Water Dragon of Lake Storsjön

 

Lake Storsjön Dragon

Lake Storsjön in Sweden is another lake that was brought into being during the ice age. It is about 300 feet (100 metres)deep. Stories of a monster called Storsjöodjuret have persisted for 400 years.It is a water dragon according to myth, is a terrifying creature with serpentine or reptilian features .There are said to be 200 documented witness reports from 500 people who have seen Storsjöodjuret. It is described as serpentine and humped with large eyes. Many more have spoken about their experiences, but haven´t submitted a written testimony.

In 1635, Mogens Pedersen from Herdal, wrote down the legend about two trolls who were boiling a mixture in a large kettle on the shore of the lake. When they had boiled the mixture for years and years, the contents of the kettle began to groan and wail and there was a loud bang. "A strange animal with a black serpentlike body and a cat-like head jumped out of the kettle and disappeared into the lake. The monster enjoyed living in the lake, it grew unbelievably large and terrorised the people living on the shores of the lake. After some time it extended all the way around the island Frösön, and could bite its own tail."

In an 1878 sighting, a local mechanic reportedly saw something craning its neck past the water's surface. He described it as having a "snake-like head that was larger than what I figured the neck could support."

Then on October 31st, 1898 there was a report in the local paper, Jämtlandsposten ,about M.P. Jöns Bromée´s experience outside Billsta, Hackås in 1863: "...there was a large ugly monster in the lake and we decided to pursue it. Two shotguns were loaded and two boats equipped in haste. Meanwhile the monster had slipped away from the shore, into the water, and began to move slowly away. At that point, it resembled 10 or 12 shiny black anchors linked together and following each other..."

In 1920 Per Jönsson from Andersön said he seen Storsjöodjuret three times. In a recorded interview from 1960 he tells of an encounter outside Digernäs in 1920: "...I saw that big grey-green body between the waves. The water boiled around me. I saw that its tail was moving with powerful strokes. After a hundred metres or so it disappeared without a trace. A few days later they saw it from the peninsula Rödön. It must have gone off that way..."

IN July 1931 Storsjöodjuret appeared at Myrviken in front of Anders Bergqvist and Jonas Hansson. The County Prosecutor, Mr. Carlsson, was asked by the County Authorities to make a more detailed investigation of which part of the report read:"Mr. Hansson had observed a large object on the surface of the water. The object consisted of a globelike form, the upper part of which was above the water. The height of this object above the water was about 10 centimetres, possibly a bit more. Behind the globe there was a bow-shaped hump..."

In 1947 in Jämtlands tidning (another local newspaper), Anna Rahm told of her experienced at Åssjön outside Rösta: "The monster was 3 metres long and grey like an elephant with a smooth, hard skin. Its head was as big as a jug and its back was dented in places. In its terrifying and wide mouth its tongue moved up and down in a threatening manner; its eyes rolled, as I've said and its ears were large and stood out. It seemed to have a large, powerful tail. We only saw the upper part of it but its back was wide and it wasn't a serpent as has been said earlier. That I'm sure..."

In 1972 a sighting was reported by two Swedish military airmen on holiday

Fisheries officer Ragnar Björks, 73, was out checking fishing permits on Sweden’s Lake Storsjön when he had the fright of his life. A huge tail suddenly broke the surface near Björk’s 12 foot (4 metres) row boat. The creature attached to the tail appeared to be 18 feet (6 metres) long, grey-brown on top with a yellow underbelly. When Björks was alongside the monster, he struck at it with his oar, hitting it on the back. The creature then slapped the water with its tail and the rowboat was thrown nine (3 metres)to twelve feet(4 metres)into the air. ‘At first I didn’t believe that there was any monster in the Storsjön…but now I am convinced.'”

Then On the 10th of August 1983 Carina Johnson went out in the Bay of Brunflo in a boat . She reports:"Suddenly I saw something that looked like birds about to take off, far out into the lake. They looked like three white gulls moving towards Östersund at an incredible speed...as we came closer it changed direction away from us and then suddenly the water became still and calm. I had a feeling that the thing was relatively large, and what struck me afterwards was that it moved so fast."

In 1994 a young man and his father on a canoe trip witnessed something strange "...Suddenly I saw something like a plough in the water. The water "divided" as when you go water-skiing. It went on for about 10-15 seconds..."

More recently in August 2008 A Swedish documentary film crew claimed to have caught the monster on film. https://www.thelocal.se/20080828/13980/

At the museum Jamtli in Östersund In the Storsjöodjurs exhibition there are, among other things, the giant iron trap that was once used to attempt to catch the Storsjöodjur. The trap was then baited with a pig, with no success.

The stories of the creature have been around a long time . The description sounds once again like a giant eel and would explain the cat like or even dog like  head some people describe. The film as usual is not clear and is no doubt disputed evidence by some. It is one more glacial lake from the ice age with a large creature being reported.

 

Lake Monsters of Kentucky

 

Kentucky is a place we often associate with Bigfoot sightings but it has its share of lake monsters .

Lake Herrington

Herrington Lake is an artificial lake located in Mercer, Garrard and Boyle counties in Kentucky, United States. It has a  maximum depth of 249 feet (76 m), Herrington Lake is the deepest lake in Kentucky. The Herrington Lake Monster is said to look like a mix between a pig and a serpent and moves very fast. Described as   12-15 feet ( 4 to 5 metres) long with a body like that of an eel and a skin tone/pattern reminiscent of a speckled fish with  a stubby pig-like snout .Sightings of the Eel-Pig have been reported since the 1920’s,but  the sighting in 1972 by a University of Kentucky professor  Lawrence S. Thompson, who owned a lake home on Herrington, made it taken more seriously. He said he had seen the Eel-Pig swimming around the area on several occasions. Some people claim that during the flooding of the Dix River, Kentucky Utilities  opened up a passageway to a series of underground limestone caves in which this species of Eel-Pig lived and released it into the lake. The monster then became trapped in Lake Herrington after Dix Dam was built.

It is possible that a type of eel lives in the water with an unusual shaped head.

Lake Linville

 Lake Linville is another  man-made lake created in 1968 by the construction of the earthen Renfro Dam. It  has   a maximum depth of 36 feet (12 metres) .There have been various stories about something in the lake but  in September 2008 a warning was posted telling people to stay away from the  Lake.  The story said a bluish green snake-like creature with a long neck and a long tail and a head the size of a basketball attacked his canoe, breaking it in half and leaving him for dead in the water.  Others then came forward with their stories including this one from a lady,that happened when she was young.She said her and her family had seen men with guns unloading crates from a helicopter containing large snail like creatures into the lake.

So hoax or real, certainly some strangeness around Lake Linville.

Lake Calk

Sid Calk Lake, located in the Mount  Sterling area, is a private fishing lake which came to the people’s attention in 1967.

Three men   were night fishing when their boat got caught on something.One of the men jumped out to untangle it.  He thought he was standing on a log,then it moved. It  coiled up, splashed around and swam away  The men said it was a snake or snake-like creature as big as a telephone pole.

Several days later another fisherman was reeling  in his catch when a snake with a head as large as a trashcan snatched it off his line and swam away with it. Llater that summer a young boy spotted the creature, describing it as being 'long as a house,' and as 'big around as a man.' 

Since then there have been few reports. A giant eel perhaps? Maybe someone will get a photo in the future.

New Book- Monsters of the Deep

 

Nick Redfern -Monsters of the Deep

WE normally associate Nick Redfern with UFOs and Men in Black but he is also a cryptozoologist.His latest book on aquatic monsters covers a vast array from Nessie to mermaids  to alligators in the sewers. It diverts from the main topics in places and includes stories of  Alestair Crowley and even a flesh eating tree. Nick being a fortean cryptozoologist he tends towards the esoteric explanations rather than living creatures as aquatic monsters. The book is a great overview of the subject and anyone new to the study of aquatic monsters will learn a great deal.Most of the information seems to have been gleaned from the web and this blog is mentioned in further reading. Nick writes in an easy to follow style .Worth a read .

Mysterious Lake Baikal

 

Lake Baikal

Siberia's Lake Baikal is 49 miles (78.8 kilometers) wide and 395 miles (635 kilometers) long, it's the world's largest freshwater lake.It  dates back 25 million years. Lake Baikal is home to more than 3,700 different species, many of the which are only found in the Baikal region. Its unique biodiversity and its array of hydrothermal vents are normally only  found in oceans. Gigantism( larger than normal lake creatures) in the lake is thought to be due to high levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Scientists recently placed a huge telescope under the ice to measure neutrinos.Read about it here

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1218433.shtml

However there is said to be a large creature living in the lake. What will it make of the telescope?The local  Buryats call the monster “Lusud Khan” - “The Master Water Dragon” Fishermen state that they have seen a huge, black creature visible through the clear water of the lake.The creature looks like a giant sturgeon with a huge snout and an armored fin along its entire giant back.There is a large stone located on the bank of Yenisei, it has an image of a huge lizard with a forked tongue, big claws and plate armour along its back. Some say it resembles an ancient crocodile or ichthyosaur.

In the early 1900s a merchant bringing cattle to the Olkhon Island across the Mukhorsky Bay by boat ,lost a  horse as it  fell overboard into the water. All attempts to  save it failed. A few minutes later people saw blood-stains in the water  and its head floated to  the surface.

People have been said to have disappeared .The Local residents  have always considered the territory of the Mukhorsky Bay to be sacred land .An annual ceremony of offering sacrifices has been held there since ancient times: meat and fish were placed rafts and  released into the water.One presumes for the monster. They say the monster swims to the surface at night, and makes  a kind of “gurgling” harsh sound.Cattle going down to drink often disappear.

A ship’s crew was said to have heard hissing and gurgling.. The lake was calm, but the ship suddenly began to sway back and forth. There was an impression that something had  swum under the bottom of the vessel and scratched its back on it.

In the late 1980s a survey of the lake bottom involving echolocation equipment was carried out. The devices recorded a moving object with a length more than 30 metres (90 feet), but the research was not continued.

So will the telescope pick up anything more than neutrinos ,like a monster? We shall wait and see .

Strange Ohio Amphibians

 

 Ohio has a history of strange amphibian sightings.

 The Crosswick Monster

James Jennings established the small community of Crosswick Ohio in1881.Many large, unknown tracks started to be found all over the dirt road. Nobody  knew what could make such tracks.It was decided  it was best left alone then it would leave them alone.

 The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper reported on May 29, 1882 a story about two boys being attacked by a snake like creature. The two boys , Ed and Joe Lynch, were fishing in a small creek in Crosswick, Ohio on the outskirts of Waynesville in Warren County. They heard a stirring in the reeds of the bank. They went to investigate and  found   a 30-foot-long black and white “snake with legs” with yellow spots.

The two boys screamed and ran but  then the monster grabbed Ed Lynch "in its slimy embrace, simultaneously producing two more legs, about four feet long, from some mysterious hiding-place in its body." The monster dragged the boy  to a large sycamore tree with an opening on one side.

Three men nearby, the Rev. Jacob Horn, George Peterson and Allen Jordan, heard the screams and ran to the scene. The monster on seeing the men ,dropped the boy and ran up the tree. Dr. L.C. Lukens of Waynesville was summoned to treat Ed’s injuries .A posse was formed and later that afternoon, 60 men, armed with clubs and axes gathered around the tree and cut it down. The monster fled. They followed it to what they assumed was its lair, a large pile of rocks, where it disappeared in a hole, never to be seen again. . Dr. Lukens told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the boy was in severe shock and had some spasms and convulsions, plus bruise and cuts. The Monster was described by several witnesses as being roughly 12 feet long ( 4 metres) and covered with scales. It was black and white with dull yellow spots, had feet roughly 12in long (0.34 metre), a wide head, and a long forked tongue.

"It will be watched for and killed if possible," The Cincinnati Enquirer reported at the time. 

Having been seen by so many eminent citizens it was not disputed .Then  20 miles away in the 1950s another creature was reported.

  The Loveland frog

The Loveland frog (Rana digiandomenicus) (also known as the Loveland frogman or Loveland lizard) is a legendary humanoid frog described as standing roughly 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. The creature was first sighted in 1955, with some versions of the story specifying the month of May.The three stories start the same way, with a businessman or a travelling salesman driving along an unnamed road late at night One story, the driver was heading out of  Branch Hill when he spotted three figures stood erect on their hind legs along the side of the road, each 3 to 4 feet (0.91 to 1.22 m) in height, with leathery skin and frog faces. In other versions of the story, the creatures were spotted under or over a poorly lit bridge over the Little Miami river. All the version say the businessman watched the figures converse for a while until one of the creatures held a wand over its head that  fired a spray of sparks, causing the man to flee in fright.

Urban myth you may think but in March 1972 at 1:00 am, Loveland police officer Ray Shockey was driving on Riverside Drive near the Totes boot factory and the Little Miami River when an unidentified animal scurried across the road in front of his vehicle. The animal was illuminated in his vehicle's headlights, and he described it as 3 to 4 feet (0.91 to 1.22 m) long and about 50 to 75 pounds (23 to 34 kg), with leathery skin. He reported spotting the animal "crouched like a frog" before it momentarily stood on its hand legs  to climb over the guardrail and back down towards the river.

Two weeks after the incident, a second Loveland police officer, Mark Matthews, reported seeing an unidentified animal crouched along the road in the same vicinity as Shockey's sighting. Matthews shot the animal but the body fell into the river. According to Matthews, it was "a large iguana about 3 or 3.5 feet long", and he didn't immediately recognize it because it was missing its tail. Mathews speculated the iguana had been someone's pet that "either got loose or was released when it grew too large”

However this did not account for several of them being seen together in the past.

In 2016 two youngsters allegedly took a photo of a frog like creature but this was dismissed as a hoax.

What I find interesting is that two or more amphibian type creatures had been reported within 20 miles of each other. Could there have once been a colony of salamanders or large amphibians  living in the area? Maybe the Crosswick monster moved its lair after being chased.More reports may surface ,lets hope so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Climate Change Brings Back Prehistoric Plant and news of glowing sharks

 

Climate Change Brings Prehistoric Plant From 60 Million Years Ago Back to Life

It was 60 million years ago that the Cycad (Cycasrevoluta) plant, or Sago palm, grew naturally in the UK. But for the first time, botanists have been able to produce both male and female cones on Cycads grown outdoors. Native to Japan, these plants typically grow in warm temperate and subtropical regions. So why are they springing back up in the UK now? Climate change.Botanists at the Ventnor Botanic Gardens on the Isle of Wight first produced a male cone outdoors in 2012. But it was just last year that a female cone also appeared, making it possible for them to transfer pollen and generate seeds for the first time in millions of years. The Isle of Wight's microclimate—which makes it several degrees higher than the rest of the UK—is the ideal setting for these prehistoric plants. But their ability to thrive outdoors is an indication that the climate is transforming.

Read rest here :

https://mymodernmet.com/cycas-revoluta-uk-isle-of-wight/

I wonder what else may  re-appear with climate change?

In other news:

Scientists say they have found that three deepwater shark species living off New Zealand glow in the dark.The species were collected from the Chatham Rise - an area of ocean floor to the east of New Zealand - in January of last year, according to the study. One of them, the kitefin shark, is now the largest known luminous vertebrate and can reach up to 180cm (5ft 11in). Bioluminescence was also confirmed in the blackbelly lantern shark and southern lantern shark. The three species were already known to marine biologists but this is the first time that the phenomenon of bioluminescence - organisms emitting light - has been identified in them.

Read rest here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56256808

New discoveries are always welcome and show how much is yet to be found in our seas.

 

Black Headed Sea Monster

 

Beisht Kione [the sea beast with the black head].

The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown dependency situated in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. A sea-monster is thought to reside off the south coast of the Isle of Man, and it is said to be feared  by all who sailed the coast.The Beisht KioneYn as it's called which means 'the beast with the black head,' in Manx . They dreaded to see it raise it's head above the waves. Described as a serpentine creature like a giant legless crocodile. Folklore says it will snatch children who stray too close to the edge of the cliffs.

It makes its home in the sea-caves  near Spanish Head at the southern tip of the Isle of Man. The few who have seen it say it has a head like that of a large horse, and it can be heard roaring by fishermen off Spanish Head. Some say it is the soul of a man killed by pirates in order to protect their treasure hidden in the headland’s caves. Nobody has attempted to claim that treasure.

To placate the Beisht and bring on good luck, rum is left in the cave at Spanish Head. Fishermen heading out to sea would throw a glassful of rum overboard in hopes that the Beisht will grant them a bountiful catch.

Around the waters of Ireland sea monsters have been reported in the past.

A sea monster spotted several times during the nineteenth century near the coast of County Clare Ireland was reported to have a head like a horse, a mane of seaweed, and a large body which was hidden under the water.The Irish Times  newspaper reported that a ‘monster’ was the subject of various reported sightings in the 19th-century, including one in 1850 when it was seen, improbably, “sunning itself near the Clare coast off Kilkee”.

In 1850, the Limerick Chronicle reported: “In September it was reported that a sea monster had been sighted near Bishop’s Island, and this was regarded by the superstitious as a certain ill omen. In the following week a Miss Evans, a visitor, disappeared after having been seen walking towards the cliffs.”

That there is a history of strange sightings in an area is always of interest. Some more recent reports would be of even more interest.If anyone knows of any ,please comment.