Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster
By: Tippy & Alfred
The horse eel and the hairy eel (described in other
articles) appear from descriptions to be the same creature,
and not only have they been seen in Ireland but in Scotland
as well. One witness account describes a giant eel that came
upstream from the ocean. If a horse eel can travel from
fresh water to salt water it likely could also inhabit
Scotland. There are known species of eels that can safely
tolerate both fresh and salt water, so this is a scientific
possibility.
It is even suspected that the Loch Ness Monster (nicknamed
"Nessie") is in fact a horse eel or hairy eel. An acclaimed
scientist from the Loch Ness Bureau examined the Loch Ness
fable in his book "The Monsters of Loch Ness". After
exhaustive study of accounts from people and books on
sightings of the Loch Ness Monster he was forced to conclude
that it was either a long-necked amphibian or a thick-bodied
eel.
Even supposed pictures of the Loch Ness Monster are seen as
a dark, amorphous, long, snake-like creature with its head
sticking up out of the water. Since the horse eel has been
described as a thick-bodied black eel with a mane, could
Nessie be in fact a horse eel or hairy eel? Locals around
Loch Ness have seen hairy eels and believe that they do
exist. There are even accounts going back generations of
hairy eels inhabiting the Loch Ness.
So even though a long-necked sea-monster is often associated
with the Loch Ness Monster it may be in fact a giant horse
or hairy eel.
"The general impression is that the "eel" was somehow, in
addition to size, peculiar in some way as compared to the
garden variety of small eel. In a few cases this
peculiarity was identified with a mane, frill, or fin; or,
in some instances, the witness implied when pressed that eel
was the best identification he could make, but he could not
explain why the term "hair eel" or "horse eel" was used
(except perhaps that these terms are an integral part of the
vocabulary of the region)."
Roy Mackal, "The Monsters of Loch Ness" [Page 147]
Although these animals seem to inhabit the water and appear
snake-like it should be kept in mind that the term eel is
just a default reference to describe the creature rather
than a classification.
Capturing and/or Killing the Myth
It is actually strange that these creatures have not been
classified and documented. There are plenty of witness
accounts and supposed monsters have been captured or killed
in years gone past. Scientists have gone to the deepest
parts of the Amazon to document a slightly different
variation of insect, so why haven't they managed to document
the horse/hairy eel?
It may be because these creatures don't appear to have
normal life spans for an animal. They possibly live for
centuries as do some tortoises. And if they do manage to die
they either sink to the bottom of wherever they are or get
washed out to sea. They also appear to inhabit the deepest,
darkest places of rivers, lakes and bogs. Brackish waters
are extremely hard to explore simply because you can't see
anything.
One eyewitness account was made around the turn of the
twentieth century. Canal workers were cleaning out the
Caledonian Canal near Corpach, Ireland when they came upon
the beast. It was described as "...much larger than any eel
ever seen and it had a long mane." The animal in the account
described above was stated to be dead by some and others to
have been alive but then killed. The workers as an aside
thought it might have come down from Loch Ness where the
Loch Ness joins to the ocean. This isn't an unfounded aside
considering that local denizens of the Loch Ness have
sighted even to this day "Hairy Eels" in Loch Ness.
A good two or three decades before the previous described
sighting, in around 1880, the normally very wet land of
Ireland in County Galway's bog lands actually dried out a
little and the streams and ponds became bare trickles in a
drought. Horse eels where spotted left literally high and
dry in various separate pools. One account is of a horse eel
that got stuck under a bridge by Ballynahinch Castle. A
carpenter was commissioned to create a spear big enough to
kill it, but before the carpenter could produce the spear
the rains came back and washed the creature away. It was
said to be thirty feet long and as thick around as a horse.
Another creature was caught in a culvert between Lough
Derrylea with Lough Crolan. Only parts of it were visible
and it was described as a Giant, Hideous Eel-like creature.
It was left to die and eventually it decomposed.
In Scotland, in a book called "In search of Morag" by
Elizabeth Campbell, she states that local fishermen of Loch
Morar regularly hooked a hairy eel on their fishing lines.
These catches were thrown back because the creatures were
considered repulsive. Campbell quotes one local who was
upset about all the "monster hype" and claimed that there
were no monster in Loch Morar, just a thirty foot eel.
All of these accounts describe an eel that has a mane and
all fit within the description of the horse eel or the hairy
eel. So, "Nessie" may live, not only in Loch Ness, but in
many of the other waters of Ireland and Scotland.
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