47 



Owing to the peculiar circumstances of that time, there was no 

 real urgency in the matter of the announcement of the discovery 

 of the Coelacanth, and since odd points kept cropping up about 

 which he wanted further information, as mentioned before this 

 was delayed since not only did I give several interviews on the 

 matter to this same reporter, but after he had completed his 

 account I insisted on checking the final draft. The full statement 

 therefore appeared in the press of South Africa only on the 20th 

 February 1939. At East London there was in addition an announce- 

 ment that the animal would be on view to the public on that and 

 on the following day. We were early at the Museum, and all 

 morning long lines of curious sightseers thronged the grounds 

 and filed past this curious fish, so roped off that it could not be 

 touched, and at my special request under constant guard. 



I had told Miss Latimer and Bruce-Bays that scientists every- 

 where would be clamouring for details of its structure, and that 

 despite the loss of the soft parts and skeleton, it was desirable 

 that it should be examined as soon as possible. At my request 

 they recommended to the Board that it should be sent to me for 

 study at Grahamstown, and it was agreed to do this. 



On the 20th February 1939 we returned to Grahamstown. It 

 was a chaotic return. A brief account of the discovery appeared in 

 the Grahamstown local press on that Monday the 20th February. 

 It was accorded far less prominence than the report of a sports day 

 of a local school. It was said later that when the Press Association 

 message arrived, the editor had consulted a local zoologist and 

 had been advised to be cautious. The story sounded really rather 

 too sensational. 



Several friends plied us v/ith questions, but most people eyed 

 us strangely. I was quite irrationally still fearful, because although 

 my intellect was completely satisfied with the irrefutable evidence 

 my eyes had seen, completely satisfied that the fish was indeed a 

 true Coelacanth, it seemed too impossible, too fantastic, that this 

 could have happened. A Coelacanth. Alive ! Every night I had a 

 nightmare, dreaming that I had found a Coelacanth, and it was 

 confused and troublesome because I realised it was impossible. 

 Then I would wake and ponder on this curious dream until 

 suddenly I would realise that it wasn't a dream, but true. I had 

 that happen to me hundreds of nights in the years that followed. 



