The of a Large Underwater Just a Creature Made from a Toy Submarine and Clay
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NARRATIVE NONFICTION Reads like fiction— but it’s all true IS THERE A MONSTER LIVING IN SCOTLAnd’s LEGENDARY LAKE? TheBeast ofLoch Ness AS YOU READ, How convincing is the evidence that THINK ABOUT: the Loch Ness monster is real? n an April afternoon in 1933, The Scottish Highlands are often rainy, but this day was Aldie and John Mackay were bright. The trees were vivid green, driving along the shores of and even the murky waters of the lake seemed to sparkle. one of Scotland’s largest lakes, Then Aldie saw something she Loch Ness. (Loch, pronounced would never forget. The water “lock,” is the Scottish term for rippled, and a giant creature seemed to rise out of the loch. lake.) The road, the A82, was brand-new, It appeared to be black, with a O humped back. Aldie grabbed her and Aldie was enjoying the view from the husband’s arm, trembling with car window. fright, and pointed. 4 ScholaStic Scope • NOVEMBER 2014 Nonfiction IS THERE A MONSTER LIVING IN SCOTLAnd’s LEGENDARY LAKE? Beast Loch Ness BY LAUREN TARSHIS | ILLUSTRATION BY GARY HANNA “Stop! The beast!” she gasped. worse, that they were insane. about a creature living in the John screeched the car to a halt. Ultimately, though, the couple loch, a huge and terrifying beast For several minutes, the stunned couldn’t resist sharing their that, according to some tales, couple stared at the loch as the remarkable story, and the news lured children to their deaths. creature seemed to be “rolling and soon spread. As the Mackays had Another story, dating back to plunging,” until the waters finally predicted, some people rolled the sixth century, told of a water calmed. their eyes and laughed. Many monster that tried to devour For a few days, Aldie and John others listened with fascination, farmers working nearby. kept quiet about what they had however. There had always been Many locals avoided the seen. After all, who would believe something mysterious about surrounding woods because them? A monster in Loch Ness? Loch Ness, something spooky. of these stories. To them, the It sounded preposterous. People For centuries, people from nearby Mackays’ story was would think they were liars or, towns had whispered stories completely plausible. SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 5 Over the next few weeks, more people claimed to have seen the creature. “It was big as an elephant,” said a This 1934 New York Times local farmer. headline grabbed some they got home and “It was horrible,” reported a serious attention! recounted their schoolteacher. “It had a head like close call, most a cobra.” his son spotted one people didn’t believe “My heart stopped,” recounted in the waters off them. a visiting businessman, who said Newfoundland, Still, there had he saw the beast while taking a Canada. After what been other reports walk. “It looked right at me.” they said was a of the giant lizard. But what was it? struggle with the In 1926, wealthy creature, they adventurer W. Douglas Fantastic Creatures managed to cut Burden organized an For thousands of years, people off a 19-foot piece expedition with the around the world have been telling of tentacle. This American Museum of stories of mysterious creatures. slimy specimen Natural History. Sure Some of these mythical beasts are convinced enough, he found a obviously fictional, as fantastic skeptics that the population of ferocious, as Norbert, Hagrid’s pet dragon stories were true. meat-eating lizards from the Harry Potter series, or Scientists gave the kraken a new exactly where the fishermen the fairies from Cassandra Clare’s name: the giant squid. said he would, on the island of Mortal Instruments series. But Years later, in 1912, a group of Komodo. The creatures became some creatures of myth and legend pearl fishermen landed on a small known as Komodo dragons. e) LIN have turned out to really exist. island in what is now Indonesia. Incredible stories like those of d A (He For hundreds of years, sailors The men were relaxing on the the giant squid and the Komodo S e told stories of a hideous creature rocky shores when one of them dragon have encouraged some IM with a large round head, a jagged- heard something approach from men and women to devote their York T W edged beak, and enormous, behind. He turned and screamed lives to the search for mythical and e Ne H powerful tentacles. They called as an enormous lizard, maybe 10 legendary creatures. These people of T SY e this creature the kraken. Despite feet long, rushed toward them, call themselves cryptozoologists. T hundreds of eyewitness accounts, its beady eyes glistening with (Kryptos is the Greek word for Cour most people dismissed the kraken menace. The men managed to as a tall tale that sprang from escape, but when the imaginations of homesick, sunstruck sailors. Then in 1873, a fisherman and 6 ScholaStic Scope • NOVEMBER 2014 “hidden” or “secret”; a zoologist is mocked in scientific circles. A reptiles lived alongside the a scientist who studies animal life.) few cryptozoologists, however, dinosaurs and died out 65 million To most people, cryptozoology are respected scientists who are years ago. Maybe a few survived, seems more like fantasy than convinced that there are still and one of their descendants is real science, and it is usually astonishing undiscovered animal now living in the loch. species on Earth. One Or maybe not. These are just of those creatures, the theories of a few passionate they say, could be believers, theories that most lurking in Loch Ness. scientists reject and ridicule. The water of Loch Ness is freezing and Finding Proof so dark that few plants survive, Over the decades, let alone fish. What would the several theories creature eat? And how could there about the beast of be just one creature? There would Loch Ness have been have to be a family that breeds and proposed. One theory raises its young. Is it really likely is that the beast is that a clan of giant animals lives in simply an unknown the loch, invisible to all but a few water mammal or an accidental witnesses? enormous fish. Or it Perhaps no person has been as may be a prehistoric interested in these questions as creature—such as Tim Dinsdale. An engineer, he led Y HANNA) r a plesiosaur. 57 Loch Ness expeditions between PS (GA These long- 1960 and 1987. In 1960, Dinsdale o necked saw a “long oval shape” ); CYCL N o marine in the water and captured AG r d odo M o k ( IS The terrifying Polyphemus (above) from Homer’s The Odyssey was a mythical one- er/Corb eyed people-eating monster known as a LCH e b Cyclops. The Cyclops myth was probably inspired by N e skeletons of prehistoric elephants called Deinotherium PH e T giganteums (translation: really huge terrible beasts). ); S The hole in their skull where their trunk attached LL resembled an eye socket. AMNH (Sku The komodo dragon may have inspired the mythical dragons of fairy tales and fables. SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 7 it on film for 60 seconds. 1934 Perhaps the glittering The image was blurry, but sunlight turned an ordinary Dinsdale was convinced it object into a fantastic was the creature. monster. The human He gave the film to imagination is powerful. experts from the British So is our power of belief. government to examine. And isn’t it imagination After scrutinizing the and belief that have led footage, they concluded to humankind’s greatest that the object was scientific achievements? probably alive and that On the other hand, it was between 12 and 16 2014 Aldie Mackay managed feet long. Cryptozoologists Could that a nearby hotel, and it’s cheered, but skeptics were be Nessie?! been suggested that her unimpressed with the image “sighting” might have been of a murky blob moving a ploy to attract tourists. slowly through the water. In any event, she was far Another respected Loch from the only one to benefit Ness investigator was the from Nessie’s legend. To American scientist Robert this day, the monster—real Rines. In the 1970s, Rines or otherwise—attracts used sonar equipment to thousands of visitors help capture an image that every year who help boost The photograph from 1934 supposedly proved that there seemed to show the flipper was a monster in the loch. It turned out to be a hoax, the local economy. The of a large underwater just a creature made from a toy submarine and clay. Chamber of Commerce’s The photo from 2014 was taken from Apple Maps. It creature. As with Dinsdale’s tagline is “seeing is circulated on Twitter earlier this year as new proof of film, the image was too Nessie’s existence . and was quickly disproved. believing.” Aldie’s old hotel blurry to provide clear now houses the Loch Ness answers. Imagination and Belief Centre and Exhibition. Visitors can In 2003, British scientists In the eight decades since the take Nessie-watching boat cruises. studied the loch using sonar and Mackays took their fateful drive, Speaking of his own hunt for satellites. They were hoping to more than 1,000 people have Nessie, Rines once said, “If you prove the plesiosaur theory. They claimed to have seen some kind don’t have an open mind, in my investigated the loch “shoreline of creature in the water or on the judgment, you’re not a scientist. If to shoreline, top to bottom,” said shores of the loch. Certainly many you don’t have ideas, if you don’t scientist Ian Florence.