waterless wastes of central Australia are penetrated only occasionally by lone prospectors and other adventurers. These men have a reputation for hard drinking. When they first brought back stories about 10-foot rabbits, the yarns were credited to their alcoholic tendencies. Then the famous Australian naturalist, Ambrose Pratt, drew attention to the skeletons of certain extinct animals called Diprotodons in the local museums. These creatures were just about 10 feet long and must have looked uncommonly like enormous rabbits. They were of the same general shape, tailless, with rounded rumps and a pair of enormous, rabbit-like front teeth. It's possible that the Diprotodon isn't as extinct as was thought. Australians who hunt the water buffaloes that now run wild in huge numbers in the north of their continent will tell you that this great beast can literally vanish before your eyes in fairly open country. A buffalo is nearly the size of a Diprotodon.

I could write an interesting paper on the discovery of the Israelite Bay mammoth kangaroo, and the preparations made by Messrs. Ponton Bros. for capturing living specimens. The natives told some marvellous stories about the big kangaroo being abundantly found at a big fresh water lake, far away inland.

I have had a long conversation with 'Charlie Pierce', an aboriginal, relative to these [ Diprotodon ] fossils; and he avers that they are those of an animal, long extinct, known to the natives by the name 'gyedara'. Tradition among them has handed down the appearance and habits of the animal for generations, but Charlie says he never paid much attention to the descriptions that have been given to him, but imagines the animal was as large as a heavy draught horse, walked on all fours the same as any other four-footed beast, eating grass, never went any distance back from the creeks to feed, and spent most of its time in the water, chiefly in enormous holes excavated in the banks. I told him he must mean some other animal; but he spoke most positively and asserted that the bones which we have been finding are those of the animal of which he was speaking, and that at one time the bones were very numerous about the Gowrie waterholes, where his forefathers had seen the anima...

It is possible that it [ Diprotodon ] is at the present time still living in the tropics of this country, which are rich in water. This I was told by Mr. Dennis, that the blacks speak of extensive lakes and gigantic animals.

At least nine species of seals frequent the South Island ... The evidence of the actual existence of a southern walrus is at present founded only on hearsay report, but it is very probable that when the great Antarctic islands and ice-floes, as yet unvisited, are explored, not only this but other novel forms will be found.