MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: The Herring Hog

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Dear folks

In one of those strange coincidences,as I was planning today`s blog,Jon drew my attention to Mike Hallowell`s contribution of June 5th which mentioned The Great Herring Catch of September 1807 in his part of the world.

The coincidence lies in the fact that a few weeks ago whilst in one of my favourites haunts (other than the local karaoke bar!) the Newspaper Library in north London I came across a story which was indexed as being about `The Herring Hog`. This was in the `Dumfries and Galloway Saturday Standard` of October 30th 1909 (see accompanying illustration).

It was doubly rewarding, I thought,”herring hog,what`s this a new type of cryptid?” and also, my ancestors were Scottish. But alas, on doing a Google search on `herring hog` I found out that this is in reality the common porpoise of the Atlantic and Pacific(1) So, it`s always best to check when coming across a possible new cryptid.

REFERENCE

1. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/herring+hog

I have two items for sale which may also be available for viewing or sale on the Internet, I haven`t checked. First come first served!

a) Amphipacifica Vol 1 Suppl. 1 An account of Cadborosaurus willsi,a new genus,new species,a large aquatic reptile from the Pacific coast of North America. £3 I will pay postage

b) Porcupine! Newsletter of the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity,Hong Kong University. No.15 Dec.1996. £3. I will pay postage.

Wanted. Fortean Studies. Offers please. And that issue of Fortean Times (1980s?) which featured a female alien in a hollow vessel on the front cover.

Thanks.

Best wishes,


Richard Muirhead