SEA MONSTERS 205 



gaining admittance unobserved. For centuries the loch, 

 with its wild and lonely surroundings, has been subject 

 to grim legend and eerie rumour. Amongst its phantom 

 fauna may be cited the kelpie or water horse, an evil 

 bovine-equine hybrid, said to have its home in one of the 

 loch's many subterranean channels. Of late years a 

 certain boating fatality revived the old legend that the loch 

 never gave up its dead. In fact the stage was perfectly 

 set for the grotesque and diverting drama which began in 

 June, 1933, and still enjoys periodic, if somewhat half- 

 hearted, revivals. 



In October of the same year the storm burst. Numerous 

 people saw the creature and gave the most conflicting 

 accounts of its appearance. It was of immense size, had 

 arms, a mane, and eyes like the headlights of a powerful 

 car. All Britain might be said to have taken sides upon 

 the issue. The pro-monster party passionately supported 

 their pet, whilst the sceptics unkindly explained it away 

 as a porpoise, seals, or a floating tree trunk, and even 

 hinted that it was the invention of a certain daily journal 

 which gave it considerable publicity. 



In the spring of the following year enthusiasm rose to 

 fever heat. A well-known big-game hunter went in 

 search of it and was made the victim of an uproarious hoax, 

 being led to discover foot-prints, later diagnosed as having 

 been made by a hippopotamus-foot door-stopper. One 

 courageous man actually broadcast his " eye witness ' 

 account of the monster crossing a public highway with 

 a dead sheep in its mouth. A Harley Street specialist 

 photographed it, and the Williamson Brothers, pioneers 

 of undersea cinematography, journeyed specially from 



