Loch Ness is a big,
deep freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands, south of the town of Inverness.
It is a picturesque spot which is best known for its most famous inhabitant,
the Loch Ness monster.
On the last day of a
six-day vigil at Loch Ness in April 1960, Tim Dinsdale, an aeronautical
engineer, was driving slowly along a Cliffside road 100 meters above the water
when he saw a reddish-brown humpbacked object floating about 1500 meters away.
Tim immediately stopped his car and grabbed his camera. The object began moving
towards the far shore. Dinsdale filmed what he was sure was the back of a
semi-submerged animal. The creature swam in a slow zigzag manner, disappeared
below the surface, and turned left along the opposite shore. It was surrounded
by a huge wash of foam.
The Dinsdale evidence
was shown on the BBC and on TV programs all over the world. The BBC began to
receive many letters from people who claimed to have seen the monster. But soon
the excitement died. The government was not willing to finance a scientific
investigation. In 1966, the film was studied by a Royal Air Force
photo-intelligence unit. They concluded that Loch Ness holds some huge object,
probably alive. The report says that the object rose three feet above the
waterline, moved at 16 km per hour and was definitely not a surface craft or a
submarine. It was an animate object. At last the Loch Ness monster which had been
treated as a myth and generally ignored had now become respectable.
A drawing and a model
of the creature, based on the few existing photos and on more than 100
eyewitness reports, present a strange-looking animal. It looks like a
plesiosaur -- a fish -- eating, egg-laying reptile from the age of the
dinosaurs. The plesiosaur could grow to 10 meters in length. It had a
barrel-shaped body, four limbs, a long slender neck, a tiny head with a large
mouth and pointed teeth. The animal had become extinct about 70 million years
ago and discovery of a living specimen would be sensational. It is not as
impossible as it seems because in 1938 some fisherman caught a primitive fish,
the coelacanth which was believed to be extinct for just as long. Animals like
the coelacanth which are very primitive are called 'living fossils'.
Some naturalists
believe that the Loch Ness monster, or Nessie as she is fondly called, could be
a giant sea slug. Such a creature could contort its body into one, two or three
humps seen by different witnesses. Others think it is a kind of marine bristle
worm. This also has appendages called false feet, a big head and a body that
can be bent into humps visible in the water.
Summary: In April 1960, after a
six-day wait, Tim Dinsdale saw a humpbacked object floating in Loch Ness. He
filmed the object which was confirmed in 1966 by a Royal Air Force Unit as an
animate object. It resembled a plesiosaur, a reptile believed to be extinct
about 70 million years ago ! The Dinsdale film initially caused a lot of excitement,
with many eyewitness claims. An old myth had become a reality. The creature, or
Nessie, was described as having a barrel-shaped body, four limbs, a long thin
neck, a tiny head and a large mouth with pointed teeth. some naturalists think
that the monster is probably a giant sea slug or a marine bristle worm. This
also ahs fake limbs and can contort its body into visible humps.
No comments:
Post a Comment