Page 110 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

90 Mysterious Creatures

A picture of the alleged (the hump) and a comparison of the unidenti-
Loch Ness Monster fied creature with a motorboat moving in the
taken from Urquhart same area (filmed immediately after the crea-
Castle on May 21, 1977. ture had swum past), the RAF conceded that
(FORTEAN PICTURE LIBRARY) the object was “not a surface vessel.” And:
“One can presumably rule out the idea that it
is any sort of submarine vessel for various rea-
sons, which leaves the conclusion that it prob-
ably is an animate object.”

In the spring of 1968, David James, a for-
mer member of the British Parliament and
head of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investiga-
tion Bureau, stated that in the studied opinion
of the bureau, it should be made clear that
there was no single monster that had lived in
Loch Ness for a few thousand years. What the
bureau was investigating was the possibility of
an unidentified creature, “breeding, evolving
like any other species…cut off from the sea,
for 5,000 to 7,000 years.” The Loch Ness Phe-
nomena Investigation Bureau also wished to
make one assertion clear: “There is something
there. Too many reliable persons have seen
too much, with too little possibility for coinci-
tainly large enough and deep enough. It is 24 dence, connivance, or conjuration to pass the
miles long by about a mile across. It has a entire matter off as only a figment of some-
mean depth of 433 feet, twice that of the one’s imagination.”
North Sea into which it flows through the In 1968, Dr. Roy P. Mackal, University of
River Ness at its eastern end. Five rivers and Chicago biologist and head of the U.S. branch
50 mountain streams feed Loch Ness. The of the bureau, received a three-year grant from
loch never freezes, and snow rarely lies near its Field Enterprises Educational Corporation of
shores. Its temperature remains fairly constant Chicago that incorporated the services and the
at about a chilling 42 degrees Fahrenheit, submarine of Dan Taylor. Although the expedi-
summer or winter. tion had sophisticated photographic equip-
One of the more verifiable of the sightings ment, biopsy darts, and other advanced
of a large creature in Loch Ness was made in research materials the murky brown waters of
the mid-1960s by Tim Dinsdale, a member of Loch Ness rendered all the underwater devices
the Defense Ministry’s Joint Air Reconnais- relatively useless. Mackal has theorized that the
sance Center (JARIC), who said that the 12- type of creature that most neatly fits the mass of
to-16-foot-long thing that he photographed descriptive evidence and photos compiled by
traveling at a speed of 10 knots was “almost researchers and witnesses has to be some kind
certainly animate.” of large aquatic mammal that would be capable
of thriving above 50-degrees north latitude.
On January 24, 1966, the Royal Air Force
issued its analysis of the Dinsdale filmstrip, Dan Taylor of Hardeeville, South Carolina,
stating that the movement in the water of the accompanied Mackal on the 1969 quest for
“hump” of the creature indicated that the Nessie that was sponsored by Field Enterprises,
object was moving at a speed of about 10 miles publishers of the World Book Encyclopedia. He
per hour. After much technical discussion had been selected to become a part of the expe-
about the relative size and perspective of the dition because of his expertise with submarines,
“solid black, approximately triangular shape” and he brought with him a small fiberglass sub-

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