Riddle of the Loch-Ness Monster

K. G. H. Munidasa

Loch Ness, a long and narrow sheet of water in the Scottish Highlands, has been for the past several decades the most famous place on earth as the abode of the world’s most controversial creature - the Loch Ness Monster, popularly known as the Nessie.

First seen 74 years ago, the Loch Ness monster is still making its appearance, baffling scientists and fascinating laymen all over the world.

More than 300 sightings have so far been made and the story of the Nessie has appeared in newspapers and magazines in five continents.

All this began one spring day in 1933 when Mr. and Mrs. MacKay of Domnadrochit (a village bordering the Loch) got what is generally accepted as the first look at the phenomenon.

“There was a violent commotion in the loch. Then a long, dark, humped body travelled through the water at high speed and suddenly dived, leaving a furious swirl of foam,”.

The MacKays later related their experience to Alexander Campbell, local correspondent of the “Inverness Courier”. It was Campbell who dubbed the creature “The Loch Ness Monster”, in his story for the paper.

That year the monster was reported at least 33 times and more than double that number the following year.

One of the first reports of the sightings of the monster in 1934 reads as follows:- “A flat reptilian head on a swan-like neck towered 6 feet over the water. A humped, black body stretched a full 30-feet behind. The head flicked nervously from side to side as a couple of herring trawlers approached, then ducked under the water and disappeared.”

A drawing and a model of the gigantic creature, based on numerous eyewitness accounts and a few photos, presented a strange-looking animal that resembled a Plesiosaurus, a primitive reptile akin to dinosaurs, which is supposed to have been extinct some 70 million years ago. It had a barrel-shaped body, four paddle-like limbs, a long slender neck, a tiny head with a large mouth and pointed teeth. A living specimen of this reptile would, indeed, be a sensational find. Most reports were in agreement that Nessie was neither a whale nor a shark.

Then in 1960, Tim Dinsdale, advisor to a group on the trail of Nessie made a 40 feet 16 mm film of the celebrated Monster, which until then was regarded as a myth by many. On the final day of a six-day vigil Dinsdale was driving along a cliff-side road, 300 feet above the glassy, black water, when he spotted a reddish-brown, humpbacked object floating about 1,600 yards away.

As he hurriedly stopped his car and grabbed his camera, the thing began moving towards the far shore. Dinsdale filmed what he was sure was the back of a semi-submerged animal. The creature swam away in a slow, zigzag course, disappeared below the surface, and turned left along the opposite shore, throwing up a tremendous wash of foam.

A photo-intelligence unit of the Royal Air Force, who later studied the film concluded that, “Loch Ness held some enormous object, probably alive.” Dinsdale’s film has since been shown on BBC television and TV programs all over the world.

After seeing the film many witnesses who were previously silent began to offer testimony corroborating the observations of Dinsdale. But there the matter rested. The zoologists were not inclined to take the ‘thing’ seriously, since it differed to the natural order of living things. Officialdom was apathetic about financing a scientific investigation.

Subsequently, in 1964, a group of amateur naturalists who had formed themselves into a body called Loch Ness Phenomena Investigating Bureau, turned over the Dinsdale’s film for examination to photoreconnaissance experts.

The 2000-word report they submitted stated that, “the object rose 3 feet above the waterline, moved at 10 mph., and was not a surface craft or submarine, which left the conclusion that it was probably an animate object.

The normal body rounding in nature would suggest that there is at least two feet of it under the water. It may be deduced that a cross-section thorough the object would not be less than 6 feet wide and 5 feet high.”

How did a creature of such dimensions get into Loch Ness? Admittedly, from the sea! It is believed that until the end of the last Ice Age, Loch Ness was an arm of the sea. Then the ice melted away and crust of the earth rose, isolating it.

At the present time the surface of the Loch is 52 feet above the sea level. Wedged between pine-clad hills that rise to more than 2,200 feet, Loch Ness is about 23 miles long and between 1 to 1 1/2 miles wide. It is said to be one of the deepest lakes in Europe, with a maximum depth of 754 feet, and more than half goes down to 700 feet.

The water never freezes and remains at near-constant temperature throughout the year. Marine life there includes salmon, trout, eels and pike.

Voluntary organizations continue to maintain constant vigil manning many observation posts equipped with cameras, electronic gadgetry, in an effort to obtain photographs and firsthand information, convincing enough to start a scientific investigation into the mystery.

One investigator says, “In such ways it would be possible to identify the species, find out how many there are, learn their habits, and protect and preserve them. Scientists could then study their physiology and origins. It would be a dramatic new chapter in Natural History.”