Might
the bizarre-sounding cryptid allegedly encountered by diver Duncan Macdonald while
underwater in Loch Ness during
the late 19th Century have looked something like this? (© Richard
Svensson)
Of all of the many
Nessie-related subjects documented by me down through the years (and now collected
together in my forthcoming book Here's Nessie: A
Monstrous Compendium From Loch Ness), few have attracted so many
enquiries from readers and correspondents as the extraordinary 'frog as big as a goat' supposedly sighted one day by diver
Duncan Macdonald while underwater in Loch Ness during the late 1800s (click here for an earlier mention of this cryptid by me on
ShukerNature). The incident was first reported almost half a century later, in Inverness's Northern
Chronicle newspaper (by an unnamed writer) on 31
January 1934, and this report has in turn been referred to by a number of subsequent
publications, but (as far as I am aware) it has never been republished anywhere
in full – until now!
Courtesy of the
indefatigable research skills of fellow cryptozoological investigator Richard
Muirhead (thanks Richard!), earlier today I was delighted to receive a copy of the original Northern
Chronicle article, which actually consisted of several different Nessie-themed
items linked together. Here is the quite short but very intriguing one
concerning Macdonald's alleged encounter:
A DIVER'S EXPERIENCE
Many stories have been circulated by those who go
down to the depths inside a diving-bell. Some of them are, doubtless, true;
others, of course, must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. But the
truth of any story can very often be guaranteed by a little careful investigation.
Here is such a story, and, as it concerns Loch Ness,
and the experience which befell a well-known diver, it might, by reason of its
uniqueness, act as a spur to those whose training has fitted them to probe the
mysteries of marine zoology, for, in the opinion of the writer, it is but
another aspect of the case of the Loch Ness "monster."
Some forty-five to fifty years ago a small sailing
vessel carrying a cargo of guano, when making the passage through Loch Ness,
struck a submerged reef known as "Johnnie's Point," and sank,
fortunately without loss of life.
The mishap occurred during the night, and when dawn
broke it was seen that the tops of the masts were still above water.
Realising that the vessel might be raised, a squad of
men was quickly on the scene, and chains were passed underneath the hulk.
But ere the job was completed the action of the water
suddenly dislodged the craft, and she vanished into the depths.
Still hoping to salve the wreck, the owner secured
the services of Mr Duncan Macdonald, a noted diving expert, who was at the time
employed at the Crinan Canal.
Mr Macdonald duly arrived, and it was from the
Caledonian Canal Company's diving-barge that he carried out operations.
A STRANGE CREATURE
After having made a descent of thirty feet, Mr
Macdonald signalled that he wished to come up, and, on being questioned as to whether
there was any sign of the ship, he said there was none.
From this it was obvious that further attempts would
be useless, so he was undressed, and the party prepared to make for Fort-Augustus,
their headquarters.
Now one man in the party, having heard stories of a
strange creature which was said to live in the loch, began to question the
diver. The latter, however, was at first rather diffident about taking any part
in the conversation.
Yet, since the others knew that anything he might
tell them would be perfectly true, they persisted, and finally the diver said
that he saw a strange creature that day.
It lay, he said, on a ledge of rock, on the self-same
ledge, apparently, on which the keel of the wrecked vessel had rested, about
thirty feet down.
There, he continued, lay a queer-looking beast, which
he described as something in the nature of a huge frog.
It stared at him, but, as it showed neither ferocity
nor fear, he did not disturb it. In his own words he "saw that the beast
made no effort to interfere with me, and I did not interfere with it." As
to size, the diver said the creature was "as big as a goat, or a good wedder
[Scots dialect word for a castrated male sheep]."
The story, exactly as given, was told by Mr Donald
Fraser, lock-keeper, Fort Augustus, who often heard the diver (his own grand-uncle) tell it many
years ago.
STRANGE CREATURES
Naturally, this incident raises some very important
questions, and the first is – Is the frog-like creature related in any way to the
"monster" or "monsters" which inhabit Loch Ness?
Or does the diver's story show that such creatures
are entirely different from the present "monster"?
If this be so, it is not unreasonable to presume that
they might prove to be the form, or perhaps one of the forms[,] of life with
which – who can tell? – Loch Ness abounds, and on which the "monster"
sustains itself.
In any case[,] past reports of strange creatures having
been seen in the loch show conclusively that they and their kind have had their
homes there for centuries, and, this being so, it would seem that were they
living on fish life, i.e., salmon and trout, to the extent that some
people think they do, the whole or at least most of the salmon kind – still fairly
plentiful – would long since have been decimated.
Thus, there being no reason at all why the above
statements should be doubted, it will surely be granted that the time is ripe for
some competent body to conduct an investigation into the under-water life of
Loch Ness.
This remarkable
report does indeed raise some very important questions, though not necessarily
the ones posed in it by its anonymous author.
First and
foremost: as Loch Ness is famous for the blackness of its waters due to their high
concentration of peat, how could Macdonald have perceived this goat-sized
'frog' – or indeed anything else, for that matter – while diving at a depth of 30
ft? Having said that, the very fact that he went down there at
all, in search of the sunken guano vessel, suggests that some degree of underwater
vision must be possible at such depths in this loch. Perhaps,
however, the viewing conditions were not sufficient for him to obtain a clear
picture of the creature's form, so, who knows, maybe it wasn't genuinely frog-like
after all, but actually was simply a typical Nessie longneck viewed at an angle
at which its neck was not visible to him.
Alternatively,
there is even the possibility that in reality it was some very large form of
vaguely frog-like fish – an extremely big wels catfish Siluris glanis,
perhaps, whose wide mouth would certainly call to mind that of a frog if
encountered face-on in poor visibility. The wels is not native
to Britain, it was
introduced to various lakes here from Germany during the
1870s and 1880s, but Loch Ness is not one of the lakes featured in documented
introductions. Of course, as so many illegal introductions/releases of
non-native species across Britain during the past
two centuries readily testify, however, just because no documented
introductions of wels specimens into
Loch Ness are on record, this doesn't necessarily mean that none has taken
place...
Is this what Macdonald really saw? (© William M. Rebsamen)
Moving on, it is well worth noting that the Northern Chronicle's telling of this incident is very matter-of-fact, in stark contrast to modern-day retellings, which generally claim that Macdonald was terror-stricken, refused to speak about his sighting for days afterwards, etc, etc. Consequently, these would appear to be melodramatic embellishments added subsequently by person(s) unknown.
The notion aired
by the above report's author that perhaps this creature was not itself Nessie
but was instead some second, entirely different species of monster – and one, moreover,
that may actually constitute the prey of the 'real' Nessie – offers a fascinating
if implausible prospect to say the least, doubling the quandary of whether any
type of large cryptid inhabits this vast expanse of freshwater.
Loch Ness
is BIG!! (public domain)
Equally thought-provoking
is the author's claim that "...past reports of strange creatures having
been seen in the loch show conclusively that they and their kind have had their
homes there for centuries". On the contrary, because cryptozoological
sceptics in particular habitually discount traditional stories of water-horses and
water-bulls existing here, for instance, as nothing more than folk-tales, with
no factual basis.
Moreover, in a
very extensive Fortean Studies paper published in 2001 that surveyed no
fewer than 87 cases of mysterious beasts allegedly spied in or on the shores of
Loch Ness prior to 1933 (the year that marked the beginning the modern age of
Nessie sightings), German cryptozoological investigator Ulrich Magin dismissed
all of them as featuring mere legends, unsubstantiated rumours, or creatures
that were unrelated to the long-necked Nessie-type cryptids reported from this
loch from 1933 onwards. He concluded that there was no pre-1930s tradition of
monsters inhabiting Loch Ness, only the possibility that some marine creature
had somehow entered it during the early 1930s and that this is what had given
rise to subsequent sightings of monsters there. This prospect is one that had been
contemplated by the likes of early LNM chroniclers Lieutenant Commander Rupert T.
Gould and Dr Anthonie C. Oudemans too.
An engraving of Dr Anthonie C. Oudemans (public domain)
But what did
Magin think about Macdonald's 'giant frog'? In his listing, this was Case #32,
but, interestingly, he was apparently unaware of its original Northern
Chronicle source, because he stated: "This is a story which appears in
most books about Nessie but always without reference", and he cited one
such book, Peter Costello's In Search of Lake Monsters (1974), as the
source that he had consulted.
After quoting
Costello's brief version of Macdonald's own description of this underwater mystery
beast's appearance, Magin concluded "...the description is unlikely to
refer to a long-necked animal or any other animal known in the loch". Or
indeed elsewhere, in fact, as I am certainly not aware of any living species of
frog-like creature the size of a goat that is currently known to science in the
living state (there are of course various extremely large amphibians known from
the fossil record).
At present,
therefore, the goat-sized 'frog' of Loch Ness remains a major enigma in the Nessie
chronicles. Nevertheless, now that its original published source has been resurrected
and reproduced here, one of the most mystifying and paradoxical LNM-associated reports
– ostensibly unlikely, yet supplied by a very experienced and seemingly highly-reliable
eyewitness - is finally readily available for scrutiny and further
investigation by future Nessie researchers.
This
ShukerNature blog article is excerpted exclusively from my forthcoming book Here's Nessie: A Monstrous Compendium From Loch Ness.
You never know what you may
encounter when diving underwater in Loch Ness! (© William M. Rebsamen)
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