Arthur C. Clarke's Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious
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Arthur C. Clarke's Chronicles Of The Strange And Mysterious Contents: Book Cover (Front) (Back) Scan / Edit Notes Picture Plates (Paberback) First Set Of Plates Second Set Of Plates Foreword by Arthur C. Clarke 1 - The Beasts that Hide from Man 2 - The Silence of the Past 3 - Out of the Blue 4 - Strange Tales from the Lakes 5 - Of Monsters and Mermaids 6 - Supernatural Scenes 7 - Fairies, Phantoms, Fantastic Photographs 8 - Mysteries from East and West 9 - Where Are They? Acknowledgements Photo Credits (Removed) Index (Removed) Scan / Edit Notes This is the paper-back version which has less pictures than the hard-back version. I have scanned both but due to the large size increase only the paper-back version will be posted. Versions available and duly posted: Format: v1.0 (Text) Format: v1.0 (PDB - open format) Format: v1.5 (HTML) Format: v1.5 (PDF - no security) Format: v1.5 (PRC - for MobiPocket Reader - pictures included) Genera: Supernatural Extra's: Pictures Included (for all versions) Copyright: 1987 / 1989 First Scanned: 2002 Posted to: alt.binaries.e-book Note: 1. The Html, Text and Pdb versions are bundled together in one zip file. 2. The Pdf and Prc files are sent as single zips (and naturally don't have the file structure below) ~~~~ Structure: (Folder and Sub Folders) {Main Folder} - HTML Files | |- {Nav} - Navigation Files | |- {PDB} | |- {Pic} - Graphic files | |- {Text} - Text File -Salmun Plates for the Paper-Back Version First Set Of Plates A drawing of mokele-mbembe by artist David Miller based on a description given by Congolese eye- witnesses. Scottish farmer Ted Noble finally managed to trap the puma which had been savaging his sheep for several months. 'Bear' paw print in the snow on Hackney marshes. Photographs of the Surrey puma are few and fuzzy. The hands and feet of the wildman. The Nanjing belt. The discovery of aluminium amongst the fragments suggested that the Chinese isolated the metal at least 1,500 years before western scientists. Professor Frank J. Frost (centre) examines the Chinese anchor with two of his students. The Great Glass Slab of Galilee. For years this astonishing example of ancient technology went unnoticed. Serving as a stand for a museum display case. The 'giant scratchpad' of Nazca: lines, geometrical figures and drawings meticulously inscribed on the desert. One of the frogs said to have fallen on to Mrs Vida McWilliam's garden in Bedford during a shower of rain in June 1979. The hailstones that fell on Girard, Illinois, in 1929 were bigger than hens' eggs, but even larger 'aerial icebergs' have been recorded, including one 20ft (6m) in diameter. 'Surgeon's Photograph' as it is usually published. The close-up provides no clues for estimating the size of the 'monster'. Part of the carcass of a giant octopus which came ashore at Santa Cruz in 1925. In the nineteenth century the hypothesis was advanced that manatee was a possible source of the mermaid stories. Frances and the dancing fairies. (Photograph A). Elsie and the gnome. (Photograph B). Frances and the leaping fairy. (Photograph C). Elsie and the flower fairy. (Photograph D). The 'fairy bower' (Photograph E). The original version of the first Cottingley picture, before it was retouched and re-photographed. The Raynham Hall 'ghost'. Mrs Mabel Chinery's snapshot of her husband Jim. Is the old lady in the back seat her mother, who died before the picture was taken? A Sri Lankan Kattadiya, or witch doctor, prepares to consign an evil demon trapped in a bottle to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. All that remained of Dr John Irving Bentley, Pennsylvania, December 1966. The remains of Mrs M.H. Reeser are sifted in St Petersburg, Florida July 1951. Plates for the Paper-Back Version Second Set Of Plates Above One of the 'Giant Balls' of Costa Rica Was it sculpted by nature or the ancients? Left Carcasses of cattle lie where the gas overtook them around Lake Nios Lake Nios, Cameroon, where 1,700 people and countless animals died as a result of breathing poisoned gas. Sandra Mansi's photograph taken from the shores of Lake Champlain in 1977. Does it show the monster? The leathery turtle: as big as a small car. Mirages can magically transform workaday objects - here, ferryboats on Puget Sound in the United States. Effects vary according to atmospheric conditions. In the first picture the ships portholes are elongated and its hull obliterated. In the second, it has disintegrated into a row of floating towers and everything below the bridge has disappeared. No picture in this book has a more compelling fascination than the photograph of the dead sailor buried beneath the Artic ice for 140 years. The hands, manicured, immaculate as though they had just recently scrubbed the planked and caulked deck; the eyes open as if in life; the teeth shining. Only the forehead and nose show the blackening of frost. Lost in mysterious circumstances: Petty Officer John Torrington of the Franklin expedition. Arthur C. Clarke watches a volunteer cross burning coals during an experimental firewalk at the University of Colombo Medical Faculty, Sri Lanka. The happy hook-hanger. The secret lies in a positive mental attitude and the careful distribution of his weight over several hooks. The peaceful farmlands of southern England are the setting for the latest mystery to intrigue UFO investigators: more a case of 'What are they?' than 'Where are they?'. Every summer since 1980, huge and apparently perfect circles of flattened corn have been found in the midst of otherwise undisturbed crops. A cluster at Cheesefoot Head, Hampshire, in 1986 included bizarre double rings. Many UFO buffs believe they are the tracks or overnight 'nests' of alien spacecraft, but one leading meteorologist argues that the circles are made by a rare phenomenon known as a 'fair weather stationary whirlwind'. This occurs when a whirlwind becomes trapped in one particular spot by a hill or escarpment. Some whirlwinds have several vortices, hence the 'clusters'. Foreword It is now almost a decade since John Fairley, Simon Welfare and I started to assemble the extremely miscellaneous bits and pieces which eventually formed the thirteen-part Yorkshire Television series, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, and its sequel, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers. In each case, our object was to intrigue and entertain the viewer by presenting unexplained phenomena and objects, and curiosities of any kind which we found interesting. We had no particular bias or philosophical party line, but we were determined to play fair with our audience. We would not cheat by creating phoney mysteries or withholding explanations when they were available - as has frequently been done by networks our lawyers won't allow us to mention. At the same time, we were not out to 'debunk', except when the subject richly deserved it; even then, we kept editorial comment to the minimum and preferred to leave the final decision to the viewer. And when, as sometimes happened, a mystery got deeper and deeper the more we investigated, we weren't ashamed to admit total bafflement. The same policy was carried out in the two books based upon (and named after) the programmes. Text and video both had a very large - indeed, global - audience and, as might be expected, there was a great deal of feedback from viewers and readers. Many people rushed to report events similar to those we had recorded, or to volunteer explanations of outstanding mysteries. Almost all the letters received were thoughtful and serious; only a few - perhaps surprisingly, considering the nature of our material - were wildly eccentric. The most far-out one arrived with a covering note headed 'Broadmoor Hospital Mental Health Act 1983', and an assurance by the consultant forensic psychiatrist that nothing had been removed from the packet. (If you're dying to know, it contained a mass of numerology no crazier than much that has been produced outside mental hospitals. The impetus that pocket calculators have now given to this age-old nonsense is appalling to contemplate.) We do not know whether to be pleased or disappointed that few clear-cut solutions or answers emerged from all this correspondence; but we are very happy to know that we made people realize that there's a lot more in the universe than meets the eye (and sometimes, a good deal less). It would have been easy to make another television series - or at least one or two 'Specials' - out of the material we'd accumulated, but I had grown rather tired of standing in front of cameras in the Sri Lankan sun, even with the protection of that notorious beach-umbrella. So a book seemed the best compromise; but what to call it? My colleagues' first uninspired suggestion was Arthur C. Clarke's Diary of the Strange and Mysterious. This I rejected instantly as being too reminiscent of Mrs Dale and innumerable other soap operas. (Though I do have a diary, it is for appointments only, and the entries self-destruct into total illegibility within a month.) After a little thought, I came up with an alternative which sounds much more romantic and imposing - indeed, almost heroic. Here, then, with a little - well, frankly, rather a lot of -help from my friends John and Simon, are my Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious. As many of the items chronicled end up even stranger and more mysterious than when we started to investigate them, the series could obviously go on for ever. I promise you that it won't. There's a nice symmetry about a trilogy, and I have no intention of spoiling it.