Tim Morris Cryptozoologicon Response site

http://cryptoresponse.weebly.com/

Tim Morris has made available a few of his Cryptozoological thoughts online at his new website: Cryptozoologicon - A response...

This website is an artistic project made as a response to the new book "Cryptozoologicon Volume 1.

The e-book is available here for a modest price:
http://www.amazon.com/Cryptozoologicon-Volume-I-Darren-Naish-ebook/dp/B00GDF7OAK

The book approaches the study of mystery creatures as a skeptical matter, for the most part refuting their existence. But as a part of the book, they also approach cryptozoology as speculative fiction, using the hypotheses of various cryptozoologists as inspiration, and also providing their own. All the while, the book is provided with lavish illustrations, to accompany their speculation.

The book contains 28 case studies of cryptids, each with a skeptical text about the sightings and context, some speculative writing about the hypothetical nature of each beast, and a color illustration. In the next 28 entries, I will mimic this style, using my own text and drawings of different cryptids.

All artwork and text contained in this website is by Timothy Donald Morris, this work is produced by me for artistic purposes, and belongs to me.

 

I can recognize that Tim has been following this blog and has taken some hints from it, while maintaining his own line of independant speculation.  At this particular juncture, I am interested in some of his information about some freshwater cryptids of North America (His section on Merfolk comes to parallel speculations about aquatic macaque monkeys to the speculations made by Tyler Stone and by me, but basically assorted differently)

 

Cameron McCormick once spoke derisively about the category of "Faux-alligators" on this blog. There is nothing particularly mysterious or even peculiar abut my use of the general label, it means creatures that are commonly described as alligators when they are obviously not alligators. There are two main sorts, one a giant salamander and the other a large iguanid lizard. Tim Morris gives an example of each sort in this site:

 

Canadian “Alligators”

Location: British Columbia, Canada.

Time: Allegedly sighted in 1900, 1915 and 1973, other sightings collected in 1998. Numerous other sightings, and supposed links to Native American folklore.

Various sightings in British Columbia and surrounding areas describe large, lizard-like aquatic creatures dwelling in ponds and lakes. The first uncovered sighting was Warren Scott, who allegedly found a “lost valley” where black “alligators” with horns apparently lived. Another supporter of his “alligator story” supposedly caught some young individuals, and dissected them, making drawings of the anatomy. Many other interesting sightings involve black “lizards” or “alligators” in this part of Canada, as well as Native American myths and legends. Warren Scott has been revealed to not be a trustworthy source, by other cryptozoologists, so his story may have been fabricated.

This creature sounds decidedly un-alligator-like, it is claimed to have horns, and smooth skin, as well as webbed feet, none of these features are typical of alligators. Cryptozoologists have noted that British Columbia is far too cold for alligators, or any large reptile, and that this creature could be an amphibian. Stories of both lake monsters, and giant reptiles are typical mythic motifs in many parts of the world, so all that these sightings probably amount to is folklore and tall tales. There seems to be no candidate for the real “canadian alligator”, and so it remains yet another obscure, forgotten cryptozoological case, with no resolution in sight.

But what if Warren Scott really did see something? We can speculate that the Canadian “alligator” would be more aptly named the Giant Canadian Waterhound (Meganecturus niger). It is a very large, black-skinned salamander, related to the Mudpuppy and Waterdog; it reaches lengths of up to 10 feet, but grows very slowly. The dark  skin colour allows it to retain heat in the colder climate of its Canadian home, and it possesses external gills, that can be mistaken for horns. This amphibian is able to crawl onto land for periods of time in order to travel between bodies of water, or feed, during these excursions it will retract its gills into a pouch on its neck. They more commonly come ashore when the air is damp or misty, or even during rain. Feeding mainly on fish and crabs, but also taking snakes, insects, and small birds, the Giant Canadian Waterhound usually prefers to inhabit lakes or ponds that are relatively undisturbed, being sensitive to pollution and disturbance by humans.

 

Gowrow

Location: Arkansas, USA

Time: January 31, 1897, possible earlier sightings.

Another kind of fictional monster, is that kind invented by newspapers or magazines to boost sales. One such incident seems to be the shooting of the dragon-like Gowrow on January 31 1897. Supposedly the posse of townsfolk found its lair, a cave that was littered about with human and animal remains. The creature came out of the nearby lake and was eventually shot multiple times, but not before biting off one person’s leg and uprooting trees. Supposedly it was 20 feet long, with tusks, and a row of small horn-spikes down its back. Its tail was long and thin, and ended in a blade-shaped spike. A popular trick was to claim to have captured a Gowrow, charge admission, and then incite panic by claiming that it had escaped, pocketing all the admission without showing the public anything.

Such tall tales abounded in frontier North America, it was customary to fool strangers into believing in these things, as a way of hazing them. As such, the fraudulent newspaper hype, and subsequent sightings should not be taken seriously. It remains unlikely that such a large, draconic reptile could remain undetected in the USA, even if the relatively southern position of Arkansas could not pose too much of a problem for it.

So, if the Gowrow were not all stories and fraud, what would it be like? We suggest that the Gowrow (Arkansaurus cornuderma) be imagined as a giant relative of the Gila monster. A relatively sluggish, but powerful lizard with bony scutes along its back, giving it a somewhat spiky profile, it is claimed to have tusks, but the Gowrow actually has many large fangs, which are usually hidden by the lips and gums. It can give a very serious wounding bite that is also venomous, it can even sever limbs of an unwary assailant, and a secondary defence is its large tail which has a hard, pointed tip. It usually has a fairly small territory, consisting of a deep burrow dug among trees or rocks, and accessible areas of mountainous woodland in which to hunt. It appears to hunt mainly by ambush, laying in wait by commonly used game trails for prey such a deer, raccoons, and rabbits. Like its relatives, it enjoys soaking in water in warmer weather, which has led to the mistaken belief that it is a lake dweller. The relatively temperate weather in the Ozarks means that the Gowrow enters torpor in winter, and emerges in spring. Being almost 20 feet long, it is able to conserve heat fairly well during the rest of the year, but it may be that this reptile has better control of its metabolism than other lizards.

 [Although the name "Gowrow" has been connected to what is called "Fakelore", it does seem there is a valid  folk tradition expressing a belief in such dragonlike creatures but using the alternate spelling of "Gowers"]

[In these cases I consider the amphibian "Canadian Alligators" to be more closly related to hellbenders than mudpuppies, and this is the same category as listed by Loren Coleman in his own Field Guide to aquatic cryptids. The spinyback creatures are something we have an ongoing string about on this blog also, and I personally consider them to be iguanids because of the spines on the back as well as other considerations. Many Cryptozoologists believe them to be monitor lizards. The figure of 20 feet long is repeated in South America although I am not so confident to say that the ones in North America can be considered to be as large.-DD]

Sachamama
Tim also includes this drawing interpreting the Sachamama as a giant snakenecked turtle. There is no information posted on this on the site yet but it is an intriguing possibility.

Bruce Champagne's Sailfin

http://pristichampsus.deviantart.com/art/4B-Sailfin-as-fish-153072829

The fantastic creature above was posted to his Deviant Art account by "Pristichampsus" (Tim Morris) as illustrating one of Bruce Champagne's Sea Serpent types. In order to deal with this better, we shall need to go back to the original statement Bruce had made. The summary of the type and the reconstruction illustrating the type are reproduced below:

4B Sailfin: An elongated animal of possible mammalian or reptilian identity reported from 12 to 85 feet long. It has a long neck with a turtle-like head and a long continuous dorsal fin. Cosmopolitan.

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/05/dale-drinnon-possible-identifications.html

My comments were as follows:

 "4B is obviously the same as the Valhalla Sea-Serpent. I do not know why BC gives it such a wide size range nor Geographic range, although I was aware of other reports of the type (Heuvelmans calls one a "Marine Dimetrodon"). I actually do not know what it is, but with that head and neck it is presumably related to the Plesiosaurs."

Now as to what Tim Morris had said:

4B Sailfin as fish
by ~Pristichampsus

Digital Art / Drawings / Animals

©2010-2013 ~Pristichampsus

This is another interesting Bruce Champagne Sea-serpent. Said to undulate it's dorsal fin in order to locomote, it seemed most logical to reconstruct this animal as an aberrant fish, as opposed to Champagne's "mammal-like-reptile" identity.[DD-Emphasis added]

Load All Images

~thomastapir Feb 6, 2010

NICE. I can totally see this as a derived oarfish or even viperfish![DD-Emphasis added]

Reply

~Pristichampsus Feb 6, 2010  Professional General Artist

Yeah, definately a derived fishy of some sort.

This was also followed by:

 

http://pristichampsus.deviantart.com/art/4b-Sailfin-alternate-153201191

 

4b Sailfin alternate

by ~Pristichampsus

Digital Art / Drawings / Animals

©2010-2013 ~Pristichampsus

This is an air-breathing and corrected version of the sailfin. Apparently it makes audible exhalations, so that makes an alternative to a fish necessary. Though I guess it could have been the sound of distant surf.

 

DD COMMENT: The audible breath is a distinctive reference to the  Soay Beast which is clearly not a sailfinned anything. I would call that an error in the classification.

Going back to the oarfish idea there is probably more to it than any of us realized before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oarfish
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8501000/8501251.stm

Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fishes comprising the small family Regalecidae.^[1] Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species in two genera. One of these, the king of herrings (Regalecus glesne), is the longest bony fish alive, at up to 17 metres (56 ft) in length [One of the sources cited says "over sixty feet"].^[2][3]


The Oarfish have three aspects that are important here. Firstly, the back fin of the sailfin from the neck on back is much the same as the oarfish. Secondly, the geographic range is the same as the oarfish's range  and thirdly, the alleged size range is close to the alleged size range for the oarfish. In the case of Tim Morris' depiction, it struck me right off that the head of the creature even has an indication for the "Oars" of the oarfish in the "Barbels" it has, and swimming by means of wiggling the back fin is also a trait of the oarfishes. So in general I think we have a category that includes some non-standard Longneck sightings (including probably both the Valhalla and Soay SS sightings) intermixed with some mistaken reports of probably just plain oarfishes.

In other words, Longnecks plus oarfishes equals the Sailfin sightings of this Bruce Champagne Sea Serpent category:

 

Seen from some angles, the wiggling of the backfin in an oarfish can make it seem as if the forward section of the back is different, without a fin, and it looks like the "neck" part of the Sailfin SS  reconstruction. It is important to note that this video says that confirmed lengths of the oarfish go up to 25 feet but that the unconfirmed estimates go up to fifty feet or more, which is consistent with the statement made in the Wikipedia.[Markus Buhler also wishes for me to draw attention to this fact]

 

 

Pristichampsus (Tim Morris) Envisions the Jersey Devil

I recently had a mix-up in attributing artwork on Deviant Art to the wrong artist. As a followup I was checking into Cryptozoology artwork on Deviant Art when I discovered that my friend Tim Morris (Pristichampsus) had a mockup of a Jersey Devil creature that was a giant bat.

http://pristichampsus.deviantart.com/art/Primeval-Jersey-Devil-330283522

Codename: Jersey Devil
Size: 6 feet tall, 70 kg
Diet: Meat, fruit, large insects
Age: 50 Million years hence
Description: A strange future bat that appears at a location in New Jersey USA, found to be the explanation for the Jersey Devil cryptid.

[I imagine this is taken to be a creature which evolves I the future and slips back into the past by time travel in a fictional series. The height and weight are probably too great for the "real" one (Although it might be near the sizes alleged by witnesses. Actually 6-8 feet would appear to be the wingspan rather than the height) The impression is actually probably not too far off, except the legs of the real creature would probably much thinner and weaker than the ones shown here]

Deception Bay SS, Australia

Malcom Smith put this up and advertised in the CFZ network: I caught one remark in particular (" One is immediately reminded of "Caborosaurus", the sea serpent of the narrow waters around Vancouver Island on the other side of the Pacific") and I knew I neded to reprint it for commentary.

http://malcolmscryptids.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/another-deception-bay-sea-serpent.html

Malcolm's Musings: Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is the investigation of animals not yet recognized by science, but whose existence is hinted at by eye witness accounts, photos, or traces. I provided a major review of Australian cryptozoology in my 1996 book, "Bunyips and Bigfoots". This blog aims to continue reporting on that research. However, initially, I intend to provide a service of translating into English a number of foreign language accounts from around the world

Tuesday, 28 August 2012  Another Deception Bay Sea Serpent

The best documented Australian "sea serpent" was an elongated, inquisitive mystery animal which frequented Deception Bay in the period 1959/60. Situated at approximately 153° 7' E, 27° 9' S, not far north of Brisbane, Queensland, Deception Bay is a sub-section of Moreton Bay. Roughly semicircular in shape, it is bounded on the south by Scarborough, the northernmost part of the Redcliffe peninsula, and on the north by Bribie Island. I can never hear the name, Deception Bay without thinking, "monster" because the first time I heard about it was in relation to the monster, not long after I moved to the Brisbane area as a boy.
In December 1996, I was on talkback radio promoting my book, Bunyips and Bigfoots. When the compere referred to the section on the Deception Bay monster, a Mr Mick Scheirupflug phoned in to say that he also had encountered a strange animal in the bay. One thing lead to another and, that evening, I was able to interview all three witnesses independently by telephone.
Matters of Agreement.
All three agreed on the basic details. Several decades before, Mr Scheirupflug, his son, and young friend had hired a boat in order to fish for whiting in the bay. The creature surfaced not too far away, and was in view for a few minutes, moving parallel to them. It was a slim, serpentine animal consisting of a series of humps, but with no fins. They had difficulty describing its motion but, after some probing, but not leading, questions they all agreed it moved by vertical undulations. They also all agreed that it finally slid forward into the water and disappeared. They did not mention it to anybody else. Now for the individual stories.
First Witness. Mick Scheirupflug, retired carpenter, aged 77 in 1996. He was vague about the year, but suggested it was about 20 years before. Then his wife chimed in and said it was more like 30 or 40. The event took place about half past 8 in the morning, about half a mile from Scarborough, where the water was only about 10 or 20 feet deep, and calm. The boat was stationary, and the animal about 150 yards away. The sighting lasted 4 or 5 minutes. It was pale brown, mottled like a carpet snake. He thought there were three humps, protruding a couple of feet out of the water, with a total length of well over 20 feet. He could not remember seeing any head or tail.
Second Witness: Peter Scheirupflug, son of Mick, aged 49. As the youngest member of the party, his memory was the weakest, and required a lot of prompting. He told me that afterwards, they convinced themselves they hadn't seen it. He thinks he was aged 10 or 11 at the time. The time was about 2 pm, and they were drifting about 2 km from Scarborough, the water being very calm. The sighting lasted 4 or 5 minutes, at a distance of 300 to 350 yards, and "we didn't want to get any closer". He was uncertain about the colour, perhaps greenish grey. There were two humps, as thick as a man's thigh, say 200 mm (8 inches). The head was not much bigger than the body, but he could not see much detail. The length of the head and two humps would have come to 9 or 10 feet.
Third Witness. John Willett, aged 55, Mick's son-in-law. He provided a quite different account of the circumstances. It was at least 35 years before. He said that the sighting occurred in the afternoon, and that they were halfway across the bay, and had decided to head home because the weather had turned rough and windy, with light rain. He contested the statements of the other two, and said he distinctly remembered putting his head down against the wind, and also remembered the sea being choppy. The animal appeared only 20 or 30 feet away. I asked him twice. He was sure it was close because the water was bad. The sighting lasted 1½ to 2 minutes, and they were scared. He mentioned that the animal was moving parallel to them, but in the opposite direction ie north. The motor had probably disturbed it.
He distinctly remembered three humps, and possibly four, and they were quite distinct despite the very rough water. They were at least a foot in diameter, the distance along the tops of each hump being about 5 or 6 feet, and the space between the humps 3 or 4 feet, making a total length of 20 to 30 feet. He couldn't remember the colour. However, he did say the head was like a snake's or eel's and, whereas the other two failed to see any tail, he volunteered, without being asked, that he saw the tail come out of the water just before the animal submerged. It was like a very large paddle, flat and horizontal - unlike a fish's vertical tail - and was not forked. He described its motion as like a snake sliding over three rocks. The body itself did not move up and down i.e. there were no coils, but the humps moved with a fluid motion.
Comments.
After such a lapse of time, the variations in the accounts are not surprising. Indeed, this makes them all the more valuable, by demonstrating that the witnesses' memories have not been altered by telling and retelling the story among themselves. As far as the circumstances of the sighting, I am inclined to put more credence on the third witness. The other two were probably recalling the weather at the start of the excursion. Also, although he has probably underestimated the distance, his estimate of the duration of the sighting is probably more accurate, seeing that the animal did not apparently get too far away. Besides, you can see a lot in 1½ to 2 minutes, if your adrenaline is pumping.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the three descriptions are all variations on a theme. Readers of cryptozoology will no doubt be aware that vertical undulations, with or without a horizontal tail being visible, are only referable to mammals. They will also be aware that elongated, multihumped creatures are well represented among "sea serpent" reports. One is immediately reminded of "Caborosaurus", the sea serpent of the narrow waters around Vancouver Island on the other side of the Pacific. When did it take place? Unless a witness has some circumstance or event to "anchor" a sighting, it is very difficult to remember exactly when a sighting took place. Therefore, I am more inclined to accept the estimate of Peter, who was just a young boy at the time. While the lives of adults tend to be routine, those of children are constantly changing with respect to school and social life. So if Peter said he was 10 or 11, it is unlikely he was as young as7 or 8, or as old as 14 or 15. Taken at face value, this would place the unreported sighting about 1958 or 1959 - just before the much better publicised Deception Bay "monster" of 1959-60. I find that amazing! Not only that, it appears to have been a different kind of animal. The later, better documented one had a larger head and a heavier body. Indeed, one of the witnesses I spoke to emphasized that it was not really serpentine in form, just elongated and thickset. Not only that, but a couple of years later, a totally different kind of "sea serpent" - the classic long-necked, bulbous-bodied type - turned up off the coast of the nearby Bribie Island. Something was drawing these strange denizens of the sea to this very restricted area of water. I hope they decide to come back while I am still around!
Posted by Malcolm Smith at 15:59

2 comments:
alanborky30 August 2012 14:19
Based on what you've written here Malcolm I've just googled 'deception bay australia webcam' in the hope there might be one pointing out towards this highly promising monster hotspot.
Alas motorways aplenty but nothing focused out on the bay itself.
Wouldn't such a cam make an excellent but cheap device for promoting tourism in the area especially if someone saw something?

Replies Malcolm Smith30 August 2012 20:31
It's an idea. However, since the bay is 8 miles wide, and there have been no further reports for the last 50 years, I have my doubts.

-Now as for my commentary: contrary to what Malcom says, the humps are spoken of as humps as humps on the back and not vertical undulations, and a set of two or three humps on the back is common in reports of the Longneck: and Cadborosaurus is a clasical Longneck (read Merhorse+Longneck with "Merhorses" being the males and "Longnecks" being the females) and so it IS valuable to have reports of the same type across the Pacific. Also since Heuvelmans' classic n The Wake of the Sea Serpents ends its collection of reports in 1969, the majority of sources that speak of SeaSerpent reports at all are commonly referring to reports that are more than 50 years old.As a matter of fact there were also other reports more recently as we shall see from the other materials reprinyted below-DD.

An earlier blog posting on Australian Sea-serpents is here:
http://weirdaustralia.com/2012/02/05/sea-serpents-explore-australias-scenic-southern-coastline/
And it was subsequently reprinted on this blog (as the notes at the bottom indicate)

A longer selection by Rex Gilroy follows:

By Rex Gilroy

Loch Ness Monster

The enigmatic Loch Ness Monster of Scotland. For centuries the monster of the Loch Ness has frequented the folklore of Scotland but no serious attempts have ever been made to study the beast until well into the present century (1900's). Nowdays with modern photography, radar and other devices scientists have come to accept the fact that there is indeed some mysterious animal lurking in the depths of the loch. All that is needed now to verify the creature's existence is a skeleton or carcass. From the available photographic evidence and descriptions by eyewitnesses many researchers believe the Lock Ness Monster is indeed a latter-day form of Plesiosaurus. This contention is further supported by the mass of evidence gathered from numerous Irish lochs where the creatures have been known for centuries also.

Plesiosaurus Around The World

In fact, strange creatures answering to the description of the plesiosaur have been reportedly seen throughout the world. Plesiosaurus like sea creatures have been a sighted off the coasts of mainland Europe, Africa, America, New Zealand and also Australia. Yet if indeed the Plesiosaurus, how are we to account for its survival since its dinosaurian relatives supposedly became extinct 70 million years ago? How could such a creature have survived this long without having been captured and identified. My answer to these questions is that for one thing, unlike the land surfaces of this planet which have been subjected to considerable geological change in Earth's long history, the oceanic environment has changed little.

Therefore there is no physical barrier whatsoever to have prevented the survival of Plesiosaurus or any other aquatic creatures from the past to present day. As scientific dogma teaches that Plesiosaurs and their kin did not survive the Cretaceous period then it is only natural that scientists have never bothered to even consider the possibility that Plesiosaurs, or latter day variation of them, might still exist in the depths of the world ocean, and therefore they have never attempted a proper search for the creatures. On the other hand, Dr William Swinton, the world famous paleontologist, has admitted there is no reason why there should not be enormous, unknown creatures, unknown, or "extinct" creatures inhabiting the sea. He has been critical of the Plesiosaur theory.

These beasts he says were oviparous and must therefore have come ashore to lay their eggs. Nobody has seen them doing so or even found a single egg. He points out that plesiosaurs are believed to have been fresh water animals, However, although their remains have been discovered in marine strata, mainly in the estuaries of the rivers where they lived, there is no reason why they should not have undergone in the course of their history a radical change in their physiology. In fact many Palaeontologists are of the opinion that the Plesiosaurs were indeed adapted to life in the sea.

Mysterious Sea Creatures

On April 20th, 1913, Mr Oscar Davies and a friend were walking along the beach near Macquarie, a remote town on the Tasmanian west coast late one afternoon. Half a mile ahead of them they sighted an enormous dark object lying among the sand dunes. Believing it to be one of the mysterious sea creatures that had been reportedly seen off the coast they began making their way towards it. They managed to get within forty yards of it when the creature suddenly rose and rushed down across the dunes and into the sea.A short way off shore it paused, glanced round at the men and then dived out of sight. The men were able to describe it later as having the now familiar long neck and serpent-like head, large broad body with two sets of flippers and along eel-like tail, being blackish in appearance.

[This description differs considerably from the version in Heuvelmans, which sounds like a large pinniped of some sort. Some experts have said this was an elephant seal]

South Coast Sightings

A similar creature was seen on several occasions during 1936 by Mrs... M. McCord from her house overlooking the sea at Milton on the far south coast of N.S.W. The South Coast of N.S.W has for generations been the scene of a great many "sea serpent" reports. Perhaps the strangest occurred back in 1942 when the Lambs Point "monster tracks" were discovered by surfers. The scene of the mystery was the beach between Lambs Point and Huskison in the vicinity of Jervis Bay. The tracks consisted of a trail of big fin-like prints which appeared to have come up from out of the sea and in an horseshoe fashion extended up on to the beach before turning round and going back into the water. The prints were a good 2 ft in width but the monsterous creature that made them was never identified.

Bellambi Reef Sightings

During June 1930 four men were fishing on the Bellambi Reef 50 miles south of Sydney when they spotted what appeared to be a very long animal which they thought was a sea serpent. Overcoming their fear they rowed nearer to have a better look at the creature. The head they all agreed looked like a serpent. Several days after this event a "sea serpent" was reported seen at Scarborough a few miles away; perhaps it was the same animal. Many witnesses saw it undulating lazily in the direction of the Bellambi rocks. It was at least 80 ft in length and swam with its head in the air at the end of a long snake's neck. What appeared to be a bulky body and long tail was detected below the surface.

Hawksbury River {Central Coast}

Some very unusual things have been happening lately around the central coast and Hawksbury River district north of Sydney. Throughout 1975-76 there have been several reports of sightings of "longnecks" thereabouts. During May 1976 a husband and wife of Woy Woy decided to go fishing in their rowboat in nearby Brisbane Waters. They had rowed out 200 yards from the shore and begun fishing. Suddenly their craft was caught up in some unusual disturbance. It was then that the wife noticed a large greyish creature swimming alongside of their boat and about 3 ft below them. In the clear water she detected what she later described as a 30 ft long animal with the familiar long neck, broad body with flippers and along eel-like tail. The "thing" had swum rapidly past their boat when a few yards distant it raised its snake like head above the water to a height of 3 ft and continued heading towards the open sea. It was then that the would-be fishermen began rowing hastily for shore.

Hawksbury River Sightings

Within a couple of weeks other people began reporting having seen the same beast near Ettalong. One woman who lives near the headwaters of the Hawksbury River watched for fifteen minutes with binoculars late one afternoon as an enormous dark shape moved inland up the river. As it passed offshore the creature raised its head at least 4 ft out of the water. It was then that the woman also detected part of its back breaking the surface. She said later, immediately reminded of the creatures similarity to photographs she had seen of the elusive Lock Ness Monster. Could these and many more sightings thereabouts have anything to do with the large fin and slide marks that have turned up on the banks of the Hawksbury River near Wisemans Ferry and the disappearance of whole boating parties that have gone out on the river never to return?

Deception Bay {Queensland}

There have been many similar happenings around Deception Bay out of Redcliffe, Queensland. Early in 1960 a fisherman, Mr Ron Spencer, said he had seen this same creature five times and that it had surfaced near his boat and his companion with "strange staring eyes". He said that its head was 3 ft long and 2 ft wide and that it had a long neck and large body.

A much smaller creature was seen later in the same region by a Mr Nigel Tutt of Hendra. The beast swam within 8 ft of his boat. He described it as being of mottled brown colour with a squarish head the size of a full cornsack, a body 3 ft across and 20 ft in length. The beast appeared to have nostrils, a yellowish mouth and flippers 6 ft back from the head.

There was a rash of sightings of a large Plesiosaurus-like sea creature around Deception Bay and Redcliffe during the period 1969-70. On one occasion a party took a fishing boat outside the bay. Suddenly they were surprised by a long-necked "thing" which appeared from out of the water nearby their craft. The creature turned its head to look in their direction and then submerged. The event terrified the group so much that ever since they have kept clear of fishing out of the bay.

Cairns Sightings

Further northand outside Cairns in far north Queensland fishing boats and other craft have been seeing strange sea creatures for the past 50 years. it was here during 1975 that a young skin diver working in 20 ft of water searching relics of old shipwrecks observed large bubbles of air 3 ft in width rising from beyond a nearby cliff. Upon investigating he saw that the bubbles were rising from an enormous long-necked dark shape further below him and which he estimated to be 35-40 ft in length. Wasting no time he returned to his boat and left the area.

Conventional Science

Clearly we are still a long way from finding the answers to the perplexing problem of these enigmatic creatures. Although sightings of mysterious monsters of the deep have plagues the records of maritime history, conventional science has always remained skeptical. Too often when sightings of unusual creatures have been reported to the authorities they have been lightly brushed aside as either being known species such as seals or whales, or else the imagination of ship's crews. These explanations do not however always stand up to serious argument. it is evident that the scientists still have much to learn about the creatures inhabiting the worlds oceans, for it is obvious from the growing mass of evidence that creatures thought long extinct may still inhabit the murky depths.

Psychic Australian March 1977

http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenong.html

 

Deception_Bay_Serpent_by_Pristichampsus
Based on info from Malcolm's book "Bunyips and Bigfoots"
This seems a fair composite of an elephant seal going by reports, ca 20 feet long

Type 1A_Long-Necked_by_Pristichampsus
The common "Plesiosaurus" Type of Sea-serpent seen aound Australia and worldwide.

 

Some More Notes on Cadborosaurus 2

The previous article on "Cadborosaurus" appeared on this blog in April and it included a pretty good summany and general overview on reports in the category:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/04/some-more-notes-on-cadborosaurus.html

"An American Sea Serpent" in the 1800s-much like Caddy in the early reports.
There is a strong tendancy to think of Caddy as still being in these proportions,
compare to the long-necked and long-tailed drawing next following

http://penderislandweb.com/trading-post/sea-serpent-pender-island/

1934 – Sea Serpent Found Near Pender Island

Historical Archives. A giant sea serpent was spotted off Pender Island in 1934. Named “Amy”, the Cadborosaurus was seen by Cyril B. Andrews and 11 companions. The serpent reared 12 feet of her body out of the water – only 10 feet from Andrews’ boat. It then proceeded to swallow a wounded duck that Andrews was trying to retrieve.

According to the Reading Eagle newspaper in an article dated January 10, 1934, Amy had been reported at regular intervals over several weeks. But this wasn’t the only time the giant sea serpent had been spotted lurking around Vancouver Island. Among many reported sightings, legends of the serpent date back hundreds of years.

View Newspaper Article
The most recent sightings of this creature have taken place at Qualicum Beach and Victoria respectively in November and December of 2006. [Source]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadborosaurus_willsi

These Sketches by Wilfred Gibson are some of the better ones for showuing the Plesiosaurian form and how the neck works, the way the neck goes from side to side like a boom is described both on the Eastern coast of the USA and at Lock Ness, and there is the suggestion that when the creature swallows a duck, you can make out the shape of the bird sliding down the thin skin of its throat. These are strong indicators the witness was not making it up.

Cadborosaurus willsi

(from Wikipedia)
“Cadborosaurus willsi”, nicknamed Caddy, is an alleged sea serpent reported to be living on the Pacific Coast of North America. Its name is derived from Cadboro Bay in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Greek root word “saurus” meaning lizard or reptile. Reports describe it as being similar in form and behavior to various popularly named lake monsters such as “Ogopogo” of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia and to the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.
There have been more than 300 claimed sightings during the past 200 years, including Deep Cove in Saanich Inlet, and Island View Beach, both like Cadboro Bay also on the Saanich Peninsula, also British Columbia, and also at San Francisco Bay, California.
Cadborosaurus willsi is said by witnesses to resemble a serpent with vertical coils or humps in tandem behind the horse-like head and long neck, with a pair of small elevating front flippers, and a pair of large webbed hind flippers fused to form a large fan-like tail region that provides powerful forward propulsion.
In 1992 Ed Bousfield, retired Research Associate at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, and Paul LeBlond, professor at the Department of Oceanography, University of British Columbia (Vancouver), announced some startling pieces of evidence – three photos, taken in 1937 on the flensing platform of a whaling station at Naden Harbour in the Queen Charlotte Islands, that depict a large serpentine carcass. Retrieved from the stomach of a sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus, the carcass is about 3 m long, long-bodied, and appears to have a camel-like head and a fluked tail. It obviously struck the whalers as unusual, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting it up on crates or photographing it. Suggestions that it is an elephant seal or baleen whale don’t seem realistic in view of certain of its features.

Related Links

http://www.bcscc.ca/cadborosaurus.htm
http://www.qsl.net/w5www/caddy.html

The most common Caddy sighting is actually a standing wave pattern. Here you can see through the water on the two end humps, proving they are made of water (they are not empty loops, there is a sheen on them

Artwork by Pristichampsus (Tim Morris) amended by DD to show the "Mane" and "Jagged spines on the back"
The "Mane" is meant to exaggerate the vertical height of the creature visually and thus make t look larger to its rivals: ordinarily the creature without the "Mane" has a more elongated appearance

Caddy [George Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures, 2002]

Sea Monster of the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Etymology: Name popularized if not coined October 11, 1933, byVictoria (B.C.) Daily Times editor Archie H. Wills after repeated sightings in Cadboro Bay, British Columbia. Short form of Cadborosaurus, coined at the same time.
Variant names: Amy, Cadborosaurus, Edizgiganteus (after Ediz Hook Light, Washington), Haietluk, Klamahsosaurus (on Texada Island), Penda (after Pender Island).
Scientific name: Cadborosaurus willsi, proposed by Edward L. Bousfield and Paul H. LeBlond in 1995. [Name not accepted by the scientific community and considered invalid generally]

Sea Serpent (Haietluk) by Native artist Butch-paired fins on one side equated to limbs on the other side
This is essentially a "one-way" depiction of a Sisiutl

Physical description: Serpentine body that forms many humps or loops. Length, 16–100 feet. Diameter, 2 feet 6 inches–8 feet. Light brown to black. Small head resembles a sheep, horse, giraffe, or camel. Eyes in the front of the head. Small ears or horns. Pointed tongue. Two rows (upper and lower) of fishlike (Spiky) teeth. Mane or fur on back of neck sometimes reported. Neck is 3–12 feet long, about as thick as an arm or a man's waist. One pair of front flippers seen, rear ones sometimes indicated. Back some- times appears serrated, sometimes smooth. Flat tail sometimes fluked or formed from  back flippers. Behavior: Does not appear to undulate when it swims. Fast swimming speed, clocked at 40 knots. Breathes in short pants. Makes whalelike grunts and hisses. Feeds on herring, salmon, and ducks. Distribution:British Columbia seacoast, especially around Cadboro Bay and the Strait of Georgia.

Significant sightings: A crew member of the ship Columbia under American fur trader Capt. Robert Gray was the first to report a Caddy sighting in 1791. Osmond Fergusson watched a 25-foot animal with a long neck near the Queen Charlotte Is- lands, British Columbia, on June 26, 1897. In September 1905 or 1906, Philip H. Welch saw a brown animal with a 6- to 8-foot neck from a distance of 100 yards away in Johnstone Strait. It had two bumps on its head that were 5 inches high and rounded on top. F. W. Kemp and his wife and son watched an 80-foot maned animal while they were sitting on the Chatham Island beach, British Columbia, on August 10, 1932. On September 23, 1933, Dorothea Hooper and a neighbor observed a serpentine animal with a serrated back [oarfish?]cavorting in Cadboro Bay about 400 yards distant. It created a commotion in the water as it swam out to sea. Maj. W. H. Langley and his wife were sailing in Haro Strait on October 1, 1933, when they heard a loud grunt off Chatham Island. They saw the back of a huge, dark-green creature with serrated markings on the top and sides. Charles F. Eagles sketched a 60-foot animal that he saw in Oak Bay on October 14, 1933. It had crocodile-like spines on its neck. On December 3, 1933, Justice of the Peace G. F. Parkyn of Bedwell Harbour was one of twelve people watching from Pender Island as an animal with a large, horselike head and neck gulped down a duck that had just been shot by Cyril Andrews. In 1936, E. J. Stephenson and his wife and son watched a yellow-and-bluish, 90-foot-long, 3-foot-thick animal crawling over a reef into a lagoon on Saturna Island. A Canadian naval officer was fishing in an open boat off Esquimalt Harbour in November 1950 when a 30-foot Caddy appeared and created a heavy wash. It swam with an undulating motion using large flippers on either side. It snapped its teeth together once before it dived after twenty-five seconds. On February 12, 1953, R. D. Cockburn, C. P. Crawford, and Ron Loach saw an animal with three humps off Qualicum Beach for five minutes. Two other men got into a boat and rowed within 20 feet, but it submerged and reappeared 100 yards away. Its head was dog- shaped and had two horns. In late November 1959, David Miller and Al- fred Webb came within 30 feet of an animal with a 10-foot neck sticking straight up out of the water off Discovery Island. It had coarse brown fur, red eyes, and small ears. Mechanical engineer Jim M. Thompson was fishing off Spanish Banks, Vancouver, in January 1984 when an 18- to 22-foot serpentine animal surfaced about 100 feet away. It had a giraffelike head with small stubby horns and floppy ears. In May 1992, music professor John Celona saw a multihumped animal about 25 feet long while sailing. Students Damian Grant and Ryan Green were swimming across Telegraph Bay in May 1994 when they saw a 20-foot animal with two humps.

"Caddycarcass" taken from the belly of a whale-
More likely yet another basking shark skeleton as in
the other "Caddy" carcasses illustrated above it.

. A 10- to 12-foot carcass of apparently a young Caddy was removed from the stomach of a sperm whale, photographed, and displayed for a while at Naden Harbour whaling station in 1937. The photo shows it stretched out on packing cases. It was about 10 feet long, with a camel-like head, traces of flippers, and a paddling tail. The carcass was allegedly shipped off to the Field Museum in Chicago, but there is no record of its arrival. A 16-inch-long juvenile Caddy was caught in a net by William Hagelund in 1968 off De Courcy Island, but it was thrown back. It had spiny teeth, a saw-toothed ridge of plates along its backbone, and a bilobate tail. A soft, yellow fuzz covered its undersides.

Possible explanations: (1) The Northern sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) can appear serpentine in the water but only grows to about 10 feet 6 inches long. (2) The Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) is found in British Columbian waters in the nonbreeding season, but it only measures up to 16 feet long and does not have an elongated neck. (3) A surviving basilosaurid type of archaic whale, suggested by Roy Mackal and Karl Shuker. Some basilosaurids were serpentine, grew up to 80 feet long, and lived in the Late Eocene, about 42 million years ago. They had a tail fluke, but it’s unknown whether it was used primarily for propulsion or steering. They are mainly known from the eastern United States and Egypt but may have been worldwide in distribution. (4) An evolved plesiosaur, suggested by Edward Bousfield and Paul LeBlond. This group of long-necked marine reptiles swam with paddlelike limbs and had a body length that varied from 6 to 46 feet. Plesiosaur fossils are found continuously from the Middle Triassic, 238 million years ago, to the Late Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. (5) A decaying Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) might account for the 1937 Naden Harbour carcass. These sharks take on a remarkably plesiosaur-like appearance due to the differential decomposition rates of their gill slits and lower tail fluke. A 30- foot carcass found in November 1934 by Hugo Sandstrom on Henry Island turned out to be a Basking shark. (6) Some kind of decapod (crayfish or lobster) has been suggested by Aaron Bauer and Anthony Russell as an explanation for Hagelund’s juvenile Caddy capture in 1968. [More recently Naish et al have shown this to be most likely a pipefish]

Sources: “Yachtsmen Tell of Huge Sea Serpent off Victoria,” Victoria (B.C.) Daily Times, October 5, 1933, p. 1; “The Loch Ness Monster Paralleled in Canada,” Illustrated London News 184 (January 6, 1934): 8; “A Canadian ‘Monster,’” Illustrated London News 185 (December 15, 1934): 1011; Ray Gardner, “Caddy, King of the Coast,” Maclean’s Magazine 63 (June 15, 1950): 24, 42–43; D. Mattison, “An 1897 Sea Serpent Sighting in the Queen Charlotte Islands,” B.C. Historical News 17, no. 2 (1964): 15; Paul H. LeBlond and John Sibert, Observations of Large Unidentified Marine Animals in British Columbia and Adjacent Waters (Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia, Institute of Oceanography, June 1973); William A. Hagelund, Whalers No More: A History of Whaling on the West Coast (Madeira Park, B.C., Canada: Harbour, 1987); Frederic C. Howay, ed., Voyages of the “Columbia” to the Northwest Coast, 1787–1790 and 1790–1793 (Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1990), p. 249; Penny Park, “Beast from the Deep Puzzles Zoologists,” New Scientist 137 (January 23, 1993): 16; Jessica Maxwell, “Seeing Serpents,” Pacific Northwest 27 (April 1993): 30–34; Mike Dash, “The Dragons of Vancouver,” Fortean Times, no. 70 (August-September 1993): 46–48; Edward L. Bousfield and Paul H. LeBlond, “An Account of Cadborosaurus willsi, New Genus, New Species, a Large Aquatic Reptile from the Pacific Coast of North America,” Amphipacifica 1, suppl. 1 (1995): 3–25; Paul H. LeBlond and Edward L. Bousfield, Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep (Victoria, B.C., Canada: Horsdal and Schubart, 1995); Aaron M. Bauer and Anthony P. Russell, “A Living Plesiosaur? A Critical Assessment of the Description of Cadborosaurus willsi,” Cryptozoology 12 (1996): 1–18; Darren Naish, “Another Caddy Carcass?” Cryptozoology Review 2, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 26–29; Paul H. LeBlond, “Caddy: An Update,” Crypto Dracontology Special, no. 1 (November 2001): 55-59

Alaskan Sea Monster film



McCormick Composite drawing of "Caddy" Witness Sketches

Two more composites illustrating once again how a witness could mistake an elephant seal as a "Cadborosaurus" if they thought the tail end was more elongatedvelmans lists one definite mistaken view of an Elephant seal as "caddy", but perhaps as many as a quarter of the sightings could be such seals. Mooses swimming at sea (in the strait near Vancouver) are also frequent causes of confusion.