The Definitive Water Horse

While I was looking through the artwork of R. W. Benjamin at the Unknown Creatures website (Love it or hate it, it is one of the more prominent references on Cryptids that will turn up on your internet searches), and I happened to find the illustration of the Turtle Lake monster, Alberta, Canada. It happens that a description had just been posted for the Kootenay Lake monster in the yahoo group Frontiers of Zoology and the description coincided with the artwork in measurement and proportions: and that I had also previously done composites for the Lake Monsters in the Lake Winnepeg-Winnepegosis-Lake-Manitoba group, and in several lakes in Quebec, all of which tended to correspond to this Water Horse reconstruction. The illustration for the Turtle Lake Monster follows and I consider it to be an acurate depiction for what is reported:

Now please consider that actually what is ever seen is just the head, neck and upper back, or in other words the top part of the first half of the reconstruction drawing. The limbs are inferred because of their movement  in the water, and the tail is most often only assumed without any good evidence. The part of the limbs represented on the Water-Monster drawing are a fair representation of the upper parts of the limbs down to the "Knees" (which are actually the heels on the back legs)

I think we don't need to look any further than this for the identification of most "Water Horse" cases of Eurasia and North America: the Russian and even Chinese reports are much like this. The actual "PLESIOSAURIAN" shaped animals have a much smaller head, a longer neck and a much bigger body: they are seen much less often and usually closer to the sea. Out of the long list of "Lake Monster"lakes, only a few outstanding examples qualify, but they are worldwide (and uncommon)

http://www.unknown-creatures.com/gallery.html


From the Frontiers of Zoology Group submitted by Terry Colvin:
[forteana] Kootenay Lake Monster
Date: Dec 4, 2012 2:35 PM

[Vehicle engine interference is a commonly reported attribute of UFOs, but
the case below is the first instance I've come across of a boat's motor
being similarly affected in the presence of a lake monster. As I recall,
there's an account or two in the Bords' *Bigfoot Casebook* of cars that
failed to start when Bigfoot was lurking in the vicinity -- and that's the
little I know about cryptids shutting down engines and motors. Ghosts have
been known to stop cars, and witches traditionally have the power to stop
wagons, and sometimes a countercharm -- such as the one used by one of the
boat passengers -- is effective in getting the horses moving again. -- bc]

John Kirk, *In the Domain of the Lake Monsters* (Toronto: Key Porter
Books, 1998), p. 188.

Only one interview has ever been obtained from a living witness of a
Kootenay Lake monster and it was due to the diligent detective work of the
late Jim Clark who managed to track down Naomi Miller, a resident of the
small lakeside community of Wasa in 1937. Miller's story is a fascinating
one and here is her own account of what took place:

_Our family always used a boat to go to Kaslo from our home at Shutty
Beach, four miles north on the shore of Kootenay Lake. Many of our
neighbours were forced, in those depression years, to walk to town to do
their errands and to walk home again. The Williams family, who lived less
than half-a-mile from us, were among those who had no boat, no horse and
no car. One day Mr. Williams came to our door, explaining that he had an
urgent errand in Kaslo. Could he please have a ride to town? My father
willingly let him use one of our boats with a small outboard motor. It was
also agreed that my brother and I (aged six and ten) would accompany him
to do a few errands.

_Errands accomplished, we enjoyed a sunny July day and a crystal clear
lake as the motor purred driving us homeward. We rounded the "Big Point"
and were barely out of sight of Kaslo when the motor coughed and stopped.
Moments later we were aware of a ripple just ahead of the boat. A black
head reared followed by at least one hump above the water some eight feet
behind us. This weird creature swam between our boat and the shore to a
position behind us. We sat hypnotized until the "Ogopogo" dived with a
gurgling sound into the calm water. Mr. Williams made the sign of the
cross [...], twice, to protect himself from evil. He then pulled the
starting cord and the outboard motor responded as if nothing had happened.
We do not know what we saw, but agree that it was longer than our 16 foot
boat, and three of us in it that July day in 1937._
[Once again assuming the tail which is not seen, and in a size range
 which is probably the smaller end of Lake Monster reports in general-DD]

Terry W. Colvin
Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand
Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand
http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/
[Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site]

Dale Drinnon <daledrinnon@gmail.com>	Dec 4 (2 days ago)
to frontiers-of-zoology. A very good description of a swimming moose! As to the boat's motor, I assume it could have gone out at any time and therefore [had the mysterious stopping and starting] gotten accidentally attached to any number of unrelated things by the witnesses just as well. Best Wishes, Dale D.