MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:SOURCE MATERIAL FOR CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL STUDIES PART TWO

Today I conclude my survey of obscure early twentieth century (and earlier) zoological magazines, collated by T. Sheppard (1), many of which will be available in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, should you want to join. There is a lot of important zoological information on the open shelves in the Zoological Library on South Parks Road, just past the Rhodes House Library, but it was a bit difficult trying to get permission to go in. There is more information than I expected so this series will have to run to at least Part Three.

THE MALACOLOGICAL AND CONCHOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

'Conducted by G. B. Sowerby, FLS etc etc. Part 1...1838…It was `to be continued monthly,` but the British Museum Catalogue only notes two parts, in 1838 and in 1839. On the first page we learn that `This work is intended as the Conductor`s gratuitous contribution for the advancement of one of his favourite branches of Natural Science…This part contains 32 pages and a plate, etc. One of these is devoted to ` The Yorkshire Meteorite` which fell at Thwing in 1795. The Meteorite was then in the possession of the Sowerby family who were prepared to deliver it to the Trustees of the British Museum` as soon as £300 shall be subscribed`(2)

THE ZOOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

'or Journal of Natural History, being a series of Miscellaneous Articles original and translated, on interesting subjects in Zoology, illustrated by engravings in Zoology, illustrated by engravings in steel and wood.` This publication appeared in 1833, six parts (8vo) with a total of 192 pages, were published, and the part has an index occupying less than a page. The articles refer to the Giraffe, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Polar Bear, etc and occasionally there are shorter notes of zoological interest. My copy, recently obtained, was once in the possession of Richard Owen, and bears his signature' (3)

MOSLEY`S HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS

'I learn from British Birds, August, 1916 p. 71, that Mr Mosley`s work of 69 numbers appeared in 59 parts, and the work was issued in two editions, `superior` and `ordinary`.(4)

SOCIETY OF AMATEUR GEOLOGISTS

'In 1888, was published Vol 1 of an octavo publication, the first number of which contained 12 pages which were entirely devoted to the presidential address by W. Semmons on `The Metallic Ores of Cornwall`. In the same year Vol 1 No 2 was published, but the heading now appears `Proceedings of the Society of Amateur Geologists…etc. T. Sheppard goes on to describe how the magazine developed until its demise after issue 5. (5)

RECORDS OF MINING

'In 1829 was published part 1 (and last) of `Records of Mining` edited by John Taylor…The work was hoped to supply a want in our national literature. It contains seven papers five by J. Taylor, and two by J. H. Vivian. These principally refer to Cornwall, etc. There are also ` tables exhibiting the quantities of Copper, Tin,Lead, etc, produced in Great Britain,. The last refer to Yorkshire and other northern counties (6)

THE MINERALOGICAL MAGAZINE

'and the Journal of the Mineralogical Society.` The Mineralogical Society was instituted on February 5th 1876, and from its bye-laws we learn that `The object of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, with which the Crystallogical Society was amalgamated on December 11th 1883, shall be to advance the knowledge of Mineralogy and also of Crystallography and Petrology. The Society has issued a Magazine, octavo, which averages about 100 pages each part with plates. The last part is published is No. 84 (Vol XVIII) June 1917. The first appeared in 1876… (7)


1. T.Sheppard Old Natural History Magazines, etc Naturalist December 1917 pp 387-391
2. Ibid p.387
3. Ibid p.387
4. Ibid p.p 387-388
5. Ibid p.388
6. Ibid p.388
7. Ibid p.388

To be continued……..

ANDREW HOPCRAFT: Loch Ness Monster

A while ago I purchased two slim discarded volumes from my local library, both seemingly self-published and written by a Mr G. Colman Green. Within the slowly yellowing pages are a collection of poems, paintings, recollections, reminisences and of a more fortean bent, short passages on such subjects as 'earthquake waves', 'milk-drinking snakes', a 'fall of newspapers' and perhaps most relevent to the realm of cryptozoology, 'The Loch Ness Monster Considered.'

The short passage pre-dates the 'monster hunts' of the The Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau and so adds a little background chatter against which the early searches of Loch Ness were made. However, I feel there is something to be further explored of Mr Green's connections between earthquakes and lake monsters. Charles Fort drew connections between earthquakes and anomolous falls, of sounds and lights in the sky - a forerunner to the fringe science of earthquake lights. At the time G. Coleman Green wrote his notes upon the beast of Loch Ness, the theory of plate tectonics would also have been considered a fringe science - I can still remember the incredulity I felt as a child when my father told me he wasn't taught about tectonic plates at school!

Loch Ness is seemingly unique in its position in that it runs the length of a geological fault line (The Great Glen Fault); I can think of no other lake supposedly inhabited by a monster that shares such a position, perhaps other than those beasts said to inhabit the lakes that sit within The Great Rift Valley of Africa. Bubbles of escaping seismic gas disturbing the surface of the Loch have been put forward as an explanation for some sightings of the Loch Ness monster. I can't but wonder how an 'earthquake light' may appear underwater when viewed from the surface. I'm now begining to think of those luminous wheels seen from the decks of the Patna steaming in the Persian Gulf.

THE LOCH NESS MONSTER CONSIDERED

Allow me to comment on a subject which has been kept well before the public by our ubiquitous Press in the hope that some light may be directed towards a solution of the mystery of Loch Ness on the Caledonian Canal.

Before adding my own ideas about the strange visitor I think it proper to refer to Mr. J.H. Peel's article in the Birmingham Post, 2nd July, 1960, which raised the question if research men at Oxford and Cambridge - experts in zoology -have their nets cast wide enough to catch anything fresh from the depths of knowledge which help us to understand that deep and elusive creature we call the Loch Ness Monster.

But this is not a simple question of zoological knowledge and I propose to recapitulate some other facts which seem to be related and which are drawn from my own experience at sea.

Firstly, if you will refer to Dr. Cornwall's "Unique Geography" on page 174 of this fine old book you will learn that at the time of the Great Earthquake at Lisbon in 1755 (which incident had a rebound as far away as the coast of South America) - both Loch Ness and Loch Lomond rose 2 feet above their normal level.

As Loch Ness is over 20 miles long and Lomond has a great mass of water two miles wide some immense pressure from below must have caused this vast surface to rise so abruptly and I suggest that on the principle of the Brahma Press this pressure originated from the same volcanic centre as the Lisbon catastrophe.

This implies a long submarine tunnel - probably very deep and, in part may be water-logged - very ancient and sensitive to volcanic thrust with occasionally superheated water.

These volcanic tunnels spread like the tentacles of an octopus all over the North Atlantic as far as the Azores westward and Iceland in the Arctic.

Earthquakes of more or less intensity have occured in England throughout historic times - in 1400 which set the church bells ringing, to 1930 when pictures tilted and beds moved in East London. Other dates 1165, 1445 and 1756, 1860. As compared with the Agadir earthquake of 1960 the road casualties caused by excessive speed (18,000 killed in three years) it makes one gasp with horror.

Space forbids discussion of all the forces operating in Mexico, Chile and Peru which, though mainly volcanic in origin, may be tipprd off by the seasonal throw of the earth (Swing of the belts); variation of spin and some other causes.

In 1914 when the world was thrown into the turmoil of war, few people took notice of the terrific eruption which blew the top of Mt. Elburz in Russia and caused widespread destruction (60 villages wiped out). This mighty mountain, 18,000 ft. high, was thought to have been asleep for a million years. The Russians claim the Noah's Ark had rested there.

Wales has been volcanic and much of King Arthur country is said to be beneath the sea.

The Wrekin in Shropshire is said to be a burnt-out volcano - but is it? It is quite speculative!

Secondly, in 1920, whilst homeward bound on the S.S. Marathon with a school of children on board I had a series of conversations with Captain Williamson about these various phenomena and prevailed upon him to take the ship along the northern shores of Teneriffe in the Canary Islands so that the youngsters could see the volcanic forces of the island.

Steaming slowly along at a reasonably safe distance, the ship's company experienced a thrill that impressed everybody with its awful intensity.

Teneriffe is in effect the Volcanic Bomb-Centre of the North Atlantic and the probable cause of earthquakes in this part of the world.

Returning to the Loch Ness Monster, it must be remembered that the ancient plesiosaurs were egg-laying creatures. Indeed, we have in the South Kensington Museum some large fossilized specimens about three feet high and I think it quite conceivable that an egg deposited a thousand years ago (or more) lodged on a warm, a superheated rock, far down in the cavernous, "unfathomable caves" may have at last generated into something like a Sea Serpent or a Saurian of a more or less degenerate breed. Who knows?

On Sunday, February 12th, 1961, the experts on the various sea monsters gave an entertaining account of what they knew about the history of great eels in larvae form, octopus of great size and air breathing sea reptiles which were variously described a sea serpents or plesiosaurii, defunct for 80,000m. years. They left the whole subject an open question when they suggested these creatures had possibly found a way to adapt themselves to modern conditions.

G. Colman Green, M.R.S.T, R.D.S.

Panorama of Adventure in the realm of Art and Education

Panoramic Sketches

1961

NOT MY BLACK SWALLOWTAIL

From the latest edition of the Entomological Livestock Group newsletter, a letter from veteran British entomologist Brian Gardiner:

On E-bay in January appeared an offering of "British Swallowtail. P. machaon Britannicus, Black Ab." which had a data Tag "Cambridge 1968, B.O.C. Gardiner. I can categorically state that I never bred or possessed this specimen which from the accompanying photograph appears to be the North American Papilio polyxenus. When I did breed P. machaon, for release onto Wicken Fen in the 1950`s (see The Countryman 1960 vol 57 pp 294-298) all retained reference specimens would have the label `ex Norfolk stock.’ so I suspect the 1968 Cambridge label has been taken from one of my many hundreds of P. brassicae specimens which I widely distributed and would have had a Cambridge label.

The specimen in question was offered by mustavit-2007 with the item number 380196740377 and is still view-able for anyone to take a look on Ebay. The specimen sold for £255 which I think is a lot for what I think is a common American Swallowtail! There have recently been a
number of lepidoptera on Ebay with some dubious attributions, with the data labels, like mine, not being recognised as attributed to the specimen in question, so it is a case of ‘caveat emptor’ if you fancy any of them. Brian O. C. Gardiner.

WHAT IS IT?

FROM YOUTUBE: This is an animal whose name I don't know. It is usually on the wall or the corner of my room. Sometimes it moves on the floor. Anyone who knows it, please tell me its name. Thanks.

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY NEWSLETTER

Hawaii to Crack Down on Monk Seal Killers In good news for one of the world's most imperiled marine mammals, this Tuesday a Hawaiian senator introduced legislation that would make it a felony to kill or harm Hawaiian monk seals and other endangered species. Within the past year, two male monk seals and one pregnant female fell victim to deadly shootings -- even as the seal's population is expected to drop below 1,000 animals within a few years due to starvation, climate change, entanglement in marine debris, habitat loss, and other threats. Last year saw the lowest number of pups ever produced during breeding season; the population is declining by 4 percent annually. The Hawaiian monk seal's cousin, the Caribbean monk seal, was announced extinct in 2008. In response to a scientific petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, last year the National Marine Fisheries Service announced it would designate federally protected "critical habitat" for Hawaiian monk seals on the main Hawaiian Islands, which the species are increasingly populating and which may provide its last opportunity for recovery. Check out our press release and learn about our campaign to save the Hawaiian monk seal. It's Global Population Speak Out Month This Tuesday, as part of our ambitious campaign to fight overpopulation, the Center for Biological Diversity announced participation in the second annual Global Population Speak Out, a month-long effort to publicize the crisis of unsustainable human population growth. The Speak Out is a critical way to raise awareness about overpopulation, which is driving every major cause of mass extinction -- but which very few conservation groups confront. Read our Speak Out press release, check out our Overpopulation Web page, and make your own pledge to speak out this month on overpopulation. Action Brewing to Save 800 Species From Pesticide Poisoning To save more than 800 endangered species from death and harm from toxic pesticides, last week the Center for Biological Diversity filed notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over registration of almost 400 chemicals that threaten imperiled species -- as well as human health. The EPA has violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to consult with federal wildlife agencies about pesticides' impacts on species across the nation before approving them for use. The agency has also violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by registering pesticides known to harm and kill sensitive migratory birds. Our notice of intent seeks to protect 887 at-risk animal and plant species, including the Florida panther, coho salmon, California condor, and mountain yellow-legged frog. We've already forced the EPA to consult on the impacts of scores of pesticides on a suite of California species such as the California red-legged frog and Delta smelt. Said the Center's Jeff Miller, "For too long this agency's oversight has been abysmal, allowing the pesticide industry to unleash a virtual plague of toxic chemicals into our environment." Read more in the Los Angeles Times. Center Goes to Court for Mexican Gray Wolf Last week the Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to act on our petition to grant the Mexican gray wolf its own place on the endangered species list. The Mexican wolf is distinct from other gray wolves and should be recognized as such with its own Endangered Species Act protections as an endangered subspecies or "distinct population segment." But the Mexican wolf is currently lumped together under the Act with gray wolves elsewhere in the country. And the Service has missed its November deadline to respond to the Center's petition from last summer to fix that. Earning its own place on the endangered species list would require the development of a new Mexican wolf recovery plan -- which is crucial, since the current one is almost three decades old and contains no numeric population, distribution, or genetic diversity targets. It would also give better guidance for managing the sole existing wolf population -- which hovered at just 52 animals and two breeding pairs at the end of 2008. Get more from KSWT News. Friending the Pacific Fisher This Thursday, the Center for Biological Diversity and allies sent a notice of intent to sue the Interior Department for the feds' failure to protect the Pacific fisher -- a slender, mink-related mammal native to West Coast forests. Though the fisher is now reduced to just two populations in the West due to habitat loss from logging and development, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hasn't protected the animal, instead putting it on the list of "candidates" for Endangered Species Act safeguards -- where it's supposed to wait for protection while progress is made on other, "higher priority" species protections. But the Service is making essentially no progress on protecting other species -- thus, it has no excuse for not protecting the fisher now. The Center and others petitioned to protect the Pacific fisher in 2000, and a decade is far too long for the mammal to wait for the help it urgently needs. Check out our press release and learn more about the Pacific fisher. Deadly Soot Pollution Targeted This Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to limit dangerous pollution from particles like soot and dust. Particulate matter, or PM-10, is made up of tiny particles -- about 10 times tinier than the width of a human hair -- that can travel deep into the lungs and seriously harm human health when breathed, as well as forming regional haze that cloaks vistas in scenic places throughout the West. Particulate pollution also includes soot, or "black carbon," which is one of the most potent contributors to global warming. But in violation of the Clean Air Act, the EPA has failed to watchdog five western states to make sure they're following laws to protect the public -- and the climate -- from particulate air pollution. "This kind of pollution is dirty and dangerous," says the Center's Kevin Bundy, "and EPA needs to do what the law requires to get it out of the air. Read more in the Idaho Statesman. Lawsuit Launched to Stop Lead Poisoning of Seabirds As many as 10,000 Laysan albatross chicks die per year from lead poisoning on Hawaii's Midway Atoll -- so this Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal warning that we'll sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies for failure to clean up the source. Toxic, lead-based paint chips are shedding from deteriorating buildings at a decommissioned military base on the island, leaving baby albatrosses -- which eat the chips -- with nerve damage called "droopwing." Unable to lift their wings, these chicks will never fly and drag their wings painfully along the ground, becoming susceptible to open sores, fractures, and slow death. Lead poisoning from the same military base threatens the highly endangered Laysan duck and 17 other seabirds. "For too long the Fish and Wildlife Service has stood by while thousands of albatross chicks die needlessly every year," said Shaye Wolf, a Center biologist. "If they don't take action to stop this problem, we will." Read more in the Washington Post and look at devastating photos of lead-poisoned albatross chicks. Center Takes on Brutal Rattlesnake Roundups To stop the indiscriminate -- and abhorrently legal -- killing of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes in the Southeast, last Thursday the Center for Biological Diversity wrote to the governor of Georgia urging the state to outlaw rattlesnake roundups. During these annual contests, hunters bring in as many rattlesnakes as they can catch in a year, at which point the snakes are slaughtered and sold for meat and skin. A recent study shows that roundups have seriously depleted populations of eastern diamondbacks in the Southeast -- but Georgia still holds two of the gorefests every year. Rattlesnake roundups also harm other species, since snake collectors spray gasoline into tortoise burrows to capture their prey, destroying the burrows and usually killing the other animals inside. More than 350 other wildlife species use gopher tortoise burrows, and the tortoise itself is under consideration for Endangered Species Act protection. "These senseless killing contests are imperiling entire ecosystems and must be stopped," said Center biologist Tierra Curry. "Roundups should be replaced with festivals that celebrate native wildlife." Check out our press release and learn more about why rattlesnake roundups should be outlawed. "Saving 1,000 Species": Listen to Our Biodiversity Briefing With the International Year of Biodiversity well on its way, last week the Center for Biological Diversity focused our quarterly Biodiversity Briefing on our campaign to win protections for America's 1,000 most endangered species. During the briefing phone call, Executive Director Kierán Suckling went over the four main ways in which we're pushing for protections: securing animals and plants a place on the endangered species list, keeping them there when protections are challenged, earning them protected "critical habitat," and making sure they have the federal recovery plans they need for long-term survival. From cleaning up the catastrophes left by the Bush administration to earning Endangered Species Act protections for 249 "candidate" species, 144 petitioned-for species, and 500 rare Southeast aquatic species, Suckling describes what needs to be done and how we're already doing it. "We're looking at ways to systematically go at this -- treat it like the crisis that it is," said Suckling. "We really should be able to turn [the Obama administration] around and get some really big new protections we've been waiting decades for." Listen to the briefing and learn about our campaign to save America's 1,000 most endangered species. For information on how you can join the Center's Leadership Circle and be invited to participate in Biodiversity Briefings live when they happen, email Development Director Jennifer Shepherd or call her at (520) 396-1135. Tiny Toads Saved From Extinction Once upon a time -- actually, for many thousands of years -- some 20,000 bright-golden spray toads lived on the misty edges of a waterfall on the Kihansi River in Tanzania. So isolated were the tiny creatures that they evolved into the only toad species in the world that gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs. Each baby is small enough to fit on the head of pin. The toads were discovered in 1998, by which time the World Bank, which would not fit on the head of a pin and has been known to eat its own young, decided to destroy their habitat with a dam. Which it did. But just as the spray toad was about to go extinct, 499 were scooped up by conservationists and flown to the Bronx Zoo. So desperate was the situation that scientists conducted a C-section on a dead pregnant toad to save her children. Since then, the population has grown to about 4,000 animals in the Bronx and Toledo zoos. Scientists -- with the World Bank's belated help -- are now planning to return the species to its native habitat in Tanzania. People can work miracles when we listen to the better angels of our nature. Read more in The New York Times. Kierán Suckling Executive Director Photo credits: Hawaiian monk seal photos courtesy NOAA; crowded beach courtesy iStockphoto.com/mura; Florida panther courtesy USFWS; Mexican gray wolves by Val Halstad, Wolf Haven International; Pacific fisher courtesy Pacific Biodiversity Institute; soot courtesy USEPA; Laysan albatross chick with droopwing (c) Myra Finkelstein; eastern diamondback rattlesnake courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Tad Arensmeier under the Creative Commons attribution license; plains bison by Jason Hickey; Kihansi spray toad courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Ruby 1x2 under the GNU free documentation license. This message was sent to . The Center for Biological Diversity sends newsletters and action alerts through DemocracyinAction.org. Let us know if you'd like to change your email list preferences or stop receiving action alerts and newsletters from us. Change your address or review your profile here.

BIDEFORD POST ARTICLE

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1945 Bob Marley was born.
And here’s, the news:

Kite Surfer Killed In Mass Shark Attack
Stuart man, 38, identified as kite surfer killed by sharks off Stuart Beach
Virginia Officer May Be a Little too Fond of His Dog - Bonding Taken too Far
Bat is winging its way back

Q: What does a bat do if he forgets the words?
A: He just wings it.