Post by Lauraakafoxy on Nov 23, 2005 16:02:52 GMT
www.nessie.co.uk/
Nearly 1000 feet deep and 24 miles long, Scotland's Loch Ness is believed by many to be home to the unidentified aquatic creature affectionately dubbed "Nessie."
On July 22, 1933, Mr. and Mrs. George Spicer of London were driving along the Loch Ness Lakeshore Road returning from a holiday in northern Scotland when their car nearly struck a huge, black long-necked creature. The "prehistoric animal," as Mr. Spicer described it, shambled across the road, slithered through the underbrush, and splashed into the murky Loch. Had the Spicers experienced a rare land encounter with the Loch Ness Monster?
To date there have been over 3000 recorded sightings of the celebrity monster, according to cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal, author of The Monsters of Loch Ness. This figure may be on the high side, but whatever the figure is, Nessie is certainly one of the most-sighted monsters in the world.
British newspapers reported that on June 17, 1993 a young mother, Edna MacInnes, and her boyfriend David Mackay, both of Inverness, Scotland, claimed to have watched the Loch Ness monster for 10 minutes. MacInnes, age 25, told BBC Radio 4's Today program that the 40 foot monster swam around, waving its long giraffe-like neck and then vanished into the murky waters of the loch in what was the first major sighting of the year.
"It was a very light colored brown. You could see it very clearly," Miss MacInnes recalled. The creature was estimated to be a mile away, but appeared huge. Edna MacInnes reportedly ran along the shore in an attempt to keep up with Nessie.
"I was scared when the wash from its wake lapped on the shore, but I just kept running behind it. By the time it plunged below the surface I was running as fast as I could go," Miss MacInnes exclaimed. She and her boyfriend ran to get a camera and binoculars from a relative's house nearby and returned to the Loch. Shortly thereafter they had another sighting. This time the creature was only 20 feet from the shore, and David attempted to photograph Nessie. Unfortunately, the resulting photos showed a wake but no monster.
Later the same evening, James MacIntosh of Inverness was returning from a fishing trip with his son, also named James. Young James first sighted the unidentified object, telling his father, "Dad, that's not a boat."
"I was concentrating on my driving but I looked over the loch and I suddenly saw this brown thing with a neck like a giraffe break the surface. It was an eerie experience. It was swimming quite swiftly away from the shore at the time," recounted the elder MacIntosh.
Based on the strength of the sighting, bookmakers William Hill cut the odds against Nessie being found from 500-1 to 100-1. If Nessie was proven to exist, William Hill faced a payout of over £1 million (over US$1.5).
On November 12, 1933, a British Aluminum company worker named Hugh Gray watched "an object of considerable dimensions" rise out of the murky waters of the Loch and when it was two to three feet out of the water, Gray photographed the unknown thing. Gray's ambiguous photograph was published internationally. In the year following the release of the Gray photograph, there were over fifty sightings of Nessie.
While the world first learned of a Loch Ness Monster in May, 1933, there had been numerous earlier sightings of a large unidentified creature in the Loch, dating back to St. Columba's oft-mentioned encounter with an unknown creature in the River Ness in 565 A.D.
There are many negatives in the search for lake monsters. Despite many credible eyewitness sightings, no live monsters have been caught after innumerable attempts in their respective lakes. No carcasses have ever been found that might be anything other than recognizable animals. It is a fact that giant nets, submarines, underwater cameras, sonar, and loch-side crews of observers have all failed to come up with the solid evidence that will prove to the world that there is a Loch Ness Monster.
Nearly 1000 feet deep and 24 miles long, Scotland's Loch Ness is believed by many to be home to the unidentified aquatic creature affectionately dubbed "Nessie."
On July 22, 1933, Mr. and Mrs. George Spicer of London were driving along the Loch Ness Lakeshore Road returning from a holiday in northern Scotland when their car nearly struck a huge, black long-necked creature. The "prehistoric animal," as Mr. Spicer described it, shambled across the road, slithered through the underbrush, and splashed into the murky Loch. Had the Spicers experienced a rare land encounter with the Loch Ness Monster?
To date there have been over 3000 recorded sightings of the celebrity monster, according to cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal, author of The Monsters of Loch Ness. This figure may be on the high side, but whatever the figure is, Nessie is certainly one of the most-sighted monsters in the world.
British newspapers reported that on June 17, 1993 a young mother, Edna MacInnes, and her boyfriend David Mackay, both of Inverness, Scotland, claimed to have watched the Loch Ness monster for 10 minutes. MacInnes, age 25, told BBC Radio 4's Today program that the 40 foot monster swam around, waving its long giraffe-like neck and then vanished into the murky waters of the loch in what was the first major sighting of the year.
"It was a very light colored brown. You could see it very clearly," Miss MacInnes recalled. The creature was estimated to be a mile away, but appeared huge. Edna MacInnes reportedly ran along the shore in an attempt to keep up with Nessie.
"I was scared when the wash from its wake lapped on the shore, but I just kept running behind it. By the time it plunged below the surface I was running as fast as I could go," Miss MacInnes exclaimed. She and her boyfriend ran to get a camera and binoculars from a relative's house nearby and returned to the Loch. Shortly thereafter they had another sighting. This time the creature was only 20 feet from the shore, and David attempted to photograph Nessie. Unfortunately, the resulting photos showed a wake but no monster.
Later the same evening, James MacIntosh of Inverness was returning from a fishing trip with his son, also named James. Young James first sighted the unidentified object, telling his father, "Dad, that's not a boat."
"I was concentrating on my driving but I looked over the loch and I suddenly saw this brown thing with a neck like a giraffe break the surface. It was an eerie experience. It was swimming quite swiftly away from the shore at the time," recounted the elder MacIntosh.
Based on the strength of the sighting, bookmakers William Hill cut the odds against Nessie being found from 500-1 to 100-1. If Nessie was proven to exist, William Hill faced a payout of over £1 million (over US$1.5).
On November 12, 1933, a British Aluminum company worker named Hugh Gray watched "an object of considerable dimensions" rise out of the murky waters of the Loch and when it was two to three feet out of the water, Gray photographed the unknown thing. Gray's ambiguous photograph was published internationally. In the year following the release of the Gray photograph, there were over fifty sightings of Nessie.
While the world first learned of a Loch Ness Monster in May, 1933, there had been numerous earlier sightings of a large unidentified creature in the Loch, dating back to St. Columba's oft-mentioned encounter with an unknown creature in the River Ness in 565 A.D.
There are many negatives in the search for lake monsters. Despite many credible eyewitness sightings, no live monsters have been caught after innumerable attempts in their respective lakes. No carcasses have ever been found that might be anything other than recognizable animals. It is a fact that giant nets, submarines, underwater cameras, sonar, and loch-side crews of observers have all failed to come up with the solid evidence that will prove to the world that there is a Loch Ness Monster.
