tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589996567527384692024-03-18T15:13:01.860-07:00LOCH NESS MONSTERReclaiming the Loch Ness Monster from the current tide of debunking and scepticism. If you believe there is something strange in Loch Ness, read on.Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comBlogger842125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-68630290718203635772024-03-12T16:32:00.000-07:002024-03-12T16:32:34.237-07:00Follow Up to MacLennan Land Sighting<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik45AbYEyzWc3Gu4wFGIJWMYo103c39cpmUxJgyUGr5rtr_RMwOQmIOQrYtFWRn2c456OFwkk9jAwGzP-Xs5AY2W6vFKpStOgW5i5boSA4L3HO7KqL8JS3TjZrO5bLcoWAhLmmKSTTue13cRYIAU86v_EUsLbDoLyvsfgJmqPh4iH8fIoeD6W-M5Raa9w/s2048/Colin%20Veacock%20Sketch%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik45AbYEyzWc3Gu4wFGIJWMYo103c39cpmUxJgyUGr5rtr_RMwOQmIOQrYtFWRn2c456OFwkk9jAwGzP-Xs5AY2W6vFKpStOgW5i5boSA4L3HO7KqL8JS3TjZrO5bLcoWAhLmmKSTTue13cRYIAU86v_EUsLbDoLyvsfgJmqPh4iH8fIoeD6W-M5Raa9w/s320/Colin%20Veacock%20Sketch%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Having published the article on the MacLennan creature recently, I thought I would go over any comments made on it by way of reply. The last time I looked there were 167 comments attached to the article on Facebook which was a very large amount, but then again I did not know how many generated more heat than light. So having trawled through them, I picked out some for further discussion here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The main one would certainly be from Colin Veacock who applied his artistic skills to produce the sketch at the top of this article. I had made my own attempt previously and Colin added his impression as well. His sketch certainly sums up MacLennan's statement when she said "<i>A more ugly sight you never saw</i>". I think he got the "<i>neck</i>" better than me as the eyewitness did say it was somehow "<i>flopped</i>" over its back but still somehow pointing towards the loch. Colin also made that ridge on the back more visible. But I am still wondering how "<i>floppy</i>" this "<i>neck</i>" was. Sometimes, I get the impression it was thrown over the back like a scarf. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Regarding the description of "<i>hooves</i>", all we have is "<i>with a kind of hoof very like a pig's, but much larger.</i>" Colin has a go and is more literal in his rendition than I was. My problem was that this was related for the first time 25 years after the event. If you think her recall was pristine after that time, think again. I was accused of taking liberties with my sketch but the point for me was that aquatic animals do not have hooves and she could have interpreted a three webbed toe arrangement as a hoof. However, in the time I had, I could not figure the best way to show that, so the limb extremities on my sketch became an ambiguous set of lines. I include below Colin's wider field of view sketch of the creature.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5jskKk9Iw9u1ngGEApX7aKtdYjoTH-_MNFC-3AyAcSm6LTnt7u-_3RQhmlpV_RRg10U160NZ3vZD-9dY0bFHtAlaMiQW2s56OwjyYYx_NVMsqFiqEWz1Rh5NKutVHmmgQ7-7QUsMwBL2QNlo_kSRFqZPxprdzTqKFNfBLGkF2IXxoBl52-4AKYr_I5KE/s2048/Colin%20Veacock%20Sketch%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5jskKk9Iw9u1ngGEApX7aKtdYjoTH-_MNFC-3AyAcSm6LTnt7u-_3RQhmlpV_RRg10U160NZ3vZD-9dY0bFHtAlaMiQW2s56OwjyYYx_NVMsqFiqEWz1Rh5NKutVHmmgQ7-7QUsMwBL2QNlo_kSRFqZPxprdzTqKFNfBLGkF2IXxoBl52-4AKYr_I5KE/s320/Colin%20Veacock%20Sketch%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now let us get onto the matter of seals and some people suggested a large seal. When seals are proposed as an explanation for an eyewitness account, two questions should be asked, but rarely are. Shouldn't the witness have recognised something as well known as a seal? Secondly, was there a seal in Loch Ness at the time? The answers generally should be "<i>Yes</i>" and "<i>Not likely"</i>. Seals should be readily recognisable thanks to images in books and magazines. Circuses were known to visit Inverness and local seals were not hard to spot along the local Moray Firth coastline.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">Seals are not indigenous to Loch Ness and were rare visitors to the loch, especially back in the 1930s. So, statistically speaking, at the time MacLennan saw her creature, it was more likely there was no seal in the loch. In other words, in both cases, since we expect people to know a seal when they see one and seals are generally not in the loch then the burden of proof is on those who suggest a seal to explain why the normal situations do not apply. A comment <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/470765477828717/posts/925149732390287/?__cft__[0]=AZW8rxiYw7k60xF_aLkH_I3k1GkyyQpc5YORPO-Gukh7YGNUZ-iW4m1-n5zO4kx6xzvaBy0x8TYdLwkmaaRtMjaUaKnnh3znQrR5OKSYwn5EDiJ1gC3boMreBkxhGOKdj7RmNU6IyvKAHr-qrptWOKRt&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">elsewhere</a> by Dick Raynor on this matter said:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I<i>t is a good idea to rely on the earliest witness statements and to concentrate on the object's reported behaviour and shape, ignoring size as that is notoriously difficult to gauge in a brief observation. Here we have a creature on the beach - later described as sitting on a rock - which fled into the water with a considerable splash, and the recent artists' impressions show it lacking a noticeable tail. That spells "seal" to me</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now there are problems with this interpretation (apart from what I just mentioned). Firstly, we are asked to ignore any attempt at size estimation. This is crucial to most sceptical arguments as size is a most inconvenient parameter to them. Unlike other attempts to disqualify size estimates due to long distances involved, that is not an issue here as the creature was on the narrow strip of land between road and loch. Here we are asked to accept size estimates cannot be accepted as it was a brief sighting or "<i>little more than a glimpse</i>" according to Gould. But that is a subjective assessment and we ask how short a visual experience has to be to discount size estimates? That question is not answered and therefore there is no obligation to accept such a statement.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other inconsistency is where the commenter readily accepts the description was accurate in mentioning no tail, which is helpful to a seal interpretation, but ignores the other descriptions which totally exclude a seal interpretation such as a flopped over "<i>neck</i>", a ridged back and humps. This selective approach is not explained. The author of the comment then attaches a video clip of a seal, but this proves nothing as none of the unusual features described by MacLennan are visible.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In terms of the consistency of the eyewitness reports. A comment was made that the weather was described as stormy, so how could they row over to the other side of the loch in those conditions? The answer is simple because the weather was described as stormy at the time of the sighting which was hours after the boat trip. <span style="text-align: left;">Finally, I must mention Steve Plambeck who is an advocate of the Giant Salamander theory and had this to say concerning the creature Mrs. MacLennan saw:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The stubby feet may be the most important give-away. MacLennan's description is morphologically closer to a Cryptobranchid (like the Chinese Giant Salamander) than possibly any other account I've ever read. Glance at the pictures I'm including. Viewed from the FRONT end, the head is almost a featureless rump shape -- the mouth lines are invisible if the mouth isn't open, and the eyes are indiscernible unless you are close and the light is just right. And the legs, feet and toes are very, very stubby indeed - pig-footed would be a more than apt description. There is also a slight ridge down the back. Much more importantly though is the behavior MacLennan described, which includes small but precious details almost always unreported. If it was a Giant Salamander, and it was facing rather than turned away from her, it moved EXACTLY as a salamander startled from the front will do in lab studies of early tetrapod locomotion: (1) front legs flat on the ground for pushing back, (2) chin down for pushing back too, (3) rear legs and (4) tail lifted because they can't help with rear-ward thrusting and would only be in the way if they weren't lifted. The MacLennan report checks ALL the boxes. Amazed I never knew of this sighting before now.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The largest of the Cryptobranchids was a Canadian species that grew at least 10 feet long, and disappeared after the Ice Ages started. The living Chinese species currently top out at 6 feet. There were European species as well, but remains are very few and maximum size still unknown. And then there were much earlier, fully aquatic salamanders, even marine species, that grew up to 30 feet.</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEwm-mTuHcY3Waat4ySF81uycHC9PoRKd4L6JQW2BhVsgjHg4_13COF_k5uJJTlPZ2Dt28yzW4qQxza8dFFwMBKzcOJR9ftr4mfEGr756pXSKRPfGy2pBsZA_OpXUYCloDve4ph4gVsH912SkL_wPlh8IFcKVZttDCuihdIVldyAcWUi8qRthM302Ho3g/s1280/Salamander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEwm-mTuHcY3Waat4ySF81uycHC9PoRKd4L6JQW2BhVsgjHg4_13COF_k5uJJTlPZ2Dt28yzW4qQxza8dFFwMBKzcOJR9ftr4mfEGr756pXSKRPfGy2pBsZA_OpXUYCloDve4ph4gVsH912SkL_wPlh8IFcKVZttDCuihdIVldyAcWUi8qRthM302Ho3g/s320/Salamander.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now the giant salamander theory has a long history and indeed was the subject of the very <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2010/09/w-h-lane-monster-hunter.html">first book</a> on the Loch Ness Monster. As I understand Steve, the proposed salamander's tail was flopped over its back and the witness mistook its large wide head as the lower back. The stubby legs obviously are a better fit than flippers or webbed feet. When startled, the salamander crawled backwards into the loch. I admit I am not an advocate of this theory, but I would be interested to see video clips of this creature's backward motion. Steve runs a blog on this very subject which is <a href="https://thelochnessgiantsalamander.blogspot.com/">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So hopefully I have covered the main responses here. Feel free to add missed responses on what this creature could have been to the comments.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-6595956758742148662024-02-20T15:25:00.000-08:002024-02-20T15:25:58.225-08:00The MacLennan Land Sighting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzXjM-nZgZMVvamFJ0C9EpsC-BzT9yQ3kJIfZbSZitgS0EP8_LviVmTolrgZxw2ATLoQ-OOpms5oHuZUxaHUAuclKTelU_bfoSF0r8g1a8EmQaqIqZLbaP1qG9E68NMAQYdJpdwAUVHiZvmYGKmyaTTCaiXhFjXllfOGelOv2NlGrB6p8_Ttsr_0LVLU/s478/Artistic%20Impression%20MacLennan%20Creature.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="441" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzXjM-nZgZMVvamFJ0C9EpsC-BzT9yQ3kJIfZbSZitgS0EP8_LviVmTolrgZxw2ATLoQ-OOpms5oHuZUxaHUAuclKTelU_bfoSF0r8g1a8EmQaqIqZLbaP1qG9E68NMAQYdJpdwAUVHiZvmYGKmyaTTCaiXhFjXllfOGelOv2NlGrB6p8_Ttsr_0LVLU/s320/Artistic%20Impression%20MacLennan%20Creature.png" width="295" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is back to classic sightings of the Loch Ness Monster and a report of a large creature seen on land in that seminal first year of Nessie reports 91 years ago. The date was the 6th August 1933 and two days before, the local Inverness Courier newspaper had published a letter from a George Spicer about a similar sensational incident. However, this account would not see the light of day for some time afterwards.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have looked amongst the newspaper archives for an early record of this account but have found none so far and therefore quote the earliest report found in Rupert Gould's book, "<i>The Loch Ness Monster and Others</i>" published in June 1934. The witness was a Mrs. T. McLennan in the first week of August in the midst of stormy weather:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mrs. McLennan and her husband were walking, towards their boat, along the Loch-side road between Whitefield and Foyers. </i><i>Mrs. McLennan saw X, resting close to the water's edge, on one of these beaches. She could not identify the exact spot further than by saying that from it Urquhart Castle would be in a line with Temple Pier. </i><i>She was greatly surprised to see what she took to be X out of the water. She had little more than a glimpse of it - she called to her husband, and at the sound of her voice X plunged clumsily into the Loch, sending up a big splash. Mr. McLennan was too late to see anything but this splash.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>She described X as lying " hunched-up," end-on to her, its head towards the water but "thrown back." The back looked "ridged, something like an elephant's," and was of much the same colour, but had several humps on it. These were not so pronounced as those she had noticed when it was in the water. It did not stand very high off the beach. She estimated its length, hunched-up as it was, at 25 feet [pacing this off, when she gave me her account, along the wall fronting her cottage].</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gould adds that this happened near the scene of the Spicer land account weeks before where there were several small, flat beaches from which the Loch shore proper rose in a more or less steep slope, while the road is cut out of these slopes and overlooks the water at a height of some 20-50 feet. He further adds that the line of sight given placed the event about 2.5 miles from Whitefield, towards Foyers. Projecting that line onto Google Maps gives the location indicated below on the south shore.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsORYm-K4uLRigyphiPGJEHd4bAnrpCYoIhyphenhyphengxaLby6-nsk4v5VicYRXSNtTTDwA-gBqyb6uVVUHMRs3GgfY8aeiPAVwyPjM_Nniea0PTgZMc35fELHn3qAX7iHTOxEOnI6y3R1RWJ5hyphenhyphen0eJg-RKo8_l8n7rp14DDsz4T-dxWWjXMn4XGt8Muttll2Zg/s805/MacLennan%20Sighting%20Location%20Google%20Maps.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="687" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsORYm-K4uLRigyphiPGJEHd4bAnrpCYoIhyphenhyphengxaLby6-nsk4v5VicYRXSNtTTDwA-gBqyb6uVVUHMRs3GgfY8aeiPAVwyPjM_Nniea0PTgZMc35fELHn3qAX7iHTOxEOnI6y3R1RWJ5hyphenhyphen0eJg-RKo8_l8n7rp14DDsz4T-dxWWjXMn4XGt8Muttll2Zg/s320/MacLennan%20Sighting%20Location%20Google%20Maps.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Using Google's Street View tool on that location gives us a general view of the area and you can see how close the loch is to the road offering a close up of anything on the beach below. Being August, the foliage would have been near maximum growth, though at to what it looked like in 1933, one can only assume it was similar to today.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNwsrs9mewvY47-c-6C3GNcgMofUlLXWNLKKexeRPxISMguj9olkZuZEbjZJ0o7a0uT34H0yIsarRn152vZqL8Ccb0gsKXNLGkZG12a-gDaWprkGs8wU88um74eOU9QZyUVOkswITOjO5zc_j47nvgFc_0hjz9CnQj7KmWL9d7HqxG1p_uqFx-iA_b-3E/s1372/MacLennan%20Sighting%20Location%20street%20view.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="1372" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNwsrs9mewvY47-c-6C3GNcgMofUlLXWNLKKexeRPxISMguj9olkZuZEbjZJ0o7a0uT34H0yIsarRn152vZqL8Ccb0gsKXNLGkZG12a-gDaWprkGs8wU88um74eOU9QZyUVOkswITOjO5zc_j47nvgFc_0hjz9CnQj7KmWL9d7HqxG1p_uqFx-iA_b-3E/s320/MacLennan%20Sighting%20Location%20street%20view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Gould had been up at the loch in November 1933 touring the area on his motorcycle talking to eyewitnesses and Mrs. MacLennan had been one of those interviewees. </span>The next major book on the Monster was Constance Whyte's "<i>More Than A Legend</i>" in which she also relates the story twenty four years later:</p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mrs. MacLennan of Drumnadrochit and her husband had already seen the Monster in the loch on a number of occasions when, one day in 1933, as they were walking to their boat on the Dores side of the loch, Mrs. MacLennan was astonished to see the creature on the beach. She shouted to her husband to look, and at the sound of her voice it plunged into the water causing a considerable splash. All Mrs. MacLennan saw before it moved off was a dark grey mass apparently turned towards the water with the head and neck thrown over so as to rest on the creature's back. Length, she estimated as 20 to 25 feet and, end-on, no humps were visible. Mr. MacLennan could only corroborate that he heard and saw the splash. </i></div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This does not really add much to the raw data even though one would think Whyte would have been able to contact MacLennan. However. one final account is to be found in none other than Maurice Burton's sceptical work, "<i>The Elusive Monster</i>" published in 1961 and which adds some interesting details courtesy of a letter from MacLennan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="text-align: left;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I saw it on land, on the Foyers side. It had short, thick, clumsy legs, but most decidedly legs, with a kind of hoof very like a pig's, but much larger. I only saw it for a few minutes and being knocked giddy with excitement . . . it was stretched out full length in the summer sun and a more ugly sight you never saw. It came about on a Sunday. We had to cross the loch at Urquhart Castle. That day I had on new shoes. They hurt with the eight mile walk (four up and four back) so, after </i><i>leaving the church I took off the wearisome shoes and took the road in my bare feet, walking on the cool green grass on the verge of the road, so I came on Nessie unawares.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I'll never forget it. You see, my husband and two sons were dawdling behind me. Then, on seeing this world wonder I yelled, "Daddy!" That did it. It doesn't seem to have any ears, but believe me it can hear. It lurched itself up on the two forelegs (it had four legs), then slithered hoofs forward over the cliff (it was only four to six feet from the water and must have climbed like a monkey to get where it was). I know that very ledge, so if you happen ever to be there I can show you . . . into the water it went. It did not stand up like, say, a cow. It kept the hind-legs on the ground seal-wise. It seemed to be too heavy in the body for its own legs. It went down quietly with a great splash. The rings were all my boys saw, thanks to me and my yell.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="text-align: left;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="text-align: left;">Mrs MacLennan added a postscript : "By the way, the monster on land was quite different from the one on the water. Gould thought that must have been the male, and that there must have been a school of them." The first sentence of this postscript I now regard as highly prophetic. </i></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We find the story related throughout the subsequent decades in various publications but they tend to draw on more original sources rather than add new details. The movement of Mrs MacLennan and her family would seem to amount to rowing their b<span style="text-align: left;">oat from Urquhart Castle to opposite shore south of Whitefield and a walk to church in Foyers which was four miles down the road. Assuming this finished about 1pm, they then walked to a point about </span><span style="text-align: left;">2.5 miles north of Foyers an hour or so later.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">With three main reports spread over twenty seven years, we may expect some discrepancies in the wording and this is evident when comparing Gould and Burton. The weather was stormy in the Gould account but sunny with Burton, Gould mentions several humps but Burton mentions none. Whyte differs little mainly because details in Gould and Burton are not mentioned by Whyte. In most cases, the earliest account should take primacy. It has been noted in other case studies that the passage of decades does have its effect on recall, even if the event was of a notable nature. However, since MacLennan recounter her story to Gould about three months after it happened, we can be more confident in its accuracy.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now with all this in hand, I have always found this a most curious event and one which may provide a clue as to the nature of the beast. In fact, reading the details made me wish that Mrs. MacLennan had submitted a sketch of what she saw. The key detail concerns what is perceived as the head and neck. Gould's book says its "<i>head [was] towards the water but thrown back." </i> and Whyte writes it was<i> "</i><i>turned towards the water with the head and neck thrown over so as to rest on the creature's back." </i>but her letter to Burton says nothing concerning this although the ellipsis in the quotes leaves the possibility that such a reference may have been in the original letter.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea that the neck would be backwards and resting on the creature's back initially comes across as something contrary to expectations. For example, if one holds to the plesiosaur theory, such a posture is impossible. The same could be said of long necked pinnipeds or any vertebrate proposed as the creature's identity. In fact, being such an outlier, one may be tempted to discard this as a misperception of some kind. As I said, there is no original sketch, so I drew one myself to get a sense of what may have been seen that day and I reproduce the sketch here which was at the top of this article.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3xzEf8By4gJgRyJkU7LjSdLIbxeY4giI7QSfuacbXHzvyNGhwq9ebTCTb4f8j9_L1QLQMmIReRUIZl32lNHEaYnvY_OfQgZ5n2e8GcztFiaVBFmhYitHMdrRlJw5iZCI2lrKpp4vHPJox1FbsT6eryZlL8W9RQzl0KY6okXYVpIfYrGyydxrhh5S4Ws/s478/Artistic%20Impression%20MacLennan%20Creature.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="441" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3xzEf8By4gJgRyJkU7LjSdLIbxeY4giI7QSfuacbXHzvyNGhwq9ebTCTb4f8j9_L1QLQMmIReRUIZl32lNHEaYnvY_OfQgZ5n2e8GcztFiaVBFmhYitHMdrRlJw5iZCI2lrKpp4vHPJox1FbsT6eryZlL8W9RQzl0KY6okXYVpIfYrGyydxrhh5S4Ws/w184-h200/Artistic%20Impression%20MacLennan%20Creature.png" width="184" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have not included the mandatory tail as no such thing was mentioned. The neck flops back, but could have been even more flaccid than what I have re-imagined. I have added something approaching humps and the four limbs with their so-called pig's hooves appearance. A photo of a pig's foot is shown below and we can see it divides into a cloven hoof of two digits and a back two dew claws of which one is visible. This makes the pig an even-toed ungulate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoNlmvtKWAis98uMr7jGK_nPwZ1VQ5OmSwQm3D4QUpbVKPlQY3y14MsRO11JM7HF2vVJT5DO-4yJiGCUmw3mxSjErgclT6Ghtz1-q3Gp3tDNW7UXsLpAZaBRnulqIy-uEeF0U80Wa0sbRmztPS7ShYIBJpzKKAE1DPnqnw7llNYKMsjsA6wFd0RK6b_o/s612/Pig%20Hoof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="612" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoNlmvtKWAis98uMr7jGK_nPwZ1VQ5OmSwQm3D4QUpbVKPlQY3y14MsRO11JM7HF2vVJT5DO-4yJiGCUmw3mxSjErgclT6Ghtz1-q3Gp3tDNW7UXsLpAZaBRnulqIy-uEeF0U80Wa0sbRmztPS7ShYIBJpzKKAE1DPnqnw7llNYKMsjsA6wFd0RK6b_o/s320/Pig%20Hoof.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such a literal arrangement is unsuitable for aquatic animals which leads me to believe Mrs. MacLennan was describing as best she could the three toed and webbed forelimb which has been described in other accounts (such as <span style="text-align: left;">Bob Duff and E. H. Bright)</span>. When such an appendage is at rest, it will fold together to give the impression of a less aquatic limb. Going back to the "neck", one may reject a single outlier, but we have another instance of a floppy neck just weeks before with the Spicer land sighting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgL-k2TaaXGAL7KRLqkASXFZia2wtU6VDzCUTn59q5KbgiPU9mwQr7tLtYQ6tIwPUcNN3ZmE57hbg47fY2phxpbPgcqIzVc-r30DMJGXDKjYjd9stp7BbDTfXxhvhmGKgSe86LaQ8_2ICutak_LMfKKYyFc6sB64GUUA2hIAsdXncmNMUOMvgb-FaKQQ/s607/Spicers%20-%20Gould%20Version.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="607" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgL-k2TaaXGAL7KRLqkASXFZia2wtU6VDzCUTn59q5KbgiPU9mwQr7tLtYQ6tIwPUcNN3ZmE57hbg47fY2phxpbPgcqIzVc-r30DMJGXDKjYjd9stp7BbDTfXxhvhmGKgSe86LaQ8_2ICutak_LMfKKYyFc6sB64GUUA2hIAsdXncmNMUOMvgb-FaKQQ/s320/Spicers%20-%20Gould%20Version.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now sceptics have rejected this account saying that such an undulating appearance does not square with a vertebrate neck. I may well agree with them on that and conclude what we see in these two accounts is not a neck in the spinal column sense. However, one might argue that the description of a ridge on the back is indicative of a vertebrate. That may indeed be true and I am not suggesting a boneless neck means this is an invertebrate, though the late Ted Holiday may have disagreed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, should it be called a neck at all? A neck implies a head at the end of it, but often the creature is described as having an infeasibly small head which is just a continuation of the neck. That could be an argument that it is not a head at all. Then again, others have described a mouth and eyes to which we refer to sightings such as those by John MacLean. Are we talking about two different species here or one that differs by age, sex or some other attribute?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am not inclined to think of two exotic species in one 26 square mile area. Mrs. MacLennan herself is quoted as saying she thinks what she saw on shore was different to what she saw in the water on another occasion described below from the Scotsman newspaper of the 13th November 1933.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kyi5zRItynKXNhyphenhyphen2KieTvINPWDyjQk3ftvOXpJ7gUF6nfBWQXYSFGRrjupjkEHqmQACxh9Afn2TI1d3zq94EiE-BUYgwqRrpgJSredf_Ub49JclKxJM6yqjAyxyJ5Zo8ps9pbP9eMpRjlHDhWclyJdiI_n6g2WQvnJ5XuDHTmKJ4fwMD03g1OzKYWoo/s722/MacLennan%20Water%20Sighting%20Account%20-%20Scotsman%20131133.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kyi5zRItynKXNhyphenhyphen2KieTvINPWDyjQk3ftvOXpJ7gUF6nfBWQXYSFGRrjupjkEHqmQACxh9Afn2TI1d3zq94EiE-BUYgwqRrpgJSredf_Ub49JclKxJM6yqjAyxyJ5Zo8ps9pbP9eMpRjlHDhWclyJdiI_n6g2WQvnJ5XuDHTmKJ4fwMD03g1OzKYWoo/s320/MacLennan%20Water%20Sighting%20Account%20-%20Scotsman%20131133.png" width="255" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A sketch from the same newspaper below portrays what was seen. Are these two creatures, one seen on land and one seen in the water irreconcilable as MacLennan said? I don't think so, but if you think one had hooves and a floppy neck, you may be inclined to think otherwise. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPWOzMwT0kZIb0JSZMFJ26UZ377xRGNtBO3BhxCbRnLvxpGYlPrG_u6x0rH8fwMDaZY86fXfpW-38jskzUA7H6-TuDzEFjsy-qwrj8Xfj40FzosinSfGBn5iVv6P-0CVzxEXmNRUbcAMC3dqAhtwEWR7i10gRZj2kRGW2Q_JdLCgnz7V8mcKd6G3nBHw/s927/MacLennan%20Water%20Sighting%20Sketch%20-%20Scotsman%20131133.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="927" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPWOzMwT0kZIb0JSZMFJ26UZ377xRGNtBO3BhxCbRnLvxpGYlPrG_u6x0rH8fwMDaZY86fXfpW-38jskzUA7H6-TuDzEFjsy-qwrj8Xfj40FzosinSfGBn5iVv6P-0CVzxEXmNRUbcAMC3dqAhtwEWR7i10gRZj2kRGW2Q_JdLCgnz7V8mcKd6G3nBHw/w400-h101/MacLennan%20Water%20Sighting%20Sketch%20-%20Scotsman%20131133.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This naturally begs the question as to what is this potential "non-neck"? At this point I have no clear answer as to proboscis, tentacle or otherwise, but I wasn't here first with that idea as I hand you over to Tony "Doc" Shiel's fantastical elephantine squid of Loch Ness as rendered at this <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/loneanimator/art/The-Great-Loch-Ness-Mollusk-820392751">link</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7ttbfXxqgH7wCFjI-bdqGpP5VbPzbl4dPlj3iScc-Ssl7WUBXiYjRQh7fA_g73gD-3tP0__hfza0IQ-FMTTkrW3UWA0rsgTF3fItKsEpkFvTJQfg8Y7GWcXqntMqJQtCkqS9lQQg4T5fIo-o4C1d6o9js-E5Re351uqJIA-3OFFMoHQMzjDkH6NM5aE/s1829/Tony%20Shiels%20Elephant%20Squid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1829" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7ttbfXxqgH7wCFjI-bdqGpP5VbPzbl4dPlj3iScc-Ssl7WUBXiYjRQh7fA_g73gD-3tP0__hfza0IQ-FMTTkrW3UWA0rsgTF3fItKsEpkFvTJQfg8Y7GWcXqntMqJQtCkqS9lQQg4T5fIo-o4C1d6o9js-E5Re351uqJIA-3OFFMoHQMzjDkH6NM5aE/s320/Tony%20Shiels%20Elephant%20Squid.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-47965963480063994182024-01-02T16:58:00.000-08:002024-01-30T04:32:17.454-08:00Nessie Review of 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTQ4pcjGYrOwc5gJvg-4O1FvE9SSAwistENQRQQlDlLvzYim5szQhyphenhyphencon1AVwnHZRYT94Imv3T_f5JkVYPR3vp43gmM8CPDWPnBZEQCcSKZKM6-x14fjTY3rDUtCquKDylHZGDS8TyPk42GrEPTG3s_pHJfKmSZI24OF9d9hea3ZvfgWQvHCjOHcknb0/s4000/clansman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTQ4pcjGYrOwc5gJvg-4O1FvE9SSAwistENQRQQlDlLvzYim5szQhyphenhyphencon1AVwnHZRYT94Imv3T_f5JkVYPR3vp43gmM8CPDWPnBZEQCcSKZKM6-x14fjTY3rDUtCquKDylHZGDS8TyPk42GrEPTG3s_pHJfKmSZI24OF9d9hea3ZvfgWQvHCjOHcknb0/s320/clansman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whatever may have come to pass at Loch Ness in 2023, it was always guaranteed to be the year of anniversary as ninety years passed since this story of a strange beast in the loch took off in 1933. Of course, stories had circulated for centuries before and even up to 1930, but this stuck and it has stuck in the public imagination and media attention ever since. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I recall the events around the 80th anniversary in 2013 as a special symposium (<a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-report-on-80th-year-of-nessie.html">link</a>) was organised in Edinburgh and a commemorative trip was made out to the spot where Aldie Mackay saw her twenty foot double hump creature. However, this 90th anniversary took on a more public persona as the new owners of the Loch Ness Exhibition arrived on the scene and announced a total redesign of the current exhibition. By the 10th June, Continuum Attractions opened their new exhibition to the world, about five weeks after the 90th year since the Inverness Courier newspaper article announced the monster to an unsuspecting world.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A few weeks later, I got my chance to visit the new exhibition and was pleased with the way the story of the Loch Ness Monster had been reimagined and posted a <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/07/a-visit-to-new-loch-ness-centre.html">review</a> to that effect. The balance had shifted from a negative view of the idea of a large unknown creature in the loch to one that kept that idea alive as a possibility and encouraged people to watch the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But it did not end there as Continuum Attractions set about organising a weekend observation around the loch involving a crowd of volunteers and a boat with sonar and hydrophone at the disposal of the Loch Ness Exploration group headed by Alan McKenna, who put a lot of effort into fronting this for the media and taking part in the boat trips.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I took part in the proceedings myself as I headed up for that weekend of the 26th August to be met with rain lashing down on the loch. It was a wet forecast which no doubt kept some from the loch but a hardy group turned up to mount the loch side watch and the media were there in force to cover events. It was a pleasure to meet up with some of these fellow monster hunters and also help out Dragonfly Films who were employing some new technology in the search (top picture). Their production should be televised some time in March 2024. My report on those events was documented <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-quest-for-nessie.html">here</a> and the official report from the Loch Ness Centre can be found <a href="https://lochness.com/findings-revealed-from-the-quest-weekend/">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The most intriguing sighting from the Quest was by a couple named as Matty and Aga, who had cancelled their trip to the Lake District to take part in the watch. They recorded what looked like a double hump formation in the manner of Aldie Mackay ninety years before. This moved before disappearing and I show a still from the video which can be seen at this <a href="https://lochness.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Possible-Nessie-sighting_2.mp4">link</a>. One does have buoys floating in Dores Bay, but I do not think they come in pairs?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmR88S1S06sWeXtvkfhZetK_WJeTKWIbj98U_FQd97WUp6pMVqj4ApZY7fVbwbCeoPhBGYVG3hzV6ZnrVdnf0xsgBYa19GOGdAMXPGuiSGLJXZSJykaoZixMeJXgf5v5N37lGxWdxFzJrUZlwLdNN-8Z_BlqYoOb-00GboCPdbqpHrcCmDIcKQgxExDOI/s1080/Matty%20and%20Aga%20still%20from%20video.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="1080" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmR88S1S06sWeXtvkfhZetK_WJeTKWIbj98U_FQd97WUp6pMVqj4ApZY7fVbwbCeoPhBGYVG3hzV6ZnrVdnf0xsgBYa19GOGdAMXPGuiSGLJXZSJykaoZixMeJXgf5v5N37lGxWdxFzJrUZlwLdNN-8Z_BlqYoOb-00GboCPdbqpHrcCmDIcKQgxExDOI/s320/Matty%20and%20Aga%20still%20from%20video.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Some other sightings were logged but as you can guess, no one saw the beast close enough to see the white of its eyes and therefore capture conclusive images (if one can keep their cool in that situation). It was a pity the media men with their high quality professional video equipment did not have such an opportunity. However, it was an enjoyable experience to be part of a greater whole and I look forward to a similar quest in 2024.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Later on in the year, the ninety years rolled into the anniversary of the first photograph of the Loch Ness Monster taken by Hugh Gray on the 12th November 1933 which I summarized <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/11/90th-anniversary-of-first-loch-ness.html">here</a>. Some articles were written up by the media such as this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/21/loch-ness-monster-photos-scotland-hugh-gray/">one</a> for the Washington Post. At this point I will insert the mandatory photograph of the possible head of Nessie whenever this photograph is mentioned.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVaAqmDwaybgY1WBLMqXuxx4h8dTkqT0xeQRh6VN1EJEu03Rlt_R6OUGE5VffILxFepfSFJBJvUGMDWFgjaBLBlFdrFnP9GWz8_HhyphenhypheniuRl1n26S3WKCnN7L0pMfFY9gxg6GAeyfbO1l6Pc2lFUOBOF3yAEMAaShgOGOOcvmzQNsMkq06yMteKJzGFfBIg/s250/Blog%20Picture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="207" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVaAqmDwaybgY1WBLMqXuxx4h8dTkqT0xeQRh6VN1EJEu03Rlt_R6OUGE5VffILxFepfSFJBJvUGMDWFgjaBLBlFdrFnP9GWz8_HhyphenhypheniuRl1n26S3WKCnN7L0pMfFY9gxg6GAeyfbO1l6Pc2lFUOBOF3yAEMAaShgOGOOcvmzQNsMkq06yMteKJzGFfBIg/s1600/Blog%20Picture.JPG" width="207" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Inevitably, we are going to roll over into a lot of 90th anniversaries in 2024, starting with the famous Arthur Grant land sighting which falls this coming Friday! So much for anniversaries, what about the other claimed sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in 2023? The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register at this <a href="https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=717286">link</a> documents nine accounts, two includes sketches, one include a video and five include photographs. The site makes no mention of the video taken by Matty and Aga but mentions a video taken by a Richard Story on the 3rd October whose account reads:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Richard Story, visiting from Wigton was on the high walk from Fort Augustus to Invergarry when he reported seeing a creature swim from the bank to the centre of the loch at 10.45am. It then disappeared and then reappeared. He took some pictures and a video ...</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The two stills available from this video are shown below and then overlaid using the single tree top as a merge point into the third composite image. There is some movement consistent with the statement that it moved towards the centre of the loch in the composite, but the error margin in the overlay doesn't make that a certainty. Currently, I have not found any clips from the video and so have to suspend judgment on it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpepvy2O4leM7olJ4DalShfr0eIAKy-WdNF8XlXAaoGhHGUjept0H0LeAVgR3xmKLkjD93JgqIGKlN-3ig6FKvRi2cREqUeTlC5c9KuuWJbpZF_d46pwKW98CiQB-a_1wwkbCMrPHBhyphenhyphenhnkhxp-TQGeZZh10G31aoGwYKmTmp7CSAf4EAC8MjhGIOHf-4/s636/Richard%20Story%20031023%20combined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="636" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpepvy2O4leM7olJ4DalShfr0eIAKy-WdNF8XlXAaoGhHGUjept0H0LeAVgR3xmKLkjD93JgqIGKlN-3ig6FKvRi2cREqUeTlC5c9KuuWJbpZF_d46pwKW98CiQB-a_1wwkbCMrPHBhyphenhyphenhnkhxp-TQGeZZh10G31aoGwYKmTmp7CSAf4EAC8MjhGIOHf-4/s320/Richard%20Story%20031023%20combined.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">One of the other photos taken by a Siobhan Janaway on the 27th August during the Quest Weekend is below with the following account.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>There was something causing turmoil in the water off Foyers point then it coalesced into a single object moving at speed just under the surface causing at least a 20m white wake" She confirmed that there were no boats near the location.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrMGcPSTwMV9uVRBxmuYRzVBQ3mh6c-4qZrusdoQ55Q8JkwWkqeTIYn1fagRLG6z38zxjg-wtbsGaJyP9R8dVUV_MwPFR3fz90ifUhp1LfL4BYNRQSdDS7Jk4m3_x4r8EZFAWpOcg87ZbmsNJVHEA2YqeNYgl7gJFIA27TnaRpgYgTXPjBkyxlp-jlr4/s400/Siobhan%20Janeway%20270823.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrMGcPSTwMV9uVRBxmuYRzVBQ3mh6c-4qZrusdoQ55Q8JkwWkqeTIYn1fagRLG6z38zxjg-wtbsGaJyP9R8dVUV_MwPFR3fz90ifUhp1LfL4BYNRQSdDS7Jk4m3_x4r8EZFAWpOcg87ZbmsNJVHEA2YqeNYgl7gJFIA27TnaRpgYgTXPjBkyxlp-jlr4/s320/Siobhan%20Janeway%20270823.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now I can give this a non-Nessie explanation as I was there as a resident of the nearby camping site that same morning. As I stated in that trip report:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>When I arose on the Sunday morning at Foyers, I looked out to the area where the River Foyers met the loch. The heightened flow of the river was rushing down to meet the loch and there was a lot of disturbance where the two collided. The general flow of the vaster body of the loch water was from the south west up the loch. However, the river water was hitting it at almost a right angle. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The result was a wall of resistance as the river water tried to merge with the main waters. The dynamics of this interaction led to the river water rotating in the direction of the loch water but also turning back towards the river giving us a sort of whirlpool. I have seen this phenomenon before at this location some years before. It is not very dangerous as the waters are quite shallow there.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is no doubt in my mind that this is the correct explanation as I have seen it myself in previous visits. An interesting sketch was produced by Sash Lake who recounted this tale from the 7th October 2023:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>I was leaving Drumnadrochit on a coach, admiring the view while the coach was driving past the Loch. It started to rain and a light fog rolled in, my view/ vision was partly limited due to the trees alongside the Loch, but something caught my eye for approximately five seconds and made me jump out of my skin, I saw a huge black mass/ hump in the middle of the Loch, roughly the size of a double decker bus. I would say it was around 75-100 yards away from me. I was confused, and in disbelief. I jumped to my feet to get a better look, trees completely blocked my view for about 5-8 seconds, there was a clearing in the trees, and when I looked back to where I saw the black mass/ hump, there was nothing there.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjWqSE9ZRZH4Et03kNd1gbjd2p8ixMKO6CK4qI0MNHbtXLUjpvHeWuXw-YNRXONU0ec0rO9OHuwg9oL-XALSFKwIXySdPbRy6OiZlPah3nRpdJAjl6pQ9SQ5YYSh18NNZEcwbywZ8HfSEPCNatAY9_LPLH0QCrpZrEUCty0V24nSmxIwY8sDOg86uyRU/s400/Sash%20Lake%20Single%20Hump%20071023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="400" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjWqSE9ZRZH4Et03kNd1gbjd2p8ixMKO6CK4qI0MNHbtXLUjpvHeWuXw-YNRXONU0ec0rO9OHuwg9oL-XALSFKwIXySdPbRy6OiZlPah3nRpdJAjl6pQ9SQ5YYSh18NNZEcwbywZ8HfSEPCNatAY9_LPLH0QCrpZrEUCty0V24nSmxIwY8sDOg86uyRU/s320/Sash%20Lake%20Single%20Hump%20071023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">How big is a double decker bus? Over thirty feet long, over seven feet wide and over fifteen feet high. Okay, not all those figures apply, but Mr. Lake was basically saying the size of the object was ... monstrous. A distance of 75-100 yards is good for a sighting but 5-8 seconds is not. The fact the object was not there on the next clear view excludes a variety of objects but it would have helped to know the rough location.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the photographs which grabbed the attention most in 2023 were actually taken five years earlier in 2018 by Chie Kelly. She sat on them during that time fearing ridicule for her and her family but then said that the publicity associated with the weekend Quest motivated her to release some of the images she had snapped - apparently about sixteen out of over seventy as she employed a lot of rapid shooting as the object made its way out of Dores Bay. I found five of them and typed up a report <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/08/some-noteable-photographs-from-loch-ness.html">here</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgem5BXKsOUojK-wDtKcOg5ba-LD8QKdJrw4JVLDOj5rJk7Qx-NWsxR57wO4rSwe1_fi5NOVtpiszxDJIEVW9vaGkzb4wohm49zpymJBKwfZiPVvLsXqYPq4Iu5N_JyWQwjJoqriL46TTiQ-viP5s7OTCmQV9PNhsKKjMW4LfX0zbiNyhNk680oRg4mLCQ/s465/Possible%20Head%20Zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="465" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgem5BXKsOUojK-wDtKcOg5ba-LD8QKdJrw4JVLDOj5rJk7Qx-NWsxR57wO4rSwe1_fi5NOVtpiszxDJIEVW9vaGkzb4wohm49zpymJBKwfZiPVvLsXqYPq4Iu5N_JyWQwjJoqriL46TTiQ-viP5s7OTCmQV9PNhsKKjMW4LfX0zbiNyhNk680oRg4mLCQ/s320/Possible%20Head%20Zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5ybz67faSJ-t0jnECIaMwqgWCtnkTist3H33BYiSqbUUzYPzugDA7787VX4mjKbH68RDv1AcNWbLlts6R-Whr4WBCwnF3jqZ637lKIw93DNCb3J-3079gbOYrF-jZfFAusBZ3e-2iovpIJ7-wCdP7wnyI5r5Jj1Dl7z7lF94Dh2-YtrQgtLZ0pyqsd4/s620/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="620" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5ybz67faSJ-t0jnECIaMwqgWCtnkTist3H33BYiSqbUUzYPzugDA7787VX4mjKbH68RDv1AcNWbLlts6R-Whr4WBCwnF3jqZ637lKIw93DNCb3J-3079gbOYrF-jZfFAusBZ3e-2iovpIJ7-wCdP7wnyI5r5Jj1Dl7z7lF94Dh2-YtrQgtLZ0pyqsd4/s320/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSc-dNR8QgQEnUPnpqQ_4PSP-kbOclx800yG_rt6T5l2fVtY7N_-zfvrp0aKrP3Ksk39Zy8rEbST-JVtbegnrU2P1Lkh6HcpzLdafo9AjLyexX_AR21ZvPwEFveEz3Ljs2HamYQA9W66HCicOGRzjTVWeXksJrOd8y93XZV2eZdtF6SBIAhCLLqT5XunQ/s714/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="714" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSc-dNR8QgQEnUPnpqQ_4PSP-kbOclx800yG_rt6T5l2fVtY7N_-zfvrp0aKrP3Ksk39Zy8rEbST-JVtbegnrU2P1Lkh6HcpzLdafo9AjLyexX_AR21ZvPwEFveEz3Ljs2HamYQA9W66HCicOGRzjTVWeXksJrOd8y93XZV2eZdtF6SBIAhCLLqT5XunQ/s320/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">A lot of discussion ensued with theories ranging from the interesting to the idiotic along with the promise of further images and perhaps even an animated sequence constructed from the dozens of pictures taken. Nearly five months on, no further information has been released and it seems we should get to the bottom of what these images are because if they are genuine, they may well contain valuable data. My take is these need to be explained, be they monster, natural, artefact or fake. This remains an ongoing story. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other news, there were three documentaries on the Loch Ness Monster which were televised, "<i>Enigma: The Monster of Loch Ness</i>", "<i>Monster - The Mystery of Loch Ness</i>" and "<i>Loch Ness: They Created a Monster</i>" which is pretty good going for one year. On this blog, the historical research continued as we covered some old LNIB reports, the first alleged sonar contact of the monster, the alleged connections to the early monster with the King Kong film of 1933, t<span style="text-align: left;">he Land Sighting of Alistair Dallas and the evolution of a famous diver's tale from the 1880s.</span></p><p>Looking forward and looking back, 2023 added its own images and talking points. The monster was not proven to exist but neither did the sceptics prove it does not exist. Zero progress you might say. Perhaps, but the analysis of 2023 is not yet completed.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-38660315081043848522023-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:002023-12-24T09:00:51.162-08:00Tim Dinsdale and Two Original LNIB Sighting Reports<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirGTNk8ZzKHLgzqfmc94mwZc5QArfiZaSMAT4t3_XyrLin-iG5MLWehW4UPnbwew3F_Eb0_GGWjXl-8I51bzUUTaEJQk7sX8qiVfo-dppwlZaPgANviY6dy8KNDmxrEHj1RlYykGe_TRIFYGf6Y6hxA12oW-nKABFw2FSlbyVajD9-s4vf3SZp_XSkb_A/s1327/LNIB%20letter%20header.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="1327" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirGTNk8ZzKHLgzqfmc94mwZc5QArfiZaSMAT4t3_XyrLin-iG5MLWehW4UPnbwew3F_Eb0_GGWjXl-8I51bzUUTaEJQk7sX8qiVfo-dppwlZaPgANviY6dy8KNDmxrEHj1RlYykGe_TRIFYGf6Y6hxA12oW-nKABFw2FSlbyVajD9-s4vf3SZp_XSkb_A/w400-h126/LNIB%20letter%20header.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">It was a while back that I got my first view of some original sighting reports from the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau which existed from 1962 to 1972. I don't recall if I was looking at an original or a photocopy, but certainly the contents were genuine enough. I was looking at two eyewitness testimonies to the same event of the 13th October 1971 which was of the double hump type, one of the most common genres amongst Loch Ness Monster testimonies. The eyewitnesses were two police officers, Inspector Henry Henderson and Sergeant George Mackenzie. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Both sightings came to the attention of the LNIB who interviewed them and invited them to fill in sighting reports. Each were two pages long with each side consisting of the kind of questions you would expect such as personal information about the eyewitness, their location, distance to object, description of object in terms of appearance and motion, weather conditions, loch conditions and any camera information if a picture was taken (which did not happen).</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the last page is a simple outline map of the loch inviting the witness to place the position of themselves and the object. This is finished off with a signed declaration. Now it has to be said that there are a lot of these reports still held in archives, but they are not available online due to data protection laws. In other words, nothing can be published without the eyewitness' consent (though I suspect if all personal details were simply removed, that would cease to be an issue). Here are the two witness declarations.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">George Mackenzie:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>At time, date and place overleaf, the witnesses HENDERSON, (report submitted same date) and MACKENZIE were motoring in private car from Inverness towards Fort Augustus. When at point of sighting two black 'humps' wore observed about 'mid-loch' submerging and surfacing, travelling about 10/15 MPH, for a distance of about one quarter of a mile. The object was travelling from west to east. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Loch was mirror calm and a wash was seen coming from it. It was observed for exactly two minutes, (timed by witness HENDERSON) then it submerged and shortly afterwards waves of about 4ft. in height started to break on the north shore of the Loch, which then returned to its previous flat calm. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The object sighted bore a liking to porpoises or dolphins, but much larger and I am convinced that the two humps were connected and was only part of the whole body. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlS20zRiofXiCbxQAKZ1-YrMQVMc6Sl7dEFTsS4Y8ouzDs6pi9ESIz232KRhHaQZq-NcCbEsFHABM3rlqp-MEXVcZW8mhfClOIMo07MgyNN3kRUaZHAFFVt6LskVZNmUAhP0zjv5ZRPoOypsJlI97PlOXl3qhDL0gcm1OBz4nsJeWLhL-Z3uZnsXULpGc/s1042/Mackenzie%20Sketch.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1042" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlS20zRiofXiCbxQAKZ1-YrMQVMc6Sl7dEFTsS4Y8ouzDs6pi9ESIz232KRhHaQZq-NcCbEsFHABM3rlqp-MEXVcZW8mhfClOIMo07MgyNN3kRUaZHAFFVt6LskVZNmUAhP0zjv5ZRPoOypsJlI97PlOXl3qhDL0gcm1OBz4nsJeWLhL-Z3uZnsXULpGc/w400-h180/Mackenzie%20Sketch.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Henry Henderson:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>About 14.15 hours on Wednesday, 13th October, 1971, accompanied by the witness MacKenzie, was motoring from Inverness towards Fort Augustus. About half a mile east of Altsigh Mr. MacKenzie drew my attention to something he had just seen in the loch. I stopped quickly and stood at the roadside above the loch i.e. on the north side.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The first thing noticed was a wave pattern coming towards the shore below us. The water below was flat calm and a 'V' shaped wave pattern was coming in from about the centre of the loch. The first wave would have been about two ft. high. Following the wave outwards I saw two large black coloured 'humps' about 10 - 12 ft. behind the point where the 'V' parted. I would say that there would be at least six to eight feet between the 'humps'. The 'humps' were rotating together and the impression was quite definite that they were connected below the surface.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The objects were visible for two minutes at which time they appeared to go lower and lower in the water and gradually disappeared. The significant point in this was that the water then returned to a flat calm condition. By this time the original wave pattern had also subsided. We waved down two vehicles one of which was being driven by a van - either Morganti or Simonelli from Dingwall. Both he and his son saw the latter part of the sighting. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The other vehicle was a black coloured Mercedes which stopped further eastwards and it is not known whether or not anything was seen by the occupants of this car. The objects gave the appearance of two large seals or dolphins sporting but this was only an initial impression - as time went on it became obvious that the two objects were part of one large animate object.</i> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLL4Zk3ws0aQ4WWsF6fSLbahUXql36PcKjqKkZfI-BFQBdhwJTl-atupzKgLTF9lU2TOKHoFW5ubVCY1oNpsRKQFFeuvxEhds62BWvPHsOOwCTNQnGiQZgg_5HAU859SgOAVrIChgpkMu-imD3KxpgVJp9bxB07shWezShZVo1HhJGVTNMJXzD3TegDI/s695/Henderson%20sketch.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="695" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLL4Zk3ws0aQ4WWsF6fSLbahUXql36PcKjqKkZfI-BFQBdhwJTl-atupzKgLTF9lU2TOKHoFW5ubVCY1oNpsRKQFFeuvxEhds62BWvPHsOOwCTNQnGiQZgg_5HAU859SgOAVrIChgpkMu-imD3KxpgVJp9bxB07shWezShZVo1HhJGVTNMJXzD3TegDI/w400-h145/Henderson%20sketch.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As it turns out, this multiple eyewitness account was worthy enough to be published by Tim Dinsdale in the 1972 edition of his book, "<i>Loch Ness Monster</i>". I quote from page 150 to 151 and reproduce the sketch from the book:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Later I was to learn that shortly after Miss Turner's experience on 13 October several people had reported seeing humps and a very big V wake from a place eastwards of her sighting point. Among them were two policemen, a sergeant and an inspector. Holly Arnold, the young American who was secretary to the LNI had obtained reports from them, and excellent tape-recordings. She also obtained one from Father Gregory. I listened to them, and realized that in this trilogy of witnesses' reports there might be found the key to modern credibility.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>No one could honestly doubt such people, or their ability to describe what they had seen. For this reason it would be doubly important to publish these accounts, exactly as recorded. Police Inspector Henry Henderson, of 208 Old Edinburgh Road, Inverness, Scotland, recorded in his LNI sighting-report form that the estimated overall length of the object was 25-30 ft; it was travelling at 10-15 m.p.h. from west to east in a straight line. It was about half way across the loch, at a point half a mile east of the Altsigh Youth Hostel. It was visible to him and his co-witness, Sergeant George W. Mackenzie, from '1415 hrs. to 1417 hrs.' </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The first thing noticed was a wave pattern coming towards the shore below us. The water was flat calm and a 'V' shaped wave pattern was coming in from about the centre of the loch. The first wave would have been about two feet high. Following the wave outwards I saw two large black coloured 'humps' about 10-12 feet behind the point where the 'V' parted. I would say that there would be at least six to eight feet between the 'humps' . . . the impression was quite definite that they were connected below the surface. The objects were visible for two minutes at which time they appeared to go lower and lower in the water and gradually </i><i>disappeared.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The significant point in this was that the water then returned to flat calm condition . . . the objects gave the impression of two large seals or dolphins sporting, but this was only an initial impression—as time went on it became obvious that the two objects were part of one large animate object. Seen travelling over a distance of about half a mile Sergeant George Mackenzie, of 152 Bruce Gardens, Inverness, filled out a sighting report independently. He said much the same about the experience, although his estimate of size was bigger. He thought the overall length was '30-40' ft. He said that waves about '4 feet in height', caused by the two-humped object, broke on the shore after its submergence. He estimated that both humps were 'five feet' out of the water. Both men said that there were no craft in the vicinity. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tgZLkHl8mqnEoZxl0AKLCy0sz-JJx6bHGv2KnnJMgctN5-3UI-77E1OZHW6ZVDAVFITn5ryX3mvokYXRtyvsFAm1u5PZa1H0Ohbosf5YQh3_k6dlWqHTKr-cxSYpeE57aV9brEtlrVhAbieFjnhwfQ04HVrX-sHBtklHv9DjM1ezYhzebkPn_I0BE4g/s737/Double%20Hump%20Sketch%20-%20Dinsdale%20Book.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="737" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tgZLkHl8mqnEoZxl0AKLCy0sz-JJx6bHGv2KnnJMgctN5-3UI-77E1OZHW6ZVDAVFITn5ryX3mvokYXRtyvsFAm1u5PZa1H0Ohbosf5YQh3_k6dlWqHTKr-cxSYpeE57aV9brEtlrVhAbieFjnhwfQ04HVrX-sHBtklHv9DjM1ezYhzebkPn_I0BE4g/w400-h191/Double%20Hump%20Sketch%20-%20Dinsdale%20Book.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now Tim reproduces a lot of the report even down to the addresses of the men, so I do not think there are data protection issues here as this has been out in the public domain for over fifty years now. He uses the Henderson sketch as the basis for the one in his book and largely relies upon his description because it was longer with additions from the Mackenzie account. As always, it is interesting to compare simultaneous eyewitness accounts to gauge the variance of observational powers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UqVUTSmEZihnyGNRGBdjRQJ8yeLUteLvSJGAYcgnoceu7lSVBJUYlFP18tn2wzv5NRoLcI7Z2x0D4JUPYb93Cep1dOm6ZFNXbhHSQS8jFUDB844LWqBVxh6oZA8ddtZJ-NCkLrGoxk9lae7yJa51POOyl2jI3SAffHZVb4XlmSU8482O28JMZStOhRU/s1128/Comparisons.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1128" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UqVUTSmEZihnyGNRGBdjRQJ8yeLUteLvSJGAYcgnoceu7lSVBJUYlFP18tn2wzv5NRoLcI7Z2x0D4JUPYb93Cep1dOm6ZFNXbhHSQS8jFUDB844LWqBVxh6oZA8ddtZJ-NCkLrGoxk9lae7yJa51POOyl2jI3SAffHZVb4XlmSU8482O28JMZStOhRU/w400-h213/Comparisons.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is no surprise that the parameters which we may call the abstract parameters show the most divergence between the two eyewitnesses. Namely, distance, height and length. One would normally add speed to that list but the two policemen are in full agreement as to the estimate of 10-15 miles per hour. It may be that knowing that other abstract parameter of time from a measuring device (a watch), they may have noted the object's starting and end positions in relation to memorable points on the opposite shore and calculated it from the simple equation of distance divided by time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Reversing that calculation gives distance covered by the object(s) as in the range of one third to one half of a mile. As you can see, points of reference are important be they a watch or shoreline markers. In like manner, one would surmise that the near and opposite shorelines would help as reference points for distance. That can be argued though it partly depends on the elevation of the observer. The higher they are above the loch waters, the less effect foreshortening has on estimates. Based on their location statements, I would say they were 40 to 100 feet above the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As to the object(s) themselves, the highest divergence is in the height of the humps with one witness estimating more than double that of the other. Admittedly, such a difference may be understandable at a distance of 600-800 yards but I think this is an incomplete statement for in the original report Henry Henderson states:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The first wave would have been about two ft. high. Following the wave outwards I saw two large black coloured 'humps' about 10 - 12 ft. behind the point where the 'V' parted.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, the "<i>first wave</i>" at two feet high was the water disturbance at the head of the bow wave and not the humps behind it. As to the height of the humps, Henderson states they were "<i>at least six to eight feet between the humps" </i>and looking at his sketch suggests each hump was comparable in height to that distance.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, there was only a small difference in the estimated total length of the object if the averages are taken. Looking at Mackenzie's original sketch with his 5 foot height, a ruler can be used to calculate the distance from front of the first hump to the back of the second hump and that gives us a total length of 38 feet which is within his written estimate of 30-40 feet. If we do the same for Henderson's sketch and his 2 foot high estimate, the length using his sketch comes out at only 7 feet, but he added that the head of the V-wake began 10-12 feet ahead of the humps giving a total of up to 19 feet long or 6 feet below his lower range of 25-40 feet.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The last point is regarding the black colour of the objects. Were they inherently black in colour or did the viewing conditions affect this observation? The weather was stated as clear and bright and it was after 2pm in mid-October. If the object(s) were between the sun and observers, then they would be in shadow and darker. So calculating the actual solar azimuth for that day and time gives the line below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_frVu_qlZEyZxPLMFAct6DV0AH-Ua1g0S_nLsoG5O_U9tq5Ph7HOc1Yj0akH9qiusG41Bg4RXLtkS3JQTBxkCvaEw-cb0rjAgACgOuKIY2wWSGI67zNaVFia3-f1GiBsBQp9GwPV02cbSVC89fEtLmWs_imX4vSS6MChF5BYKBgFeyyuJn0Q9KxFG-8/s996/Position%20of%20Sun.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="996" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_frVu_qlZEyZxPLMFAct6DV0AH-Ua1g0S_nLsoG5O_U9tq5Ph7HOc1Yj0akH9qiusG41Bg4RXLtkS3JQTBxkCvaEw-cb0rjAgACgOuKIY2wWSGI67zNaVFia3-f1GiBsBQp9GwPV02cbSVC89fEtLmWs_imX4vSS6MChF5BYKBgFeyyuJn0Q9KxFG-8/w400-h198/Position%20of%20Sun.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the sun was just to the right of the observers at an azimuth of 199 degrees and an elevation of 23.5 degrees with sunset four hours away. Therefore the object(s) would be in 20% shade and the day was bright enough to allow the level of light to display its true colour. Naturally, the sceptical explanation would be that they were watching a couple of standing waves. This explanation should be rejected on the following grounds.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ol><li>Waves do not produce bow wakes.</li><li>The object(s) submerged.</li><li>The object(s) are too high.</li><li>There was an undefined source of the bow wake ahead of the object(s).</li></ol><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The best known example of the kind of waves being talked about is the Jessie Tait photograph of 1969 as shown below from a tourist handbook. Note the succession of waves which recede in size to either side with a general line of disturbance extending out for hundreds of feet in both directions. The height of the waves is also very low in relation to their length and nowhere near the triangular aspect reported here. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0Od5d8VWk_pduVExdSiCOXqLnaiOlfxOyJnNuCkJ1eZY2SYowhwNgh6fCRoUWBZzbObkLPyRDDeqESu8Psc09up3kRXa1F3UueWGiRESvw4nQ0Eh8ywvXp0iFtKxkabH-4HhmaA4aXE9JxQabtRzQy1OLyHIRT7bX7scxzk71sIHyBYRQHermWPxe1Y/s2338/Jessie%20Tait%20Boat%20Wakes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="2338" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0Od5d8VWk_pduVExdSiCOXqLnaiOlfxOyJnNuCkJ1eZY2SYowhwNgh6fCRoUWBZzbObkLPyRDDeqESu8Psc09up3kRXa1F3UueWGiRESvw4nQ0Eh8ywvXp0iFtKxkabH-4HhmaA4aXE9JxQabtRzQy1OLyHIRT7bX7scxzk71sIHyBYRQHermWPxe1Y/w400-h185/Jessie%20Tait%20Boat%20Wakes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">What's not to like from two reliable observers? But the most curious part of all this was Tim Dinsdale's reporting of them. Tim said above: "<i>For this reason it would be doubly important to publish these accounts, exactly as recorded". </i>Well, that was not the case are there is the presence of two ellipses in the recounting denoted by the familiar "..." notation. One ellipsis replaces the statement where Henderson flags down some motorists to draw their attention to this creature. One can understand this omission as it is incidental to the reporting of the object, but the other missing text is:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>The 'humps' were rotating together and</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The original report page is shown below with the omitted text included.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWDQHygthvLP0-pK4_c3hvZmdeZU4jFcXaJRN3KJqAN_XAM5FreOGsJday-7bQ6Sy6dgHdpuDbhexuDVv7VcY-uZYt7VDDLY-TOYLBqfvjXwUKzyGEH2eywXxhJyd54K72nbgPPGHXI95ovdqWeWih66nclwjtydLN4etyN7ZdX9Z7-aUqq3QqXnRY-jI/s833/rotating%20humps.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="616" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWDQHygthvLP0-pK4_c3hvZmdeZU4jFcXaJRN3KJqAN_XAM5FreOGsJday-7bQ6Sy6dgHdpuDbhexuDVv7VcY-uZYt7VDDLY-TOYLBqfvjXwUKzyGEH2eywXxhJyd54K72nbgPPGHXI95ovdqWeWih66nclwjtydLN4etyN7ZdX9Z7-aUqq3QqXnRY-jI/s320/rotating%20humps.png" width="237" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now I imagine, like me, Tim perhaps found this statement a bit confounding. After all, how do triangular humps rotate? Inspector Henderson had gone on to say that the movement was akin to seals and dolphins sporting, doubtless a reference to such animals seen in the nearby Moray Firth. Such displays can involve an apparent and brief rotation around an imaginary point below the surface as they surface and submerge. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, those involve roughly circular surfaces in which features on the skin act as reference points to indicate a different part of the body is coming into view. But a triangular object cannot rotate forward and present a uniform shape to the observer at the same time. Tim's solution is to edit it out as if it was never there and we do not have it all "<i>exactly as recorded</i>". The inference is that Tim decided Henderson had made an observational error but didn't want to say so lest the entire account was weakened.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">He may have felt this was justified as Sergeant Mackenzie did not mention this rotation feature and so it was a divergence where agreement on both sides was desired. However, both men do not mention the head of the bow wave ahead of the humps and so this is a weak argument. An omission by one witness is not a contradiction unless the other explicitly said there was no rotation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The only obvious way rotation can preserve a consistent appearance is for a cone like structure to rotate around its vertical axis but that makes no sense and this is not a feature I have seen reported at any other time. We have been reminded of this rotational aspect recently with the Chie Kelly photographs where she said the object "<i>was spinning and rolling at times</i>", though this was a more spherical appearance.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So what do we do with this? Did Inspector Henderson misword what he was trying to say or did he really see something on the object which gave the impression of "<i>rotating</i>"? If Tim or some other researcher had got back to Henry to clarify his meaning, the problem would surely had been resolved, but that does not seem to have happened. So something for you to munch on apart from the turkey and sprouts tomorrow. Have a Merry Christmas Day when it comes!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-60374680178295630292023-12-15T05:38:00.000-08:002023-12-15T05:39:33.152-08:00Loch Ness Monster Podcast<p style="text-align: justify;">I recently had a chat with David Divine who runs a podcast channel covering various mysteries across the world and this was his first conversation with anyone on the subject of the Loch Ness Monster. That is where I came in and I was happy to have a discussion on the beast across the ages for an hour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The one factoid that put the mystery in perspective for me was when I stated that the first account back in the day of St. Columba happened only eighty years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Contrary to common opinion about Hadrian's Wall, the Romans led some expeditions into the far north of Scotland and occupied various parts of the region for a while. There are possible remains of a Roman Fort near Cawdor in Moray which is less than twenty miles from Loch Ness, so it is a reasonable conjecture that the most famous empire in the world was at the most famous loch in the world. Whether they saw anything unusual in the waters is lost to history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The link to the YouTube version of the talk can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tavLhsYTPA">here</a>. One commenter on the YouTube page said they could not understand my accent! Not a lot one can do about the Glaswegian accent, old bean, listen to it ten times over and you'll get the hang of it! One thing I would change next time is not to have your laptop on your lap!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0tavLhsYTPA" width="485" youtube-src-id="0tavLhsYTPA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-29758595270231229042023-11-29T15:02:00.000-08:002023-11-29T15:02:34.130-08:00Upcoming Loch Ness Monster Documentary<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYfRuoc2ln6vlQjEyJbcfe_57omQGiEEbiP05-el7kk4IyUW0Nw-4tyV0hunVDfR6IhKf1qG5sbZPI0CTV1-QExz68kVrPrDXdTszpO5C9skhG1qqjvwQwDBBNxjVMb0W7Wbk7LXS5lYD7UAF975Ur2rVrPq0Q4ZQhV0DogQuPoJAM0jb7_kX9z-pXY8/s1223/BBC%20Scotland%20Promo%20Page.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1223" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYfRuoc2ln6vlQjEyJbcfe_57omQGiEEbiP05-el7kk4IyUW0Nw-4tyV0hunVDfR6IhKf1qG5sbZPI0CTV1-QExz68kVrPrDXdTszpO5C9skhG1qqjvwQwDBBNxjVMb0W7Wbk7LXS5lYD7UAF975Ur2rVrPq0Q4ZQhV0DogQuPoJAM0jb7_kX9z-pXY8/w400-h221/BBC%20Scotland%20Promo%20Page.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Well, I enjoyed the "<i>Loch Ness: They Created A Monster</i>" documentary at the Cameo cinema tonight. There were one or two twists to keep me on my toes and new material even for someone like me after 40 years of following the monster mystery. So settle down to watch it this Friday 9pm on BBC Scotland - and I am not saying all this just because I make an appearance (amongst many others). Otherwise, catch it on BBC iPlayer later.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Details are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sznx">here</a>.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></div>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-45325893817421449192023-11-07T13:19:00.001-08:002023-11-07T13:22:46.402-08:0090th Anniversary of the First Loch Ness Monster Photograph<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbvjxdL5c-ia0r_V5lLkKmoRVeGuY-7qR6LuOwut1sUpzTD7eX2denomSVR-PmqWHR4Ic4zF6oIaogXlqtgpUP4FGq2AJdXPWjDGYRj40iawl4oZs-OwZsxdTFEXBm2GrwCyn-EMKfXvTI2oVcYI8PVq61SsBWwtgk-_5F3qGvW2wP-OvczWMA6m7gZg/s250/Blog%20Picture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="207" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbvjxdL5c-ia0r_V5lLkKmoRVeGuY-7qR6LuOwut1sUpzTD7eX2denomSVR-PmqWHR4Ic4zF6oIaogXlqtgpUP4FGq2AJdXPWjDGYRj40iawl4oZs-OwZsxdTFEXBm2GrwCyn-EMKfXvTI2oVcYI8PVq61SsBWwtgk-_5F3qGvW2wP-OvczWMA6m7gZg/s1600/Blog%20Picture.JPG" width="207" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I first wrote on the famous Hugh Gray photograph back in 2011, a picture that was snapped on a calm day on the Sunday of November 12th 1933. Ninety years on, I still think it is one of the most intriguing pictures taken and especially taking into account the image of the animal head to the right of the photo. In fact, the Loch Ness Centre will be using that 90th year as a reason to host some talks by eyewitnesses on photos they have taken - details are <a href="https://lochness.com/whats-on/meet-the-eyewitness/">here</a>. Doubtless as other media outlets comment on this anniversary, you may see the image below presented to you.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFdpLQTsmEYQiRAgbiGU3_8SfZPk3qtr_OGPZbo79PH97rCYm4jiH9VGTvu5HiiuPYC-YrN7FoQLvrZkrcCruikgmDsNKdtkX-bHQ6XoAH9s6o_XDZ8n7Bd-4DTH4SUKC7fuunK8xELy5-WhOcXslfZox_rHaOgR7ByngW_SOSV5y0OUFWcCWpQbkf2o/s425/Whyte%20Version.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="425" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFdpLQTsmEYQiRAgbiGU3_8SfZPk3qtr_OGPZbo79PH97rCYm4jiH9VGTvu5HiiuPYC-YrN7FoQLvrZkrcCruikgmDsNKdtkX-bHQ6XoAH9s6o_XDZ8n7Bd-4DTH4SUKC7fuunK8xELy5-WhOcXslfZox_rHaOgR7ByngW_SOSV5y0OUFWcCWpQbkf2o/s320/Whyte%20Version.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The superior image copied by a Mr. Heron-Allen at the time was rediscovered by Maurice Burton and passed onto Steuart Campbell. It is shown below and should be the only reference point for this particular debate. It is from this version that the head image at the top was enlarged.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghFQb9mSEkXFR1Baz7EHKRdJEfVy2HVHpvsV-eGZZlRrpA3x0ElVY3xhSxhfKf9f1fc2b7WE_2Nc4PSxVSBwdBtubSnUL_EuGmh_Os4ohkvsqAtSZY94ra0mTYSMoc0lZuU7bDtAb1n4Bsz2mSHV0b_12L0S_6Ocug33dyK6hoLlieVONYs508lxeP-e0/s748/Heron-Allen%20Image%20Zoom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="748" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghFQb9mSEkXFR1Baz7EHKRdJEfVy2HVHpvsV-eGZZlRrpA3x0ElVY3xhSxhfKf9f1fc2b7WE_2Nc4PSxVSBwdBtubSnUL_EuGmh_Os4ohkvsqAtSZY94ra0mTYSMoc0lZuU7bDtAb1n4Bsz2mSHV0b_12L0S_6Ocug33dyK6hoLlieVONYs508lxeP-e0/s320/Heron-Allen%20Image%20Zoom.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Looking back, my original and main article on this picture can be found at this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2011/06/hugh-gray-photograph-revisited_26.html">link</a>. At the time the article focused on the head to the right, which was a bit of a revelation to a lot of folk. But as it turned out, I was merely repeating what others had passed comment on back when the picture hit the headlines. Later on, I posted another article quoting a newspaper piece from 1933 talking about the "<i>head</i>". That article is at this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-on-hugh-gray-photograph.html">link</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The articles on this blog continued as I looked at the issue of shadows and reflections in the photo used as a sceptical argument against it and was published at this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2011/07/forensics-of-loch-ness-monster.html">link</a>. Meantime, understandable discontent with the sceptically minded over the labrador dog interpretation surfaced as one broke ranks to promote the idea that it was actually a photo of a swan. I covered that theory in another article at this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2016/02/is-hugh-gray-photograph-swan.html">link</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, the whole thing was brought together, revised, reformatted and published in a journal last year. That was announced at this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2022/09/analysis-of-hugh-gray-photograph.html">link</a> while the pdf of that journal article is available <a href="https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/article/view/2549/1637">here</a>. Twelve years on from that first article, my opinion on it has not changed. I believe it is a picture of the Loch Ness Monster and Hugh Gray was no liar and deceiver as others accuse him of. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Notice I said "<i>I believe it is</i>" and not "<i>It is</i>" as this subject is all about opinions and not decrees. But I would say that the rediscovery of that head image casting its conical reflection on the water below has only strengthened my opinion of it. So as we consider ninety years of the good, the bad and the ugly in Nessie photographs, let us take a moment to remember the man who started it all - Hugh Gray of Foyers.</p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can also be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-89360038087057470882023-11-07T12:45:00.001-08:002023-11-07T12:50:35.270-08:00The Forensics of the Loch Ness Monster<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_lwJq0mlrcxa2TLBKiBIpXoBnaoeTJ1duSxR7RgJj7zv3puwifn8AR8n-hs9TTvcRBpxyCPAyOxmpqjh8hHasB3gaAzm_Bqv0z-sReROzqFp3HMYMflvc_ftaA0eA7lQf8F13H5q6rQ/s1600/My+Interpretation+4.jpg"><br /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Continuing with the theme of the previous <a href="http://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2011/06/hugh-gray-photograph-revisited_26.html">article</a> on the Hugh Gray photograph, there has been various feedback ranging from "<span style="font-style: italic;">I see it!</span>" and "<span style="font-style: italic;">I don't see it!</span>" to more analytical responses.<br /><br />Before I address the main point of this posting, some have said that by outlining the features I see in the eel-like head, I have admitted the image cannot be seen on its own. This is not true. What I annotated was a zoom in of the best image we have and hence de facto it becomes more grainy. So I show below a better zoom out and invite people to see the fish like head with mouth open on the right extremity of the creature.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittSFfIXqbzRZKRJiLJW8dfgv40P5k_qPFT419UImBLeNQUnJWhjm-elEHlfYRK7S85RA_Xrdo4Exysi5d3JpQ2aNB8pOZTvJBH3orXFSSYZUD5E4pcG8XQdG5eYmCj7pXWaJoq9Hvp4E/s1600/Heron-Allen+Image+Zoom.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittSFfIXqbzRZKRJiLJW8dfgv40P5k_qPFT419UImBLeNQUnJWhjm-elEHlfYRK7S85RA_Xrdo4Exysi5d3JpQ2aNB8pOZTvJBH3orXFSSYZUD5E4pcG8XQdG5eYmCj7pXWaJoq9Hvp4E/s400/Heron-Allen+Image+Zoom.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624500983397196098" border="0" /></a><br />Now one of the meatier points raised concerned the shadow on the creature. It was suggested that if Mr. Gray was where he said he was at the stated date and time then the shadow is in the wrong place. The sun would be roughly to his left and hence the shadow should be more to the right on the image. Naturally this raises the question of not so much Hugh Gray's position on the shore but rather his orientation with respect to the sun and the creature. Since the sun was somewhere to the south west then the creature had to make an appearance somewhere in that direction. Can this be achieved from the Foyers estuary? The answer is yes going by Google Maps.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjclETNo7qI65032rr7eAR3OiHv3nEk_9iHAo3yJsWJ9yoGL1pFwMCcTEJUQ15s9ylv1gr2hipBm3MUZByyyGQltW53ES7Lxo99pnDPaWfIyReHuiv1RpRNNEyq6w16RFaRjrSad09bgMY/s1600/Place+of+Sighting.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 314px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjclETNo7qI65032rr7eAR3OiHv3nEk_9iHAo3yJsWJ9yoGL1pFwMCcTEJUQ15s9ylv1gr2hipBm3MUZByyyGQltW53ES7Lxo99pnDPaWfIyReHuiv1RpRNNEyq6w16RFaRjrSad09bgMY/s320/Place+of+Sighting.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624502175316639138" border="0" /></a><br />The geographical position is an estimate given I don't think anyone alive knows where exactly he was (but the accounts in Whyte's and Holiday's books helps a lot). The lines show the area where the monster likely put in its appearance. I will elaborate on this in another post but one point made was that the creature looks transparent as if the waves are going through it. I do not think this is totally correct. Where there is spray and water being thrown up then one can see through that but the creature is solid and the shadow extending from it proves this.<br /><br />However, one should not assume that the shadow is a perfect representation of the creature's dimension but it can help us determine some factors (hence the title of the post). Firstly, shadows lenghten and shorten according to the sun's position. How high up was the sun on this occasion? We know the date, time, latitude and longitude so it is not difficult to come up with the altitude of the sun - it was about 11 degrees. This gives us the rough hand drawn diagram below.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGGWiWJgyfc2-u3cG7LyM6IZnWtT7zR0IdsCsKBXuCCOIEj9fYA0c50T6o_3NBRUBQUJwNwhPgcG-3SlDwSmbBadv2O-jbcDW4aEm1ANfpdbbkpUDYod9gV55p9-A4wvDj3at8AAcNuQ/s1600/azimuth.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 144px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGGWiWJgyfc2-u3cG7LyM6IZnWtT7zR0IdsCsKBXuCCOIEj9fYA0c50T6o_3NBRUBQUJwNwhPgcG-3SlDwSmbBadv2O-jbcDW4aEm1ANfpdbbkpUDYod9gV55p9-A4wvDj3at8AAcNuQ/s320/azimuth.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624504710500629538" border="0" /></a>Where<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> x</span> is the height of the creature above the water and<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> y</span> is the length of the shadow. The angle at the apex is our 11 degrees. The one assumption made is that the creature formed a roughly semi-circular shape out of the water when viewed laterally. The maths can be done on this (at end of post) and the ratio <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">y:x</span> is 4:1. That is, the shadow is about four times longer than the height of the beast out of the water.<br /><br />But you then look at the picture and it is evident that the shadow is not four times longer than the apparent shape of the creature. This is due to the angle at which the observer viewed the object. Imagine the observer was directly over the creature. In this case, he would see the entire shadow length at four times the height of the beast. At the opposite extreme, if he was at the same eye level as the beast, he would see no shadow. So at this range from 90 to 0 degrees was an angle at which the observer viewed the beast and which would proportionately present a foreshortened shadow.<br /><br />Now from what I can ascertain from the various books I have, Hugh Gray saw the creature from about 100 yards and was about 50 feet above it. This being the case gives us the following approximate diagram in metres.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGMFfXnv9htucI8YSi866vyZ9XOpd2Yh2w5TFj1lNY23VzB8moow113gnKoayGukSp_YP1X_ZkCzWnVCQO9pGbRxSilE8p9onKaWlU0bfyf-KjDpMs2_wkwwgsGEJaKiVP1GxZW8ihbOA/s1600/Foreshortening.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 124px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGMFfXnv9htucI8YSi866vyZ9XOpd2Yh2w5TFj1lNY23VzB8moow113gnKoayGukSp_YP1X_ZkCzWnVCQO9pGbRxSilE8p9onKaWlU0bfyf-KjDpMs2_wkwwgsGEJaKiVP1GxZW8ihbOA/s320/Foreshortening.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624507222878789794" border="0" /></a>This gives us an angle of incidence of about 10 degrees as a first estimate. We then divide this by 90 degrees and then multiple it by the ratio of 4:1 and the apparent shadow ratio is now only about 0.44:1 of the height of the beastie. Looking at the photograph of the suggested height of the beast and the extent of the shadow and we can see that this estimate is not far off. Though clearly these factors will change if the distance and height of the observer are altered.<br /></div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_lwJq0mlrcxa2TLBKiBIpXoBnaoeTJ1duSxR7RgJj7zv3puwifn8AR8n-hs9TTvcRBpxyCPAyOxmpqjh8hHasB3gaAzm_Bqv0z-sReROzqFp3HMYMflvc_ftaA0eA7lQf8F13H5q6rQ/s1600/My+Interpretation+4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_lwJq0mlrcxa2TLBKiBIpXoBnaoeTJ1duSxR7RgJj7zv3puwifn8AR8n-hs9TTvcRBpxyCPAyOxmpqjh8hHasB3gaAzm_Bqv0z-sReROzqFp3HMYMflvc_ftaA0eA7lQf8F13H5q6rQ/s320/My+Interpretation+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624511015777095218" border="0" /></a><br />Note that I am not entirley satisfied with the outline of the creature I have proposed here. I will alter that in another post. If I haved erred in any calculation, please add a comment below.<br /><br /><br />Some algebra: <span style="font-style: italic;">Tan( angle ) = x/(x + y)</span><br /><br />x = height of beast<br />y = shadow length<br />From trigonometrical table Tan(11 degrees) = 0.21<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">x/(x + y) = 0.2</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />x = 0.2x + 0.2y</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />0.8x = 0.2y</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">y = 0.8x/0.2</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">y = 4x</span>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-30655682759229132023-10-08T16:26:00.001-07:002023-10-10T11:06:02.025-07:00MONSTER - The Mystery of Loch Ness<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6X00JcRMMIBQOgFXYd9bUl-dHgUKgzQB9re9UdmZq3-9vKz06RHEhiqUi7kvblT_lgIG15yhQpJJUWGXkdxGfNu6NAKCFssXzny3tgiZl61Wqvsxy60IkE5YF2oBIyrlOTFoDCmkcrizJvN6YUze4X6cnTpRWLa2HMltIB3LPlck9GjZVv5p1DRdRao/s500/Nessie%20by%20Andy%20Walker%202.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="500" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6X00JcRMMIBQOgFXYd9bUl-dHgUKgzQB9re9UdmZq3-9vKz06RHEhiqUi7kvblT_lgIG15yhQpJJUWGXkdxGfNu6NAKCFssXzny3tgiZl61Wqvsxy60IkE5YF2oBIyrlOTFoDCmkcrizJvN6YUze4X6cnTpRWLa2HMltIB3LPlck9GjZVv5p1DRdRao/s320/Nessie%20by%20Andy%20Walker%202.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I watched the latest Loch Ness Monster documentary which recently televised on the 22nd September. I believe this had previously shown on the new Paramount+ UK subscription channel a while back. That was originally shown as a three part series, but Channel 5 broadcast it as a single show lasting just over two hours, including adverts. I am not aware if anything was cut out from the originals. It was produced and directed by S<span style="text-align: left;">tephen Finnigan for </span><span style="text-align: left;">Two Rivers Media Limited.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I don't always review every documentary that is broadcast and looking back, I note I did not do the History's Greatest Mysteries episode from Sky History last June or the Zachary Quinto double header from January 2020. The last documentary I reviewed was also shown on Channel 5 back in <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/04/enigma-documentary-dna-giant-eels-and.html">March</a>, so I wondered how this one differed from that as one does like to see a bit of variety in what is presented, although the basic facts of the mystery must needs be laid out for new viewers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As I have said before, these documentaries are not made for the likes of long term watchers such as myself, they are aimed at the general public but there are some variations on a theme as producers try to put a different spin on the usual boilerplate formats lest increasingly informed audiences lose interest. So we have seen documentaries focused on Frank Searle, the recent eDNA project, Robert Rines, the major hoaxes or specific species candidates. In this case, there was an emphasis on the twelve year period from Tim Dinsdale's film to the Rines Flipper picture.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The players in this documentary known to me were Adrian Shine, Gary Campbell, Dick Raynor, Simon Dinsdale, Darren Naish, Willie Cameron, Malcolm Robinson, Tony Harmsworth and David Martin. As the documentary proceeded upon a timeline narration from 1933 onwards, various people would chip in with appropriate sound bytes as the documentary flipped between general narrator (Dougray Scott) and a given expert, depending on what was being discussed in that slot.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not so familiar to me was a Stuart McHardy (Scottish Historian), Jenny Johnstone (Scottish Historian), Elsa Panciroli (Paleontologist) and Mara Menzies (Folklorist). These were not Loch Ness Monster experts but I suppose people looking from the outside in with some skill in related areas. Well, maybe, and others will be mentioned later. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Once upon a time in a far away land, there was a loch and in that loch was a monster. Or so some people supposed but others laughed and thought it foolish.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I think that fairytale like beginning sums up any documentary. It is natural to start a story at the beginning and for most that is the year 1933. So the various participants took us through the proverbial first sighting in water, first reporter, first sighting on land and first photograph. Now through all these narratives, the odd mistake will be made. I make them myself when I appear in such productions if one mis-speaks during an interview. One normally does not ask for a re-take if it is a minor sin of commission or omission.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I will come to the big sin of omission further down. But Aldie Mackay's sight of something black and glistening was presented as was the famous Spicer land sighting. Here we were pleasantly surprised to meet Mark Spicer, a grandson of George Spicer. I even got my first look at Mrs. Spicer in a photograph - though I still do not know her first name. Mark told us that his grandmother would tell them the tale of the monster and she wouldn't have told them if she didn't believe it to be true. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alongside these was included the multiple eyewitness account from the Halfway House by the Alltsigh river on the 22nd September 1933. I initially wondered why this was included and then remembered my own write up on this account <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-long-necks-of-22nd-september-1933.html">here</a> and the statement that this was another first - the first sighting of a long neck. Well, I don't think it was, they were beaten by about 20 days, but it is actually a fascinating account as two others claimed to have seen a long neck at other parts of the loch the same day.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was onto the first photograph taken by Hugh Gray and here was the big sin of omission. With all those experts to advise the production team, how on earth did they end up showing this terrible version of the photograph?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwGi2mttFxWE86VGac-rYtY3R6TxRPT0GWp41PJ_PG3qF6MR7mWyswAQRxg2N-XqjBOsMlN7m6xuAcA0mp9bG8Hzuy6_kQ6Dap5yYyIq1pFZglyX5ySQJoSOEnUaXuf69suuPDvhuxWTOQ36L98lagVyf37DOHu8bnsAr0hjIhVICDHAUu83yU8FUsobg/s425/Whyte%20Version.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="425" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwGi2mttFxWE86VGac-rYtY3R6TxRPT0GWp41PJ_PG3qF6MR7mWyswAQRxg2N-XqjBOsMlN7m6xuAcA0mp9bG8Hzuy6_kQ6Dap5yYyIq1pFZglyX5ySQJoSOEnUaXuf69suuPDvhuxWTOQ36L98lagVyf37DOHu8bnsAr0hjIhVICDHAUu83yU8FUsobg/s320/Whyte%20Version.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">When they could have used this one instead? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNr0CX95Y2kXimCsuPgSBg796As_d0e0LbPOh9L7JYuA266VLO5d3DUqEzHmo3D0dsXh5pLp7kIrD_HyMOd_B3VLzkpdW77tXj7wY0kRokVZVtFCV8OV9LTRfKwTdKnBMnyBVsK1CM8ucIZIiHYs3FYpgL5pkk-t2dQ0IEjm9nsoAHRu3yyuOefxi4Paw/s748/Heron-Allen%20Image%20Zoom.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="748" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNr0CX95Y2kXimCsuPgSBg796As_d0e0LbPOh9L7JYuA266VLO5d3DUqEzHmo3D0dsXh5pLp7kIrD_HyMOd_B3VLzkpdW77tXj7wY0kRokVZVtFCV8OV9LTRfKwTdKnBMnyBVsK1CM8ucIZIiHYs3FYpgL5pkk-t2dQ0IEjm9nsoAHRu3yyuOefxi4Paw/w400-h168/Heron-Allen%20Image%20Zoom.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first version is poor quality, over-contrasted and retouched as was the fashion of newspaper editors in those days. The second is the superior version and has been available for use since the 1980s. I was going to send off a communication to the program's senior researcher asking that question, but why bother? However, in doing this, they missed a trick as it later transpired.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All this combined, as the program said, to light the blue touch paper. One speaker said people like to place their monster in dark places, such as peat-stained waters. That didn't quite explain the Loch Morar Monster which resides in clear waters. Nevertheless, in preparation for the later expose of the Surgeon's Photograph, we followed the adventures of Marmaduke Wetherell, who was described as the first person to come up and conduct a search and investigation of the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would normally agree with that but then concluded that the first person of note to do that was actually sea serpent expert, Lt. Cdr. Rupert T. Gould, who was up at the loch by November of that year. Wetherell arrived in mid-December. Be that as it may, the story of the fake hippo tracks ensued and we are told Wetherell was sacked from the Daily Mail investigation and left under a cloud with the apparent intent to give the Mail their monster photograph.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjetmylAQph43RipFlBq212VGqSgtE6rdLGYtecwDoeSgKH5nFAbmBUyPquR0gvEoPbjsH8dM-0F1q5oKBwkw5XkBOJkvpCOioFhNvYooHX7EePbyIE_7rEOyljciYKbvXocrO6Vf_6OyWBjpqxyAIoZmzNUa3_zkt09JUpPpEJHznglA4BEoNspad_iDQ/s2528/Wetherell5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1799" data-original-width="2528" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjetmylAQph43RipFlBq212VGqSgtE6rdLGYtecwDoeSgKH5nFAbmBUyPquR0gvEoPbjsH8dM-0F1q5oKBwkw5XkBOJkvpCOioFhNvYooHX7EePbyIE_7rEOyljciYKbvXocrO6Vf_6OyWBjpqxyAIoZmzNUa3_zkt09JUpPpEJHznglA4BEoNspad_iDQ/s320/Wetherell5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Once again, I am not sure Wetherell was actually sacked. He had conducted this investigation for a full month and then claimed he had seen a huge seal in the loch to close it all off with the explanation that this was what all the fuss was about. Actually, Wetherell's seal would clock in at nearly thirty feet and it was a sighting as convenient for the end of the expedition as the discovery of tracks was at the beginning. Like Alastair Boyd, co-author of the Surgeon's Photograph expose book, I think Wetherell cooked up this sighting. There was no seal in the loch at that time, certainly not one of those proportions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That led to the Surgeon's Photograph of April 1934 and the oft-mentioned story of the investigation into how Wetherell and his associates had seemingly duped the Daily Mail. The other author of the expose book alongside Alastair Boyd was David Martin and he was interviewed about the Wilson picture. Not once was Alastair mentioned in the documentary. You would think he had nothing to do with the book, so I was a bit puzzled as to why he was not even credited with his part in this story.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Various other events from 1933 to 1934 were mentioned such as the Edward Mountain expedition and of note was what appeared to be a glimpse of the leader, Captain Fraser's, log book. Or was it? I wonder what dark corner that book is being held in. Then the documentary took a big leap of 24 years from 1934 to 1958. Had the Loch Ness Monster vacated the premises and gone off on holiday somewhere? No, the media generally lost interest to focus on the troubles in Europe and all that came from that. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The story resumes with the Peter MacNab photograph published in 1958, though it was taken in 1955. Some comments were made about the photograph suggesting they did not accept it but no expose story like the Surgeon's Photograph was forthcoming, because there are none. However, all seemed to be going well at this point as there was no concerted sceptical attack upon the stories or images as a whole. I began to think that the second half of the documentary was going to metamorphose into an attempted demolition job as various opinions on why these were all non-monsters would unfurl one by one.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But that didn't really happen.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, the documentary entered the busy period of 1960 to 1972 as the Dinsdale film was taken and appeared on the BBC Panorama program rekindling interest in the monster and a series of expeditions throughout that decade. At this point, Simon Dinsdale entered the story as did some people from the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau. These were Dick Raynor, Alison Skelton and Peter Davies, who volunteered for service over those years. I do not recall seeing the latter two in television before, so that proved to be of additional interest as these people recounted their tales of monster hunting and also the human side of the story.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alison was the wife of Clem Skelton, one of the important members of the LNIB whose camera skills helped set up the various camera watches. He had altogether been a Spitfire fighter pilot, high altitude reconnaissance photographer, actor, novelist and monster hunter. He is pictured below applying his skills to an LNIB camera.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQ3_-FvTZ8BpPIUYI5xqTIXE4XrS1pT6tIYqqbZj6gdnxpZd46Vg35_dk-Q_VZA1t9Ehxvta0yDgfLViXOfcKO5bDVIEGiGvr-sPAvbC_483R_7DKoYjnOyI2Z_EbJ2hkEutjROttssTEX_7RXCkNOwfhWywH11tdUTxgkeMzc_ePFxatd1Xz4TRFuoI/s1815/LNIB%20Camera.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="1815" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQ3_-FvTZ8BpPIUYI5xqTIXE4XrS1pT6tIYqqbZj6gdnxpZd46Vg35_dk-Q_VZA1t9Ehxvta0yDgfLViXOfcKO5bDVIEGiGvr-sPAvbC_483R_7DKoYjnOyI2Z_EbJ2hkEutjROttssTEX_7RXCkNOwfhWywH11tdUTxgkeMzc_ePFxatd1Xz4TRFuoI/s320/LNIB%20Camera.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was interested to hear her give an account of an encounter that Clem may have had with the creature back in those days. She said he was <span style="text-align: left;">rowing across the loch about the time of dusk when something came up beside him, making bubbling sounds and was larger than his boat. He did not investigate and rowed as fast as he could to shore. I guess I would have done the same thing rather than think of the photo-op of the century.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Then Dick Raynor told us about his time there and the film he shot in 1967 of an object making its way on the loch leaving a wake behind it. The LNIB regarded this as an important piece of evidence and submitted it to JARIC for photographic analysis, concluding the object was perhaps seven feet long and travelling at 5mph. The story of Dan Taylor and his yellow submarine were told before moving onto the arrival of Robert Rines and the Academy of Applied Science from America.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dick commented that this felt like NASA was getting involved in the hunt and it wouldn't be long before they got results. On and after the night of August 8th 1972, i would have certainly felt that way. Dick Raynor and Peter Davies recounted their experiences on the night the famous "flipper" photograph was taken. What came out of that leads us into the section of the documentary on Robert Rines.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This took us into 1975 and those controversial head and body photos, the article in the prestigious Nature magazine naming the Loch Ness Monster, the postponed meeting with scientists and the press conference at the House of Commons. A leap of 12 years then takes us to Operation Deepscan and its inconclusive results.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the program switched to two investigators, Rikki Razdan and Alan Kielar, who discovered the 1972 flipper photograph was a claimed enhanced image which bore little resemblance to what the Jet Propulsion Laboratories produced and they were right. It had been retouched by parties unknown who to this day have not confessed to the deed. They also visited Winifred Cary to find that Robert Rines had used her so called psychic dowsing skills to pinpoint where to place their underwater cameras. To this day, it is not clear to me what Rines' reply to this was?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One thing seems certain, as a lawyer Rines never sued them over these claims. We then switched to a fuller exposition of the Surgeon's Photograph hoax, but there was no new information added to that particular story. After some more psychological words about people wanting the monster to exist, we ended up with the recent eDNA survey results and no reptiles but lots of eels. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That eel reference left some speculating that some of what had been previously spoken about could support a giant eel theory. They picked the so-called eel-like nature of what the women at the Halfway House in 1933 saw and the "snake-like" characteristics of what Hugh Gray photographed. Well, at least they admitted these people saw a large unknown creature but there is nothing eel-like in what was reported by those women or anything snake like in Gray's photograph. But, as stated earlier, if they had used the superior Gray image and dug around a bit more, they would have had an eel-like head to bolster their case.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PC-2WqW9DkbQylj0pjhwLk5sim_zrV0T0zQm3gIOXcya29oYaIbrtjDcb91Qf4PFOYvzEXxXqwm2l8emXQMJHcl3K_S6xX_a_SeRHrVom_PjFXCGLcoA1D9dYLhZxJgi6xP-z2FX1Y9gxhx5IKDqP9L27lhys7v8qFyZtQxmyFXobqJyYtQepU2ubSY/s250/Blog%20Picture.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="207" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PC-2WqW9DkbQylj0pjhwLk5sim_zrV0T0zQm3gIOXcya29oYaIbrtjDcb91Qf4PFOYvzEXxXqwm2l8emXQMJHcl3K_S6xX_a_SeRHrVom_PjFXCGLcoA1D9dYLhZxJgi6xP-z2FX1Y9gxhx5IKDqP9L27lhys7v8qFyZtQxmyFXobqJyYtQepU2ubSY/s1600/Blog%20Picture.JPG" width="207" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After some more lightweight psychology about the monster being ingrained in the culture, a mystery we cannot let go and the more we want to believe, the more it stays in our mind, the documentary ended. After all that, I wondered if a change in direction for this genre of documentary was required? How about a documentary that focusses on land sightings, or one on events before 1933 or one that tracks a team of monster hunters (like the bigfoot programs) and so on? Well, the last one may be in the offing, but I suspect even the general viewing public may be getting tired with the same old format.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Maybe that is more down to the lack of imagination of the broadcasting organisations to whom these documentaries are sold to. Either way, the vast majority of stories on the monster remain untouched by these people while they play it safe with a tight subset of the genre which is rarely updated. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-86852873684831606772023-09-17T12:28:00.001-07:002023-09-17T12:30:06.344-07:00Two more photographs from Loch Ness<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5u-jPbPCRoT86NWYEe_wQdoua752MxQiGMEAzW22mwaVemrrzRP3-qJQiVRoxWbe6VnKp83pHUt8n6VmfIDIDNQnv_8HfHrkS2IOBid_MH0RhgN4p3h3E3SgqC3Q7ThGjXmeQur8kGTRPqjwFMI6W_3f1Sj8UUVzihIPp5kAQEe45YP6ZEDKS0uxSF_4/s2048/Zoom%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="2048" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5u-jPbPCRoT86NWYEe_wQdoua752MxQiGMEAzW22mwaVemrrzRP3-qJQiVRoxWbe6VnKp83pHUt8n6VmfIDIDNQnv_8HfHrkS2IOBid_MH0RhgN4p3h3E3SgqC3Q7ThGjXmeQur8kGTRPqjwFMI6W_3f1Sj8UUVzihIPp5kAQEe45YP6ZEDKS0uxSF_4/w400-h161/Zoom%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Two pictures of something which may or may not be the Loch Ness Monster turned up on social media in the last few days. The first to look at was sent to Alan McKenna of the Loch Ness Exploration <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/470765477828717/posts/831942781710983/">group</a> who recently ran The Quest monster hunt weekend. It came from a Richard Wilson who had actually taken the picture in question on the 18th January 2015 just before noon. Richard filled in a sighting report for the LNE which gave the following details.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At Dores Beach, an object thought to be head like at a range of 70-100m was visible for several minutes. Richard and his wife walked away but returned fifteen minutes to find it had gone. The waters were calm and the object looked to be stationary. The appearance was of a green-gray color with a white band across its "face". There were no wakes visible caused by the object or any boats. Only one photograph is available or was taken at the time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alan checked the exif metadata associated with the original image and he says it looks okay. Now to all intents and purposes, the object looks like a floating sphere, which points to a buoy. That has naturally been suggested already and google image searches have already been done to find a picture of a buoy that looks the most like the one in Mr. Wilson's photograph. Of course, just because a striped flotation device can be found on the Internet, does not imply that one such item was floating in the loch about nine years ago,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other thought that came to mind was the recent images taken by Chie Kelly which caused a stir a couple of weeks back, but which has gone quiet as we await more pictures. I say that because it also features a spherical type object with the suggestion of a lighter stripe against a darker area. But that is where the similarity ends as a cursory examination suggests they are not the same object. Having said that, it is admitted that the entirety of either object, taken over three years apart, is not seen. I would say that this image from 2015 looks more spherical than the ones from 2018, but is it a perfect sphere?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaYiI08CBxllefmIbS83BzXuqU5Bng9_HxZ8IOJU_SYhGj6w9J2sEUj7VONJCjY-Gqzf93tx12bWUU51CNRssBTC_aj2tS44o8lYNwi1MOMgtA0kxgbzxzzL6m_Yvy1uByaRw4DT89G_aQUJWgbjgvYPlHjXdUVf7v3q8EWFXcEUE1cSLwH-wJOL-0-W8/s620/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="620" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaYiI08CBxllefmIbS83BzXuqU5Bng9_HxZ8IOJU_SYhGj6w9J2sEUj7VONJCjY-Gqzf93tx12bWUU51CNRssBTC_aj2tS44o8lYNwi1MOMgtA0kxgbzxzzL6m_Yvy1uByaRw4DT89G_aQUJWgbjgvYPlHjXdUVf7v3q8EWFXcEUE1cSLwH-wJOL-0-W8/s320/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps it was the spherical similarity that prompted Richard Wilson to contact the LNE? If it is a ball buoy it has quite a mottled surface and I would expect the stripes to be better defined than this. Also, if it is a spherical buoy, it is not very buoyant as the extrapolated sphere drawing below shows with the waterline added. This suggests that less than a quarter is above the surface. Maybe that all points to a very old buoy or other flotation device? That being said, it looks a little too rough looking on the surface for a buoy. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CkaKIPH3aCU89f4-oogOKwN9_sLlS-dGVznjYXkDiNk-K5R-g28wXnq06LLo4phcfmMf4ed2HYirnTOrXUTpQiQQXM6qVTXBsOGsWaLQ-qLU4ZfgvDv3tmyRgIxVsSmP63-H3aXPWho8ryPZ3jQJ8Eh8hew_v7C4NCbUEO9nIdMe_C4j11ajLNaeYJg/s617/Annotated%20with%20circle%20and%20waterline%20zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="617" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CkaKIPH3aCU89f4-oogOKwN9_sLlS-dGVznjYXkDiNk-K5R-g28wXnq06LLo4phcfmMf4ed2HYirnTOrXUTpQiQQXM6qVTXBsOGsWaLQ-qLU4ZfgvDv3tmyRgIxVsSmP63-H3aXPWho8ryPZ3jQJ8Eh8hew_v7C4NCbUEO9nIdMe_C4j11ajLNaeYJg/s320/Annotated%20with%20circle%20and%20waterline%20zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It would be good to get some clear images of the known buoys in the area. The fish farm just down the shore has some and there are some in Dores Bay. Note that the light is striking the object from the left. The stated date and time would give the sun's position in the chart below. I assumed the witness was on the top side of Dores beach to allow the direction of light to agree with the image, though other locations can also line up.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRpbnKCGCoAzXxzEf-mPGITrcYbbnVGVaQqpcxb4Cb6nWswQm-muMmRX0noRORoKYkysNwdR-XR1L1JZ5HzWSbRUkyFZKGQOHWm4iakb3bNFn34GTUfRxzDQkPFYvrC5k2gj_cG6VvLkqH-vN5_1P4o5euYCEK7_GLzFxobqXA98yTQaVRc-7apABZ9PA/s572/Position%20of%20Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="572" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRpbnKCGCoAzXxzEf-mPGITrcYbbnVGVaQqpcxb4Cb6nWswQm-muMmRX0noRORoKYkysNwdR-XR1L1JZ5HzWSbRUkyFZKGQOHWm4iakb3bNFn34GTUfRxzDQkPFYvrC5k2gj_cG6VvLkqH-vN5_1P4o5euYCEK7_GLzFxobqXA98yTQaVRc-7apABZ9PA/s320/Position%20of%20Sun.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alan McKenna produced a photo of a Dores buoy with a similar lighting effect. The buoy is clearly more buoyant, but what we need here is a clear picture of these buoys. Do they have the same pattern as the object photographed by Richard Wilson? If they are a plain colour like the other buoys in the loch, this is not a candidate.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnfDyHc6Q555r8F34_1fCBvvzPu1Q2u7EggdMNrQomLp6dLsbSy9asy7n2tkf3OG3upv-_LZpF3QtR0j0Tm3LRWsOGg272tGurWmiMLfc5JrdVhJdTrR8m-P5nngCq-EvgKmBaS4vPbwjV95vrI-MRBCRaqB-vJlWhIAYLfqsEGAmvCwgWxhX4fb0EiY/s502/Dores%20Buoy%20zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="502" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHnfDyHc6Q555r8F34_1fCBvvzPu1Q2u7EggdMNrQomLp6dLsbSy9asy7n2tkf3OG3upv-_LZpF3QtR0j0Tm3LRWsOGg272tGurWmiMLfc5JrdVhJdTrR8m-P5nngCq-EvgKmBaS4vPbwjV95vrI-MRBCRaqB-vJlWhIAYLfqsEGAmvCwgWxhX4fb0EiY/w400-h271/Dores%20Buoy%20zoomed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving onto the second photograph, this was taken much more recently and was published by the <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/loch-ness-monster-spotted-nessie-30943750">Mirror</a> newspaper on the 14th September. The witness gave her account to the newspaper, which I quote below. The last quote is from Gary Campbell, maintainer of the Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TwQn3sPMjFzxRkRCptxeWYc58o4nvQfW1eGOaWN249cy9PFZCQEbN2zP9z-FWM_GDQwFwj32AJXyZaedA7wmvrtKuJam73oel7CnFokdSvq1pX2AxFqXIHw1Cb8C5laY0soAXVAxo7lOdWG_axvIFibmIKO2IS1VX7kKYF6GrDEojSmERc8adMh9XN0/s615/Siobhan%20Janaway%20Photo%20270823.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="615" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TwQn3sPMjFzxRkRCptxeWYc58o4nvQfW1eGOaWN249cy9PFZCQEbN2zP9z-FWM_GDQwFwj32AJXyZaedA7wmvrtKuJam73oel7CnFokdSvq1pX2AxFqXIHw1Cb8C5laY0soAXVAxo7lOdWG_axvIFibmIKO2IS1VX7kKYF6GrDEojSmERc8adMh9XN0/w400-h300/Siobhan%20Janaway%20Photo%20270823.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>A shocked woman is convinced she got a glimpse of the Loch Ness Monster after spotting huge ripples in the water. Siobhan Janaway first mistook them as coming from a powerboat. But taking a second glance she noticed no vessels were on the famous loch. Local Siobhan said what she thinks was the mythical beast was moving at great speed. She took a photo – showing a large trail of air bubbles visible to the human eye. Siobhan, from Inverness - near the loch - said: “There was something causing turmoil in the water off Foyers Point. Then it coalesced into a single object moving at speed just under the surface causing at least a 20 metre white wake.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Siobhan made the sighting just before midday on 27 August. But she has only just reported it to The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. It is the seventh recorded sighting of what could be the Scottish folklore creature this year. Speaking about Siobhan’s sighting, he said: "From our perspective, this is a really unusual wake which at first might look like it was caused by a powerboat. But Siobhan has confirmed no boats were nearby and that whatever was causing it was just below the surface. Maybe Nessie was just popping up to see what the fuss was all about that weekend, but of course keeping her head down at the same time.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">When I saw this image, I discounted it as the creature pretty quickly, mainly because I was there the same morning on the 27th August at the Foyers campsite on the other side of the river. I quote from my trip </span><a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-quest-for-nessie.html" style="text-align: left;">report</a><span style="text-align: left;"> published four days before this photograph.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>When I arose on the Sunday morning at Foyers, I looked out to the area where the River Foyers met the loch. The heightened flow of the river was rushing down to meet the loch and there was a lot of disturbance where the two collided. The general flow of the vaster body of the loch water was from the south west up the loch. However, the river water was hitting it at almost a right angle. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The result was a wall of resistance as the river water tried to merge with the main waters. The dynamics of this interaction led to the river water rotating in the direction of the loch water but also turning back towards the river giving us a sort of whirlpool. I have seen this phenomenon before at this location some years before. It is not very dangerous as the waters are quite shallow there. I imagined our ducks having some fun with this, jumping onto it like a fairground carousel.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The previous time I had seen this turbulence was back in 2017 and I had driven up to the top of the hill by the old Foyers Hotel where Tim Dinsdale had stayed during that auspicious week in 1960. I too looked down on the bay and saw the water in turbulence in a manner similar to the photograph above. There was another factor in play and that was the water flowing from the hills into the Foyers Power Station, there is a discharge point that ejects water into the other side of the Foyers peninsula through a narrow channel called the Tail Leat. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglJUvtxJK_7imjZtR3Yp5CZCdjtnRAc127Q4zUCKTl5ngjNsiQ767y6Hyn7bGfYqAaZqw_SIJTqDSR9mLY6vbUr0d_pRL6_KgtRWCcVCT9pJ_tdFVOB09o69zGnxNrNxxPcMYx53s7gCKil0NRGCblMW5KZc_RTf9CbWxevJNb8iVwMq5AsbCByGn7tvE/s818/tail%20leat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="818" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglJUvtxJK_7imjZtR3Yp5CZCdjtnRAc127Q4zUCKTl5ngjNsiQ767y6Hyn7bGfYqAaZqw_SIJTqDSR9mLY6vbUr0d_pRL6_KgtRWCcVCT9pJ_tdFVOB09o69zGnxNrNxxPcMYx53s7gCKil0NRGCblMW5KZc_RTf9CbWxevJNb8iVwMq5AsbCByGn7tvE/s320/tail%20leat.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">This would flow rapidly into the field of view of Ms. Janaway. Here is a photo I took of that area at another time showing a lesser disturbed flow of water heading out. After torrential rain, this compressed flow can increase many times over and look like something else, such as wake disturbances apparently produced by boats. So I do not think this was the Loch Ness Monster but the image from 2015 is more open to question for me.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-79069311879074783492023-09-10T17:19:00.001-07:002023-09-10T17:22:28.702-07:00The Quest for Nessie<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH1XzFerqsJI2wSFayiYeaeotbjoOEZxNgddO9i1wIsj-L3Y_DQBvL_5r00Fe3u2MjiogUBSC6tP3w9k662Oa1x7WG0qjjRc82C2q2AiOaygz0ALa-w4KisJ3EtQCmbMc8lAlgttKX7gU-bBgOi-cyA_WRuRGm9Q3tNwUMJs4l3OY6mbvTLWI1LZiBvA/s4000/20230826_125924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH1XzFerqsJI2wSFayiYeaeotbjoOEZxNgddO9i1wIsj-L3Y_DQBvL_5r00Fe3u2MjiogUBSC6tP3w9k662Oa1x7WG0qjjRc82C2q2AiOaygz0ALa-w4KisJ3EtQCmbMc8lAlgttKX7gU-bBgOi-cyA_WRuRGm9Q3tNwUMJs4l3OY6mbvTLWI1LZiBvA/s320/20230826_125924.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The weekend of August 26th began what nationally was called "<i>The Quest</i>", the latest mass organised attempt to search for the famous Loch Ness Monster. This was a joint venture between the Loch Ness Exploration (LNE) group founded by Alan McKenna and the staff of the new Loch Ness Exhibition owned by Continuum Attractions. As a seasoned "monster hunter" myself, I had some input into the matter, though the whole matter was run by the LNE and Loch Ness Centre.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was a convenient coincidence for me as I normally go up to the loch around late August for my own purposes but was happy to join in the search as things moved towards that weekend. So, in giving my own perspective on that weekend, I will mainly describe it in a travelogue manner, going through it chronologically. It was certainly the busiest time I had encountered at Loch Ness!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>DAY ONE</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Friday 25th was mainly a day off packing and travelling the 160 odd miles from Edinburgh to Foyers. I had previously posted on Facebook a selection of items that I was bringing with me. There was a thermal video camera, night vision binoculars, trap cameras, maps and an assortment of other items including some obligatory liquid refreshments. To that could be added camping equipment, books, etc. Thus packed, I headed up the M90 and then A9 where I encountered heavy rain.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8F2SEznak1aT9oFtWjJmYCoMiSHxt9W6m07QWy6L6QFQFVGMVOIjKPdhGcqXDWEyeV5gEhJ5WU6m9995_q1_U5iXfQY2prsWBkag6sLvbdph2COlPcB7_nVSV9xjnjDbG3OCv6U6SO7OTpxVP1KCoZYtvhLZxollEuVAjOmtjZkbrVG1tT_7_spbrWg/s4000/20230824_003540.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8F2SEznak1aT9oFtWjJmYCoMiSHxt9W6m07QWy6L6QFQFVGMVOIjKPdhGcqXDWEyeV5gEhJ5WU6m9995_q1_U5iXfQY2prsWBkag6sLvbdph2COlPcB7_nVSV9xjnjDbG3OCv6U6SO7OTpxVP1KCoZYtvhLZxollEuVAjOmtjZkbrVG1tT_7_spbrWg/s320/20230824_003540.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Rain and the Highlands go hand in hand, so one just has to put up with it as I arrived at the campsite late afternoon. This was the kind of weather ducks love as you can see below as they paraded across the pitches. After sorting out some issues with camping I jumped back in the car and headed south to Fort Augustus to meet up with Alan McKenna and a filming team who had invited me to participate in the making of a documentary which followed The Quest and included some of their own work. On the way, I stopped off for a quick look at the Falls of Foyers as the heavy downpour would make for a more spectacular fall and I was not disappointed.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikzOHGp89Fp8OdbA7RqlWlquwvwQiqOs-hVezv8Kcqd4Znso6DdNhNNgY7r3CVxjYxzVC9-IxRn1ZQiZQXyBcJziqmBUFGNpQ5Dmy4BhSCiwklbFNj5uWC725Lwo9HCjpoYIAdaTByEGoacR41A3ey_Mfx1gy7mZwj2BB5kTYiFNTOuEkWZjImZsGpOn4/s1231/ducks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="1231" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikzOHGp89Fp8OdbA7RqlWlquwvwQiqOs-hVezv8Kcqd4Znso6DdNhNNgY7r3CVxjYxzVC9-IxRn1ZQiZQXyBcJziqmBUFGNpQ5Dmy4BhSCiwklbFNj5uWC725Lwo9HCjpoYIAdaTByEGoacR41A3ey_Mfx1gy7mZwj2BB5kTYiFNTOuEkWZjImZsGpOn4/w400-h116/ducks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">It was there that I finally met up with fellow Nessie fan Andy McGrath who was part of the documentary team and who I had only communicated with beforehand via social media. I was also pleasantly surprised to meet cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard who was also part of the team and whom I had also communicated with remotely when he was writing his <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Guide-Monster-Aquatic-Cryptids/dp/0578847469">book</a>, "<i>The Essential Guide to the Loch Ness Monster</i>". Good to meet both of you and everyone else!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was a good evening of banter about mysterious monsters and how we hoped the weekend would pan out. I has brought my Flir thermal video camera with me to scan over the waters of the loch afterwards so Alan and I took advantage of the drop in rainfall to scan the dark waters of the loch from the distant north shore towards Inchnacardoch and over to Borlum Bay on our right. We were standing at the jetty where the old monks of Fort Augustus Abbey used to launch out their boats to fish going back to the late 19th century.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We were fishing around for something larger as we scanned a loch surface that was cloaked in darkness to the naked eye but was lit up in the infra-red eyepiece. It wasn't long before we noticed something on the loch which moved from our left over to the distant edges of Borlum Bay. It was a string of bright dots and it didn't take long to figure out it was those damned ducks again. Well, not the same bunch, but another six or so of them. One would have thought they would have gone back to base by nightfall, but they just love that rain I guess.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMyJH8sXsr9OkIghM6wY0pZQ-u7McovC7eWvgKHNlKyu3bkX5c0Ku-07iDQmMqYkYZLk3HbeCOF-ohDzu2JpYn8A_nTFsL2K6n4r9UMIefOjLPHHjo_qwdrDWBAtLG8Rr1eywSYX8OAQNOXw5zs5huO09XYuTkdqGb66vOB5XHlQyAolNxvPhptvuHgmc/s720/DSC_01Jan70_002049.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMyJH8sXsr9OkIghM6wY0pZQ-u7McovC7eWvgKHNlKyu3bkX5c0Ku-07iDQmMqYkYZLk3HbeCOF-ohDzu2JpYn8A_nTFsL2K6n4r9UMIefOjLPHHjo_qwdrDWBAtLG8Rr1eywSYX8OAQNOXw5zs5huO09XYuTkdqGb66vOB5XHlQyAolNxvPhptvuHgmc/w400-h320/DSC_01Jan70_002049.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, it shows you how useful such a device is at night time if the creature is indeed more active at night. I took some thermal pictures of our feathered friends and we called it a night as things would start up early the following day. It was my intention to bring the thermal camera to the work the team hoped to do with the thermal drone later on. On the way back to bed, I stopped off at the River Tarff which flows past the Abbey. It was loudly flowing into the loch as the rains filled the surrounding rivers and took a look at the dark torrents through the thermal camera and then onto slumber.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>DAY TWO</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Saturday was the beginning of the hunt as I drove over to the Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit for the morning briefing at 0830 given by Alan. It was when I got there that I realised how much media interest there was in this event. The Loch Ness Monster never fails to attract attention across the world. There was representatives from the UK, America, Germany, Japan and so on there with their cameras and microphones thrust in the direction of our man from the LNE. I soon found out I would be involved and asked to give some words on the subject. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFUvV-R745UTGulOYmAtQ-n0hGwVsc_L4Mr4AvwSZk0CFq3HIsKNBv2D-8ZEflEpUFpiXQLpbgmXTzpzDofOjdy4jjEOtqdGFdDX5uZWZrcTHkh86J_szyEH9BPUO9-jQwhqA5fxumejk2nyOTTGKNBgnH2ghAPFoLnpHY6GkUAJl_aG_kIh9LpIDUPs/s4000/20230826_083834.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFUvV-R745UTGulOYmAtQ-n0hGwVsc_L4Mr4AvwSZk0CFq3HIsKNBv2D-8ZEflEpUFpiXQLpbgmXTzpzDofOjdy4jjEOtqdGFdDX5uZWZrcTHkh86J_szyEH9BPUO9-jQwhqA5fxumejk2nyOTTGKNBgnH2ghAPFoLnpHY6GkUAJl_aG_kIh9LpIDUPs/s320/20230826_083834.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was a bit of a miserable day as the rain continued to descend upon us, no doubt damping some of the occasion. The volunteer monster hunters had turned up, though some had decided to just go straight to their watch stations from their accommodation, while others would not turn up at the loch until later that day and the following day. I also discovered we had various impromptu hunters who knew about the hunt but were participating incognito.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I also met Dick Raynor who has long associations with the monster, but is now on the sceptical side. He wasn't there for the media circus but to offer his help to Alan as they went out on the Loch Ness Centre boat Deepscan, to use hydrophone equipment to revive the old science of picking up any audio signals from the loch below which may or may not be associated with the creatures. Hydrophones have been used at the loch ever since the days of the first hunts in 1933-34. They were used again around 1970 and some interesting sounds were picked up, but nothing more happened and I was glad to see their use again after fifty years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At that point, I did not actually have an exact plan for the day. I hoped to first go out on the boat with Alan and Dick to merely watch and learn as the hydrophone was employed, but that would not be until about noon. So I went into the café beside the Loch Ness Centre for a coffee where I first made the acquaintance of a journalist working for the Daily Telegraph. We had a fifteen minute chat about the loch, the monster and my own hunt for it. When I saw the final article the following week, the only part that got into the paper was my own possible sighting a few years back when I heard a large splash and turned to see a large vertical column of water dropping back into the loch!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I say "<i>sighting</i>" but no visual contact was made with whatever physical object threw up the water. It is one of those events where you think it was the monster on a Monday but something else on Tuesday. Next up was a camera crew from the German RTL TV channel. Having chatted with one of them, they invited me to do a segment with them beside the loch answering a few basic questions about the weekend hunt.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This was filmed at a layby a mile or so beyond Temple Pier which commands a good view of the loch. Time was a bit tight as I did not want to miss the hydrophone boat trip, but it finished quick enough and I had time to chat with one of the volunteer watches called Craig who was there keeping an eye on the waters. After that, I dashed back to Drumnadrochit to join Alan and Dick on their second trip out on the boat. We were joined by various paying customers to whom Alan would demonstrate the hydrophone.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we motored out to the centre of the loch beyond the castle, the engines were turned off and a speaker was attached to the now underwater hydrophone and we listened for any noises. Now the use of this equipment is in its early days and Alan with his LNE team will be using it in the months ahead as he attempts to gather recordings of the noises around the loch and catalogue them. To recognise that which is unknown, you first have to gather the known noises and there is no shortage of them. Daytime during the tourist season is not the best time, but this is all part of the wider experiment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the speaker would play out the noise of passing boats as well as the water lapping against the sides of the boat. There are other audio sources which will be explored going forward such as the Foyers power station, the water flowing into the loch from the many streams and so on. The loch is a noisy place, all such sources of noise need to be recognised and recorded. Ideally, you gather these and then change context to the night when all these distractions are gone and perhaps new sounds will emerge. As the loch gently rocked the boat, I kept an occasional eye on the loch for something, somewhere to agitate the waters beyond the expected. After all, I was there to watch the loch as well.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgumycJ4gwU9mM6cTZT5kOI4t9kyClEhq1TxRCyJWN8KVWK29aFZXujRuA4Rk7jZKpm9WRWunqKWqQAOx3940cno-kRCmb_TSCSmlTQ_fg7AIQ5u-2EWsvvKqjtsDhBwrJCMp7au9BABzJ6BuG9-4kfNIdDPDqIqdgPViBxYu2JtoUZs5jeyArZZjNVW5o/s4000/20230826_120554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgumycJ4gwU9mM6cTZT5kOI4t9kyClEhq1TxRCyJWN8KVWK29aFZXujRuA4Rk7jZKpm9WRWunqKWqQAOx3940cno-kRCmb_TSCSmlTQ_fg7AIQ5u-2EWsvvKqjtsDhBwrJCMp7au9BABzJ6BuG9-4kfNIdDPDqIqdgPViBxYu2JtoUZs5jeyArZZjNVW5o/w400-h300/20230826_120554.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Once the boat docked back at Temple Pier, I watched some of the passengers being interviewed by the waiting media and then got back in the car and headed up the A82 towards Inverness. The intent was to ultimately get back to Foyers but also look for other volunteers and watch the loch myself. So I kind of stopped at various laybys, trying to look like a recognisable volunteer (i.e. holding a pair of binoculars) and looking for anyone else who looked recognisable (i.e. also holding a pair of binoculars).</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Pretty soon, I spotted a chap wielding his binoculars and went up to have a chat. He was actually an unofficial volunteer as he wanted to participate in the hunt, but keep a distance from the scrum down at Drumnadrochit. He told me he had a sighting back in 2021 and I soon realised I was speaking to fellow Nessie Facebooker, Colin Veacock. We had spoken many a time on various cryptozoological groups on social media, but it is always best to meet and talk face to face. As we chatted a young lady approached us and asked if we were volunteers as she was a journalist from the Independent and wanted to chat with one of us on how things were going. Colin deferred to me and I again answered what was pretty much a similar set of questions about the loch, the creatures and its hunters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">After that I did some more watching of the loch, specifically at the spot where Aldie Mackay had her famous 1933 sighting and visualised in my mind the changing appearance of the animal as it traced its route near Tor Point before submerging. After Foyers, I drove back for Alan's second debriefing of the weekend around 1745. Some observers reported some unusual sights and a couple had taken a video clip of something of definite interest from the beach at Dores which looked like a double humped object and can be viewed on this YouTube <a href="https://lochness.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Possible-Nessie-sighting_2.mp4">link</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is also the suggestion of something smaller to the right of the two hump-like objects. You will also notice in the video what appears to be a floating island in the farthest distance. This is actually a mirage which can happen given the right conditions for a temperature inversion to occur. One may then ask whether the two humps are part of the mirage effect? I don't think it is, but I would like to see the entire video rather than the truncated ten second clip available.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There was also another observer who thought he might have seen something akin to a double hump and long neck. He was speaking to a couple of media representatives who were interested in running his story. Looking at his sketch and hearing his account, the main issue was that the object was described as moving backwards, that is, humps then neck moving right to left. I suggested then and there that it was either the Loch Ness Monster or the Log Ness Monster and the backdrop to that statement was the fact that the heavy rains of the last two days had led to an increased influx of tree debris from the connecting rivers and streams. In fact, the volunteer's position was near the mouth of the River Moriston.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AT THE LOCH NESS CENTRE</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other reason for being in Drumnadrochit was an invitation by the Loch Ness Centre to take part in a Q&A session at 1900 with Steve Feltham and Alan McKenna in front of twenty-five guests in the "<i>underwater</i>" room. What format this might take varied a bit until it was agreed that the emphasis should be on the audience asking questions and so we were each given an initial question by way of introduction asking something specific about our own research into the mystery. The question assigned to me was:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>What was it about the legend of the Loch Ness monster that inspired you to research more about other myths and legends in the area? Do you think these could help us in solving the mystery of the monster? </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The background to this question was my book "<i>The Water Horses of Loch Ness</i>" and the relation of the past mythical creatures to the present day ones. I told the audience that the main motivation was the fact that in the 1930s, many were saying this was a new phenomenon and an example of mass hysteria. For me, demonstrating there was a viable and noteworthy tradition before this disproved this "<i>new</i>" form of hysteria to some extent. The second point was to demonstrate that each age carried its own cultural version of the creature with the storytellers of that time layering literary devices over the real phenomenon according to the prevailing beliefs of the relevant communities. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The storytellers of the 18th century created the Each Uisge based on the horse like appearance of the creature they sometimes beheld and turned it into a devilish opponent to good Christian people everywhere. Today's storytellers are the media and some influential authors who imported the plesiosaur, appropriately changed to accommodate what people said they saw. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In fact, I called this current ninety year old phenomenon, the newest cycle of man trying to frame this mystery to the context of their age. In fact, this is the third cycle if we include the indigenous Picts prior to the arrival of Christianity whose animistic culture would have framed those distant humps and long necks into yet another context which is only preserved for us today in the symbol stones variously scattered across the North of Scotland.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So we have the Animist, Christian and Secular cycles of the Loch Ness Animal. I wonder when this current secular cycle will end and what will replace it? Thereafter, the audience asked various questions and a lad asked us if we would ever give up. The answer was a collective no and I speculated my son would probably place a fluffy green Nessie toy in my coffin! I hope not, there is more to life than the Loch Ness Monster.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But that was not the anticipated highlight of the day for me as it was planned for us to go out with the documentary team to watch the thermal drone in action. But bad news came as we were told this was being moved to the following evening. That was too bad as I would be back in Edinburgh by then. So with some disappointment, I drove back to Foyers and decided to do my own thermal imaging work with the Flir camera around 2200.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A quick scout around the pitch dark loch revealed more of what Alan and I had seen at Fort Augustus as the ducks were out on the loch. I snapped the image below showing a similar sized group of ducks swimming past me towards Dinsdale Island. Once again, looking out onto the loch with the naked eye showed only darkness. I did various sweeps of the loch looking for anything unusual out there. Clearly, if a hump several feet high and twice as long had surface near the ducks, it would stand out a mile on the thermal imager if it exuded any body heat.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyq5fxHYhEf0wn5hYn2GG2JXBwFaB8zn04V6VQkPY_TIketypYaVSPucQBR49oTPmV_Jnee5882tbrujTzaHsQ2c6F5_Jbv_ERzAAcYaRj5eKy0hr9-hY4aqDJUTINE_Hy5Yj8Hrr2sdiELWc_944lOFERtHGVxiimQU9ERYVp5JyazFPWQodU_twn2OM/s720/DSC_01Jan70_000455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyq5fxHYhEf0wn5hYn2GG2JXBwFaB8zn04V6VQkPY_TIketypYaVSPucQBR49oTPmV_Jnee5882tbrujTzaHsQ2c6F5_Jbv_ERzAAcYaRj5eKy0hr9-hY4aqDJUTINE_Hy5Yj8Hrr2sdiELWc_944lOFERtHGVxiimQU9ERYVp5JyazFPWQodU_twn2OM/w400-h320/DSC_01Jan70_000455.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But therein lies the question, what kind of body heat would it emit? One wonders what an ectothermic pike or salmon breaching the surface would have looked like compared to the endothermic ducks? Whether the Loch Ness Monster is endothermic or ectothermic is a matter of opinion. My own view is that it is mainly ectothermic but has limited endothermic capabilities as most animals do metabolize their own degree of heat emission amongst a variety of strategies to keep their core temperature within a certain range.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dySwIqaoxMlQefIvV1eNHDVoDQpJWlGhcCR9y8Jcgw8X9kWO-2b5PvBYfcTTod_V0m95vjaA5WifLn-U1nvEw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Above is a video of the Flir camera scanning the loch at Foyers Beach and you can see the ducks on the go but this time colour coded for temperature (red hottest) and that concluded another night. The documentary did their filming the following night and captured something of interest which has received some publicity. I will cover that in a later blog posting.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>DAY THREE</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The final day was more devoted to specific projects and the first was meeting up with the Dragonfly filming team at the Clansman Hotel about 1000. After a general chat about the past couple of days, it was decided to film me being interviewed by Ken Gerhard at the locations of the Arthur Grant land sighting and the Aldie Mackay sighting further up the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By a happy coincidence, there was already a Nessie on land very close to the spot where Arthur Grant had his close encounter of the Nessie kind ninety years before on a moonlit night when there was no Nessie model and no Clansman Hotel. The lady in white below was not part of the filming just in case you wondered. By this time the other monsters known as midges were out in force. This was the only good thing about the heavy rain, midges do not go out in it for the same reason we would not go out if the raindrops were the size of cars.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7NMav6GCXLKzhe-s3nWxbXojVT7JFX1NVYsUM3J6rVNDxq7DlgFAZXgI488TvhQJj2v5WOqoB3T5CJ7mP1-wnOTKycBHjvo_1MYL5Oyi6I33dYYZVCtlG-vmDH-1FbKsVjhe36F2nns_273Uh7kUA5UtzYeybBlcekWbOqR5SS03KipxVf80ZR8mgdc/s4000/20230827_101506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7NMav6GCXLKzhe-s3nWxbXojVT7JFX1NVYsUM3J6rVNDxq7DlgFAZXgI488TvhQJj2v5WOqoB3T5CJ7mP1-wnOTKycBHjvo_1MYL5Oyi6I33dYYZVCtlG-vmDH-1FbKsVjhe36F2nns_273Uh7kUA5UtzYeybBlcekWbOqR5SS03KipxVf80ZR8mgdc/w400-h300/20230827_101506.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I explained how I interpreted the event and defended Mr. Grant against all comers. I suggested the creature may have disembarked from the shore seventy yards further along before lumbering to the point where we were standing near a stream and then Grant turned up to send it bounding back over the road into the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was then back up to Tor Point where I had been the day before to likewise describe the sighting Aldie Mackay had seen about nine months before Arthur Grant. The traffic was quite heavy along the A82 and was actually quite busy over all that day around the loch, as if tourists were making up for the wet Saturday. If I was Nessie, I wouldn't be crossing this road in 2023. Maybe in 1934, but not today! She may be big, but a car moving at 60mph packs a lot of punch even for a thirty foot creature.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">After saying my farewell to the filming team around lunchtime, it was time to conclude the business of the day, and that meant installing various game cameras around the loch. I scouted out a few new spots as I had extra cameras. These were loaded with 4, 8 or 12 AA batteries and generally 16Gb micro-SD cards. Some will last longer than others, but it depends on the location and settings. While walking various beaches, it became evident how much debris had been washed into the loch as seen in the photo below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2iMKIJffak4FeM92YwUYxffj_GfoFr1pI-XbM13pNLZwkocdgsT7Y8d2kmAVuoy1ph222I1hS6F-olgTRTAfTNondA3NSuLBQ4SjGJd1eutVX1WAeoLVw7dJeFV3GqcoI4BI_rZVQxQ_9TADVb-gr6rulG8lYuHwmUCCTcnA5rnQO_Msirrf7r3N8cE/s4000/20230827_140741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2iMKIJffak4FeM92YwUYxffj_GfoFr1pI-XbM13pNLZwkocdgsT7Y8d2kmAVuoy1ph222I1hS6F-olgTRTAfTNondA3NSuLBQ4SjGJd1eutVX1WAeoLVw7dJeFV3GqcoI4BI_rZVQxQ_9TADVb-gr6rulG8lYuHwmUCCTcnA5rnQO_Msirrf7r3N8cE/w300-h400/20230827_140741.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Now back in April, I had collected the previous run of cameras but a couple had gone missing. I actually went back to that site and found them, which was a mixed blessing. One was still attached to the tree, so it beats me how I missed it first time around, but it was still there. The second I found lying on the grass near its tree but there was no sign of the strapping that had held it to the tree. I opened it up and found it was beyond use having succumbed to months of rain and rusted somewhat, though it is more likely the water ingress into the electronics had done the damage.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JV7RdMj46Gcnh1Oize-jxTiCBstZTOrzOzwi0GYW-Y2hFHF9m2DUT0XYlKUBjLWQRJqV_5fIRDb1Z6mrRg0PaSm0cFbMiKTNT1MFR4Y0JT0hYrjh8_DcmOIO53jKFIDPTGHdsh6EVX_ocEdsBLppTDLm0urnMCdrIXVGvp7UYuyj2GH3KgoCFMkTBVQ/s4000/20230827_152201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JV7RdMj46Gcnh1Oize-jxTiCBstZTOrzOzwi0GYW-Y2hFHF9m2DUT0XYlKUBjLWQRJqV_5fIRDb1Z6mrRg0PaSm0cFbMiKTNT1MFR4Y0JT0hYrjh8_DcmOIO53jKFIDPTGHdsh6EVX_ocEdsBLppTDLm0urnMCdrIXVGvp7UYuyj2GH3KgoCFMkTBVQ/s320/20230827_152201.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllzn-JM9WyzANcnCISztesyd1hxBPYL4JPWVcgPS2tlPQChT8CG4Mm1jqqKYavhIVp8L6gIBPerrheJxGUl1XYz5Pbg4u9agjlXHX4y2JxAtJT0xo2rsXaJkaXLpN6a6D3FzffcYpJu1q9Tp1_nMk0Q5c8NI92UZP8dcvQhR8hlt7kGHXAFlGJ9Iarzc/s4000/20230827_153343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllzn-JM9WyzANcnCISztesyd1hxBPYL4JPWVcgPS2tlPQChT8CG4Mm1jqqKYavhIVp8L6gIBPerrheJxGUl1XYz5Pbg4u9agjlXHX4y2JxAtJT0xo2rsXaJkaXLpN6a6D3FzffcYpJu1q9Tp1_nMk0Q5c8NI92UZP8dcvQhR8hlt7kGHXAFlGJ9Iarzc/s320/20230827_153343.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the memory card was missing and I realised what had happened. This camera had not been pointing at the loch but along the shoreline to see what wildlife approached the loch by night or day. Well, you can guess what happened. Somebody had come off the road to visit the shore and while walking around saw this camera pointing at them. They concluded it must have snapped them and they did not want their picture to be recorded. The result was a game camera taken off the tree, opened up, card removed and then dumped on the ground. Why didn't they just tie it back to the tree? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, the lesson was learnt and I will have to position that kind of camera more sensitively in the future. One of the other cameras did record some wildlife near the shore at about three in the morning last year as you can see below with the deer with its back to the camera looking intently at the dark loch. Ignore the dark hump like object in the water near the centre. It is a rock sitting in less that a foot of water.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2ifTxEBuz7NEnLuzl5RJiUR9_CHikEfGVMHjfEYyYjSELJ02OBl_xFrtFuADIOQHxcCemGrue7BV0mvtGQHHIzK5IbNyv5AjstTprrgUN8c5NVQInVAOx04-OTHNEEmmV0s6qGHioILJrWND2U66k13hbw6FdT6RS3ZBcMag81QddYghS6gzD4fXuw0/s4416/09280401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3312" data-original-width="4416" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2ifTxEBuz7NEnLuzl5RJiUR9_CHikEfGVMHjfEYyYjSELJ02OBl_xFrtFuADIOQHxcCemGrue7BV0mvtGQHHIzK5IbNyv5AjstTprrgUN8c5NVQInVAOx04-OTHNEEmmV0s6qGHioILJrWND2U66k13hbw6FdT6RS3ZBcMag81QddYghS6gzD4fXuw0/w400-h300/09280401.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So my time at the loch was coming to an end. I spent a final hour or so watching the waters from the quieter south side of the loch. The beast made no special appearances for me and so about 1700 it was time to hit the road south - via Burger King. Yes, Loch Ness trips do have their benefits. Various people have posted their thoughts and reports regarding that weekend. The Loch Ness Centre has its own report at this <a href="https://lochness.com/findings-revealed-from-the-quest-weekend/">link</a> and Alan McKenna has posted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/470765477828717?multi_permalinks=828420018729926&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen">here</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But what about the "<i>whirlpool of evil</i>" that was foretold in the media if we tried to find a supernatural Nessie? Well, I did see a whirlpool, though it was not particularly evil. When I arose on the Sunday morning at Foyers, I looked out to the area where the River Foyers met the loch. The heightened flow of the river was rushing down to meet the loch and there was a lot of disturbance where the two collided. The general flow of the vaster body of the loch water was from the south west up the loch. However, the river water was hitting it at almost a right angle. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The result was a wall of resistance as the river water tried to merge with the main waters. The dynamics of this interaction led to the river water rotating in the direction of the loch water but also turning back towards the river giving us a sort of whirlpool. I have seen this phenomenon before at this location some years before. It is not very dangerous as the waters are quite shallow there. I imagined our ducks having some fun with this, jumping onto it like a fairground carousel. But in the main, I was not aware of anyone being seriously injured during this weekend of observation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But now is the time to assess and reflect. What can be done to improve the process if it is done next year? What could be tweaked, dropped or something new added? That is a matter for discussion and is best done now while the memories are fresh of the past weekend. I have a few thoughts and hope to pass them onto to Alan and the Loch Ness Centre at some point. In the meantime, it was a great but busy weekend for me. Most trips are just me and the loch, but it was good to experience the camaraderie of the hunt and a shared belief.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Those thermal drones look interesting, though I wonder what the cost of such an item would be. The documentary team had also mentioned underwater ROVs which are accessible to a lot of people like me today. The issue was where to maximize their utility as a lot of shoreline is shallow and consumes a lot of cable before you hit the deeps. So certainly food for thought as the Winter approaches and most activity winds down at the loch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-43306124140819563862023-09-04T16:15:00.001-07:002023-09-04T16:18:00.154-07:00The Clearer the Picture ....<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nDnO_bKDWjsXLOPT2Ra8wTw1PpM9iox6R6OPUGgq5Z89sv1Y32gPf3v5CXGTzpbVMvI0dnSE-GsdNrs2ICu50KMJD0aUynyk2ekaofXmxb41buSGIpY1miScf6gRNZGOYXA9Cf4fFGjKnEBUiWtFeQvBCFSESDXxsvggHhLJAXJ_Z0SS8iFmemWwxH0/s714/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="714" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nDnO_bKDWjsXLOPT2Ra8wTw1PpM9iox6R6OPUGgq5Z89sv1Y32gPf3v5CXGTzpbVMvI0dnSE-GsdNrs2ICu50KMJD0aUynyk2ekaofXmxb41buSGIpY1miScf6gRNZGOYXA9Cf4fFGjKnEBUiWtFeQvBCFSESDXxsvggHhLJAXJ_Z0SS8iFmemWwxH0/s320/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The set of photographs taken by Mrs. Chie Kelly that appeared a few days ago continue to generate interest and debate. I penned my own initial reaction having found five of the fifteen images amongst various media articles but though they generated a degree of anticipation, I wasn't going to dive in deep without seeing the complete run of images. In the meantime, as I await such a development, I looked to see what other people were saying.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If they are images of the Loch Ness Monster, their detail and clarity may never have been surpassed - depending on what you think of others alleged monster photographs. So the clearer the picture, the more unanimous and convergent the opinions? Nothing could be further from the truth! These are some of the interpretations I found on some Facebook forums:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>giant eel</li><li>seal(s)</li><li>crocodile</li><li>otter or seal being attacked by a reptile</li><li>a big cat carrying prey</li><li>leatherback turtles</li><li>water snakes</li><li>salamander</li><li>two bin bags</li><li>half-sunken dinghy</li><li>tarpaulin</li><li>pareidolia</li><li>dog carrying something</li><li>dead deer</li><li>degraded two man kayak</li><li>two people swimming with rucksacks</li></ul><div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Clearly, a lot of these ideas are non-starters but the Daily Mail ran an <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12470003/Im-Nessie-Hunter-felt-duty-share-exciting-photos-monster-public.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton">article</a> which gave us the opinion of Ben Garrod, a biology professor at the University of East Anglia:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>However, biologist professor Ben Garrod told the programme that the thinks the humps are something far less exciting - such as debris from a boat or a lump of wood. He added that he doesn't believe that Nessie would be a prehistoric monster - as these were huge and sometimes violent, quick creatures, which would have made their presence known by now.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>'As a biologist I would say if we're looking for an animal and we haven't seen it in approximately 50 years or we haven't got conclusive proof it's there, it's extinct.'</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>However, he thought it might well be 'a massive fish'.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, a piece of floating wood and not a prehistoric monster as we would have some bodies dotting the shoreline by now - and I don't mean sunbathing. No aquatic dinosaurs but a vague reference to massive fish. Perhaps someone could clarify this as another later Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12476743/Has-exciting-sighting-elusive-Loch-Ness-Monster-debunked-Researcher-says-photograph-Nessie-likely-just-large-fish.html">article</a> quotes a Hayley Stevens, identified as a paranormal researcher (though actually a sceptic of the paranormal):</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>But after their publication, paranormal researcher Hayley Stevens said: ‘I personally think it is most likely they saw a large sturgeon in the loch. The photos were taken in August and sturgeon migrate into fresh water in late summer and early autumn to mate.’ </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>She added that native sturgeon are large – growing up to five metres in length.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I suppose the Daily Mail regarded these answers as expert opinion, but they come across as ill-informed and hasty. Now if the two had been presented with only the image shown at the top of this article, you might give them some leeway, but how can this two humped object possibly be called a sturgeon which has no such contours (compare below)? In fact, when the second image below is brought in, driftwood and sturgeon look like wholly inadequate explanations. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsWcM69P6WT7KWwky67hXATViYgAuoaGChANfhv-DL2pnfFzHBvEyRsLbVdt2fVskgyOEWXp5sdXB9imbuPdr0nfSzIFx7bcLNyVxIXknbthlvW-LyTSgIE6C065x8-n1UYvuXy_3BwD0jBWrKzDflFNPEKyuegFaTMifO46TaVJ71KZ8XY92MwV5VqE/s620/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="620" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsWcM69P6WT7KWwky67hXATViYgAuoaGChANfhv-DL2pnfFzHBvEyRsLbVdt2fVskgyOEWXp5sdXB9imbuPdr0nfSzIFx7bcLNyVxIXknbthlvW-LyTSgIE6C065x8-n1UYvuXy_3BwD0jBWrKzDflFNPEKyuegFaTMifO46TaVJ71KZ8XY92MwV5VqE/s320/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHpOg7kWysvAM52s04QDvZSkYpkxa5s5wal2rUgeYt8KvP58FmDCjLk7tvHBLTIVVG1I8Nniae-pTRksuWkmCyFSNB5Ual_vK1dpY-UcaJluaHW9HSzwIn8Vh7m-FqlAPxyw5nIgdw2sF8aGn-oZ81ibHGmKpziAFTlqRDhs6ZocpreSp5xxkLBRnL_s/s640/Atlantic%20Sturgeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="640" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHpOg7kWysvAM52s04QDvZSkYpkxa5s5wal2rUgeYt8KvP58FmDCjLk7tvHBLTIVVG1I8Nniae-pTRksuWkmCyFSNB5Ual_vK1dpY-UcaJluaHW9HSzwIn8Vh7m-FqlAPxyw5nIgdw2sF8aGn-oZ81ibHGmKpziAFTlqRDhs6ZocpreSp5xxkLBRnL_s/s320/Atlantic%20Sturgeon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">If one takes a look at Hayley's original <a href="https://hayleyisaghost.co.uk/this-is-what-happens-when-a-nessie-photo-goes-viral/">piece</a>, she attempts to answer why she thinks this is the best explanation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The golden rule for solving ghost and monster mysteries is to keep it simple. Although it can be tempting to let your imagination run wild, the simplest solutions are almost always the correct answer, so start with those. Lay out what you already know and more often than not, the knowledge gaps fill themselves in.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Instead, when Nessie makes the news, people rush in with wild theories about what’s in a photo – theories that often have very little evidential basis to them. I’ve seen it suggested that this could be a deflating inflatable raft or an otter sitting on a ray. These suggestions may not be as farfetched as the idea that a dinosaur survives in the Loch, but they’re still pretty wild…</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, keep it simple, it's a sturgeon .. except the photos look nothing like a sturgeon and no sturgeon has ever been caught in Loch Ness. Apart from these minor points, it's a great theory. Perhaps sturgeon have made their way into the loch at some point in the past but their depleted numbers today suggest this is even more unlikely than past decades. I also doubt a sturgeon getting into Loch Ness to mate (with what?) is ever going to get back out.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the clearer the picture, the more convergent the opinions? Not likely, it looks more like an exercise in hammering your favourite square peg into a round hole! Hayley even accuses Nessie believers of infighting over such images. I beg to differ, I see the discussions as largely civilized with the odd cross words being the minority. Of course, the vast majority of ideas are wrong, only one or none of them can be right. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What we have here is the marketplace of ideas on the Internet and like a real marketplace the worst ideas don't sell much, are ignored and fade away. Of course, some bad ideas still get bought like cheap pairs of shoes, nothing is perfect where people are involved. But driftwood will eventually sink and sturgeon will eventually stink. Will this winnowing of ideas eventually leave us with the true explanation? The answer to that is no, but I would hope that if and when we see more data, an awful lot of dross would have been cleared out by then.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-42397114194397910472023-08-31T16:41:00.002-07:002023-08-31T16:48:44.372-07:00Some Noteable Photographs from Loch Ness<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClXb6C_GxUSaYKlhMBTUZeQBbCezToINTItuWrOLN_SEzjDHPMI5Wt0L-YLRrOM4issoAq-m30uGWkq2oSXNRazb3plZJ85pXxprfcotzhXULMPXm78DxOss2knYkFr5FaxrpZJCZL98Wa6RuW-KKw3HpVRaFivmOdb5C5lyfUj8kZt2XsCQNK-sz8i8/s714/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="714" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClXb6C_GxUSaYKlhMBTUZeQBbCezToINTItuWrOLN_SEzjDHPMI5Wt0L-YLRrOM4issoAq-m30uGWkq2oSXNRazb3plZJ85pXxprfcotzhXULMPXm78DxOss2knYkFr5FaxrpZJCZL98Wa6RuW-KKw3HpVRaFivmOdb5C5lyfUj8kZt2XsCQNK-sz8i8/w400-h246/Thema%20News%20310823%202.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I thought this week would see a general winding down from the Quest monster hunt last weekend as I wrote up my own views on the event and moved onto the next thing. But the next thing arrived rather quickly when Steve Feltham received a visit from a local by the name of Chie Kelly who said she took something like sixteen photographs of an object in Dores Bay five years earlier and the weekend hunt motivated her to come forward. The story is related by the Scottish Sun:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>THE "most exciting" photographs ever of the Loch Ness Monster have been revealed after a woman too scared to show them before came forward after last weekend's massive search for Nessie. </i><i>In startling images, Chie Kelly captured an unidentified large eel-like creature slowly spinning on the surface of the legendary loch.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Translator Mrs Kelly, 51, was taking photographs of the area at Dores when she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange creature move right to left over a distance of about 100 metres. </i><i>It then disappeared and never re-surfaced. </i><i>Mrs Kelly was so shocked by what she saw on August 13, 2018, that she feared public ridicule and did not share the images.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>But she was inspired by the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years at the weekend, in which hundreds of volunteers took part. </i><i>It was then that she plucked up the courage to show her startling photographs to veteran Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who has set a world record for the longest vigil of looking for the Loch Ness Monster - now over 30 years long from his Dores base. He was astounded. </i><i>Mrs Kelly was on holiday with her family from Ascot in Berkshire at the time of the sighting. The family have since moved to near Fortose on the Black Isle.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>"My husband was originally from the Inverness area and Dores beach is a very special place to me as it is where he used to take me when we first met, </i><i>We had lunch in the Dores Inn and then started walking around. I was just taking pictures with my Cannon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 metres from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>"It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. </i><i>After a couple of minutes it just disappeared and we never saw it again. </i><i>At first I wondered if it was an otter or a pair of otters or a seal, but we never saw a head and it never came up again for air. It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. </i><i>There were these strange shapes below the surface. I could not make out any colours - the water was dark. </i><i>I could not accurately assess its length, but the two parts that were visible were less then two metres long together. </i><i>I don't know what it was but it was definitely a creature - an animal."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>"At the time I did not want to face public ridicule by making the photographs public. </i><i>But I met Steve Feltham at the weekend and showed him the images and he said immediately that they were 'very interesting'. </i><i>I have always believed there was something in Loch Ness. There is something unusual there, but I don't know what it is. What I saw looked like a serpent. It was definitely a creature and it was moving."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Feltham said: "These are the most exciting surface pictures (of Nessie) I have seen. They are exactly the type of pictures I have been wanting to take for three decades. It is rare to see something so clear on the surface. </i><i>They are vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness. They are remarkable. I have studied them and still do not know what it is. </i><i>We are lucky the Kellys have decided to go public at last. I have met the Kellys twice and they are absolutely genuine. </i><i>I persuaded them that these pictures were so important they should make them public. They warrant further investigation. It is not driftwood - it is a moving creature and totally unexplained."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So much for the story, but the photographs I have found required more than just a cursory examination. In fact, all sixteen need to be examined in sequence. From my initial search of the Internet, I think I have found five of the sixteen photographs as newspapers and media sites take their choice of images from the agency handling Mrs Kelly's photographs. The one at the top looks to be getting the most coverage as it shows two hump like objects close together in the water. One's initial impression is that they are two rocks in shallow water, but the wider view of the photograph below suggests this is way further out into the bay.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRaX-J12fIKgXbJiPJsMsHjdbZ0SvhzCEva-Oq9oaXBIx8FZvFMlAjNztTIBaRCIUKT6EglRWlNhq3ZmMOO4FOIZimbI9uRGUj-uzCSbzYW0Ai13byQvrwVzuyekZW5C3sdS_3K8tjewvEpxc4BFfatQimd8f94AkM5zOq-DV1E_APAH8BUC9GIGVUH0/s1919/US%20Times%20310823%203.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1919" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRaX-J12fIKgXbJiPJsMsHjdbZ0SvhzCEva-Oq9oaXBIx8FZvFMlAjNztTIBaRCIUKT6EglRWlNhq3ZmMOO4FOIZimbI9uRGUj-uzCSbzYW0Ai13byQvrwVzuyekZW5C3sdS_3K8tjewvEpxc4BFfatQimd8f94AkM5zOq-DV1E_APAH8BUC9GIGVUH0/w400-h266/US%20Times%20310823%203.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The estimated distance given by the witness was 200 metres which on a nautical map of the loch is a depth of at least 20 to 30 feet, depending on the location. The size of the object or objects was further estimated to be 2 metres. The length of what was not visible below the surface is a matter of speculation. I do not know the precise location of the witnesses, but the distance and size of the object could be calculated if one had an uncropped image, some camera details and the location. At this time, I do not have all the required information to do this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The line of water disturbance to the right of the object does indeed suggest it is moving from right to left. The second of the five images I found shows a water disturbance which is further to the right than the previous image. You can line it up with the opposite shoreline to confirm this (assuming the witness did not move very far). The third image I found is (I think) an enlargement of this wider view and is shown further down showing perhaps something solid or just troubled waters. Mrs. Kelly stated the object moved about 100 metres and it was observed for two minutes which would give us an average speed of less than two miles per hour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUv3yNSD5SKP5uYc_Sj5NInjvOsw2qvJtijuSzLWZ5ovKEAV6tVYsKKwjK5Sh36668fI7x7okutmCYJnHHy8geAiuKJLVAYMMPo_PqmNKPQTXnsTu7QRwRCVTEEUWmkT8IKRtjONpNvquWpm6s3ceudBQY06tq0350yeH3sJI7EM878UFk42lm55eEXQ/s615/Daily%20Mirror%20310823%202.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="615" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUv3yNSD5SKP5uYc_Sj5NInjvOsw2qvJtijuSzLWZ5ovKEAV6tVYsKKwjK5Sh36668fI7x7okutmCYJnHHy8geAiuKJLVAYMMPo_PqmNKPQTXnsTu7QRwRCVTEEUWmkT8IKRtjONpNvquWpm6s3ceudBQY06tq0350yeH3sJI7EM878UFk42lm55eEXQ/w400-h266/Daily%20Mirror%20310823%202.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhuUNbvHfLY9qvqJhMFZJuCAsqjbUz7OQrBMD98VhSaTi4xnVK1BoD0jbRyu7hoKg0Z__O-albknZzuobmLoQ0Taa4hZPvl7967aEESKywGoE9pBFZ8sjJhGY3ymBXB6cLnjMoxahoEA7t07sbtzNpC_Zs8p9fqqH2a7-o6l8YuqJNUoVqm6CcyxFNTg/s1102/Ruffled%20Waters.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="1102" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhuUNbvHfLY9qvqJhMFZJuCAsqjbUz7OQrBMD98VhSaTi4xnVK1BoD0jbRyu7hoKg0Z__O-albknZzuobmLoQ0Taa4hZPvl7967aEESKywGoE9pBFZ8sjJhGY3ymBXB6cLnjMoxahoEA7t07sbtzNpC_Zs8p9fqqH2a7-o6l8YuqJNUoVqm6CcyxFNTg/w400-h159/Ruffled%20Waters.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">To this we can add another image which just shows a single hump below, though it is unclear whether the two humps are one overall object. The images going from two to one or one to two humps may suggest separate objects, but I would not dogmatic on that. Indeed, the chronological order of the images is difficult to determine at this point. I would say though that the single hump is likely the larger hump of the two hump image. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR4kkjOgGymDvrE83LGOr8FAnU5DLwnoPSlFuwlE50Z-ghNxOMKRO0o1I1906EeIFuEFwcGeVrX88RsyBVnIVTH3FzOI7MwbKx-A1CWWn3M208VjHy2uJCnmG12g0vw4Ap3X8JBy6keCnJVY6I1GAaVBFDFR17R5rg_wWpyA4fh9xq1YO_qxvn96PPp4/s1920/US%20Times%20310823%202.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1920" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR4kkjOgGymDvrE83LGOr8FAnU5DLwnoPSlFuwlE50Z-ghNxOMKRO0o1I1906EeIFuEFwcGeVrX88RsyBVnIVTH3FzOI7MwbKx-A1CWWn3M208VjHy2uJCnmG12g0vw4Ap3X8JBy6keCnJVY6I1GAaVBFDFR17R5rg_wWpyA4fh9xq1YO_qxvn96PPp4/w400-h200/US%20Times%20310823%202.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The final two images just made me that bit more perplexed when I found them. The fourth image I found is shown below and the rough dark humps have given way to a couple of smooth lighter coloured objects. I thought, am I looking at the same thing here? The answer would appear to be yes as I examined the testimony of the witness and the images further.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7TgfmmkdXH6aavM_m0o1DsEj-IFRh9KCrChseAs9-EMznQNQIF7xUgi9-QnoUn35upd8ZqK7FWX2eNRiIHi8IYMKa02tFs6U05RO_JeUoq2SDTMtB95hxxT6CID7P1jySOPi50flNYLL7R4xnX1RsG2EoJCDcLhqrW8rORQoKh18h_rE5WzwppnMEU8/s1536/New%20York%20Post%20310823%201.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="1536" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7TgfmmkdXH6aavM_m0o1DsEj-IFRh9KCrChseAs9-EMznQNQIF7xUgi9-QnoUn35upd8ZqK7FWX2eNRiIHi8IYMKa02tFs6U05RO_JeUoq2SDTMtB95hxxT6CID7P1jySOPi50flNYLL7R4xnX1RsG2EoJCDcLhqrW8rORQoKh18h_rE5WzwppnMEU8/w400-h169/New%20York%20Post%20310823%201.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJdHoci9CYMxolMtnq2M8NnAhCFNEhm1aH7zNL3q0WF9GDUPFnOx3Lf78LlGClynUrEjFGwnctbsXlxKGHNLX4FX7XS7hYTS2QFBUALBTkXCBIxCdW2YNwEtRbRgqbR0LoAyEUqYGxqpD5RQIRub_-OTtyNJkuXSKGv4vnq8CUHcsFFSvyULacfuCpc4/s620/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="620" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJdHoci9CYMxolMtnq2M8NnAhCFNEhm1aH7zNL3q0WF9GDUPFnOx3Lf78LlGClynUrEjFGwnctbsXlxKGHNLX4FX7XS7hYTS2QFBUALBTkXCBIxCdW2YNwEtRbRgqbR0LoAyEUqYGxqpD5RQIRub_-OTtyNJkuXSKGv4vnq8CUHcsFFSvyULacfuCpc4/w400-h244/Smooth%20Humps%20Zoomed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mrs. Kelly said <i>"It was spinning and rolling at times ..." </i>and if you look at the first image at the top of the article you may notice that behind the rough textured humps is the hint of rounded and lighter surfaces behind them. That is certainly suggested to the left side of the larger right hump and maybe less so on the left of the other smaller hump. So perhaps there was a degree of rotation that moved the object from a smooth side to a rough side? That would seem to be the case to me and there is also a hint of this smooth and rough combination in the single hump image.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The final image I found looks again somewhat different to what gone on before and is below with a zoom into the object. One may presume again that this is another single hump image but it looks decidedly more head-like to me with that bright spot suggestive of an eye. But then again, it may merely look like head and the witness did say she did not see a head or neck, but perhaps that meant a head on top of a long neck. However, I would say that this object in view does look somewhat different in appearance to the humps.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ttcTFHskG30BdwvrEtKyLEhtvFrr9vDJPSgFmGUYqe1xStBB3F2t1xkygeqltES31RQ6cBYPYAa3TiitYcrRh3ju5cjXsZASVPkTTv90rDV-tVVPsYp6acmn7ehR5473mZ83_52zSw-OeKoCDkDURPr0WzdE6cNYiPQhHEYtP7Ju4sMZT7Dx3wBxXqg/s1536/New%20York%20Post%20310823%202.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="1536" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ttcTFHskG30BdwvrEtKyLEhtvFrr9vDJPSgFmGUYqe1xStBB3F2t1xkygeqltES31RQ6cBYPYAa3TiitYcrRh3ju5cjXsZASVPkTTv90rDV-tVVPsYp6acmn7ehR5473mZ83_52zSw-OeKoCDkDURPr0WzdE6cNYiPQhHEYtP7Ju4sMZT7Dx3wBxXqg/w400-h156/New%20York%20Post%20310823%202.webp" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16mEIx4xShHAAzpN1KQkMTAGhY-TJGFRiyfc-vy5KivIGcDpuzZ5W5Tet45w0CE1pcJVj3BKobLih5QwbGgm23bUxNSN1uDAT5U18DzfWEB4QHuInzoLLfXRYS98aNbPwtY1NbBb1k2FFunDUcPXJghq0Zl5UgVung-pqQFD8OsAL8HY5mMuvQvJ58P0/s465/Possible%20Head%20Zoomed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="465" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16mEIx4xShHAAzpN1KQkMTAGhY-TJGFRiyfc-vy5KivIGcDpuzZ5W5Tet45w0CE1pcJVj3BKobLih5QwbGgm23bUxNSN1uDAT5U18DzfWEB4QHuInzoLLfXRYS98aNbPwtY1NbBb1k2FFunDUcPXJghq0Zl5UgVung-pqQFD8OsAL8HY5mMuvQvJ58P0/s320/Possible%20Head%20Zoomed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, all in all, these handful of the images from the larger unseen total are a fascinating collection. I suspect that the other ten or so images may not be better than these as the media do tend to pick the best ones for publication. Nevertheless, it is important to evaluate these images in the context of the whole and I appeal to Chie Kelly or her agent Peter Jolly to release the set for serious study by those on either side of the debate as to whether a monster does indeed inhabit Loch Ness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What do I conclude from these images? Simply that what we have motivates one more to see the complete set and no final or tentative conclusions can be made without them. I used the word "humps" because that is exactly what they look like, but what could they be? A perusal of comments from readers on the Internet offered up various opinions such as waves, bin bags, otters, dogs, a sturgeon, seal, a bear, plastic debris, a deflated dinghy being towed by an out of sight boat, rocks, a lump of peat, a fake stunt by divers or just divers and, of course, the Loch Ness Monster. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A lot of these comments were based on viewing only the picture at the top. Most can be dispensed with although the bin bags theory got quite a few mentions which reminded me of the similar explanation that Maurice Burton had offered for the 1938 Taylor film which also went through various appearances. Another set of photographs which came to mind when I saw these were the ones taken by William Jobes in 2011 which showed a rough surfaced hump but were also dismissed as flotsam and jetsam by many at the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgjX-hIhGoi5ls6TnLWC77XIBpTqamiyV1CKqX7nxSe-nKEw3HD6AKxxtNxTLRjgSMoyE054ops-yvSTyEFGtxdvBef_a-trHZqIGA7mNNeHiMOmZONCeDrr0-Kvxzh67dmzZDyh5Nt6L_Mm3bOJ8e6IpSjWcecxvmzRWGDVaGm2XbX2I6BTXG3yWU3g/s634/Jobes%20Photo%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="634" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgjX-hIhGoi5ls6TnLWC77XIBpTqamiyV1CKqX7nxSe-nKEw3HD6AKxxtNxTLRjgSMoyE054ops-yvSTyEFGtxdvBef_a-trHZqIGA7mNNeHiMOmZONCeDrr0-Kvxzh67dmzZDyh5Nt6L_Mm3bOJ8e6IpSjWcecxvmzRWGDVaGm2XbX2I6BTXG3yWU3g/w400-h180/Jobes%20Photo%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact, William had reported seeing a horse like head and one can imagine seeing such a thing in the last photo from 2018. But I digress and further speculation is no more than that while we wait for the complete set of pictures and hopefully a number of serious people apply their minds as to possible explanations as to what is in these pictures. Certainly, one thing I checked was what was happening at the loch back in August 2018. Back then, I wrote of a claimed head and neck sighting nearby by two local women as they walked in the wooded area at Tor Point and that is documented <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2018/08/loch-ness-monster-sighting-last-week.html">here</a> and occurred only three days later and perhaps only hundreds of metres from the object seen by Mrs. Kelly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The eDNA experiment team led by Professor Neil Gemmell had been at the loch weeks before in June to collect water samples which would seem to add a twist of irony to these photographs. I am not aware of any other events, but others can inform me what else may have been going on at that time at Loch Ness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, something was moving down the loch against the general south westerlies blowing up the loch. It submerged, rolled, changed its aspect from rough to smooth, went from two objects to one. Was it just bin bags and plastic waste doing a good job of looking like a monster or is it the ubiquitous "photoshop" job or perhaps something more mysterious? Once I get my hands on the uncropped images, further deductions may be possible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But I agree with Steve Feltham, if you were looking to take some monster photographs, they may look like this but I would add perhaps with that famous long neck for good measure. It is a curious coincidence that half a mile away and 90 years before this new story broke, Aldie Mackay saw her "<i>Strange spectacle on Loch Ness</i>" which was also one then two humps and which also perplexingly rolled in the water. If this is an animal, I do not know what to make of it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">P.S. There is also talk of a thermal drone video of an object near the opposite shore of Loch Ness. I cannot really comment on that without seeing the complete video.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-79972641283749295412023-08-13T15:44:00.004-07:002023-08-22T17:15:56.448-07:00Loch Ness Expedition in Danger?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETeoMUmWOq3RH8nyhOrhhvTJqpBSJymWGVqThuZsvVfsMNhKoJSEld67-bSR3tSteW4DWs7ij_Y0L5xsS8U9TZpQgBlOLWzrPgooMia_ibVyqpnFY0QSrOQjQkXJKAEOrPZs6pSrogNgUOmSWZU2haHXTmfMRYWQUTLCcrCiWlsaOaAQRBCJc47ijRb4/s640/Private%20Life%20of%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20Nessie%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETeoMUmWOq3RH8nyhOrhhvTJqpBSJymWGVqThuZsvVfsMNhKoJSEld67-bSR3tSteW4DWs7ij_Y0L5xsS8U9TZpQgBlOLWzrPgooMia_ibVyqpnFY0QSrOQjQkXJKAEOrPZs6pSrogNgUOmSWZU2haHXTmfMRYWQUTLCcrCiWlsaOaAQRBCJc47ijRb4/w400-h266/Private%20Life%20of%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20Nessie%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A news item from the Scottish Sun took me by surprise today as it spoke of an "<i>urgent warning as extensive Loch Ness Monster search could stir up a 'whirlpool of evil'</i>". The text of the article was an interview with paranormal researcher, Ron Halliday and written by Oliver Norton (original link <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/11081335/loch-ness-monster-search-paranormal-investigator/">here</a>).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>A MASSIVE search to find the Loch Ness Monster could stir up a “whirlpool of evil”, a leading paranormal investigator has warned. Ron Halliday fears plans to flush out the elusive beast with drones, infrared cameras and underwater sound detectors later this month will lead to spirits being unleashed. Organisers are calling the two-day operation the biggest search for the monster in more than 50 years. But Mr Halliday, who has been investigating the paranormal for 30 years, said:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“I’d suggest this project be called off or at the very least there’s some psychic protection for anyone involved. I was concerned to read about plans for a massive search for the Loch Ness Monster. I’m not convinced this search is a good idea. We could be stirring up a whirlpool of evil.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>An army of volunteers is also set to watch the loch from safe vantage points on land surrounding Loch Ness on August 27 and 28. They have been warned to “stay vigilant” and bring binoculars and cameras to gather evidence. The effort is being organised by the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit and a volunteer research team called Loch Ness Exploration. The organisation’s Alan McKenna hoped the “large scale surface watch” would inspire a new generation of enthusiasts.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>It’s understood to be the biggest search for the monster since the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau studied the waters in 1972. It will also involve technology not previously used before. But researcher Mr Halliday, who has published books including The A-Z of Paranormal Scotland and Scotland’s X-Files, warned the plans could backfire. He added:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“The truth is there’s little evidence that we’re dealing with a flesh-and-blood creature. It’s more likely that the loch is home to an unknown spirit form.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Paul Nixon, General Manager of the Loch Ness Centre, said: </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“The watch is designed to be observational and not invasive. The Loch is home to a whole host of wildlife and it is very important this does not become disturbed. Whilst we appreciate the offer of psychic protection we are confident our robust safety procedures will ensure a positive weekend for all involved in what will be the largest surface level search for Nessie on over 50 years.”</i></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, speaking for myself, I have some experience in the paranormal theory of the Loch Ness Monster. I have studied the works of Ted Holiday, Anthony "<i>Doc</i>" Shiels and others such as Nick Redfern. I have also held to such views in earlier decades. My own contribution has been the book "<i>The Water Horses of Loch Ness</i>" which looks back on the ancient legends of the loch and elsewhere in the Highlands and the pre-Christian animism that pervaded the worldview of the inhabitants. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Where might the belief that the loch is a place not to be meddled with come from? Going way back to the beginning, what exactly the indigenous Picts of two thousand years ago believed was living in Loch Ness is not known. If they believed in some version of animism, then they may have regarded the entire body of water to be imbued with a spirit which was either part of its essence or distinct from it in some way. The practise of other cultures would suggest they may have offered gifts to the "spirit" of that water by throwing into it offerings of agriculture, livestock or even perhaps other humans in return for favourable outcomes such as fishing, good weather and so on.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The arrival of Christianity in the 6th century overturned that order and any spirit in or of the loch was demonized and subjugated to the God of the Christians. Over time, that "demon spirit" which continued to occasionally show itself to the perplexed natives with that long neck and horse like head became an infernal steed which preyed on unsuspecting travelers in a supernatural bait and switch tactic where its pseudo-equine form would transform from a saddled temptation for the weary walker to a terrifying plunge in its monstrous grip to depths unknown but always fatal.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Such was the <i>Each Uisge</i> of Loch Ness which held such a spell over the locals that it compelled them to keep silent about its appearances lest its curse broke forth upon them. Surely then such interventions as drones, cameras and sonar will once again stir up this "<i>whirlpool of evil"</i> which will do ... what?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now I must admit when I read the headline, I immediately thought of the occultist, Kevin Carlyon, who has been known to cast a few spells over the water. That is nothing new as the loch was exorcised back in 1973 by the Reverend Donald Omand and doubtless various other incantations have been uttered over the cold, volatile waters. But this was Ron Halliday, Scottish paranormal researcher, who I have met on at least one occasion. Now if one believes there is something paranormal down there, you may be inclined to stay away from it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lat year, Ron was <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/loch-ness-monster-may-live-27356836">quoted</a> as suggesting that the monster may be a creature inhabiting a parallel universe which can be seen when eyewitnesses inadvertently step into a "<i>portal</i>" between the two realms. That could even manifest as a view of a dinosaur from the distant past, though one may retort that dinosaurs belonged to our inverse, not a parallel one. Is he suggesting that the act of observing the loch could open such a portal and unleash something undesirable?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The problem with this theory is that it is essentially meaningless and endlessly malleable. How do you put it to test? What predictions can you make from this hypotheses and what experiments should be devised to verify it or correct it? The malleability is demonstrated to me in the quotes ascribed to Ron this week and last year. This week we are told "<i>the loch is home to an unknown spirit form" </i>but last year it inhabits another parallel universe - "<i>something that looks solid but isn’t actually in our world</i>". You can't have it both ways, which one is it? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now perhaps Ron is being misquoted and he is welcome to clarify his views, but my own experience of the world of paranormal theories is that you can say almost anything and get away with it if you cloak it with some scientific terms such as parallel universes (which of course, have not been proven to exist). Now, some may hurl the same accusation at zoological Nessie theorists, but it is clear that speculating about giant eels and plesiosaurs is a far cry from creatures popping out of portals to parallel universes. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paranormal theories go too far in what they employ to explain strange phenomena. Sure, you can use them to explain issues about food stocks in the loch or the lack of physical traces, just so long as you are happy importing another entire universe to explain what happens over a 26 mile stretch of water. This is not so much using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but an entire division of tanks. In employing such theories, you destroy what you are trying to explain at the same time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the historical evidence does not back up such a statement about unleashing a "<i>whirlpool of evil</i>". Go back to the first extensive searches of the 1930s. The surge of people that rushed to the loch in the hope of seeing the monster. The various expeditions that occurred from 1933 into 1934. What evidence is there that evil was unleashed as a result of these activities? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now jump thirty years to the 1960s and the large expeditions of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau. The various watch stations with cameras, the surface watchers, the large number of volunteers involved, the publicity that surrounded them and the various experiments that developed as more experts got involved. What was unleashed back then? What tales of evil ensued that merited the cancellation of future work?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving into the 1970s with the large expeditions mounted by the Academy of Applied Science led by Robert Rines and the help of many based in Scotland and beyond. What misfortune came to pass that could even be classed as statistically significant beyond the normal run of good or bad luck people encounter in these ventures? For goodness sake, they even had a psychic in the form of Winifred Cary helping them with her dowsing! In fact, did not Ron Halliday go to Loch Morar armed with dowsing rods?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We could go on, what about Operation Deepscan in 1987 or the multiplicity of other incursions into the loch? But then again, if one wishes to scan these things in a paranormal manner, did not the Warlock Gregor MacGregor render the Loch Ness Kelpie impotent when he stole its bridle around the beginning of the 19th century? Well, at least, that is what he claimed. Or perhaps the threat of any whirlpool of evil was neutralized by the Reverend Omand in 1973 as he sprinkled the holy water over the loch?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One suspects that the recommended "<i>psychic covering</i>" is not needed. If there is a Loch Ness Spirit, it would probably rip through it like a wet paper bag. The news from the battle front of old was that the locals would send the Kelpie packing by invoking the name of the Holy Trinity. Perhaps they were following the example of St. Columba, who:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Looked on, while all who were there, as well the heathen as even the brethren, were stricken with very great terror; and, with his holy hand raised on high, he formed the saving sign of the cross in the empty air, invoked the Name of God, and commanded the fierce monster, saying, Think not to go further, nor touch thou the man. Quick! Go back! ' Then the beast, on hearing this voice of the Saint, was terrified and 'fled backward more rapidly than he came, as if dragged by cords.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Either that or you run your ass off. Either way, people, go prepared. Take all the usual precautions, be suited and booted, be aware of your surroundings, employ your concentration and don't play the fool. Call upon your god, be it deity or reason for Loch Ness, with or without a spirit can be an unforgiving environment to those who fall into its clutches.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And having done all that, enjoy yourselves, partake of the craich and don't forget to take that lens cap off.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-61241047466562212602023-07-27T16:00:00.003-07:002023-07-28T04:26:35.511-07:00The First Loch Ness Sonar Contact?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDEBckrzpG9y5PwLMBIdqSRjD8MRDKexKg9xtirvoILPiiZAk_qzYsKONVSOuzUKziMFpYUfTHUIQKXMSgJUB-qcZIk_Qfl4tDaKd_xwLuKvuntx2nIf1BEEW2hG3LIYhEmMn3YOwA-Fdh53jN8fE79a1Ywm6GG_grjHb6o0runlEQyGFIhc931d-_lR4/s927/Rival%20III%20Sonar%20Image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="927" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDEBckrzpG9y5PwLMBIdqSRjD8MRDKexKg9xtirvoILPiiZAk_qzYsKONVSOuzUKziMFpYUfTHUIQKXMSgJUB-qcZIk_Qfl4tDaKd_xwLuKvuntx2nIf1BEEW2hG3LIYhEmMn3YOwA-Fdh53jN8fE79a1Ywm6GG_grjHb6o0runlEQyGFIhc931d-_lR4/w400-h313/Rival%20III%20Sonar%20Image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Recent publicity about a strange looking sonar image from Lake Champlain brought to mind another sonar image from another time and from another place - namely seventy years before at Loch Ness. I became familiar with this story back in the 1970s as a kid when Nicholas Witchell wrote about it in his book "<i>The Loch Ness Story</i>". I quote from page 115 onwards of the first edition which in itself quotes the Daily Herald from the 6th December 1954:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>During recent years the underwater radar mechanism known as Sonar has played an invaluable part in the research at Loch Ness. The first real indication of the potential of this sort of equipment as a "monster hunting" tool came in December 1954 when a drifter picked up a strange outline on its echo sounding apparatus. At about 11.30 a.m. on 2nd December, the Peterhead drifter Rival III was approaching Urquhart Castle on its journey south through the Caledonian Canal to the West Coast fishing grounds. </i></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In the wheelhouse was the 46-year-old mate Mr Peter Anderson. The skipper, Mr Donald MacLean and the seven other crew members were below having a cup of tea. Mr Anderson glanced at the echo sounder, a Kelvin Hughes "Fishmaster", and stiffened:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Suddenly the printer arm on the machine started to draw this thing on the roll of recording paper. As it sketched it out I couldn't believe my eyes. For several minutes the arm went on moving and the outlines of the thing below the water were drawn on the paper. I shouted to the crew and they came crowding up to the wheelhouse. They were as amazed as I was. At once we turned the boat about and tried to track the 'Monster' again. But it was no use, whatever it was had gone."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Anderson tore the chart from the machine and as the boat passed through the locks down to the West Coast he brought it out and showed it to the Canal staff. By the time the Rival III reached Oban the Press was waiting for them and negotiations began for the exclusive rights to the chart. The Daily Herald eventually won and while on the 5th December, the Sunday Mail reported rather sourly that the chart "is not for sale" representatives from the manufacturers were examining it under the Daily Herald's auspices.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr L. A. Southcott, the firm's District Manager and Mr A. Sutton, the Technical Development Director, both examined the chart and certified that it had not been faked or tampered with in any way. From the calibrated scale they could tell that the object was 480 feet deep and 120 feet up from the loch bed. It was moving from left to right on the chart, i.e., in the same direction as the boat and was approximately 50 feet in length. <span style="text-align: left;">Mr Sutton stated, after a long study of the graph that: </span></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"It is definitely not a water-logged tree or a shoal of fish. These give entirely different signals. If there was a large animal in the loch this is the kind of image you would get from an echo sounder . . . I can't explain it away. I have seen thousands of recordings — but nothing like this."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Mr Southcott said:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"This is definitely animal matter of some kind . . . in all my experience I've never seen anything like this. The object certainly is not like any other kind of fish that has been charted." All that could be said about the shape of the object was that it was elongated and probably irregular."</i></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Among the people consulted by the Press for an opinion on the chart was Dr C. H. Mortimer of the Freshwater Biological Association who had carried out a temperature survey at the loch in 1953. He was quoted in the Daily Herald of 7th December as saying:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"I too got some unusual recordings on Loch Ness. I explained them away to my own satisfaction then as echoes from the side of the loch superimposing themselves on the sounding chart. But from the graph description the object appears to be clear of the sides of the loch. It is extremely puzzling."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>One person feeling more frustrated than puzzled by the event was the wife of the Rival III's skipper, Mrs Betty Maclean. She was quoted as saying:</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>"I am the laughing stock of Peterhead. Everyone looks at me and smiles. While I was out shopping, fishermen and their wives were looking at me as if I had got the 'Monster' in my shopping bag."</i></span></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unfortunately, whatever serious interest was re-aroused was marred by yet another hoax. On 8th December, a Royal Naval mine laying vessel reported to Canal staff that they too had picked up a strange echo whilst on passage through the loch. As soon as the Press arrived the Commander admitted that it was all a joke and the cursing reporters left to express their disgust with the whole matter.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One newspaper carrying the story was the Aberdeen Press and Journal two days later as seen below. The actual image on the sonar image occupied a space of one and quarter inches or just over 3cm and it stated a depth of 90 fathoms or 540 feet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZo60D2xl0c2o4otsxaX2RYIToG37oCLUCClE1WwmdZhMrlHJsq6XyE4MPnf1FfMmAkZ47SzYHNvnLytFL3K5a_ExVsW-7bZfo-RRDRyit4q0xQ9dFeJj1uOfaSM47U3l0GQbdlA3YaYxvdqxiwsYrOpHyVnKOj_z4q1YXwOPmfUDkfFIEzCUJ31K8K8/s777/Aberdeen%20Press%20and%20Journal%20041254%20Zoom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="253" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFZo60D2xl0c2o4otsxaX2RYIToG37oCLUCClE1WwmdZhMrlHJsq6XyE4MPnf1FfMmAkZ47SzYHNvnLytFL3K5a_ExVsW-7bZfo-RRDRyit4q0xQ9dFeJj1uOfaSM47U3l0GQbdlA3YaYxvdqxiwsYrOpHyVnKOj_z4q1YXwOPmfUDkfFIEzCUJ31K8K8/w130-h400/Aberdeen%20Press%20and%20Journal%20041254%20Zoom.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since then, the image has generally been regarded as a fake and I certainly found such a clearly delineated image unconvincing. Now I must admit, I am not particularly familiar with sonar technology from the 1950s so I turned to the documentary of the BBC's expedition to the loch three years later in 1957 (more info <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2019/10/legend-of-loch-1958.html">here</a>) where the presenter Raymond Baxter took viewers through an explanation of the latest in this technology with David Anderson, the representative of Marconi with their latest fish finder machine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He explained their "<i>noise generator</i>" was only effective if the target was directly below but there was newer technology which would sweep out to the sides with a similar range. The BBC did have an interesting sonar hit which was displayed by opening the front of the machine and hand rolling the paper back to that point. The quality of the overall film was poor but good enough to see what was going on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZ5V-pX4gxpxDAJayyWovEjvtgqcgGlGXM0zmh-28XaUGHuNOe4X02_HMOiJnsFaHjfUmTaf_we9mjJQKKLkXFFNiDjiUP0W6mcSQweCyqosCxGh3SCLbIFiS7eE-Q4KqCSVdITRQXUfMftVTAxM2hvvw0zAW0bNF93zBT_6rZwypTNSBoJnQdozKvgk/s1342/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20rolling%20the%20paper.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1342" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZ5V-pX4gxpxDAJayyWovEjvtgqcgGlGXM0zmh-28XaUGHuNOe4X02_HMOiJnsFaHjfUmTaf_we9mjJQKKLkXFFNiDjiUP0W6mcSQweCyqosCxGh3SCLbIFiS7eE-Q4KqCSVdITRQXUfMftVTAxM2hvvw0zAW0bNF93zBT_6rZwypTNSBoJnQdozKvgk/s320/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20rolling%20the%20paper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The actual image was likened to a "<i>shadow</i>" seen at the top and left from centre and the Marconi man could not give an adequate explanation in comparison to other recordings he had seen elsewhere in his work. It was picked up seventy yards north-east of Urquhart Castle at a depth of three to ten fathoms moving further into the deeps and causing "<i>considerable agitation of the water</i>". Anderson estimated the length at twenty feet and unlike the fish contacts also seen on the trace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMtcIj4hOC62OmSyJTk_rp_szBLnMFE0_z3nw-K2-pxVPGwCkecTlDByrtp5RSyadd0ij2IW5utcTLOecNQTeuCa7sKMlcugIU7rtv8PfpPLob-NMbznENfZm98PT01fCoHDDqfRs4LSLzKRdFPeuYqSodg1Bg1VD7JrpJPsfEAzDASChiZhtMLi-kxU/s1097/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20interesting%20contact%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1097" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMtcIj4hOC62OmSyJTk_rp_szBLnMFE0_z3nw-K2-pxVPGwCkecTlDByrtp5RSyadd0ij2IW5utcTLOecNQTeuCa7sKMlcugIU7rtv8PfpPLob-NMbznENfZm98PT01fCoHDDqfRs4LSLzKRdFPeuYqSodg1Bg1VD7JrpJPsfEAzDASChiZhtMLi-kxU/s320/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20interesting%20contact%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The "<i>shadow</i>" is certainly more in keeping with what I have seen elsewhere and should be considered as the first arguable sonar contact with the monster. The Rival III contact image is not so much "<i>too good to be true</i>" but more like "<i>could never be true</i>". The almost face on side view of the "object" with even limbs visible is incongruous with something which is below you, no matter the angle. In that edition of Witchell's book, we also get a clear photo of the BBC contact shown below. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbsVHdG9t-aGU9mn48wK8hH-tmGyvWkWwf-CUl6LRQCJQpX7-Qza4VOK1baOA23J_0o5dvjeRPdnjQuKGQcLtsQgXK_WohXf1CFWjFs1jeJ9t3MpBGKx_CPaH4d10FJ9SYIeZvjetJwZzQPU4jaeWDhJAEtCEwgZljoNYjccyWru2oPOmnwHPCpE38u0/s1123/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20interesting%20contact%20-%20Witchell.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1123" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbsVHdG9t-aGU9mn48wK8hH-tmGyvWkWwf-CUl6LRQCJQpX7-Qza4VOK1baOA23J_0o5dvjeRPdnjQuKGQcLtsQgXK_WohXf1CFWjFs1jeJ9t3MpBGKx_CPaH4d10FJ9SYIeZvjetJwZzQPU4jaeWDhJAEtCEwgZljoNYjccyWru2oPOmnwHPCpE38u0/w400-h195/BBC%201957%20echo%20sounder%20interesting%20contact%20-%20Witchell.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The image from the Rival III crew was again in the 1975 edition of "<i>The Loch Ness Story</i>" but had been quietly dropped in the 1989 edition and the BBC contact retained. How the image was put on the paper could boil down to inking it on with the same pens used for the device, though that does not appear to be a trivial task - depending on what you are trying to achieve. That would seem to be mandatory as the one outstanding issue with the image is that we are told that a Mr. Sutton, the technical development director of the echo sounder manufacturer, Kelvin-Hughes, examined the paper trace and declared it had not been "<i>faked or tampered with in any way</i>". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now we like our experts when it comes to Loch Ness accounts, no matter what side of the debate we are on. We quote them in defence of our positions and feel the better for it. The Daily Herald had bought this piece of paper from the owners of the drifter, but was this contingent on a favourable expert opinion? You would have thought so, but I cannot verify that. Was the Kelvin-Hughes technical man fooled or complicit and does that mean we need to more circumspect about who we look to as experts?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The other thing to note about the image is its resemblance to another image which caught the public imagination three years before. That was the Lachlan Stuart photograph of 1951 and the two are compared below. The three humps of the two images are clearly there and even the middle hump of both is the highest. If you are going to fake a Nessie sonar contact, why not link it to the latest and greatest photograph of the monster?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtsYQEQiJZgX7g0G-uYkDHkZoYV3iEwayYYb7N2NDqhXB0NULaPgrZePvupbI058gQUmEQ4GsRmCrcnuDODQ97McrHe0opGWGb6H0EYukAk0Jx5Jb--WjPKU_xhJUtTEq8f_gGrAE7bOjOFWhw2m9ByK-YCFqBAaEkk-LbSUJtw1B8VPOXMfrbwJ5Z0w8/s601/Rival%20III%20Sonar%20Image%20Zoom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="601" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtsYQEQiJZgX7g0G-uYkDHkZoYV3iEwayYYb7N2NDqhXB0NULaPgrZePvupbI058gQUmEQ4GsRmCrcnuDODQ97McrHe0opGWGb6H0EYukAk0Jx5Jb--WjPKU_xhJUtTEq8f_gGrAE7bOjOFWhw2m9ByK-YCFqBAaEkk-LbSUJtw1B8VPOXMfrbwJ5Z0w8/s320/Rival%20III%20Sonar%20Image%20Zoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMn5MN_PXLphRF16BjcZnQ5-wbi2O7QmtjB2C1f189c2nec8YPPGeg93i2PVzj-MiOXusNibbst-Vxl2Ldh-mstQW6X-pW9dXxv9cSeJo7mX8948480wPmz_EYr3i7QRVEY9zEUpMxc-rOLe_dJZ91sEJ0hPB4TOAgVcp9imP_6eSf8lGR6HY_m19bl8/s702/Lachlan%20Stuart%20Photo%20Zoom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="702" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMn5MN_PXLphRF16BjcZnQ5-wbi2O7QmtjB2C1f189c2nec8YPPGeg93i2PVzj-MiOXusNibbst-Vxl2Ldh-mstQW6X-pW9dXxv9cSeJo7mX8948480wPmz_EYr3i7QRVEY9zEUpMxc-rOLe_dJZ91sEJ0hPB4TOAgVcp9imP_6eSf8lGR6HY_m19bl8/s320/Lachlan%20Stuart%20Photo%20Zoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the image is dubious and the BBC contact is of more interest. Going back to the Lake Champlain sonar contact that brought back memories of this 1954 incident, I would ask the same questions of that more modern image. But I will leave that for others to develop.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i><br /></i></p></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-16937004652315101272023-07-05T12:44:00.001-07:002023-07-05T16:12:06.338-07:00A Visit to the new Loch Ness Centre Exhibition<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGitF7vmr0uhsSTQ3GfhaLb4A1v33O9ks5f3JYf3roWZJ9g-Zg8PodaFMtE0K9V6bzLWFG2hMQ1Obys1MvHCEb-d1I3f6quiYh6uU7SLrlMy8Ddo5G7bknXpJ5QEWmU8R3oYVyCnc19Tpz29hbnfDzCqStZnFOCsl4oDOktn9SetUQ9NKiBSvJD7DzRUw/s4000/20230623_134304.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGitF7vmr0uhsSTQ3GfhaLb4A1v33O9ks5f3JYf3roWZJ9g-Zg8PodaFMtE0K9V6bzLWFG2hMQ1Obys1MvHCEb-d1I3f6quiYh6uU7SLrlMy8Ddo5G7bknXpJ5QEWmU8R3oYVyCnc19Tpz29hbnfDzCqStZnFOCsl4oDOktn9SetUQ9NKiBSvJD7DzRUw/s320/20230623_134304.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A week or so ago, I made it up to Drumnadrochit to visit the new exhibition which is now under the management of Continuum Attractions and has undergone extensive changes over the first half of this year. It was time to see how the Loch Ness Monster story has been re-created by them over forty years since the first incarnation of this opened under the guidance of Tony Harmsworth. That first one was very much along the lines of the plesiosaur theory and everything was just about evidence while the subsequent exhibition was more along the lines of "<i>no monster here</i>" and everything was no longer evidence.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition moved from one extreme to another and so the question now was where the new one lay between these other two. Now I have to say here that I would not consider myself a suitable reviewer of exhibitions such as this. That is not because I am being paid to hype it or because I am related to anyone in the company. Rather, having imbibed a lot of the monster story over the decades, one can get a bit pernickety about things others would consider minor matters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, the exhibition was not specially designed for me or any other monster believer or indeed for any sceptic. It is an exhibition designed for the average person, who, though not stupid, has little knowledge of the subject and may want to know more. Therefore, the job of any such exhibition is to present the subject in such a way that does not deceive or try and lead a person down one path to a fixed conclusion. In that light, I offer my thoughts and observations.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I turned up on the Friday and found that there had been a power cut and so had to wait for perhaps ten minutes while this was sorted out and everything was brought back up to speed. I went in and at this point I will confess I got in on a free ticket from Continuum Attractions. That was no big deal as I had helped them out on a few minor things and that was a fair exchange. I would say there was about five of us going into the exhibition. This was a week before the schools in Scotland closed for the Summer holidays and so I wanted to be there before the tourists began to arrive en masse over the next few months.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first room we entered was a kind of ante-room before the main event. There were various famous and purported photographs of the Loch Ness Monster hanging on the wall along with sketches and a picture of the most famous man of all, Tim Dinsdale. On the wall beside these pictures was a quote from myself taken from one of my books. Don't worry, that was the first and last time you would hear about me in the exhibition! A nice touch above the pictures were four numbers hanging on hooks - implying they were subject to change. They were the numbers 1, 4, 4 and 5. Or to be more precise, one thousand, four hundred and forty five sightings and counting ... </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That would be the number taken from Gary Campbell's Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. So all a good start I thought. Throughout the ensuing exhibits, the "classic" photographs, though not explicitly presented as evidence of the Loch Ness Monster, were neither subject to some of the unfalsifiable and withering arguments you get from sceptics. Well, one or two were but I move on.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adrian Shine, the curator of the previous exhibition, would feature more than anyone else in the presentations. So he was there in the ante-room in a kind of "<i>live</i>" framed picture. I wasn't sure whether that implied an imbalance in views. On the one hand, he was there as an expert on the hydrology, limnology and history of the loch. On the other hand, he was also there as a sceptic regarding there being any large exotic creature in Loch Ness. Where one began and the other ended was not always clear to me.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIu9tPtIu3fUuLsJpebUDMz0qFStKxWWuNUmSP0SjnT4bnAqxOGraAca3akpXV85sxJUJ2bo3FROsSuiONhLKKpY9zywtprlCJhHEnhlXtahA6ZZqAJvHSJQOW1Oph8c0OMK2qP4he-AM2nmqfo6g2xOGVN6mHoK3qkuHt-Oh-0mSY2IaM_E__KJ1Pn4/s761/Adrian%20Shine.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="495" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIu9tPtIu3fUuLsJpebUDMz0qFStKxWWuNUmSP0SjnT4bnAqxOGraAca3akpXV85sxJUJ2bo3FROsSuiONhLKKpY9zywtprlCJhHEnhlXtahA6ZZqAJvHSJQOW1Oph8c0OMK2qP4he-AM2nmqfo6g2xOGVN6mHoK3qkuHt-Oh-0mSY2IaM_E__KJ1Pn4/s320/Adrian%20Shine.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alongside Adrian's animated portrait were two interesting items from the lore of the great story - a copy of the Drumbuie Stone and Marmaduke Wetherell's hippo ashtray. One of them was accompanied by a text asking if this could be linked to the monster - a recurring theme as I ventured on into the first video room. There were eight rooms in all, taking me fifty minutes to go through. The first was an introductory video of the natural history of the loch from ancient geological times. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQsekagWA0zh3X1gkCq8XgRW4luDzgBfUMXjZB7vTEL1HSDmmlPEubDvhvE-2YcLeNARsoD8mw39T_H6X6alCDQDT6xP_oh_V-rD2DqzoeUjQUHZp7664GGjROyQzTmT9g2ywwpobAp8R9Adbi-ThXz8TFnHDRYnRQAMbSXwVolkr8Plq1ZKCtOc3Poo/s4000/20230623_135138.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQsekagWA0zh3X1gkCq8XgRW4luDzgBfUMXjZB7vTEL1HSDmmlPEubDvhvE-2YcLeNARsoD8mw39T_H6X6alCDQDT6xP_oh_V-rD2DqzoeUjQUHZp7664GGjROyQzTmT9g2ywwpobAp8R9Adbi-ThXz8TFnHDRYnRQAMbSXwVolkr8Plq1ZKCtOc3Poo/s320/20230623_135138.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I studiously stood and watched this, though a man and his two kids just took a glance at it and hastily moved on. Why pay good money but then rush through? Maybe the power cut delay had messed up his itinerary or something. The video was an entertaining walk through volcanic times using video graphics up to a present day clip and set the scene for the mystery.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I next walked into the Myths and Legends room and was greeted by the voice of David Tennant, famous for his portrayal of Doctor Who and apparently a Nessie fan. He provided the voice over and it was natural that this room was the next subject to greet us. It had that kind of ethereal feel to it which captured well the nether-world of kelpies and water horses.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVXA_ea2J2hAnHaI82_Zjot1-a2tisVGyl5_D2i6xwEsx3lRQppe7wT9QRY9WRv_8d5kvKxi60BmV1bPx6xv6Fq8Gb4L2ksNLHwoI892uOmKjRdKbvmnfvni5thBq7j5JSUlg2y3x7vHUbifMgXvxCGxsqWXuS27hIy0QQt92yjn5oIS01znnr2SAt1w/s4000/20230623_135728.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVXA_ea2J2hAnHaI82_Zjot1-a2tisVGyl5_D2i6xwEsx3lRQppe7wT9QRY9WRv_8d5kvKxi60BmV1bPx6xv6Fq8Gb4L2ksNLHwoI892uOmKjRdKbvmnfvni5thBq7j5JSUlg2y3x7vHUbifMgXvxCGxsqWXuS27hIy0QQt92yjn5oIS01znnr2SAt1w/s320/20230623_135728.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">By this time, I was wondering if the room dimensions were exactly the same as the prior exhibition. It looked like it, but the refurbishment was more important than whether rooms had been combined or split up. It was next onto the room of Nessie's origins as a multi-screen display took us through the early 1930s and the beginnings of the modern monster. This was in a dramatised form using actors representing such people as Aldie Mackay and Alex Campbell in the setting of an old style pub.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alongside that was a screen displaying people, photos and sketches linked to the mystery as shown below. Here the old classic photos were again on display and in general they were neither praised nor pilloried, which I guess was the best I could hope for. One or two were questioned and I do not recall seeing the O'Connor, Shiels or Cockrell photos.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTgVEXlpHtAafcBinNtroFg264mRTylPdnJKqSw1FEcHVFzMMas6gv6eqk_XPqUvdydDD9TeA6k-J7Po77xZ43b5T1blQNI_4-rD0XuwZK2jy3jBlvePJ-02TLWzoTI64gpKbSesue8lxnBcSeIEcNSnxovgJ57YzqM_hchm0iKOtorlFQG_pl1Z92Po/s4000/20230623_140909.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTgVEXlpHtAafcBinNtroFg264mRTylPdnJKqSw1FEcHVFzMMas6gv6eqk_XPqUvdydDD9TeA6k-J7Po77xZ43b5T1blQNI_4-rD0XuwZK2jy3jBlvePJ-02TLWzoTI64gpKbSesue8lxnBcSeIEcNSnxovgJ57YzqM_hchm0iKOtorlFQG_pl1Z92Po/s320/20230623_140909.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">It was interesting to see actors who were non-white depicting eyewitnesses. I guess this was to fulfill diversity quotas but it made me think whether there had been any such eyewitness over the last ninety years. I could not think of a single one and although back in the 1930s that would have been no surprise, nobody over the last few decades came to mind. Of course, most of the time the ethnicity of the person involved is never stated. They are there out there somewhere, but who was the most famous one? I am sure someone will let me know.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The next room was a high vaulted space bathed in green light which conveyed the depths of the loch and the exploration of it. Well, it is actually more tea-like but green is perhaps more calming. The effects made one think they were standing at the bottom of the loch looking up as a large screen took us through the various underwater searches over the years. The effects were good with the odd mysterious shadow flitting past but I did not agree with the sceptical assessment of the 1975 "body" picture taken by the AAS. Well, I did say this exhibition wasn't crafted with a small cadre of Nessie hunters in mind!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilUcdWhBKhDk3AzjMJRSY8jIztXWsKI5cJRq8rsoqh__f4MflNcQDXlw1pqlvsQu4XzQzYbQgPoJDJEb7cmJ7kz7PNcAZth-E7iQfhqWFa_CIAJu09Njzoncj1jG2Zr8cJHT1VpuJkS1xazcFlMWC5pckHo01SH_4i-iF2Ys7gOVUG6SkxmMjrgbtlPcU/s4000/20230623_141421.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilUcdWhBKhDk3AzjMJRSY8jIztXWsKI5cJRq8rsoqh__f4MflNcQDXlw1pqlvsQu4XzQzYbQgPoJDJEb7cmJ7kz7PNcAZth-E7iQfhqWFa_CIAJu09Njzoncj1jG2Zr8cJHT1VpuJkS1xazcFlMWC5pckHo01SH_4i-iF2Ys7gOVUG6SkxmMjrgbtlPcU/s320/20230623_141421.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The next room was what I would describe as the previous exhibition compressed into one room. This was the domain of Adrian Shine as he appeared on a large video screen in front of the John Murray boat giving us his perspective on the decades of the hunt, what animals may or may not be Nessie, the other usual suspects which fool observers and where do we go from here? Now I do not mean that Nessie scepticism was confined to this room only, it was not, but this was the room to go to for that genre of opinion. As I said, this was going to be an exhibition that would attempt to balance these two opposing poles. Did it achieve that? I will give my take on that at the end.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi54-9XRz3nUoJbKoROWfIjCWV716y38tJgrRAgoGBGpZAVs1MoaQBHhyZk5RDIPUzm-TJ3Hwed2sREMGt4vkwZlOJh0e8S6CJLaCHvR0OcZvjg57r_ZkKtt_xtYKa5IAq6msrZl4uOO3OhoQ1FIWg6947XuSEF4_Lq7FBFg5k8ibhRiyvqWmZO1vKRtE8/s4000/20230623_141923.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi54-9XRz3nUoJbKoROWfIjCWV716y38tJgrRAgoGBGpZAVs1MoaQBHhyZk5RDIPUzm-TJ3Hwed2sREMGt4vkwZlOJh0e8S6CJLaCHvR0OcZvjg57r_ZkKtt_xtYKa5IAq6msrZl4uOO3OhoQ1FIWg6947XuSEF4_Lq7FBFg5k8ibhRiyvqWmZO1vKRtE8/s320/20230623_141923.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, it was a well presented video, and yes, people are fooled by everyday phenomenon, and so that had to be said, it just depends how you say it. As the tour drew to a close, it was into the penultimate room which was a kind of reprise of what had gone before as final arguments were made. There was a display of items highlighting curious explanations of monsters but the main focus was the video wall and at this point we finally got to meet some Nessie believers in the form of Steve Feltham and Alan McKenna who were stating their case to me. No worries, chaps, I am all in.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilqrJQYwT8sNH7qBcYtBFKoe6wpJ8yVpdUaw7yKmus9n9vHoaJN5HUoGJXopwr0zQQaQuSaCcOIUnLEfJ0XCTt8chiY1iGfdAkYW5adz2RbLk6gvZY4bkQCIJRAnm3FqcT_GgT8qJsmdrtyKO5-_CkT2nCkg64-c2LcISrJ9Yu3pyqL6X3wGen045WHnI/s4000/20230623_143512.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilqrJQYwT8sNH7qBcYtBFKoe6wpJ8yVpdUaw7yKmus9n9vHoaJN5HUoGJXopwr0zQQaQuSaCcOIUnLEfJ0XCTt8chiY1iGfdAkYW5adz2RbLk6gvZY4bkQCIJRAnm3FqcT_GgT8qJsmdrtyKO5-_CkT2nCkg64-c2LcISrJ9Yu3pyqL6X3wGen045WHnI/s320/20230623_143512.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">With all that done and dusted it was time to place your vote. What did I think? Plesiosaur? Big fish? Hoax? Boats? Logs or what? Make your choice and press one or more of those nine buttons. That was quite fun and my vote was added to produce a video wall display of all cumulative results. And the winner was ... well, you just got to love the voting public.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I took snapshots of the running totals and may come back at the end of the Summer to see how the voting has progressed. The final room may or may not have been a room, perhaps more of an exit hall. But it had preserved something that was for me a favourite part of the previous exhibition and that was the video testimonies of some well known sightings, straight from the witnesses themselves. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nwGiSc21SwLyToPpJDAgCmSNakvCWsaYAYnsm1j5vedNyGpTmfpCi8UqaZPZkGLARwxp05cSpnIKBfX3QyhiCAFGIMLHXCHB15Chw5CZFhpE4PYPoAILxrIdKPX9GPD9_fwn-f0nwoAyhIY_YIfXn1STDMSiIHtijM3cTC-NqgsRpPUZE_HfQJ1f2ro/s4000/20230623_143858.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nwGiSc21SwLyToPpJDAgCmSNakvCWsaYAYnsm1j5vedNyGpTmfpCi8UqaZPZkGLARwxp05cSpnIKBfX3QyhiCAFGIMLHXCHB15Chw5CZFhpE4PYPoAILxrIdKPX9GPD9_fwn-f0nwoAyhIY_YIfXn1STDMSiIHtijM3cTC-NqgsRpPUZE_HfQJ1f2ro/s320/20230623_143858.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">This is something any enquiring mind should listen to and so I was glad to see it still there and a bit more modern looking. However, it was hard to hear the audio as there was some music playing over it in the same area. In the last exhibition, there was a set of headphones one could plug in to the display and hear it clearly. But it appeared there was no headphone facility, perhaps this was some health and safety rule about sharing a headphone. Anyway, I told the staff nearby about the issue and hopefully it will be sorted soon.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Overall, it was a big improvement on the previous exhibition in terms of presentation, entertainment and seeking a balance between belief and scepticism. However, what was actually presented as potential evidence for the Loch Ness Monster was small, the sonar hit of October 2020 taken from a Cruise Loch Ness boat got some attention at the end. As stated earlier, it was good to see some classic images presented uncritically, but no more than that. I wondered where some other classic images were, such as the Dinsdale film? Or more modern ones from the last twenty years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps there was copyright and licensing issues tied to some of those? You can't just put on display images owned by others when you are charging a fee to see them. Such is the commercial world of the Loch Ness Monster. On the other hand, sceptical images of logs and wakes are pretty much free. So how did I rate the exhibition for balance between scepticism and belief in the creature?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I assigned a mark to each of the eight rooms out of 100, so 60:40 would be 60% pro-Nessie and 40% anti-Nessie for want of better phrases and each room was given equal weight. I added them up and got a balance of 55:45 in favour of Nessie. So I could say that the exhibition had achieved a balance with a tilt towards Scotland's most famous creature. Others of course, may come up with different numbers, but go yourself and form your own opinion as to how the mystery of the loch has been newly presented to us in Drumnadrochit.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-70764252188220682782023-06-20T16:09:00.002-07:002023-06-20T16:09:55.180-07:00First Photograph of 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkObCtLE3Z0_6HtcisOOJtr2CdwPlDYg0h92vrI-E3eGEIuyW33akgZqq3i9zhaTbka4ibdKg1L2OcfbbwFiod7KXRIq6ytqfZu-V4CNOyzY_fXSCOLTp5kWZE7_Om2mUnyo4d5N1UsbGaXUFbnHe8L6KeEQOBvPBPVjyi0rOW6ijWX2Bu0qDu9oD/s848/Etienne%20Camel%20near%20Invermoriston%20150623.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="848" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkObCtLE3Z0_6HtcisOOJtr2CdwPlDYg0h92vrI-E3eGEIuyW33akgZqq3i9zhaTbka4ibdKg1L2OcfbbwFiod7KXRIq6ytqfZu-V4CNOyzY_fXSCOLTp5kWZE7_Om2mUnyo4d5N1UsbGaXUFbnHe8L6KeEQOBvPBPVjyi0rOW6ijWX2Bu0qDu9oD/s320/Etienne%20Camel%20near%20Invermoriston%20150623.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A tourist from France presents us with the first claimed Nessie photograph of the year as the Daily Telegraph relates from the 16th June:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>A tourist visiting Loch Ness has claimed to have seen a 65ft-long dark shape moving just beneath the surface of the water for several minutes. Etienne Camel, a pharmacist from Lyon and his wife Eliane were taking holiday photos from the west side of the loch near Invermoriston when they made the latest sighting of the long-reputed “monster”.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>He said: “It was quite strange. I am a man of science so I never believed that the Loch Ness monster is a prehistoric animal. But when I was taking a picture I saw this long, long shadow. I called my wife over and we saw the shadow move. I thought maybe it was a cloud, but there was none, or a boat, but none was near or reefs. There were small waves, like something was moving. It was 15-20m long and was about 150m away. It was quite strange and then it disappeared."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>He added: “We could not tell if it was an animal, but something was moving under the water. I have never seen such [things] in lakes – and we have many where we live – before.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now the kind of photographs I like show something solid and animate on the surface, but disturbances of the water surface still need an examination. Since there is nothing visible on the water, you can't really argue for it being anything unusual unless the water is being disturbed in unexpected ways which brings us to the various natural explanations suggested in these situations.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Differentials in water turbulence left by boat wakes, windrows, catspaws and wind slicks all figure and sometimes groups of small animals, though this picture is detailed enough to exclude birds. I don't know how windy it was that day, but Loch Ness effectively acts as a wind tunnel channeling the general south-westerly wind up it and magnifying wind flows across the large surface area. That can lead to inconsistencies in the dynamics of the wind distribution.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, localised and large areas can experience more or less turbulence than their surrounding waters and give the appearance of something underneath disturbing the surface or perhaps looking darker is seen at a longer distance. The fact that they will stay for a long time and be bigger than any monster (the witness said it was up to 60 feet long) is normally the give away features.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was said to move, but alterations in wind flow can give that effect too. So, an interesting image which can be banked in the catalogue of things to look out for. These kind of pictures have been published on this blog over the years. This <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-new-sighting-from-2012.html">link</a> tells the tale of another such image taken by Ken Ross in October 2012. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnrk5FZMKE7d4pyYqq5wH-wYX6CrEnRc_oTHUZzCwC5nPbY7aR5-h47DrcIAqzKAdzrOeR7Rjgucs43_TYynR9-wjykXF3ps_ftiPR1Q9cfFWVKAHWZ_hnuigxfNlbYZubFXZptG3PwcqZWf33ahkorhPbOkN5uZMhR76l0CspIbEq-JJ-DpN-xvsNmQ/s788/Ken%20Ross%20October%2035th%202012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="788" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnrk5FZMKE7d4pyYqq5wH-wYX6CrEnRc_oTHUZzCwC5nPbY7aR5-h47DrcIAqzKAdzrOeR7Rjgucs43_TYynR9-wjykXF3ps_ftiPR1Q9cfFWVKAHWZ_hnuigxfNlbYZubFXZptG3PwcqZWf33ahkorhPbOkN5uZMhR76l0CspIbEq-JJ-DpN-xvsNmQ/s320/Ken%20Ross%20October%2035th%202012.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That one was estimated to be about 200 feet long. We even have some videos as shown below. The first was taken in April 2010 at Urquhart Bay.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/byiZaORDIhQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="byiZaORDIhQ"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The second was taken in the same area later in August 2010 by some Italian tourists.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y8R8YNWxWh0" width="320" youtube-src-id="Y8R8YNWxWh0"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now all these do not need the same explanation and indeed perhaps amongst all these there is one caused by a large object under the surface. It has to be said however, that Nessie must be some kind of buoyancy expert if she can consistently disturb the water surface without ever breaking it and exposing a neck, back or tail. Until that happens, at best file these pictures as inconclusive.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One final thought did occur to me. Take Etienne Camel's picture, zoom it out, put it at a much further distance to flatten it, image it on a low resolution webcam rather than a camera and you will likely end up with something like the picture below. They won't explain all of Eoin's pictures - some, but not all.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihq-QhnoyoWdlE2HEotoB8XzX5w1RJu5Oxl3NOHkJIMiPAdjJs0H22fJV-c-lzVl9tGqkn3o7v8XVjw71_6EkX6Sy4mnCVSpXadnqjleIGKoR6uGZpA9b1NZ-NbFXGmy4JluGs_A1gYDTGrrqSJH9aU8C6DYSRuYiAhX0rex_NgP4e3_VmjcX6svpFSEs/s810/Eoin%20Fagan%20webcam%20October%202022.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="810" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihq-QhnoyoWdlE2HEotoB8XzX5w1RJu5Oxl3NOHkJIMiPAdjJs0H22fJV-c-lzVl9tGqkn3o7v8XVjw71_6EkX6Sy4mnCVSpXadnqjleIGKoR6uGZpA9b1NZ-NbFXGmy4JluGs_A1gYDTGrrqSJH9aU8C6DYSRuYiAhX0rex_NgP4e3_VmjcX6svpFSEs/s320/Eoin%20Fagan%20webcam%20October%202022.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But keep looking, keep snapping and who knows? Get back to us when y'all get something like this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbxfXIuzjccKkRGwPB4Xps_RfIFe-Gt_9PZlDGwcuolyuwHMKsXqW_vsq_efdIKFjc7oJG4YGSyTui4qHzeY-62K6nB7D0SfyLWrl459W_WqE-B6bWMV4NQAFwk68bbiP7lytmnV6SxHzuITGFwi34NVDGC3vz1lxHFKXG67eVRmTdlECy_3ZfGJSzV0/s166/Image%201%20zoom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="131" data-original-width="166" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbxfXIuzjccKkRGwPB4Xps_RfIFe-Gt_9PZlDGwcuolyuwHMKsXqW_vsq_efdIKFjc7oJG4YGSyTui4qHzeY-62K6nB7D0SfyLWrl459W_WqE-B6bWMV4NQAFwk68bbiP7lytmnV6SxHzuITGFwi34NVDGC3vz1lxHFKXG67eVRmTdlECy_3ZfGJSzV0/w320-h253/Image%201%20zoom.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">... or this ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAL6iN_q2ilIs2Od7UIUdX8LEugbJmA81rNw7FkUnYRzhGBKxmOmJynPAs8_GMym2wLX1TiOYdTez3kAf9_n9BS5o-cHJIXScxTgLesq0ABeDJDFlIbewXjBr80uNvjc8xVO3vhU9JzNEVE2Oq5c_WbA3d0GWFnr1KZGlrLCOWE7uNhuieNFvnvVVytto/s435/Whyte%20Version.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="435" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAL6iN_q2ilIs2Od7UIUdX8LEugbJmA81rNw7FkUnYRzhGBKxmOmJynPAs8_GMym2wLX1TiOYdTez3kAf9_n9BS5o-cHJIXScxTgLesq0ABeDJDFlIbewXjBr80uNvjc8xVO3vhU9JzNEVE2Oq5c_WbA3d0GWFnr1KZGlrLCOWE7uNhuieNFvnvVVytto/s320/Whyte%20Version.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">... or this. And if you believe that no good, clear pictures of the Loch Ness Monster have been obtained in the last ninety years, then you simply do not believe in the Loch Ness Monster!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikdineCU2jywULJqT7-YIAdsvO8WwkRPyC3MyYlC4cflVHoBc0ZzCRrBM1AdgXF9t2os4YJgBoOaR1KOL3WoA8tdjU0QhmFTEyx2Nxmgq2ngQ_pkkDV4Lq9jAIDoc48WtgercICIgumEMuzOesuYNgMeW-5rSKH4V8LfhwMeAWIFappfL0G-q0agbZBBc/s500/Daily%20Mail%202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="500" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikdineCU2jywULJqT7-YIAdsvO8WwkRPyC3MyYlC4cflVHoBc0ZzCRrBM1AdgXF9t2os4YJgBoOaR1KOL3WoA8tdjU0QhmFTEyx2Nxmgq2ngQ_pkkDV4Lq9jAIDoc48WtgercICIgumEMuzOesuYNgMeW-5rSKH4V8LfhwMeAWIFappfL0G-q0agbZBBc/s320/Daily%20Mail%202.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-6755105137485165482023-06-08T16:18:00.002-07:002023-06-11T15:13:49.921-07:00New Loch Ness Monster Exhibition Opens Tomorrow<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjdbEV-EhoCOjXYxvcy0Rbq3HA5IxWNzZG4Ol1dAm6Mky28kIhfhlbCGsvE-jaSD45i11jfPHNFFhUwZNHy8i2A77GNzVBXmRbYgNWQr-zwPCPZnpZR4nBYlL6izw8t3m1xHC_KM_o8OtsFabyvSDSjsGWK_q8VAsLtxDYcSnnbgcJzG1ZOh0iSPU/s768/Exhibition%20St%20Columba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjdbEV-EhoCOjXYxvcy0Rbq3HA5IxWNzZG4Ol1dAm6Mky28kIhfhlbCGsvE-jaSD45i11jfPHNFFhUwZNHy8i2A77GNzVBXmRbYgNWQr-zwPCPZnpZR4nBYlL6izw8t3m1xHC_KM_o8OtsFabyvSDSjsGWK_q8VAsLtxDYcSnnbgcJzG1ZOh0iSPU/w400-h240/Exhibition%20St%20Columba.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The day is upon us and it is tomorrow (Saturday 10th June) when the new exhibition opens to the public. Those with a stake in the mystery have already made statements. Adrian Shine, the curator of the previous exhibition and a consultant for this new re-presentation says it is "<i>imaginative, creative, entertaining and accessible</i>". When asked why he did not include the word "<i>definitive</i>", he <a href="https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/5818633/loch-ness-monster-visitor-centre-nessie/">said</a>:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Stories like this are seldom definitive. But it has moved on. We don’t like to let go of our myths, but we modify them in the light of information we get. We can hold on to the myth and still be reasonable and that’s the fun.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adrian re-affirmed his sceptical position on the BBC News yesterday, though emphasizing it was not a cynical scepticism. <span style="text-align: left;">Monster Hunter, Steve Feltham, has also played his part in the production process and has already seen the finished product. He was a lot more positive about the monster as opposed to the myth:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>If I were only to be allowed one single word to describe the new Loch Ness Centre exhibition it would be, "Sexy". Continuum have managed to bring the mystery to life in so many impressive ways. They have put back the mystery, the romance, the possibility and the humour, in such an engaging way. </i><i>Honestly when I stepped out of the last room into the gift shop I just wanted to get back to the waters edge and get on with the hunt. The hunt is on, the game is afoot.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was invited to a preview myself this Friday, but, alas, other commitments stop me from going up to the loch this weekend. I will have to find a date real soon and get up north to see this promising new development in the Loch Ness Monster story. I will have to avoid the pictures that people will doubtless post on various websites and the multitude of comments for good or ill that may prejudice one's expectations. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But for starters, the picture at the top is an exhibition animation of St Columba's encounter with a "<i>water beast</i>" somewhere along the river or loch (the Latin text is ambiguous). I covered this story in a previous <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-worlds-oldest-loch-ness-monster.html">article</a>. The text by Adamnan doesn't describe what the creature looked like, but the popular plesiosaur-like animal is used here. And therein lies the creative aspects of an exhibition where myth and monster can be allowed to meet without canceling each other out. In the 19th century, the demonic water horse was the explanatory wrapper put around what people were claiming to see. The following century, it was the plesiosaur wrapper. Such are the added accretions of ancient and modern folklore.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">People like Adrian will say today that if you remove either wrapper, you will find nothing but empty space inside. To extend the metaphor a bit further, I would contend you can't wrap up nothing - it would just collapse. Whatever that "<i>something</i>" is lying under the various layers added by men over the centuries, it is solid enough and I hope the new Loch Ness Centre Exhibition attempts to take a peek at what lies under the artificial layers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-41525562591368086062023-05-12T16:58:00.000-07:002023-05-12T16:58:02.489-07:00Artificial Intelligence and the Loch Ness Monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPnJkycA2m5-lIGiYtyjdBZou1kYGZh-dExoSAulagww0ipI9hFy_E92xOLJtjHl-1J6zk0mtt0GE_6hWYW_pSyTtZS1EgyduS-I9Nw1wBbqH_lT1oeecX6G926_gHojGDxESTbw6UtUg2dcUcEf6H4rVMrRXtUvoWPvMEHDPWT59fy7nFkNtxY13/s1024/May%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPnJkycA2m5-lIGiYtyjdBZou1kYGZh-dExoSAulagww0ipI9hFy_E92xOLJtjHl-1J6zk0mtt0GE_6hWYW_pSyTtZS1EgyduS-I9Nw1wBbqH_lT1oeecX6G926_gHojGDxESTbw6UtUg2dcUcEf6H4rVMrRXtUvoWPvMEHDPWT59fy7nFkNtxY13/s320/May%202023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There has been some chat on Nessie forums recently about AI and how it may affect the search for the Loch Ness Monster. I wish to address two points of view on this nascent technology. First is the matter of image creation applications which have this so called artificially intelligent attribute. The image above is one such example that recently surfaced on Internet forums. It is expected that such candidates deceptively submitted as proof of the monster will make it harder to distinguish real untampered images from these fakes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, ever since the 1930s, researchers have had to contend with deceptive images from Loch Ness, though image manipulation did not arrive until much later on. Theories on what is actually in a given image can abound, even to the point of people being dogmatic even though a photograph is far from being the objective alternative to a subjective eyewitness testimony that some think it is.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">AI generated images are not quite the quantum leap they are made out to be in terms of quality. Such images have been created by skilled people for a long time. The difference now is that the image creation program needs a lot less skill from the user and the program becomes the artist itself. The user is now more the client who specifies the subject of the image, the style of it, background and uploads of previous images that are to be blended in and so on. The bar to entry will now be lower and that means more such images appearing on the Internet.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Looking around at current AI generated images of the Loch Ness Monster, the vast majority look cartoonish, scaly dinosaur-like, dragon-like, stylized or not photo-realistic such as the one below. The backgrounds can also bear little resemblance to Loch Ness but the objective is to have some fun and be creative with your favourite subjects. The one at the top of this article looks more like an attempt to be realistic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEXb1dhl45sfInG6OoGjapCl_WvJezkMBR1aa6CW3OCPlsBzyu--MKsxIBGb2nyPEsQdkbpHdqrkDJvSmH1kXN4fCZ5eY3QWuOfIZOu-uGOwFlvTQOC_tXoxrr1VK5J5ewDI3ZkvZQXOe-a7e47UCJzD0WVx1Hz_JRrOM8LmR5BQh-x4AeVEAzMCv/s1000/Adobe%20AI%20Nessie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1000" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEXb1dhl45sfInG6OoGjapCl_WvJezkMBR1aa6CW3OCPlsBzyu--MKsxIBGb2nyPEsQdkbpHdqrkDJvSmH1kXN4fCZ5eY3QWuOfIZOu-uGOwFlvTQOC_tXoxrr1VK5J5ewDI3ZkvZQXOe-a7e47UCJzD0WVx1Hz_JRrOM8LmR5BQh-x4AeVEAzMCv/w400-h226/Adobe%20AI%20Nessie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>stock.adobe.com/images/ai-generated-digital-art-of-loch-ness-monster/543168438</i></div></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The image is not difficult to question as there are one too many quirky features to it but if someone did try and pass off a similar type of image as a genuine incident, it would have to pass through the normal stages of investigation. Researchers approach this from different angles. Some visually examine the picture for departures from the reality of the actual location, date and time. The object of interest is of course scrutinized for incongruities and similarities to everyday phenomena.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another approach is to use Google to search for similar images available on the Internet and it is possible one may come across the original photograph minus the "<i>monster</i>" and other special effects. Google has its own image search facility or one can manually look for it. In fact, Google will soon release an enhanced version of their image search tool to help identify fake images generated by AI or people (article <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/google-s-new-image-search-tools-could-help-you-identify-ai-generated-fakes/ar-AA1b18Qx">here</a>).</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Google going forward will tag the metadata of any image created with their own AI tools as an AI-generated image and others providers are expected to follow suit. The problem is some may not. Metadata, or information about the image, has been a factor in image analysis for some time. Digital camera metadata will record information about date of creation, image format and camera settings to aid assessment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By way of example, here are two screenshots of another water horse based on a picture I took with my Samsung smartphone. They are of one of the Kelpie statues near Falkirk, Scotland. The first is copied straight from the phone onto my laptop and has the same metadata as the image in the phone's memory. The second image has been altered by adding the words "<i>this image has been altered</i>" to the top left.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2NuZ_VfQEP0smLUwKLCQ2di8ha__G-jdk7BkAbrKY12BfGYUO1gk2gZJolWQTmrG6PhkaCFFC9BNq8hIcGWX7wCVYJmGjbudbJuommEpBQ3wPMBzBHFIWtCFaNmbTwoOGuVkdF2bNqey4J821Q9Zq4YCBOgDzDkgjpCOIbbtsdrPXWijdFEoJro-t/s1920/Kelpie%20-%20copy%20from%20camera.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1017" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2NuZ_VfQEP0smLUwKLCQ2di8ha__G-jdk7BkAbrKY12BfGYUO1gk2gZJolWQTmrG6PhkaCFFC9BNq8hIcGWX7wCVYJmGjbudbJuommEpBQ3wPMBzBHFIWtCFaNmbTwoOGuVkdF2bNqey4J821Q9Zq4YCBOgDzDkgjpCOIbbtsdrPXWijdFEoJro-t/w400-h213/Kelpie%20-%20copy%20from%20camera.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWT-HC3fICfOPFzwPxw5x4OC8At-ZnwD2j9UPJvAbhb61vC0b_XYLf7cAwsKmt7dEO2PU--VGykFKyh45Wz8-jloXqbfPYVEGZ-SqAch9DspjtT0jsIkiy38q_0R66W3Rve9rtwoOLZlAKI4775oEs-4ag2z49JogQwx_Vj_raHIs4z82xUALpIbg/s1920/Kelpie%20-%20copy%20then%20alter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="1920" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWT-HC3fICfOPFzwPxw5x4OC8At-ZnwD2j9UPJvAbhb61vC0b_XYLf7cAwsKmt7dEO2PU--VGykFKyh45Wz8-jloXqbfPYVEGZ-SqAch9DspjtT0jsIkiy38q_0R66W3Rve9rtwoOLZlAKI4775oEs-4ag2z49JogQwx_Vj_raHIs4z82xUALpIbg/w400-h211/Kelpie%20-%20copy%20then%20alter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">This results in differences in the image specifics. The file and original dates are different as are the file sizes, number of colours, etc. In all cases, the original image must be examined but that is not a given. We have had a couple of instances in recent years where hoaxers were less than helpful in producing a bona fide original image. I think of Ricky "<i>random log</i>" Phillips and Steve "<i>catfish</i>" Challice. As regards the image at the top of the page, a look at its metadata revealed no EXIF data on camera parameters as one would expect from a digital camera image.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-PAjHoj_o-d8Ka0Q9Z3seTqBgNLp648zUa6EHeu0VTXckE-SXpSlC8ohKb9oxhkBJFeJxysLKP6EkOR_eDhcZIWo8zZ16cmr2Gvn4dyMdYVU_WDArXBsNxCFUMi0w-Ch8DwjaNhBKxtvl2MV4BTRqgxm1oG-OxtJ_CZGJpjWUnw0KTr-Skh-89WU/s1920/May%202023%20IrfanView.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="1920" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-PAjHoj_o-d8Ka0Q9Z3seTqBgNLp648zUa6EHeu0VTXckE-SXpSlC8ohKb9oxhkBJFeJxysLKP6EkOR_eDhcZIWo8zZ16cmr2Gvn4dyMdYVU_WDArXBsNxCFUMi0w-Ch8DwjaNhBKxtvl2MV4BTRqgxm1oG-OxtJ_CZGJpjWUnw0KTr-Skh-89WU/w400-h211/May%202023%20IrfanView.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">That may not be an issue as such data can be lost during a conversion process such as JPEG to GIF. But if you push further and they do not produce the original, the picture should be rejected. So the tools are there and also improving but that will not stop people producing these images if it means they get their five minutes of fame on the mainstream media websites. You may conclusively prove the image is a fraud to those who are listening, but too many media outlets want the clickbait to draw in viewers, be it a genuine image or not. Twas ever thus.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>ASKING THE QUESTIONS</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other more positive aspect of AI I tested in regard to the Loch Ness Monster is ChatGPT, an artificially intelligent chatbot developed by the tech company OpenAI which went online last November. ChatGPT interacts with users in a conversational style but can do other tasks such as write music, business reports and summarize texts. Users can rate the responses and offer feedback thus feeding into the program's learning in the manner of any human who improves as they interact with others. I began by asking it the obvious question - what is the Loch Ness Monster? The initial response was:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Loch Ness Monster, also known as "Nessie," is a legendary creature said to inhabit Loch Ness, a large freshwater lake in the Scottish Highlands. According to popular belief, Nessie is a large, long-necked aquatic reptile or dinosaur-like creature that has eluded capture and scientific study for decades.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The first recorded sighting of Nessie dates back to 565 AD when Saint Columba is said to have encountered a "water beast" in the River Ness. However, the modern legend of Nessie began in 1933 when a local newspaper reported the sighting of a large creature in Loch Ness. Since then, there have been many reported sightings, photographs, and videos of Nessie, although most of them have been proven to be hoaxes or misidentifications of other objects or animals.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster remains a popular subject of folklore and a significant tourist attraction in Scotland.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That answer is fair enough for a few sentences. One may hesitate to call it AI if it was just scraping the Internet for texts to stitch together. Well, that is a bit simplistic as it has done something quite difficult as it extracts the priority facts required out of many possible source texts, summarize them, put them in order and render it readable to a human. ChatGPT was basically doing the same job as a human journalist would do to create a couple of paragraphs to sum up the mystery. It may have even done it better than some humans. There is the option to ask the same question again and ChatGPT attempted a more refined answer:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Loch Ness Monster, also known as "Nessie," is a legendary creature said to inhabit Loch Ness, a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands. According to popular belief, Nessie is a large aquatic animal that resembles a plesiosaur, a type of prehistoric reptile that lived during the dinosaur era. The first reports of a creature in Loch Ness date back to the 6th century, but it was not until the 1930s that the modern legend of Nessie began to take shape, fueled by a series of alleged sightings and photographs.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Despite numerous expeditions and scientific studies, there is no concrete evidence that the Loch Ness Monster actually exists. Many scientists believe that the reported sightings are likely misidentifications of known animals, such as seals or large fish, or simply hoaxes or misinterpretations of natural phenomena. Nevertheless, the legend of Nessie continues to capture the imagination of people around the world, and the search for evidence of the creature remains a popular pastime and subject of speculation.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now that is all well and good, but I wanted to exercise its creative "<i>thinking</i>" a bit more. I asked what equipment is used to hunt the Loch Ness Monster?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>As far as I know, there is no specific equipment designed to hunt the Loch Ness Monster, as it is widely believed to be a mythical creature and its existence has not been scientifically proven. However, there have been numerous attempts to find evidence of the creature's existence using various methods, such as sonar imaging, underwater cameras, and even submarines. Some people have also claimed to have captured photographs or videos of the creature using standard cameras or smartphones. However, the authenticity of these sightings and evidence has been widely debated and remains inconclusive.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The "<i>as far as I know</i>" indeed suggests a lack of accuracy as equipment has been designed for hunting the monster, such as the AAS underwater sonar/camera rigs. However, I did not ask for such examples, only for any general equipment used. So we get sonar, underwater cameras, submarines and cameras which is not an exhaustive list. There is no mention of binoculars, drones, hydrophones, bait and so on. I asked for a refined answer:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>There is no equipment specifically designed for hunting the Loch Ness Monster, as its existence has not been scientifically proven. However, some people have attempted to search for the creature using various tools, such as:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Sonar equipment: Some researchers have used sonar to scan the depths of Loch Ness in search of any large, unidentified objects.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Underwater cameras: Underwater cameras have been used to capture images and videos of the underwater environment in Loch Ness, but no definitive evidence of the monster has been captured.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Submarines and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs): These devices can explore the depths of Loch Ness without putting humans in danger, and may be able to capture high-quality images and videos of any potential creatures in the water.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Bait and lures: Some people have attempted to lure the Loch Ness Monster to the surface by using food or other bait.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>It's worth noting that despite decades of searching and numerous expeditions, no conclusive evidence of the Loch Ness Monster's existence has been found.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, I don't think anything was added here apart from bait and lures. Again, it insists no specialist equipment exists, which is not what I asked and again it feels the need to be an Artificial Sceptic by telling me no equipment has found anything. I stopped there and wanted to try another approach to test its creativity more. That was to ask it for suggestions about new ways to hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. Now searching the Internet for that kind of answer would prove to be more challenging. I asked it to suggest new ways of hunting the Loch Ness Monster:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>As an AI language model, I do not support or encourage any activities that could potentially harm the environment or any living beings. However, I can suggest some non-invasive ways to search for the Loch Ness Monster:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Conduct an aerial survey: Using drones or helicopters equipped with high-definition cameras, scientists and researchers can conduct an aerial survey of the loch to look for any unusual activity on the surface of the water.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Use sonar technology: Advanced sonar equipment can be used to map the loch's underwater terrain and to detect any large, moving objects.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Deploy underwater cameras: Placing underwater cameras at various depths in the loch can help capture any evidence of the creature's existence.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Conduct environmental DNA analysis: Researchers can collect water samples from different locations in the loch and analyze them for traces of DNA from any unknown species.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Set up a network of acoustic sensors: Placing a network of acoustic sensors in the loch can help detect any unusual sounds or vocalizations that could potentially be coming from the creature.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>It's worth noting that despite numerous reported sightings over the years, there is currently no scientific evidence that proves the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. Any search for the creature should be conducted with the utmost respect for the environment and its inhabitants.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Okay, that was very eco-friendly with its concern for Nessie, but all these things have been done, although they could be done in new ways. The network of acoustic sensors has not really been done at Loch Ness. So maybe something there from ChatGPT. I then suspected I was not framing the question properly by using that word "<i>hunting</i>" which was not taken in it metaphorical sense by ChatGPT. I replaced it with "<i>searching</i>":</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The search for the Loch Ness Monster has been ongoing for decades, but so far, no conclusive evidence has been found. However, here are some new ways to potentially search for the Loch Ness Monster:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Underwater Drones: Using advanced underwater drones with high-resolution cameras and sonar systems, researchers can search the depths of the Loch Ness with greater accuracy and detail than ever before. This technology could potentially uncover new evidence of the creature's existence.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>DNA Analysis: Researchers could use DNA analysis to search for any traces of genetic material left behind by the Loch Ness Monster. This could involve taking water samples from the Loch Ness and using advanced genetic sequencing technology to look for any unique genetic markers that could be associated with the creature.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Satellite Imagery: Satellite imagery could be used to search for any unusual patterns or movements in the Loch Ness. Advanced satellite imaging technology could potentially detect any disturbances in the water caused by the creature.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Night Vision Cameras: Night vision cameras could be used to capture images of the Loch Ness Monster at night, when it is believed to be most active. These cameras could be set up around the Loch Ness to monitor any unusual activity.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Augmented Reality: Augmented reality technology could be used to create virtual simulations of the Loch Ness and its surrounding areas, allowing researchers to explore the Loch Ness in a virtual environment and potentially uncover new clues about the creature's existence.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>While these methods may not guarantee the discovery of the Loch Ness Monster, they do represent new and innovative ways to search for this elusive creature.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, most have been thought of before, but admittedly some such as underwater drones and night vision cameras have been barely used. The augmented reality proposal sounds intriguing, though I am not sure there is enough data to achieve it? Perhaps that is one for the future. I asked for a regenerated response which added one more new option of crowdsourcing:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Crowdsourcing: With the widespread use of social media, it is possible to mobilize a large number of people to search the loch and share their findings online, increasing the likelihood of detecting any unusual activity.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That sounds very much like the multiple webcams recently installed at the loch and watched by many around the world, including a certain Eoin. So, nothing there totally surprising apart from augmented reality. Perhaps that is because we have been racking our human brains for decades, lol. But then again, ChatGPT only got into the subject days ago I suspect. As to other possibilities missed out by ChatGPT but thought of by us humans we have thermal night drones, tethered drones and radar sweeps of the loch surface. You heard it from Homo Sapiens here first!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the Loch Ness equivalent of SkyNet has gone live. Disruptive technology always stirs things up. You split the atom and end up with 10 megaton bombs or nuclear power stations. You decode DNA and end up with gene therapy or leaks from virology labs. Let us see where this leads us.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">sss</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-399330847354479922023-05-02T17:22:00.000-07:002023-05-02T17:22:00.734-07:001933 - King Kong and the Loch Ness Monster<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5Vyc3TX9tKNHlj5b4tXydV31zC3dZPHEHWBaQUvTPZq6nfyuH4-tqxDjREzc5wmH9JTy7PFR5SBvIAyY2bXIB1uZkzKrLGIKl4Cs4YaIadP46FbrZCLnz1SparkWuOCuISs8-PIED8dWWOXlG_9SFInZcZE0qE_P6YOCwnzpNsQ7vVKZW0Jiv18i/s776/Cinemagoer%20Weekly%20Article.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="776" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5Vyc3TX9tKNHlj5b4tXydV31zC3dZPHEHWBaQUvTPZq6nfyuH4-tqxDjREzc5wmH9JTy7PFR5SBvIAyY2bXIB1uZkzKrLGIKl4Cs4YaIadP46FbrZCLnz1SparkWuOCuISs8-PIED8dWWOXlG_9SFInZcZE0qE_P6YOCwnzpNsQ7vVKZW0Jiv18i/w400-h275/Cinemagoer%20Weekly%20Article.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This year marks the 90th anniversary of two famous monsters. The first was King Kong when that great ape appeared in his first film, released in America to critical acclaim on March 2nd 1933 in New York. Two months later, the first media report of many concerning a strange creature in a Highland loch was published by the Inverness Courier on May 2nd under the title of "<i>Strange Spectacle at Loch Ness</i>". After those debut days, the two monsters followed parallel paths into 1933 as more reports to intrigue the public came in from the loch about the newly named Loch Ness Monster, while anticipation of the King Kong film coming to Britain fueled excitement about monsters real or imagined.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">King Kong would have its premiere at the Coliseum Cinema in London on Easter Monday, April 17th as seen in the contemporary advert below, which was around the time that Aldie Mackay, the eyewitness to the "<i>strange spectacle</i>" in Loch Ness, had her encounter. In scenes unfamiliar to modern cinema goers, a report from the Daily Herald the next day said that thousands gathered at Charing Cross trying to get in to see the film with police being called in to control the crowd. Those who were successful had to stand in queues hundreds of yards long wrapping round the block. By the end of the day, 15,000 were the first to see this literal blockbuster.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVHSundz68X67iRhsdVngY_pN8EHO2o_nM1297PyrTkpOT_3R32MK46loFvzBBSaQB0CyoJX2MPvWFMm9O8F7KIjkCG9taFBA3E_l7PUf6yiQ3wmYWmZJQ_zGEyKVc0H5Htbmy23DO6BnLv6qwe0i4V5O1quE_5aUZ8J_RGzDxYE_dcP2PCPJA47GV/s808/King%20Kong%20-%20London%20Premier.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="106" data-original-width="808" height="53" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVHSundz68X67iRhsdVngY_pN8EHO2o_nM1297PyrTkpOT_3R32MK46loFvzBBSaQB0CyoJX2MPvWFMm9O8F7KIjkCG9taFBA3E_l7PUf6yiQ3wmYWmZJQ_zGEyKVc0H5Htbmy23DO6BnLv6qwe0i4V5O1quE_5aUZ8J_RGzDxYE_dcP2PCPJA47GV/w400-h53/King%20Kong%20-%20London%20Premier.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglg-9e-y7JIOOqJyB76xBBmEzTJASK5lUC6YmX53ZXEbo41ouZTfBxVOmUQ3qgR5UoSXsNShZJJEkRsW02svtkqv60Dtrp4egMJnYgH9o5rCF7RWFdwB4D1_-nOC9ejld3jKg3YkbgnTCbijgKpALiwkT8A1fhB15THCWQRuolg3zdBXDQFSKeGWsj/s547/Zoom%20Daily%20Herald%20180433.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="497" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglg-9e-y7JIOOqJyB76xBBmEzTJASK5lUC6YmX53ZXEbo41ouZTfBxVOmUQ3qgR5UoSXsNShZJJEkRsW02svtkqv60Dtrp4egMJnYgH9o5rCF7RWFdwB4D1_-nOC9ejld3jKg3YkbgnTCbijgKpALiwkT8A1fhB15THCWQRuolg3zdBXDQFSKeGWsj/s320/Zoom%20Daily%20Herald%20180433.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Such was the impression that the film had on the general public that a question has been raised in the ninety years since as to whether these two monsters did follow parallel paths or did their paths cross and influence each other in some way? To that end, it has been speculated in recent times that the prehistoric monsters depicted in the King Kong film had a subliminal effect on the eyewitness accounts that came out of Loch Ness in the months after the release of the film in the United Kingdom.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">While the film was preparing to go on general UK release in the Autumn of 1933, the Loch Ness Monster story ramped up with a sensational story from the Inverness Courier of August 4th concerning the monster out of the loch on dry land crossing a road in front of two witnesses in their car. The couple were the Spicers from London and their account became one of the lead stories of the coming worldwide media interest. This interest was to be sparked by one national newspaper, The Scotsman, sending a team up to investigate local claims and publishing it to a wider audience in September.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">King Kong and Nessie now had everyone's attention. And this is where King Kong first enters the Nessie domain. Lt. Cdr. Rupert T. Gould interviewed the Spicers for his book, "<i>The Loch Ness Monster and Others</i>" published later in June 1934. During his meeting with George Spicer, the film came up in the conversation:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>While discussing his experience, I happened to refer to the diplodocus-like dinosaur in King Kong: a film which, I discovered, we had both seen. He told me that the creature he saw much resembled this, except that in his case no legs were visible, while the neck was much longer and more flexible.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is not clear when George Spicer saw the film. Was it before or after his experience at Loch Ness in July 1933? The film had been screening in London for three months before the Spicers' encounter at Loch Ness which sounds like plenty of time to see it. But then again, maybe monster films were not his thing until he saw something monstrous up north? Nobody knows for sure, but after this no author made any mention of King Kong and the Loch Ness Monster that I could find for fifty years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That came in 1983 with Ronald Binns' sceptical work, "<i>The Loch Ness Mystery Solved</i>". In his concluding argument that people need monsters and will therefore see them, he refers to the exchange between Spicer and Gould and conjectures that:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>It is</i> <i>probably no coincidence that the Loch Ness Monster was discovered at the very moment that King Kong, the masterpiece of the genre, was released across Scotland in 1933</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This "<i>pioneering argument</i>" (as Binns self-describes it) was not developed further and speculation about any connection between the two monsters disappears again for another thirty years. That came with the publication of another sceptical book entitled "<i>Abominable Science</i>" by Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero in 2013. This book was a general diatribe against cryptozoology with a large chapter on the Loch Ness Monster. I reviewed it at the time <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2013/09/abominable-science-and-loch-ness-monster.html">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Binns' initial thoughts were taken and developed by the authors who suggest that the scene in King Kong with the diplodocus-like dinosaur mentioned by Gould was transposed by George Spicer onto his story. It was not clear what was meant by this, did George Spicer take that scene and totally fabricate a similar incident at Loch Ness or did what he saw at Loch Ness go through some kind of mental diplodocus filter? So questions were left unanswered, as well as the involvement of Spicer's wife, the co-witness and as mentioned above whether one or both of them had even seen the film by that time?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A couple of years later, researcher Charles Paxton had an article published in the January 2015 edition of Fortean Times entitled "<i>Nessie, Daughter of Kong?</i>" in which he took a different view to the King Kong and Nessie connection. He argued that King Kong being a major influence on the Loch Ness Monster was too simplistic and failed to address various factors at play, such as a strange creature in the loch being reported at least as far back as 1930 and the issue of the film not reaching Inverness until October of 1933. However, he did not dismiss the idea of some degree of cultural influence.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This article led to a couple of letters being published in the March 2015 edition from an Ulrich Magin and a Martyn Jackson. The first focused more on the account from 1930 but also mentioned the potential influence of water horse and sea serpent necks beyond the dinosaurs of King Kong. The letter from Mr. Jackson changes tack and goes back to 1925 and the release of the silent movie, "<i>The Lost World</i>" which was another dinosaur movie featuring stop motion technology and was seen as the forerunner of the King Kong film. In particular he refers to another diplodocus-type creature which runs amok in London. Did this film released eight years before King Kong have any influence in the matter?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The debate then comes full circle in 2023 as the Fortean Times published another article by the aforementioned Ulrich Magin to mark the 90th anniversary of Nessie. This was a sceptical article and the focus was again on the Spicer land sighting with the statement that he may have been influenced by the movie. That more or less sums up the debate on the connection between the King Kong movie and early sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in 1933.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">With all that history behind us, now seemed a good time to review all this with a fresh look. That required new information and so I turned to the British Newspaper Archive to harvest data on what the media were reporting on the two monsters back in 1933 and 1934. It has over 67 million pages of British newspapers digitised and online since the 1700s and is the most complete archive available. It will not have every newspaper for every year, but the amount of pages available should give us a representative view of what journalists were writing on certain subjects back then.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, all references to the phrase "<i>King Kong</i>", "<i>Loch Ness Monster</i>" and "<i>Loch Ness</i>" were collected for the years 1933 to 1939. The phrase "<i>Loch Ness</i>" was chosen as not all references to the monster used the phrase "<i>Loch Ness Monster</i>". When plotted on a chart, the two phrases had pretty much the same shape and so I will stick to matches for "<i>Loch Ness Monster</i>" although references to "<i>Loch Ness</i>" were almost 50% greater. The chart of newspaper hits for "<i>King Kong</i>" and "<i>Loch Ness Monster</i>" is shown below. The Loch Ness Monster line is the darker one.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtpGYhaRDJvo_Wn76wjfp-pt9OfGhwoHQrRXDHs_-COlQWXV_pPiPPniNXL77pqocRndPlE4E60Pan8tYhlHPJq_OOUHlt38jJGbPdFgnRcCr3eGOOtdKZB3xXltqd_6tiuq49Vg5nlTZm5ZzAxctY53LraTHCZBlxOeOBq0M7UfZ3urTOTwZqrlt/s763/Chart%20King%20Kong%20vs%20Loch%20Ness%20Monster%201933-1939.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="763" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtpGYhaRDJvo_Wn76wjfp-pt9OfGhwoHQrRXDHs_-COlQWXV_pPiPPniNXL77pqocRndPlE4E60Pan8tYhlHPJq_OOUHlt38jJGbPdFgnRcCr3eGOOtdKZB3xXltqd_6tiuq49Vg5nlTZm5ZzAxctY53LraTHCZBlxOeOBq0M7UfZ3urTOTwZqrlt/w400-h268/Chart%20King%20Kong%20vs%20Loch%20Ness%20Monster%201933-1939.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Looking at King Kong first, the line rises into May 1933 as the film finally arrives in London and the reviews and chatter begins. There is then a dip awaiting the later nationwide release and then by the end of September, we have a peak in King Kong interest as most parts of the country would have seen the film (though Inverness did not see it until October). Another peak happens in November as the sequel film "<i>Son of Kong</i>" came out at the end of the year to stir further interest. That film was a flop and depicted a lot smaller ape. After that King Kong fever effectively ends and it drops rapidly into a flatter pattern.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">For the Loch Ness Monster, things started quietly as news of a monster stayed with the local newspapers in early 1933. It was when The Scotsman took up the story in September that it began to acquire UK interest and launched like a rocket to peak in January 1934 with various key events being reported such as the Wetherell expedition, the first photograph from Hugh Gray and the Arthur Grant land account. Then the reporting likewise dropped off with a small peak in the summer of 1934.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What can be gleaned about any potential relationship here? The King Kong phenomenon had peaked in September with its peak in cinema goers, but the Loch Ness Monster peaked four months later and for its own different reasons. King Kong had peaked just as the Loch Ness Monster was taking off. Both had gathered a similar number of hits up to their respective peaks, but the Nessie one was more of a spike hitting a peak twice as high as anything for King Kong.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As to actual content, most of the King Kong matches would be cinema adverts, reviews and local talk about the film. There would be an overspill into the mainstream where columnists would use the phrase in different ways and the beast would "<i>appear</i>" at local events such as carnivals. The Loch Ness Monster was different as it focused on eyewitness accounts, theories as to what it was, what the experts thought about it and what people were going to do about it. To that can be added the humorous articles, letters and the use of the phrase in a more generic way as well as how it fed into the local cultures in a similar way to King Kong.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">How correlated are the two data sets as in how closely do they relate to each other? By using the Excel correlation function, a numerical value can be assigned to this question. This is a number which lies between -1 and +1 and the closer it is to +1, the more positively correlated they are. A value closer to zero indicates there is no correlation between the two and a value tending to -1 indicates they are oppositely correlated (i.e. one rises as the other falls and vice versa). For the two years of 1933 and 1934, taking in the significant highs and lows of the two beasts, the correlation came out at +0.19 which would be regarded as a weak correlation. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That does not mean that the two phenomena went their own ways throughout those years, it is more suggestive of a degree of influence but not a strong one. The next set may give us a better indication of how one may have influenced the other and that is the number of times both phenomena were mentioned in the same article Since the accuracy of the newspaper archive search facility gave matches for both on the same page but not necessarily the same article, each hit had to be examined and judged accordingly. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The search was run from January 1933 to October 1935, which by then both were out of the "<i>mania</i>" phase. The total number of hits for articles mentioning both the King Kong and the Loch Ness Monster was a mere forty three. The total number of newspaper occurrences of King Kong or the Loch Ness Monster on their own or together was 8999 in the same period. That means the media linked the two, for whatever reasons, about 0.5% of the time. In terms of hits for the two just being on the same page, the best total was 73 or 0.8% of the total. The chart below shows the hits for both as a dotted line. Since the number is so small compared to the overall total, it is numbered on the right hand side.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xF3l7JvTkSQJ9VSaVomNaKQgkdL09gBbB2DG0-Y8wQquggI_DyX5EVeQUqYd4AP55tLXKgPcDU6Vs8snTZ-tnDLwp1k-4hNcVsIf59_dkNiiRXaVCdVaSHvv8a3P6IfhIYaHEFnVqwIvowfLqz_WvfrVZsr8DASqPSl_24N8jEFFnOwfTwCwvav3/s767/Chart%20King%20Kong%20vs%20Loch%20Ness%20Monster%20vs%20Both%201933-1935.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="767" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xF3l7JvTkSQJ9VSaVomNaKQgkdL09gBbB2DG0-Y8wQquggI_DyX5EVeQUqYd4AP55tLXKgPcDU6Vs8snTZ-tnDLwp1k-4hNcVsIf59_dkNiiRXaVCdVaSHvv8a3P6IfhIYaHEFnVqwIvowfLqz_WvfrVZsr8DASqPSl_24N8jEFFnOwfTwCwvav3/w400-h284/Chart%20King%20Kong%20vs%20Loch%20Ness%20Monster%20vs%20Both%201933-1935.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">However, the dotted line hits a maximum of just over 1% of the total in January 1934 as Nessie media articles hit a peak. So, the dual mention phenomenon is more linked to coverage of the Loch Ness Monster than coverage of the King Kong movie, which would make sense. But it looks like a very small number compared to what it is covering, so that does not look like an indicator of the King Kong movie influencing the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon. This is further seen in what these dual hits actually talk about, which is tabulated into general categories below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ol><li>The idea of unclassified or extinct animals surviving - 3</li><li>Loch Ness Monster compared to diplodocus in King Kong film - 2</li><li>Humorous references to both (metaphors, poems, story) - 9</li><li>Appearances in public events (fancy dress, pantomime, carnivals) - 10</li><li>Nessie themed films compared to King Kong film (Movietone, Secret of the Loch, Irvine film) - 8</li><li>King Kong a better story than Loch Ness Monster - 2</li><li>Publicity for King Kong film mentioning Loch Ness Monster - 4</li></ol><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Most of the references are of a trivial nature and do not address the question of how dinosaurs in the King Kong film could have influenced eyewitnesses to objects in Loch Ness. In fact, there was no reference in any of the above to an eyewitness describing what they saw as looking like something from the King Kong movie. The most important references are the two which state that the Loch Ness Monster resembles the diplodocus in the Kong movie. One is explicit and the other is implicit when it only says you can see Nessie in the film, but there is only one scene that fits that statement.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That is two quotes from nearly nine thousand newspaper pieces over two years, not exactly a ringing endorsement of what is called a "<i>pioneering argument</i>". That argument is rather indirectly inferred from the coincidental appearances of the two monsters in 1933 and not anything that could be called direct evidence. This is further demonstrated when the newspaper pieces which mention both the Loch Ness Monster and King Kong are charted against the actual eyewitness reports from 1933 to 1934 as shown below (Nessie reports are the orange line).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFWjCjwnFL9i0qkirWWQNwF7rPPRR-kJ1CLLdu2rygUsX5Me-nE22r7B4idvo2REgU0yBwtxv65Vbr-jYACElW4ytNJCWQpPzUdBEJCX-ENXYcH5qwX5eolGO1GU_9zFLgaC_CC1dDMHnQCxL1wrhlwmsitoQsvmV167dAmmcIwZ5oe7bC8lDRl9x/s956/Chart%20of%20KK+LNM%20dual%20mentions%20vs%20LNM%20Reports%201933-1934.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="956" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFWjCjwnFL9i0qkirWWQNwF7rPPRR-kJ1CLLdu2rygUsX5Me-nE22r7B4idvo2REgU0yBwtxv65Vbr-jYACElW4ytNJCWQpPzUdBEJCX-ENXYcH5qwX5eolGO1GU_9zFLgaC_CC1dDMHnQCxL1wrhlwmsitoQsvmV167dAmmcIwZ5oe7bC8lDRl9x/w400-h269/Chart%20of%20KK+LNM%20dual%20mentions%20vs%20LNM%20Reports%201933-1934.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">The Loch Ness Monster reports just kept coming in long after any media stories linking the two was finished and peaked in July 1934. The correlation for these two data sets is 0.31 which is borderline weak to moderate, or in other words, not strong or compelling in any way. One can only go so far with these statistics, but they present a more quantitative approach to the subject than psychological theories which are notorious for being untestable.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But going back to the history of this King Kong debate, there was one quantitative analysis offered in defense of the theory and that was proposed in "<i>Abominable Science</i>". The claim was that the object described by the Spicers bears a more than passing resemblance to our not so friendly brontosaurus/diplodocus/ataposaur/etc from King Kong. I reproduce below two pictures relevant to that theory.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hqoHhL_wf3Ae1zaW5JBTlNstQ9ng9nYJeEsRdlPcyB3hnDMlWu5KbFdxh8RQ7dTAXvyNIt3rBk7mzzUcolI_63EbHhT_gXPN0_J1YDuL6BAhF5Q9TN2HptLBv4GKeFnoKyR-i_avvlYrzK852xjGnYjiXJ2GjK95JV59bhxKfXUp28bUJ2kDRWbG/s607/Spicers%20-%20Gould%20Version.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="607" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hqoHhL_wf3Ae1zaW5JBTlNstQ9ng9nYJeEsRdlPcyB3hnDMlWu5KbFdxh8RQ7dTAXvyNIt3rBk7mzzUcolI_63EbHhT_gXPN0_J1YDuL6BAhF5Q9TN2HptLBv4GKeFnoKyR-i_avvlYrzK852xjGnYjiXJ2GjK95JV59bhxKfXUp28bUJ2kDRWbG/s320/Spicers%20-%20Gould%20Version.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6eXWG8oet8kIVK78AyAGU37h-2qcw8qTXCosXO7aW-lBTVuuQodIlPVLnGeTI6JpQ5vdm4O9exX2vLhKVOqSx7T-1JPRHvBU86rZESqZ8YCRLCHHY_kKELhzJRTjc7K0AMDaRMqt8Dt0QZitd8g_dj_W_4k0sPC0bUwuvySVIUIyDoYp48fUC6YV/s600/Brontosaurus%20King%20Kong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="600" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6eXWG8oet8kIVK78AyAGU37h-2qcw8qTXCosXO7aW-lBTVuuQodIlPVLnGeTI6JpQ5vdm4O9exX2vLhKVOqSx7T-1JPRHvBU86rZESqZ8YCRLCHHY_kKELhzJRTjc7K0AMDaRMqt8Dt0QZitd8g_dj_W_4k0sPC0bUwuvySVIUIyDoYp48fUC6YV/s320/Brontosaurus%20King%20Kong.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Now "<i>Abominable Science</i>" claims four similarities between George Spicer's sketch and their snapshot from the brontosaurus scene:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ol><li>Both had a long neck.</li><li>Both had no feet visible.</li><li>Both had tail curved round side of body.</li><li>Both had victim in mouth.</li></ol><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now if you watch the complete scene from the film (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Db027Q-Zg">YouTube</a>), that scenario is not so convincing. Depending on what frame you pick, you could only have two of the list true - long neck and something in mouth. What was claimed as a lamb or some other small animal in the mouth of the Loch Ness Monster by George Spicer equates to our unfortunate crew member in the Kong film. I don't think I have seen a meaner man munching brontosaurus. So much for giant cows with long necks.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So perhaps not the most unbiased choice of the "<i>Abominable Science</i>" authors. If they can do that, well, I choose a still which bears only a slight resemblance to the Spicer sketch. So, the case has not been made and I see no evidence that seeing dinosaurs like the one below from the King Kong movie can make people looking at floating logs or birds in Loch Ness turn them into prehistoric creatures. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That there may have been cultural influences between the two monsters cannot be denied, people did make connections, but it is a big leap to conceive how this alters peoples' perceptions looking across a loch. Indeed, no serious scientific paper to this day has been published on the subject with convincing experimentation and reasoning.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5v6VLicp4vwUs3HCobsQsq20NwHGYbFJrf4BYut5zG8ZUTRTZY44v5K71MBHvNvaFiykNKmy-0jm46bPnuTgyLMeHvpRD7JNT4XKuHQv4dmXMoR1RL3hdvDy3KXRcRLDcX6ULX7su7m3wMJtSPUaxCahZiW-tsaCTnmGewAOWLwEYMioCdQ4nR48M/s378/Brontosaurus%20bite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="278" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5v6VLicp4vwUs3HCobsQsq20NwHGYbFJrf4BYut5zG8ZUTRTZY44v5K71MBHvNvaFiykNKmy-0jm46bPnuTgyLMeHvpRD7JNT4XKuHQv4dmXMoR1RL3hdvDy3KXRcRLDcX6ULX7su7m3wMJtSPUaxCahZiW-tsaCTnmGewAOWLwEYMioCdQ4nR48M/s320/Brontosaurus%20bite.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, I move onto "<i>The Lost World</i>" references. Actually, I watched this silent movie for the first time when I was researching this article. It was available to rent on Amazon Prime and I took some photos. It was a good watch considering its age, although obviously dated in more ways than one. Professor Challenger's captured brontosaurus also features in that movie and does some serious damage to London as the designers of Tower Bridge failed to take into account the weight of a brontosaurus on it and it drops into the Thames. The scene ends with a very Loch Ness Monster like scene but again, the links between this and the later Loch Ness Monster are even more tenuous.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">After all that, what can one say but here's to another ninety years of Nessie.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr6sbjkTDsc-OS0CCDmzS4Myb_9PMkg1AWu63rzDHkpsfM3cCuAuMZuLDhL0GpV-lYluHU1_QwYfTa1NgvbKE3Z_wkpOuNUt1_Fs7nqdODMyowfKA2GeMmj-VqUoDaOokuzRSCH5Iz6w4YwkqLdnzJ7_mt1dJO6Q30SAJGG2vePMQejPTlc7E0C4Z/s1136/Lost%20World%20Brontosaurus%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1136" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr6sbjkTDsc-OS0CCDmzS4Myb_9PMkg1AWu63rzDHkpsfM3cCuAuMZuLDhL0GpV-lYluHU1_QwYfTa1NgvbKE3Z_wkpOuNUt1_Fs7nqdODMyowfKA2GeMmj-VqUoDaOokuzRSCH5Iz6w4YwkqLdnzJ7_mt1dJO6Q30SAJGG2vePMQejPTlc7E0C4Z/s320/Lost%20World%20Brontosaurus%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMDD62-jNdxJAaN_OY3-MKEZMl4I0k-nu9TI9SmmkQ6Uy165JMGohzICRJMtcd0lwIGHEPSdEZFArJCnBeG9X8g1loOkMZXMDWbzu2FYiQ4iTD1cL6y_drWuqvicbU-iMAEKSNjH1lYEbMiUlJ5lrt8R_iQwubP_IpJNKjft1nXHrhSeHjunX8RJE/s4000/The%20Lost%20World%20Brontosaurus%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMDD62-jNdxJAaN_OY3-MKEZMl4I0k-nu9TI9SmmkQ6Uy165JMGohzICRJMtcd0lwIGHEPSdEZFArJCnBeG9X8g1loOkMZXMDWbzu2FYiQ4iTD1cL6y_drWuqvicbU-iMAEKSNjH1lYEbMiUlJ5lrt8R_iQwubP_IpJNKjft1nXHrhSeHjunX8RJE/s320/The%20Lost%20World%20Brontosaurus%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: 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style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">sss</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p>Now ninety years on we might say the special effects are primitive compared to today while we look over the latest Nessie photograph with no idea what that old critter is. Ninety years from now, I wonder what they will think of our CGI King Kongs? I don't know, but the latest Nessie pictures will be something we can't quite conceive and they still won't know what that old critter is.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-18492705796343924252023-04-25T16:31:00.001-07:002023-04-26T07:05:57.585-07:00Enigma Documentary: DNA, Giant Eels and an Unseen Film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqFe9d3KOtbKxILL0DWtfODYNpSRhQi4P3ZrqICqAvplEokwqJLXTWq2F1fiGiEnbUptInbUJy-54qt1E8L_B6fcB7mM0mfmFInrb6LlIDcbfgQZLbYSX7HdgCfh0rorNKfjkoMNSRx1mnsD9j3layFBVGdoVsNowpwXTa2ZATgClOqrQzBlLiBgf8/s1562/Enigma%20The%20Monster%20of%20Loch%20Ness%20documentary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1562" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqFe9d3KOtbKxILL0DWtfODYNpSRhQi4P3ZrqICqAvplEokwqJLXTWq2F1fiGiEnbUptInbUJy-54qt1E8L_B6fcB7mM0mfmFInrb6LlIDcbfgQZLbYSX7HdgCfh0rorNKfjkoMNSRx1mnsD9j3layFBVGdoVsNowpwXTa2ZATgClOqrQzBlLiBgf8/w400-h181/Enigma%20The%20Monster%20of%20Loch%20Ness%20documentary.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">A new documentary aired on Channel 5 some weeks ago looking into the enigma known as the Loch Ness Monster (<a href="https://www.channel5.com/show/enigma-the-monster-of-loch-ness">link</a>). This was one of the better programs on the subject as it focused on the search for the creature in the matter of the DNA samples taken from the loch in 2018 and the results released to the world in September 2019 which was covered at the time on this <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2019/09/loch-ness-edna-results-released.html">blog</a>. A documentary was televised on the UK Discovery Channel devoted to the subject which I reviewed <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-of-edna-documentary.html">here</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The program opened with the well known faces of Willie Cameron and Steve Feltham and the story beginning all the way back in 565AD with Saint Columba and his water beast in what the original Latin text called the Lake of the River Ness. The tales of old flashed back to the modern day as drone technology was employed to take some excellent shots of the loch from on high. What would Columba have made of all this? Or would he yet have found the monster of the loch a more fabulous sight to behold?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But every story has a beginning which brought us to monster researcher Gary Campbell who took us through the early days of the 1930s, the first photograph of the creature taken by Hugh Gray, then the one taken by a certain Kenneth Wilson and a peek at what looked like an impressive collection of old newspaper clippings. This switched to various scenes such as water bailiff Alex Campbell being interviewed in the 1950s, the Loch Ness Investigation of the 1960s right up a young Steve Feltham arriving at the loch in 1992.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Eyewitness Richard White told us about his pole like neck sighting from 1996 (below) and Gary Campbell's own sighting which ensnared him around that time. Such seemed to be the summary of the last ninety years of the hunt. At this point I noted there was a near zero acknowledgement of evidence from the 1930s to the 1990s. No classic photos apart from the two above, no Dinsdale film or any of the like. Was this down to brevity of time or making it all seem more relevant to the modern viewer?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAEzvO8mKk78q_o8sxHKet_ZMRcD9ZduIQ3Hs0pk7ks33w9ZPezrU5jOIU3QHVHEBGTFnG1mtWE9SlCYWYu9Wb9RRJu_QhQH5dHINdHcG6ukOm-oImBQFaGTr6DIM6fZoMvcoAgQ05q4VQEh6VBg7lvjluQ6z6MsXSdrEPoUSky-3kbYyAjmrLtDK/s615/Richard%20White%20-%20March%201997.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="615" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAEzvO8mKk78q_o8sxHKet_ZMRcD9ZduIQ3Hs0pk7ks33w9ZPezrU5jOIU3QHVHEBGTFnG1mtWE9SlCYWYu9Wb9RRJu_QhQH5dHINdHcG6ukOm-oImBQFaGTr6DIM6fZoMvcoAgQ05q4VQEh6VBg7lvjluQ6z6MsXSdrEPoUSky-3kbYyAjmrLtDK/s320/Richard%20White%20-%20March%201997.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This moved us seamlessly on in a chronological manner to the environmental DNA quest of Professor Neil Gemmell four years ago. While his team were seen on their boat collecting water samples, the talk turned to what the mysterious animal could be, because the hunt was now on for a sample of its DNA. Familiar theories abounded such as deer, sturgeon, catfish, eels and the venerable plesiosaur. So just how would one recognise the DNA of a plesiosaur? The professor suggested something between bird and crocodile DNA. That sounded reasonable though the implication was that if you did have plesiosaur DNA, there was no way to verify that was the case beyond a reasonable doubt.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This brought us to the contrast between this new brand of "<i>monster hunter</i>" and the old brand which we were told is dying out. To be fair to Professor Gemmell, he was not presenting himself as any kind of monster hunter - that would be professional suicide. He was at Loch Ness to promote the science of environmental DNA, but if some unexpected strands turned up, they would then be firmly in the domain of science and some serious analysis could begin.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adrian Shine chipped in and said nothing had been found in fifty years of searching. It was a failure which to him meant they were all either useless at looking or there was no monster. But there was those three sonar contacts he saw during Operation Deepscan in 1987. He again admitted that he did not know what they were although that did not mean to him that they were monsters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">I do not agree that the traditional monster hunter is dying out. Their numbers are certainly down on the heady days of the 1960s and 1970s, but dying suggests a process that ends in death rather than a process which may have bottomed out. Who knows? We look to a newer generation to continue that particular form of the hunt. But the documentary then moved back to the theories.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Steve Feltham talked about the front runner theory which ticked the most boxes for him - the Wels Catfish. He suggested a dozen or so juveniles may have been released into the loch decades before the whole Nessie media circus exploded in the 1930s. It is entirely reasonable that those fish could have grown to large proportions in time for 1933 onwards but I am not convinced the Loch Ness environment was suitable for breeding and so they are all long gone. As others have said, this does not explain long neck sightings or land sightings. I suspect one solution there is to discount these other genres as explicable by known phenomena around the loch. In which case, why not just explain the remainder in the same manner?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gary Campbell was more attracted to the giant eel theory and recounted a tale from fifteen years ago when an eyewitness saw something evidently large and eel-like swim past and under them and was longer than their fifteen foot boat. It was appropriate at this point that Gordon Holmes' 2007 video of something long and slender was displayed, though the man himself did not make an appearance.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All these large but known creatures were discussed by Adrian Shine and Neil Gemmell as they assembled some seriously long ropes to gather those important water samples from the lowest possible depths at about 200 metres down. <span style="text-align: left;">As the program approached the point where the DNA results would be revealed, various points of view were expressed on topics such as what DNA may or may not be found, what if it wasn't recognised and the urgency in getting samples into a protected environment as they can degrade quickly.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was then that we were treated to the Bobby Pollock film of August 2000. This is one of those films which tantalizes but getting a close look at it in terms of the whole film or a decent number of frames has proven elusive. We got about fifteen seconds of it in the documentary out of a total of three and a half minutes filmed by him. This is a film which would greatly benefit from some video stabilization due to the shakiness of the filming and perhaps after that some further image enhancement to clarify the object of interest.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The creature or whatever it may have been, was hundreds of yards away from Mr. Pollock, but there is something there to dig deeper into. For those unfamiliar with this film, the Glasgow Herald of 12th March 2002 gives the account:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The three-and-a-half minute video was filmed by Mr Pollock, 45, from Crookston, as he walked at Invermoriston Bay with his wife, Catherine, 41, and three-year-old son Robert. </i><i>Mr Pollock claims he saw the creature rise around five feet out of the loch and that it was jet black in colour. </i><i>The video has won him (pounds) 500 from bookmaker William Hill for the best recent Nessie ''sighting''. </i><i>The Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club administers the annual award on behalf of the bookmaker.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Pollock said: ''We stopped at a place called the stone seat overlooking Invermoriston Bay for our lunch and I saw an object floating on top of the water, and it started moving off towards Fort Augustus at quite a pace. </i><i>You could say that it was a seal or a deer in the water, but I've seen things like that in the water and it definitely wasn't one of them. </i><i>I've never seen anything like this in 12 years. It's very strange."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mark Stewart, curator of marine mammals at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary in Oban, Argyll, studied the video 30 times. </i><i>He said: ''Sometimes it looked like a seal, sometimes it did not look anything like a seal. It was moving quickly - it was pretty quick - I felt too quick for a seal.''. </i><i>Mr. Stewart said he showed the video to experts and staff at the sanctuary, but no-one knew what it was.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Though Mr. Pollock captured the images in August 2000, he held off for more than a year before bringing them to the attention of Gary Campbell, president of Inverness-based Loch Ness Monster Fan Club. </i><i>Mr. Campbell said Mr. Pollock did not release the video because he ''feared ridicule''. </i><i>He added: ''But when I saw it, I realised that what he had was probably one of the best pieces of footage ever. </i><i>We have spent a long time analysing this video. </i><i>After careful analysis, we concluded that whatever was in the water was definitely animate.''</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I include a still taken from the documentary, it's the dot in the centre. It doesn't look much from here, but it looked better as a film sequence, yet still in need of enhancement. Single frames from video do not translate as well as a still image taken with a camera and then there is the problem with recording images of objects in Loch Ness from the shore as one could already be hundreds of metres away from the object of interest. Even the claimed five feet of neck or whatever it was would be a challenge at such distances.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMGkQt3yQ12h9qkTkHJUyys2cYzv2LMMRD2hg9h9SwqAFpnt0Zym4y--zROPjSkPgfqI2HC_SZ3qIPD2s35o0mrNx7SkGHOl_Pij8QbG29NjHOPfFD2WrC7kCyoFq0GJA9fydIYbdaD4UZGLx70kgsDOpP5mAXHIRGZNZFMchs-OU30Iq52KjkoXh/s1091/Pollock%20Film.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="1091" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMGkQt3yQ12h9qkTkHJUyys2cYzv2LMMRD2hg9h9SwqAFpnt0Zym4y--zROPjSkPgfqI2HC_SZ3qIPD2s35o0mrNx7SkGHOl_Pij8QbG29NjHOPfFD2WrC7kCyoFq0GJA9fydIYbdaD4UZGLx70kgsDOpP5mAXHIRGZNZFMchs-OU30Iq52KjkoXh/s320/Pollock%20Film.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After some wrap up comments on the monster legend, including the assertion that people who want to believe in monsters will see monsters and how King Kong may have influenced people, it was on to the DNA results. <span style="text-align: left;">Professor Gemmell had spent a year analysing the sequences with the help of various labs and it was time for the news conference at the Loch Ness Centre to tell the world what the 250 samples had revealed.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">First off, nearly 3000 species had been found and most of those would be of the microscopic variety. No reptile DNA was detected nor anything that was catfish, sturgeon or seal. To that could be added the absence of cormorants, mergansers, ducks and otters. I could quite understand why seal DNA was not found as they are not indigenous to the loch and are rare visitors. The other reason for absence of DNA was the low density of it in the water. I can see that as the land based creatures are not always in or on the water. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, the emphasis of the results was on the eels of Loch Ness. Large amounts of eel DNA were found in almost every sample taken from the loch which led the professor to speculate about the possibility of giant eels. The DNA samples did not prove the eels were gigantic, but neither did it disprove their presence in the loch. All this assumed giant eel DNA does not differ significantly from normal eel DNA. The other result that people took note of was <span style="text-align: left;">that about 20% of the DNA remained unidentified due to errors in sequencing, samples being too short or temporal. I was not sure what temporal meant.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Various people then gave their opinions on these results. Steve Feltham said lots of eel DNA was a given, so what was there to say? Willie Cameron suggested the small amount of water sampled compared to the loch size plus the admitted absence of DNA for otters and so on left the mystery open. Gary Campbell focused on the amount of DNA samples which gave inconclusive results as another possible avenue.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the programme closed, Professor Gemmell hailed the survey a success as it provided a platform to popularize science and I do not doubt that this was achieved. Despite the absence of what people had desired to be found, disproving a negative was not what he had set out to achieve. Environmental DNA surveys can only talk about what was found and not about what was not found. The absence of otter DNA did not imply that otters had disappeared from Loch Ness prior to 2018. Or then again maybe it did, but people were not accepting that implication.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the documentary ended and watching it cover those events of 2019 again gave me an opportunity to revise what my own thoughts were on the eDNA survey now compared to back then. The first point was that there were no catfish or sturgeon in Loch Ness for the same reason there were no seals in the loch. That is, there were zero catfish, sturgeon and seals in the loch and in the months prior to when sampling began.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That was the position I took, but on reflection one should not discount the other reason and that was due to an inadequate supply of their DNA floating in the water. If there was a solitary seal in the loch in the weeks up to the sampling survey, would it have been detected? My guess it it was more unlikely than likely unless the boat luckily sampled in the area it was most active over about 26 square miles. That is all a theoretical possibility, though I regard it as the second choice explanation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Which brought me to the second point regarding DNA samples from animals which are indigenous but for which samples were not found. I refer to the otters, cormorants and ducks, etc. In that case, one can be pretty sure their DNA was in the water but it never meaningfully got into the sample bottles. That suggested to me that DNA shed by an animal does not travel very far from its point of origin. There are exceptions, such as if the animal in question was located at the mouth of a river, then the flow into the loch may spread its genetic code further.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But otherwise it seemed to me that if an animal or small group were fairly localized in their activity over a certain time period, their DNA would be harder to find. Does that mean the Loch Ness Monster(s) exhibit this behaviour? Well, as said above, one can only really talk about what was found rather than what was not found. As an aside, I read that no salmon DNA was detected from the fish farms near Dores. I found that a bit hard to believe and it was not stated in the documentary, but I would like to see a confirmation of that from another source. If that were true, then DNA really does not travel far and maybe tends to go down than across - probably because it is held within faeces.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The third point was on that 20% of DNA that was unclassifiable. Was Nessie hidden in that pool of data, once again hidden from our eyes? That was an argument that I never found convincing. If 20% of some hypothetical Nessie DNA was too degraded to identify then I could accept that statistic but for 100% of an entire class of DNA to disappear down this black hole looked improbable. One animal's DNA was surely no more prone to degradation than any other animal?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, I still take that view but I thought it over and the only reason for a whole class of DNA being corrupted would be due to the animal in question moving in an environment that accelerated DNA loss. Nothing came to my mind that would allow this. What about the abyssal deep near the bottom of the loch? Was there a difference in acidity, water pressure, oxygen levels, silt density, temperature or light levels that could affect DNA? I was not persuaded either way and am no expert on DNA stability to take it further. But I will keep an open mind on that question.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXllZbc3WgBiJ0FjTAWcnJxGZsy8Jg0hDWjt-_FTSZbvnqlswuzDEv7d8JnDg_qAwj_T7xHmTwAmQcTdEJZ0GRI_XG8yzLxCqLPoFRw13YJ1nlHSQui61cwOYxjYwBTx1haHJ6u98XUiZhiPBaewalSdqgqAiJwRUbfHDcOifWt_j9BhTiI2POlUN/s1197/European%20Eel.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1197" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXllZbc3WgBiJ0FjTAWcnJxGZsy8Jg0hDWjt-_FTSZbvnqlswuzDEv7d8JnDg_qAwj_T7xHmTwAmQcTdEJZ0GRI_XG8yzLxCqLPoFRw13YJ1nlHSQui61cwOYxjYwBTx1haHJ6u98XUiZhiPBaewalSdqgqAiJwRUbfHDcOifWt_j9BhTiI2POlUN/s320/European%20Eel.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Which brings us to those eels. Okay, so eel DNA was found in Loch Ness. No surprise there you might say as people have said there are millions of them in the loch. But Professor Gemmell expressed surprise that so much of their DNA was found almost everywhere. Now thinking again about it, he has a point. The eel in question is the European Eel or <i>Anguilla anguilla </i>and according to Wikipedia:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>The European eel is a critically endangered species. Since the 1970s, the numbers of eels reaching Europe is thought to have declined by around 90% (possibly even 98%). Contributing factors include overfishing, parasites such as Anguillicola crassus, barriers to migration such as hydroelectric dams, and natural changes in the North Atlantic oscillation, Gulf Stream, and North Atlantic drift.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This would seem to be the reason for his surprise, was Professor Gemmell expecting samples consistent with a critically endangered species? If the number of migratory eels into Loch Ness has been dropping for decades, is there an unaccounted for surplus of non-migratory eel biomass in Loch Ness? Maybe, but the question is difficult to answer. I made an enquiry as to whether the amount of eel DNA collected gave an indication of the total eel biomass, but I was told it could not, which was a disappointment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, I am not aware of any attempts to estimate that value from any survey in past decades. All I have found is statements that there are or were millions of eels in Loch Ness. Based on that 90%-98% drop, does that means there are now hundreds or only tens of thousands there now? There is nothing quantitative apart from past small samplings with nets and the latest eDNA results. There may indeed be a surprising amount of eel in Loch Ness and the excess could be found in the proverbial two tonne creature or two thousand equivalent normal eels.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I read that the eel population in Europe is now recovering after various conservation measures, but still well short of historical norms. That is good news for large animals eating the various fish of Loch Ness and if they are gigantic eels, there is still no way of telling if that DNA collected a few years back belongs to them or the kind pulled up by a rod,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-17312379241382101652023-04-20T12:33:00.001-07:002023-04-20T12:33:27.958-07:00Fortean Times on Nessie at 90<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdbqXjEtRQlKb5UJZ6IHkwUqUxZv4BEuJ6H7DikkwwBz5Gmyemt67agJ7XXAjWpu-P5qybottzRRy9-Y-TmIiLb-zfIbMOeUjTTfX2jwJ2I_90xnJIM22btuP6znJuel5hpCLSAQ5_2ngQRz0yim2u1Kz7P2zNg1GVn6ZuqOgvy7oyWRjJc2s-WxY/s858/Fortean%20Times%20431%20May%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="611" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdbqXjEtRQlKb5UJZ6IHkwUqUxZv4BEuJ6H7DikkwwBz5Gmyemt67agJ7XXAjWpu-P5qybottzRRy9-Y-TmIiLb-zfIbMOeUjTTfX2jwJ2I_90xnJIM22btuP6znJuel5hpCLSAQ5_2ngQRz0yim2u1Kz7P2zNg1GVn6ZuqOgvy7oyWRjJc2s-WxY/s320/Fortean%20Times%20431%20May%202023.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;">It continues to be "Nessie at 90" and I knew the magazine Fortean Times would be doing a piece on the monster. What form that would take was up in the air for me, but that became clear when I got a view of it today. The article is authored by Ulrich Magin whom I already knew as a sceptic and I immediately concluded this was going to be a piece that would attempt to explain away the whole phenomenon in very mundane terms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not a review (yet) but rather a warning that if you're expecting at best an argument for a large creature in the loch or at worst a balanced article then you can forget it, don't bother buying it. Ulrich cannot even get basic facts right such as when he states that there is no evidence that seals have ever entered Loch Ness. Really?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fortean Times has slipped a long way from the days when I bought it as a school kid in the 1970s. It resembles more the sceptical magazines of those days. I would encourage the editor to publish a counter-article in the interests of balance rather give its readers this skewed view of the subject.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-35553038842455056102023-04-12T16:58:00.002-07:002023-04-13T13:05:15.997-07:00The latest Photo from Loch Ness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQgxhEjAkRCu2Gt1iqoYKP0rRdPrGVidOZWWcVjurZyxb1cwilnzCo0rpnfPwEcXnjcvX6UeGpWcaigus_BbV37h_nOzZUpHkhKJ9jNVPj4m0Hv4de2JTVIiL-MsMkCV1pYDOrrCzBtDMW5sZcoO6Lo39JxpZe8dWja1Feq-QjKxPHKaXCXEzL5pl/s615/John%20Payne%20April%202023%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="615" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQgxhEjAkRCu2Gt1iqoYKP0rRdPrGVidOZWWcVjurZyxb1cwilnzCo0rpnfPwEcXnjcvX6UeGpWcaigus_BbV37h_nOzZUpHkhKJ9jNVPj4m0Hv4de2JTVIiL-MsMkCV1pYDOrrCzBtDMW5sZcoO6Lo39JxpZe8dWja1Feq-QjKxPHKaXCXEzL5pl/w400-h279/John%20Payne%20April%202023%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Mirror newspaper ran this story today on a series of pictures taken by a John Payne from Newport, Wales, up on holiday at Loch Ness. The original story is at this <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/loch-ness-monster-captured-new-29688099">link</a>. Here is the account taken from the paper.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Loch Ness Monster 'captured in new pic' after tourist spots 'long neck' in water</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>A tourist claims to have captured proof of the Loch Ness Monster on camera, with photos showing 'a long neck'. </i><i>John Payne, 55, was admiring the scenery from a window when he noticed strange movement on the nearby water. </i><i>The dad-of-three grabbed his camera and managed to grab several pictures which seem to show a shape on the surface. </i><i>John, a retail worker from Newport, Wales, said:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“I was looking out at the scenery from the window and this huge thing just appeared out of nowhere. </i><i>I tried to get a picture but it was gone and then it popped up again further down the loch. </i><i>I took another picture and then zoomed in on my camera and waited to see if it would appear again and it did. </i><i>It must have been something very large because we were about a mile away from the loch and I could see it clearly. </i><i>You wouldn’t have been able to see a bird or anything from that far away – it had to be something large. It was like a huge neck."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>He went down to the loch later the same day but said the creature was nowhere to be seen. </i><i>John added:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“I showed some people at the hotel and they were all really shocked. </i><i>It all happened so quickly, it was only there for maybe two minutes. </i><i>I looked at other Nessie pictures and these do look similar to it. </i><i>At first I thought it was a giant fin, but I know there are no dolphins or porpoises in the loch so I was thinking what the hell is this thing. </i><i>It wasn’t like it was tied to anything, like a buoy, because it kept moving further away.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>John was at guest house Foyers Roost on April 9th when he spotted movement on the lake.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The article has three photographs which were taken at different times, going by the relation between the object and the foreground trees which are shown below to see some more detail. The object is definitely moving if we compare its position to the trees in the foreground across the three images. I would say it has moved at least 100 metres in the time between snapshots. Mr. Payne said it disappeared twice and I would say that coincides with two of the treetops in the images which would obscure the object as it moved from left to right.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArSN_zsf2idPd80w6dKX4PPn8dbIgY5aAwgpVgIY-g0zm9WyY9dPTJW3msLQNX5UX0LNDp-iNeuxOftPriUrdQScm3B1Tkxz1qJfnPPMQbznldZPWLplzkQX5fx_L7udCINdN0rM5Y2j1s0KkdKxz0G4A0JmaZsLiZabVKnsiyePkAoTHkx8mpn8e/s465/John%20Payne%20April%202023%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="310" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArSN_zsf2idPd80w6dKX4PPn8dbIgY5aAwgpVgIY-g0zm9WyY9dPTJW3msLQNX5UX0LNDp-iNeuxOftPriUrdQScm3B1Tkxz1qJfnPPMQbznldZPWLplzkQX5fx_L7udCINdN0rM5Y2j1s0KkdKxz0G4A0JmaZsLiZabVKnsiyePkAoTHkx8mpn8e/w427-h640/John%20Payne%20April%202023%202.jpg" width="427" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic1TYXOOVFYBGPXWnCHnTG6Sd5128lwz2OW1lDbyVk6g70JgKjhodWn21QC5mQX0e7zgedDhhjPsMBPR8VGG9chM4FWP9kOWpRXelO0otgu89MV8gdMQVrnsPIdhCjW8ftP6kIFYx7_zkg6HGyTPqjBPMDH2OhP--j8tHssZAjfjocOISvKOa454uv/s1200/John%20Payne%20April%202023%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic1TYXOOVFYBGPXWnCHnTG6Sd5128lwz2OW1lDbyVk6g70JgKjhodWn21QC5mQX0e7zgedDhhjPsMBPR8VGG9chM4FWP9kOWpRXelO0otgu89MV8gdMQVrnsPIdhCjW8ftP6kIFYx7_zkg6HGyTPqjBPMDH2OhP--j8tHssZAjfjocOISvKOa454uv/w400-h225/John%20Payne%20April%202023%203.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">But by what means is it moving? Now the initial impression of what we are looking at does give the impression of a long neck and what looks like a back behind it. I zoomed in as far as I could on the three pictures for a further comparison below which is in chronological order from left to right. The appearance of the object does slightly change in each image, though it was hard to say if this was due to seeing a different aspect of it or something else.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuOPrf1BZW_WqfxCrKJYT2bPT6RldeL521X1Wfl9l44s_HHQN27l13S9w74ZiOOz7WisW-Rvdmj2gITOBvkI0bcq7OviNBVOepevjIjwFK1j3A57Vv5vVZ1_M4k67vvgcwC5WNbP4WLQ4__f8srPWUMiLjj8EYJAwElwlWuB1-8tV_xKK4PhqzLBm/s677/John%20Payne%20April%202023%20zooms.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="677" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuOPrf1BZW_WqfxCrKJYT2bPT6RldeL521X1Wfl9l44s_HHQN27l13S9w74ZiOOz7WisW-Rvdmj2gITOBvkI0bcq7OviNBVOepevjIjwFK1j3A57Vv5vVZ1_M4k67vvgcwC5WNbP4WLQ4__f8srPWUMiLjj8EYJAwElwlWuB1-8tV_xKK4PhqzLBm/w400-h101/John%20Payne%20April%202023%20zooms.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Certainly one thing that stood out was the apparent "<i>backwards looking</i>" appearance of the presumed neck. Animals do not tend to swim forwards whilst continually looking backwards at the same time. However, the central image above does look a bit more upright which made me wonder about rotation. In fact, what looks like a kink in the first image began to make me think this was a log being blown up the loch by the prevailing south westerlies.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There was a log doing the rounds in Urquhart Bay a few years back which fooled or rather incentivized a few people with distant dubious photos. I took a picture of it at the time when I visited the area in 2017. However, the object here is on the other side of the loch, but I wouldn't discount this being another piece of tree debris.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAU_AybGJ9_gGqDhEGTp_m77CZtGw7XTne5yA2aBgBzcyrW1eSpuHqv3RZIwvtY5AICtmXr6muCBtPiqaF4ALtc2HjMQEFGfEqRbQd7LPAirSJ1MZlgqthLrq8khmK8ATbdLM3uZXQDF_GRMT9rgCU6YEny_WYxTDBiLYqBdumPCIhhOyKCtewHLDV/s1600/Urquhart%20Bay%20Log.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAU_AybGJ9_gGqDhEGTp_m77CZtGw7XTne5yA2aBgBzcyrW1eSpuHqv3RZIwvtY5AICtmXr6muCBtPiqaF4ALtc2HjMQEFGfEqRbQd7LPAirSJ1MZlgqthLrq8khmK8ATbdLM3uZXQDF_GRMT9rgCU6YEny_WYxTDBiLYqBdumPCIhhOyKCtewHLDV/s320/Urquhart%20Bay%20Log.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Another theory I have now seen on the Internet is that this was a kayaker with a sail attached to the front and the person sitting down to the left. That is also probable and better than the log theory. Either way, the characteristics of the object point away from what the witness claimed it looked like.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In fact, when Mr. Payne said it was a mile away, but he could see it clearly, that came across as a contradictory statement. Not much is clear at a mile away I would suggest. But I do not doubt him when he said it had to be larger than a bird and looked like a neck. More could be gleaned if I had the original larger images, so in their absence I will leave it at that.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-58410448907428512532023-04-03T16:14:00.001-07:002023-04-03T16:17:39.443-07:00Bus Trip to Loch Ness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-EVJ_qeXa_IQUlE8F6KNH3XF8LKtC3uvyJpjiz_hRWyD12DGS2-i7HFsV9_NjiVJR3JiWqID6YlNrtqqKCtghW1LERwMhXmoyjFwlSkpeaW3L3X0fAbVNTJ4GdOHGpTNPljp51L2xa6Q6S7RXBPfTwNgKLbyD9GSiD0bWrBQ2jVzIVmdmCqF3YHv/s4000/20230401_131309.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-EVJ_qeXa_IQUlE8F6KNH3XF8LKtC3uvyJpjiz_hRWyD12DGS2-i7HFsV9_NjiVJR3JiWqID6YlNrtqqKCtghW1LERwMhXmoyjFwlSkpeaW3L3X0fAbVNTJ4GdOHGpTNPljp51L2xa6Q6S7RXBPfTwNgKLbyD9GSiD0bWrBQ2jVzIVmdmCqF3YHv/s320/20230401_131309.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was off to Loch Ness again for a quick one day trip to pick up the trap cameras and carry out any other investigations that were appropriate. This time things were done differently in that I took the bus up to Loch Ness rather than jump in the car as is my usual plan. The reasons for that were a bit experimental being a matter of time and money. Perhaps this was a "<i>cost of living crisis</i>" experiment as people come to terms with prices which exceed any increase in their wages or any other income.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The advantage of the car is that you get there quicker and can go any time you wish and go anywhere within reason. The disadvantage is the cost, depending on where you are starting your journey. In my case, I calculate the cost for the 330 mile round trip at over £100. There is also the fact that when driving, you have less options to do other things. On a bus, you can do more things and it is cheaper. In fact, in my case it cost nothing. The downside is you are bound to their timetables and it takes longer to get there. In my case it took an hour and a half longer to get there than by car.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So with those things in mind, the trip to Inverfarigaig on the south side of the loch on Saturday involved getting the 8:00am M80 Citylink bus from Edinburgh to Inverness and then the 302 bus at 12:30pm from Inverness to Inverfarigaig. On the way back, it was the 14D bus at 6:17pm from Dores and the 7:25pm M90 bus back to Edinburgh, getting home about midnight. The thing here was that miss any of these buses and you were either not getting to Inverfarigaig or may be stranded in Inverness. There were no alternatives bus times that made the trip viable.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other thing was that once you were at Inverfarigaig at 1pm, you had to walk from there to Dores to get the bus back and that was a nine mile walk. The local bus service was far too infrequent to allow anything else. However, that was the itinerary, walk back to the top of the loch, doing what had been planned beforehand. I had five hours to cover that distance which was more than achievable.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The bus trip from Edinburgh to Inverness was comfortable enough. The bus left the city half full but was near enough full by the time extra people had been picked up in Dunfermline and Perth. But I had two seats to myself to stretch out for about 90% of the trip. The facilities on the Citylink bus at both ends was something less than desirable. The toilet was out of order on one trip, neither of the USB power ports worked on both trips and the facility to put your cup of coffee somewhere stable required some lateral thinking.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZYZg8GZTes6BTG2P6ZMB4o9iaG-NtRWQk_WflqKzWQ5aLCBXYm7grZtKJDmm7NKGHc8B2085ufHeHos0pDAShTXLH2NXUAOQO8L4ur6qJAOgZ0aovg4WEagMQIFuuFRSJuELW1EnEar87vX-vGi_k8wbLOg-36aCDnLIDdmGwbYicp0I13I_s3dE/s4000/20230401_193415.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZYZg8GZTes6BTG2P6ZMB4o9iaG-NtRWQk_WflqKzWQ5aLCBXYm7grZtKJDmm7NKGHc8B2085ufHeHos0pDAShTXLH2NXUAOQO8L4ur6qJAOgZ0aovg4WEagMQIFuuFRSJuELW1EnEar87vX-vGi_k8wbLOg-36aCDnLIDdmGwbYicp0I13I_s3dE/s320/20230401_193415.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibH9f4iutctHwNCHwszXDWA-Oi5-tZYIKH2bYO9UHxUr-3G2ObNvcXER74WkgW2thn_M7vcJZhqWPhxzEAIUV0mfiwsekIhc4jRGanJ_OdVIIVw3oCgBuReQz4vppmpZu3-4V3D6QEtHEMIDNWvE5ruKAPGquZkTTmZgWGXViDpp87DoiuNlbjq0o6/s4000/20230401_193426.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibH9f4iutctHwNCHwszXDWA-Oi5-tZYIKH2bYO9UHxUr-3G2ObNvcXER74WkgW2thn_M7vcJZhqWPhxzEAIUV0mfiwsekIhc4jRGanJ_OdVIIVw3oCgBuReQz4vppmpZu3-4V3D6QEtHEMIDNWvE5ruKAPGquZkTTmZgWGXViDpp87DoiuNlbjq0o6/s320/20230401_193426.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, at zero pence a trip, who was I to complain? The one big unknown was what the weather was going to be like as a nine mile walk in the rain would be a miserable experience. Fortunately, it was a dry day and the sun popped out towards the end of the hike. So onto the Nessie specifics as cameras were collected as the walk progressed across that nine mile stretch and I can confidently say this was the worst year for cameras stolen over the ten years of doing this. Quite simply, some were not there when I got to their particular spot and it was not down to them falling off. They had been knicked.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Such risks go with the territory, they are relatively cheap to replace but it is the missing potential pictures that may have been snapped that irritates more. Moreover, those who stole them and try to profit from any publishable pictures would fail as I could prove they came from my cameras. Why this year was the worst left me speculating. Perhaps that cost of living crisis brought more people to the loch as staycations came back into fashion again or perhaps this "<i>crisis</i>" makes people think they are more entitled to other people's property?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, if these people want to right their wrong, drop them off at the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit please. As for the images on the cameras I retrieved, I haven't looked at them yet but will post anything of interest later. The other matter as I walked along the shoreline was the George Spicer land sighting of 1933. A discussion had appeared on Facebook about where it could have occurred and the matter of deer tracks.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the first point of location, the issue was raised in a sceptical manner as if to imply there was little opportunity for such a point of entry to the loch and therefore is dubious. Now I have been up and down the road between Dores and Foyers countless times and seen various locations but on this day when I was hiking from Inverfarigaig to Dores, there was an opportunity to scrutinize various points more carefully.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The two factors here are distance from road to loch and height from road down to loch. The distance is of some importance as the time from when the Spicers saw the beast to the time they reached the location where the creature entered the undergrowth has to allow sufficient time for the creature to cover that distance and disappear under the waters. That required distance from road to loch is unknown as we do not know how long it took for the Spicers to reach the location or how fast the creature was moving.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Educated guesses can be made, but a definitive conclusion cannot be reached. However, when I performed a range of calculations for various scenarios in my main <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2017/08/nessie-on-land-spicers-story.html">article</a> on the Spicer sighting, it was eminently possible for the creature to reach the loch and submerge. It depends on your tolerance of value ranges and that tolerance may depend not on science, but your own personal tolerance for accepting land sightings.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">George Spicer had told a young Ted Holiday that the shoreline was "<i>only twenty foot down on the right</i>". One presumes this does not mean a twenty foot drop, but a distance of twenty feet with an unknown gradient descending towards it. A survey of various points of the shoreline ensued as I walked along the nine mile stretch. I was pretty confident there was no such point further south between Foyers and Inverfarigaig. The road is a long distance from the shore along that stretch.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFrw1aPrYto1LhCFn95NCZCYhbbQdkOS4ZC1r6eiG8upfp6f6lXWVBD9Ls_8c9N4Kx9h9XufL9XV1ku5LjfQWscf39T7P7sNlyhC-ILMFDGE_ZrlHnFGd2izrb4U5vb2B_E2SqsFhiwiFHkS2_tmVfTf2RneaLgwqb_-QIuLDfJN4fJLTkTLQ7Bodg/s4000/20230401_131508.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFrw1aPrYto1LhCFn95NCZCYhbbQdkOS4ZC1r6eiG8upfp6f6lXWVBD9Ls_8c9N4Kx9h9XufL9XV1ku5LjfQWscf39T7P7sNlyhC-ILMFDGE_ZrlHnFGd2izrb4U5vb2B_E2SqsFhiwiFHkS2_tmVfTf2RneaLgwqb_-QIuLDfJN4fJLTkTLQ7Bodg/s320/20230401_131508.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A lot of the road was clearly unsuitable, the drop was too precipitous for the kind of creature I had in mind and indeed even for nimbler creatures such as deer. The photograph above is close to the shore, but there is a sharp drop of perhaps seven feet before it. On other parts of the road, such as below, there was quite a long distance between road and loch which also presented a bit of an obstacle course for large, lumbering creatures. Undergrowth is one thing, but thick solid trees are another proposition altogether.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdfsM8iXcUcBnIOtBopeGYX7aq4D6TXhHrI1GRjnuCSQbd7db_hCOnJE7jijqNUwRFxgSWHnGolK5F-3uXxFyog3GbybGUsSGgj4tJFzk00qrY8QnDUg5gR31dYhkFjPJ_hR3wltib5LEE5WKtsbrGbGbZVj1DaQY_NCE2PlpX7bCe4no7U9F5Qog/s4000/20230401_155125.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdfsM8iXcUcBnIOtBopeGYX7aq4D6TXhHrI1GRjnuCSQbd7db_hCOnJE7jijqNUwRFxgSWHnGolK5F-3uXxFyog3GbybGUsSGgj4tJFzk00qrY8QnDUg5gR31dYhkFjPJ_hR3wltib5LEE5WKtsbrGbGbZVj1DaQY_NCE2PlpX7bCe4no7U9F5Qog/s320/20230401_155125.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">The two prime spots for me was the stretch of road about half a mile north of Inverfarigaig which runs very close to the loch but begins to rise thereafter. Perhaps more of a candidate is further up in the area near Whitefield which is where the Lachlan Stuart photo of 1951 was taken. The road ran close to the loch at these points and the gradient did not look difficult at various points such as in the picture below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSsuddxs6-Nkv6yBQO1L4UDGdjENGECdBT0Z0I6jFNzzkBhCgRa_WmPAjifJgQsWvloqtUmsK9zahswmL21JKubAznbMIwFSoX-rvPOT6nyoTHsab2lWVgMf7n2hzyGmRIZXN2pUy22RyqtbXprdPzAG0bm7QyYi2YVnNuvjcaO7kXufgUn9X5iK1/s4000/20230401_153835.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSsuddxs6-Nkv6yBQO1L4UDGdjENGECdBT0Z0I6jFNzzkBhCgRa_WmPAjifJgQsWvloqtUmsK9zahswmL21JKubAznbMIwFSoX-rvPOT6nyoTHsab2lWVgMf7n2hzyGmRIZXN2pUy22RyqtbXprdPzAG0bm7QyYi2YVnNuvjcaO7kXufgUn9X5iK1/s320/20230401_153835.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">But picking the actual spot would not be possible. Indeed, we are talking about an event that happened nearly ninety years ago and the road and vegetation alongside it today are not the same as they were back then. However, one would expect the rising and falling contours of the loch side to be roughly the same. All that being said, Rupert Gould reckoned the event happened halfway between Dores and Foyers, which puts us in the Whitefield area.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving on, but related to this account is the matter of deer and their habits. It has been suggested that the gap in the undergrowth witnessed by the Spicers and later by one of the locals, was nothing more than a well worn deer trail and therefore what he saw was no more than a group of deer crossing the road. With that theory in mind, I continued walking and looking for anything that looked like a trail not made by humans. A couple of photos of what may be trails are below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2JBrcUmIbQUlvmDo8jG8i1TDz92UFoJSLsPbvou7K6yNB8dcycQ0xxoZZbmoWB4mLItgn6xGHKpeH8K3o-1AIbHHxtInLVq3ygN_pVqtGztaIDFGy259fieYP_6Bp6-G0MlJcFHUshGbPRSf0QqLaJsgR7rc43u9s1SmJNznQGLkviFYuJQtQ3qra/s4000/20230401_154631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2JBrcUmIbQUlvmDo8jG8i1TDz92UFoJSLsPbvou7K6yNB8dcycQ0xxoZZbmoWB4mLItgn6xGHKpeH8K3o-1AIbHHxtInLVq3ygN_pVqtGztaIDFGy259fieYP_6Bp6-G0MlJcFHUshGbPRSf0QqLaJsgR7rc43u9s1SmJNznQGLkviFYuJQtQ3qra/s320/20230401_154631.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP72sgRAzPwJtHPt_2CO3DyaSlQJfJ-Pc9CwHaukLaVs5rLXgH37aAcXtHIzrPyScnRe3Jmzg5JwalajXqV6ysYt42RtzJ6NYYp3fhbOsKukJp5oS-LUqJrfHLOlTG4Jy2QE5sG71kvQPdjUCTh7CKZsZMnlwdfqVxsQdp80DMlmVcLD-b0_qNx4CV/s4000/20230401_155125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP72sgRAzPwJtHPt_2CO3DyaSlQJfJ-Pc9CwHaukLaVs5rLXgH37aAcXtHIzrPyScnRe3Jmzg5JwalajXqV6ysYt42RtzJ6NYYp3fhbOsKukJp5oS-LUqJrfHLOlTG4Jy2QE5sG71kvQPdjUCTh7CKZsZMnlwdfqVxsQdp80DMlmVcLD-b0_qNx4CV/s320/20230401_155125.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjPiOBMlXyXETmTsl0YkAXiXPVS6HaijtTygZWRKe7deKMwJum_W8lSZTwUWAnrhUMpY6RTmY-DTG2Z-KXI-2LthUtwEvySWvwvG-wi3vcSYqwUsT1Fb1NvgZFxDTgmvn5zOoH6Lpq50bdqcxwcGWfaxv4amZ4yGY8SYCNQgfYpREBp4E8hHyPynb/s4000/20230401_152617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjPiOBMlXyXETmTsl0YkAXiXPVS6HaijtTygZWRKe7deKMwJum_W8lSZTwUWAnrhUMpY6RTmY-DTG2Z-KXI-2LthUtwEvySWvwvG-wi3vcSYqwUsT1Fb1NvgZFxDTgmvn5zOoH6Lpq50bdqcxwcGWfaxv4amZ4yGY8SYCNQgfYpREBp4E8hHyPynb/s320/20230401_152617.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Having said this and looking at photographs of deer trails from across the world, I saw very little at the loch as pronounced as others where the vegetation underfoot is almost stamped away. Perhaps the middle picture was the best one. The bottom picture actually stops just before the tree ahead of it and it was interesting to note that the loch side part of the road was dotted with various of these little depressions. I was wondering if they were the remnants of rain overflow which comes down from the hillside finding paths of least resistance or were some man made? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I think the point though from what I observed is that there is no need for deer to waste energy by continuously pushing out and maintaining gaps in bushes and trees. Though the middle picture above was taken in April and not in late summer when growth will be at its greatest, it did not look like it was going to get much denser and such a more sparse trail would make more sense to deer. I may well be back in late summer to do the same hike again and see how things have changed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyE6Gs2Y4wureLMyXrs9iWL59gwNID6BELtgwlpT96Q66nXYUObiJs8QOR_ezvXxQLPcwa2dxBYf6mPWu9F-XcbPr-o89dk--5dKo_Cj7_DlyhmeGTdus9o-qqHYmLSBaGG4r93WXu6ah2YdzLqsd2bvzw_uPuNPMnK_qi6-MOJGiGd081ED1spGxW/s4000/20230401_174611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyE6Gs2Y4wureLMyXrs9iWL59gwNID6BELtgwlpT96Q66nXYUObiJs8QOR_ezvXxQLPcwa2dxBYf6mPWu9F-XcbPr-o89dk--5dKo_Cj7_DlyhmeGTdus9o-qqHYmLSBaGG4r93WXu6ah2YdzLqsd2bvzw_uPuNPMnK_qi6-MOJGiGd081ED1spGxW/s320/20230401_174611.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of course, throughout all of this walking trip, an eye was kept on the loch over to my left just in case the Monster of Loch Ness put in an appearance for yours truly. That did not happen, but as I reached the beach just south of Dores (above), I met one of the many anglers who frequent the loch and got into a conversation with him. I asked him how it was going and he had caught some brown trout. Inevitably, I asked him if he had seen anything a <i>lot</i> bigger than the trout in the water. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">He confessed he had not, but he did say that when he was a youngster years back, he was watching a flat calm surface of the loch as his family drove over on the other side of the loch. It was the kind of surface where the hills were perfectly mirrored on the water. Suddenly, he saw a large V-wake appear out of nowhere and progress up the loch. Nothing was visible and to this day he wondered if it was something like a seal or even bigger? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I didn't offer an explanation for what he saw, but I do like to engage anglers in these conversations when possible. As you can see from the above picture, the sun was now setting on another day at the loch and it was time to catch the bus back to Inverness. At the bus station for the bus to Edinburgh, I had a pleasant chat with the lady behind the cafe counter, recklessly fed a flying rat some of my chips and met a farmer who regularly arrives from Aviemore sober as a judge in the morning and arrives back there at night legless.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">You meet all types on a bus trip to Loch Ness. I hope to do it again some time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358999656752738469.post-60640613900462399252023-03-13T16:22:00.002-07:002023-03-13T17:32:55.000-07:00The Land Sighting of Alistair Dallas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisaUS8h3O-z7BADu6TUgdzKssIMsM_nzwA5cFncT-Fw_cXUvfg0i_b0rhT9JVx-_lUyYSxC8hWkAPOWgmihqLjV5qz_ep3LuLPl7r4WZtyWHLaLzOYFbRvr9Qxous-FO5wjNbbFykdvqvvtWU48y6d428btSWG0f4_0jiPMBBT4I6w4PNQiZ8baDtF/s497/Dallas%20Drawing.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="497" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisaUS8h3O-z7BADu6TUgdzKssIMsM_nzwA5cFncT-Fw_cXUvfg0i_b0rhT9JVx-_lUyYSxC8hWkAPOWgmihqLjV5qz_ep3LuLPl7r4WZtyWHLaLzOYFbRvr9Qxous-FO5wjNbbFykdvqvvtWU48y6d428btSWG0f4_0jiPMBBT4I6w4PNQiZ8baDtF/w439-h207/Dallas%20Drawing.JPG" width="439" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Alleged land sightings of the Loch Ness Monster comes in varying degrees of credibility, some say they have no credibility at all - and I am including people who earnestly believe in the beast! One account which has lurked in the shadows of more famous accounts comes against the background of a mystery in its own right. I am referring to the Alastair Dallas account from 1936 and the sketch which he did and is shown above. Now the background mystery to this was the legendary MacRae film, an alleged film of the Loch Ness Monster taken in the early 1930s which is said to be indisputable evidence of a close up creature.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">You can read a fuller account of that controversy in one of my earlier <a href="https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-mysterious-macrae-film.html">articles</a>. Today we mainly focus on Dallas' own alleged account. The first mention of this account is in F.W. Holiday's book, "<i>The Great Orm of Loch Ness</i>" published in 1968 and it refers to his meeting with Dallas in 1965. The prime reason for that meeting was to find out if Dallas really was one of the trustees of the film, but at the end of that story Holiday says:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Mr Dallas said that he had seen the Orm for himself, many years ago, during one of his painting trips to the Great Glen. However, due to the almost pathological scepticism the subject engendered, it was a topic he rarely discussed.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And that is all that was intimated as the account took a distant backseat to the MacRae film. Nothing more was said until monster researcher, Alan Wilkins, contacted Dallas in the early 1970s through an intermediary named Tom Skinner. Dallas told Wilkins that the alleged MacRae film of Nessie was actually his own sighting in the same decade. Years later, researcher Mike Dash contacted Wilkins to get more details and he was told that Dallas supplied to Wilkins a quick basic sketch and then a more detailed sketch said to have been done at the time in 1936. Both are shown below.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2hEeM-qDXKKNFuJ-PgSY1BkRC-uwLw-_rRccimY6y2HFFlRDHuT1lFbCjx5lLIbZ-etRk6J_VQWeqzOC_xSsXFv-vlD0HiIuUX4yWYaJeQbdIPIIfbhiJZ4jjW54-fuIm71zgRzF-itKxAPYNkk1NGgfc_wtKEt6_Nku5XRzEQBozI_efujr4Kur/s715/Alastair%20Dallas%20Sketch.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="715" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2hEeM-qDXKKNFuJ-PgSY1BkRC-uwLw-_rRccimY6y2HFFlRDHuT1lFbCjx5lLIbZ-etRk6J_VQWeqzOC_xSsXFv-vlD0HiIuUX4yWYaJeQbdIPIIfbhiJZ4jjW54-fuIm71zgRzF-itKxAPYNkk1NGgfc_wtKEt6_Nku5XRzEQBozI_efujr4Kur/s320/Alastair%20Dallas%20Sketch.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakRDq-xoB6PUOm4ax1dY0taXBBlIw6sD4v_0Mn4K-k0zjkW0qs-4IWPvAx7w-f-71JCqqyEv4qq1XT9wVb1tlxRL5hFMVS7BXHPzTTBznMrDx3Uw5aJvqiATmj33gsc2msXLilV2FN2o_N2nnFSHXdggvfnjez3a_7MYW3qG4lG55vIL-eU44IZVB/s1227/Land%20sighting%20complete%20sketch%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="1227" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakRDq-xoB6PUOm4ax1dY0taXBBlIw6sD4v_0Mn4K-k0zjkW0qs-4IWPvAx7w-f-71JCqqyEv4qq1XT9wVb1tlxRL5hFMVS7BXHPzTTBznMrDx3Uw5aJvqiATmj33gsc2msXLilV2FN2o_N2nnFSHXdggvfnjez3a_7MYW3qG4lG55vIL-eU44IZVB/w400-h291/Land%20sighting%20complete%20sketch%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">One would have to admit this is one of the best executed eyewitness sketches produced over the years and apparently done "<i>live</i>" right at the scene of the encounter. Alan Wilkins supplied Mike Dash with the text of Dallas' reply via Skinner back in October 1974:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Only one fly in the ointment. It is my personal knowledge that his </i>[Holiday's]<i> reporting of his conversation with me is almost diametrically opposed to the facts. I was there so I do know about that. </i><i>There was no suggestion on my part of a second film. The first I heard of that was your information…</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The second film he (Holiday) writes of is, I consider, my exposition about my sighting of the Beastie. </i><i>Holiday was so worked up on the subject of film that he did not find it possible to drag his mind away from this aspect. </i><i>On reading his book it became clear to me that he had not heard one word of what I had to say about the actual impression made on me by that sighting.</i></p><div style="text-align: justify;">As to the actual sighting by Dallas, Wilkins had back then received some verbal details on the creature seen which he also passed onto Mike Dash:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><ul><li><i>Midday sighting - lasted long enough for Dallas to go and fetch his sketchbook</i></li><li><i>Extremely close quarters - 100 feet</i></li><li><i>Monster approx 32 feet in length, hauled out of the water, apparently sucking weed from stones</i></li><li><i>Round golf ball eyes, ears, distinct neck, distinctive narrow flipper seen</i></li><li><i>Three dorsal fins, like sharks’; thick, fleshy, flabby</i></li><li><i>Tail in water</i></li><li><i>Mangy appearance - tufts of hair or fibre</i></li><li><i>Sketched animal from above in 3/4 side view</i></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>The original sketch supplied also had the annotation "<i>Drumnadrochit 1936 Sept.</i>" at the top. Finally, some time after Dallas' death in 1983, researcher Dick Raynor contacted the family regarding the film, but also on the land sighting which is detailed at his <a href="http://www.lochnessinvestigation.org/McRae.htm">website</a>. It is likely he was speaking to Alastair Dallas' son, who is also called Alastair. The background to how Dallas came to be at Loch Ness is mentioned:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Mr Dallas was a widely travelled landscape artist with a wide circle of friends. After the "new" road along the north-west shore of Loch Ness had been completed he contacted the main contractors, Carmichaels, with a view to a commission to record the works. Unfortunately, the commission had already been awarded, but due to the original artists preference for sweeping curves over straight lines, Mr Dallas was later invited to the contractors offices and given the commission by the proud builder of the straight roads. It was during this commissioned work that the sketch is believed to have been made.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Dick displays the 1936 sketch of the beast by Dallas and discusses what he thinks Dallas may or may not have seen. It is not clear to me who first posted the sketch on the Internet, whether it was Mike Dash or Dick Raynor, but I guess it was first posted around the turn of the millennium. Mike Dash adds another detail from Dallas' son, Alastair, whom he spoke to in 1998:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>My father was a great teller of tales, not that he was a deliberate liar… he very much liked attention. I never saw any film, nor did my father ever discuss it, which I feel he would have done if [Holiday’s account] was correct… I have no reason to cover up information… So far as I am aware my father never had any friends known as Dr MacRae.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>... I honestly think you should end your search here and now. I have already said that my father was a great teller of tales. Need I say more?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Such a statement casts doubt upon his father's account, though the focus here seems to be more on the MacRae film rather than his 1936 sighting, so how do we assess all this? Well, I got an email recently from Thomas, who occasionally sends me items he has found on the Internet. In this case it was a recent interview with Alastair Dallas' son conducted by Hilary Alcock and Flora McDowall for the Regional Ethnology of Scotland Project in July 2018. The original <a href="https://collections.ed.ac.uk/eerc/record/190987/archival_object">link</a> also has a picture of Alastair Dallas Jr. shown below.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DwOI04FidSgI51eCJvE7prMU67eF--xYZLDAI-SyjNfb9rcXyPXFdq2PG3px7xCRPUgrQX-ATUry9wTxWwuKWm1knSgfvvjWotxIJ60uDGw2iiOm_ejpG72PvsVdMkJOWzBzgop5Rf49mKXuIVP8XH550TF_ScTtQRRh09XwhssWqkLpCeEmGtH2/s3648/Alastair%20Dallas%20Jr..jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DwOI04FidSgI51eCJvE7prMU67eF--xYZLDAI-SyjNfb9rcXyPXFdq2PG3px7xCRPUgrQX-ATUry9wTxWwuKWm1knSgfvvjWotxIJ60uDGw2iiOm_ejpG72PvsVdMkJOWzBzgop5Rf49mKXuIVP8XH550TF_ScTtQRRh09XwhssWqkLpCeEmGtH2/s320/Alastair%20Dallas%20Jr..jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>The focus of the interview was recollections of Kirkcudbright artists of whom Alastair Dallas Snr. was one. One part of the summary is interesting to Loch Ness researchers:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Alastair’s father was a keen photographer and took a photo, in 1936 while working for McAlpine, of the Loch Ness monster which proved very popular.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>A photograph of the Loch Ness Monster, or even a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster on land? Surely not, as we would have heard of such a thing a long time ago? Fortunately, the website provides a transcript of the interview and we extract and reproduce the Nessie portion of it here. The "<i>HA</i>" and "<i>FM</i>" are the interviewers and "<i>AD</i>" is Alastair Dallas:</div><div><br /></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>HA: And did he go and paint outside or did he - ?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: He was a great one for the camera but it was the early days of colour and black and
white, there's one he did I've got I've yet to find the plate, but I know I've got it, of the Loch
Ness Monster.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>HA: Really!</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: It was on Border Television I think about the year before he died, they paid twenty-five
pounds for a print. I printed them off took me half an hour to do two hundred!
[Laughter]</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>FM: Nice work if you can get it!</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: I literally turned the handle.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>FM: And what was his story about the Loch Ness Monster?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: It was 1936 he was doing a commission for McAlpine who were doing the new road
along the north side of Loch Ness and the previous artist they'd commissioned simply would
not paint what was there, he liked swirling curves on a road McAlpine has spent hundreds of
thousands of pounds making dead straight!
[Laughter]</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: So McAlpine wanted a picture of what he had done, where these pictures ended up I
have no idea, but the old man had a hut assigned to him by McAlpine where he stayed for
weeks at a time - this was before he got married of course, this was before the war and the
one of the Loch Ness Monster was in his sketchbook, he hadn't painted it or anything like
that, and he found it one day and he got it made into a plate and he had me print it off for
him 'cause he was too busy doing something else. As I say, Border bought a copy and they
did a wee interview with him for twenty-five quid but that was quite a lot o' money in those
days.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>FM: And he was really convinced he saw the Loch Ness Monster?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: This drawing I don't think looks as if it was drawn invented, eh it's too detailed.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>FM: It's amazing isn't it?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>HA: Yes.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: And there was a guy up in Loch - beside - Loch Ness he used to take people around an'
ah sent him a copy by email and he did a thing on his website about it, but this loch Ness
Monster I think he genuinely saw what it was and he simply didn't take a photograph
because he didn't have his camera with him, he'd gone down to the loch-side for
somewhere quiet to have a cup o' tea an' a bun!</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>FM: Well lucky he could draw!</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>AD: Lucky he could draw. I have some of these prints still - they're not in really good
condition because the last few they were running off the ink was beginning to catch where
it shouldn't and when I said, will I clean it, an' he said, no two hundred that's enough.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are two observations to make about this interview. The interview begins with Dallas talking as if it was a photograph that was taken by his father in 1936, but it is clear at the end of the interview that no camera was involved in the sighting and only the sketch was a by-product of this alleged encounter. It seems more likely perhaps that the original sketch was photographed years later for the Border Television interview as requests for copies of the sketch came in. The TV interview is said to have taken place a year before his father death, which would place it in 1982.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The clip may be held in the ITV archives or elsewhere such as <a href="http://bufvc.ac.uk/archives/index.php/collection/75">here</a>, but that is beyond the scope of this article. The usual issue with these old items is that they may lie in a film canister only to be digitised for a fee and with long lead times. But the second point concerns Alastair Dallas' assessment of his father's account when he says that he thought his father genuinely saw the monster. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But we were told previously that he thought his father was a teller of tall tales. Is there a contradiction here? Did Dallas Jnr. say his father's story was a fabrication just to get rid of people or did he change his mind about it over the years? The second contradiction is where Holiday states that in 1965 Dallas rarely talked about his own sighting "<i>due to the almost pathological scepticism the subject engendered" </i>but his son related how in 1982 his father willingly talked to the TV station about it and printed off lots of copies of his sketches for public consumption. Some things do not add up here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But let us at this point take it as a genuine statement that he thought his father's encounter was believable, what can we make of it? It is said to have happened about noon on a day in September 1936. The location is not stated, though his drawing is signed "<i>Drumnadrochit 1936 Sept.</i>" which is a slight conundrum as Drumnadrochit is hundreds of metres away from the loch. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It may suggest the location was a point on the shoreline near the town but that could extend from Temple Pier to the woodlands shore facing Urquhart Bay or closer south to the castle. I do not think it was the woodlands by the bay as he is stated as looking down on the creature and that area is pretty flat which points to the other areas, but there is not enough information to take that further.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My own initial impression of the account was sceptical purely based on the sketch. Quite simply, it does not line up well with the descriptions given in the general corpus of eyewitness reports. The two areas of contention are the triple dorsal fins and the two hanging lobes by the sides of the head. Looking through the sightings database, only two reports mention multiple dorsal fins but both put them apart at such a distance as to suggest more than one creature. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Dallas sketch shows two dorsal fins and not three as verbally described, but I assume that the third dorsal fin mentioned is the fin like structure at the end of the tail. However that would be called a caudal fin and not a dorsal fin, but I would put that down to mis-naming anatomical parts rather than mis-numbering.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The hanging side lobes appear nowhere else in the database and that with the triple dorsal fins is an important argument against this account. Now I could be wrong on this, after all most sightings occur at such a distance that such features may be undiscernible. The claimed distance for this was about 100 feet which affords a lot of detail and puts a genuine witness in an important position. However, other close encounters do not mention these unusual features and we have about three dozen claimed sightings within a distance of 50 metres. Some of those should have confirmed what was being described here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alternatively, one could say that Dallas misidentified a deer or seal as Dick Raynor suggests in his analysis. At a range of 100 feet that would seem a distant possibility, especially as he claimed to have watched if for quite a long time. One could only begin to consider this if the creature was heavily obscured by vegetation, but there is no suggestion of that situation in the account.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One may even suggest the passage of years had not been kind to his powers of recall, but he asserted that the sketch was done as things unfolded before him. And then there are those two "<i>breasts</i>" hanging down in front of the creature. What is this? The first evidence of a female Nessie? If so, they are in completely the wrong place for the likes of a pinniped or just about anything else. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So I am putting this account down as dubious which consequently removes another conundrum as it would be unlikely in the extreme that a man who had a land sighting would also be a trustee to an even rarer film. The chances of that exceeds even the word "<i>improbable</i>" because on average there is one claimed land sighting about every three years and if the MacRae film did exist, the odds of crossing the paths of the owner of that film is also very small.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, both cannot be true, but how does the position that this land sighting account is fake reframe the debate about the mysterious MacRae films? In other words, was there anything about the reality of these films that influenced Dallas to introduce a false story? Did Dallas' tale originate in 1965 when he met Holiday rather than 1936 or something else? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is where the road ahead forks at various possible junctions. The simple conclusion is that if he lied about that story, he likely lied about everything else - case closed. But wait, Dallas said that Holiday had fabricated what he told him about the films. Was that made up as well? Most would assume that anything that promoted the idea of a monster could only be taken as a lie. This is what we call confirmation bias.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But if that statement concerning Holiday was true, was his immediate statement that the Loch Duich film existed true as well? One thing I do not believe is that Ted Holiday mangled his account that badly. But then again, even if Holiday faithfully reproduced the account, he may have unwittingly reproduced a series of falsehoods. Maybe, perhaps, possibly, but was not Holiday alerted to the films by an independent source at Loch Ness? Do we have to add needless complexity by introducing another liar?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">One reason I think Dallas told Holiday pretty much the same tale as he told Wilkins ten years later is because Holiday did not describe to readers what he told him. Why would he do that? Quite simply because Holiday was promoting the idea of a giant invertebrate in the same book and the conical head with eyes, the backbone supported dorsal fins, the tufted hair and dare we say the breasts would have been too much for Ted. I suspect he may not have believed him either.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here is what I think happened. Back in September 1936, Dallas drew a sketch of the Loch Ness Monster. The reason it is annotated "<i>Drumnadrochit</i>" is because that is where it was drawn and not at the loch side hundreds of yards away. He was up there to draw scenes from Loch Ness, so why not sketch its most famous inhabitant while he was there? In the best tradition of that phrase, "<i>An artist's impression ...</i>" he allowed his artistic imagination to let rip, perhaps encouraged by others over a pint in the pub.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Who knows what the minor details may have been, but when Holiday knocked at his door in Kirkcudbrightshire twenty nine years later, he perhaps saw an opportunity to get some of his old artwork given a public airing. Unfortunately, he should have asked Holiday what his opinion of the <i>Tullimonstrum Gregarium</i> was before he took that step. Holiday did not take the bait, but Dallas got his chance with Border TV another seventeen years on.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But what about the MacRae films? What Holiday tells us of what Dallas described is quite detailed and one doubts that Dallas' artistic imagination could have produced that story from scratch for the visit of this unknown Holiday chap who just turned up at the doorstep. The only way out here is that Holiday fed him a lot of conversational monster information first or somehow the book has telescoped the account and is actually a compression of events such as follow up letters. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One thing seems clear to me, if there really was a MacRae film and Dallas was a trustee, his joking about with Holiday and his imaginary sketch would surely disqualify him as one of these serious minded trustees. As for the anonymous person who tipped off Holiday at Loch Ness, is it possible that that person had met a young artist in 1936 in Drumnadrochit who boasted about seeing the monster close up and had even taken some photos or even film of it? When investigators began to swarm around the loch in the 1960s, the story came back to him and the rest is a ripping yarn.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But for me, the door on the mysterious MacRae films has closed a little bit more. The door is still slightly ajar regarding this other film taken at Loch Duich. It was always a stretch that one man could have bagged two sensational monster films at two separate lochs in the space of a few years, but perhaps one film can be accommodated, despite its whereabouts being as much a mystery as the creature it claims to have filmed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/593164994893955" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">group</a>.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i>The author can also be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Glasgow Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597014995112568086noreply@blogger.com