Scotland Stirred by Mysterious Loch Ness Sea Monster. Modern Mechanix. April, 1934
In the early hours of January 5th, 1934, veterinary student Arthur Grant nearly collided with an amphibious monster at Loch Ness as he rode his motorcycle home. His subsequent account of this episode, taken at face value and with the unverified rumours of hoax put to one side, is perplexing but perhaps also rather revealing.
He was motor cycling to his home in the glen at 1.30 yesterday morning, when he observed a huge object on the roadway near Abriachan. As he almost struck it, the creature leaped across the road and dashed into the loch. Curiously enough, the place where this incident occurred is on the north side of the loch, almost opposite to the place on the south side where Mr Spicer, of London, and Mrs Reid, the wife, of the postmaster at Inverfarigaig, saw the monster “on the land. "It was, “said Mr Grant, “a bright moonlight night after rain had fallen.
When almost forty yards away under the shadow of the hills , a short distance from the part of the reconstructed Glasgow-Inverness road near Abriachan , I observed what appeared to be a large black object on the opposite side of the road . I was almost on it when it turned what I thought was a small head on a long neck , and the creature , apparently taking fright , made two great bounds across the road and plunged into the loch . "I had a splendid view of the object; in fact, I almost struck it "with my motor cycle. It had a long neck with an eel-like head and large oval shaped-eyes just on the top of the small head. The body was very hefty, and I distinctly saw two front flippers. There were other two flippers which seemed to be webbed behind and there was a tail ,which I estimate would be from five to six feet long.
The curious thing about the tail was that it did not so far as I could see , come to a point but was rounded off . The total length of the animal would be from 15 to 20 feet . " Knowing something about natural history , I can say that I have never seen anything in my life like the animal I saw. It looked like a hybrid . "
I jumped off my cycle , " said Mr Grant but the animal with great speed had rushed into the loch , splashing the surface violently and making away . The weather on the loch has been very stormy , with the result that the River Ness in particular is in high flood .
The Scotsman - Saturday 06 January 1934
Aberdeen Press and Journal - Saturday 06 January 1934
Grant would go on to descibe the animal as a cross between a seal and plesiosaurus.
The monster first turned its head to the right and then to the left. The head was on the end of a tapering neck. It gave a leap into the middle of the road appearing to propel itself by a lurch of its two rear flippers which were very strong looking and webbed. It landed on its two front flippers, which also strong looking, but not webbed. The back feet were seal like, and the forefeet were in the shape of a penguin’s. The body was thicker towards its tail than at its forefeet. It was black or dark brown in colour, and had a skin like that of a whale. Its head would be about six feet from the ground, and its neck would be three and a half to four feet long, and the tail about six feet long. The height from its belly to its back "would be about four and a half feet. Its length over all would be from eighteen to twenty feet.
The Scotsman - Tuesday 09 January 1934
Nearly 90 years after Loch Ness hit the headlines it seems obvious that no large, unknown animal; reptile, mammal or amphibian is present in the loch and probably never has been so unless we dismiss Grants encounter as an outright hoax then there must be some explanation for what he saw. The only extant animal species that are amphibious and approach the size of the animal are the pinnipeds; seals, sea lion, fur seals and walrus. Indeed the walrus theory was put forward soon after his account had been published by a group of art students who interviewed Grant and did their own detective work.
In the beginning of this month a number of young men from Edinburgh College of Art organised an expedition with a view attempting a solution of the mystery as the nature of the animal which has been frequently reported in Loch Ness. During their stay on the loch side the members of this Edinburgh expedition investigated the beach and surrounding ground at the point where the Edinburgh Veterinary College student Grant, reported having come seen the monster on the roadway, when returning night on his motor cycle. They found indications of heavy animal having passed from the roadway to the loch: and one of greatest value which they established relates the measurements of the tracks of this animal, which give some idea of its weight and size. The direction in which the supporting limbs had impressed themselves on the surface afforded definite indication which to estimate the size and weight the body. At this point of the beach, as has already been reported, the remains of sheep carcases have been found. The suggestion has been made that this, therefore, is favourite point for the mystery animal of the loch to go ashore in search of food. An experiment made by them tends to discount this theory. A marked piece of wood was put into the loch the Drumnadrochit Bay. The current of the river here entering the loch would be sufficient carry it out. Afterward they found this marked piece timber on the beach strewn with the carcases. This seems to indicate that light current will push material towards this beach, and, will as will be seen from the expedition’s report, one the conclusions that the presence sheen carcases washed there, for the presence of the monster, against the idea that the loch animal is responsible for the sheep carcases.
The members of the expedition were A B. Hay, P. Z.S. Scot, who is in the Sculpture Department in the College of Art; J.D. Peploe, A. Anderson, and E. Morrison. They have studied the data collected since their return, studying in the Royal Scottish Museum in the search for a possible solution, and the following report on their investigations and conclusions have been prepared by them. The walrus solution which they favour fits most of the facts, but a serious difficulty in the way of its acceptance is the testimony of numerous witnesses to the long slender neck and head of the animal, quite different in appearance from those a walrus. During the ensuing night, as has been widely reported, Mr Grant declared that the monster crossed the road in front of his motor cycle We spent the next two days in his company, a part of the time in going over the ground and foreshore where he had seen it, measuring up spoor and hunting for clues as to the identity of the beast. Mr Grant’s description gave a clear impression the action of the beast. It loped across the road using all four flippers, first putting down both front ones, then arching the back and heaving forward the hind ones in the manner of a sea lion, the stomach being clear of the ground. We checked the tracks at the point where the creature had gone down the steep bank into the loch, and confirmed the fact that there was no body drag, although without doubt something large had gone down there. The marks of the feet or flippers—as they were scrapes skids in the soft earth, there was telling the nature of them were roughly five feet apart. This fact gave some indication of the width of the animal. It also does away with the seal theory, as it is impossible for a seal to use his hind flippers on land. It follows that his stomach and whole body is dragged along the ground. The surprising number of sheep’s’ skeletons along this beach caused a good deal of speculation as to whether the monster could really kill and eat sheep, but as also found large quantities of sawn butcher bones, tin cans, and other jetsam on the same area, a set of the currents a more probable explanation.
At the same time it is a tenable theory that the animal may come to that spot for the sake the braxy there washed up. Some seventy yards further up the beach from this point (near Abriachan) we discovered what appeared to be set of foot flipper prints the shingle, measuring some 24 inches long from toe to heel, 38 inches across from right toe to left, and 30 inches from heel to heel. Nearby was a large crushed down area in the bracken as if an over-sized cow had lain there, though no farm beast could have reached that spot. On the night the tenth we had to return to Edinburgh. We went without delay to the Royal Scottish Museum with a view to tracing any common factor that would cover the descriptions, spoor, and speed of the animal. The staff gave us every possible assistance. Once back to civilisation we regretfully discarded the plesiosaur theory and made an attempt to find some living creature that could possibly cover the facts. The answer was a walrus. We got the walrus case opened for us, and with the aid of measure tape discovered that the tracks mentioned above rallied with the hind feet of the bull walrus to within two inches in every direction. Also the five-foot width across the fore flippers corresponded. The walrus theory, however, does not fit in with the description of the animal seen by Grant. Is it possible bridge the discrepancy? The long neck which he described might well be explained by the fact that, in the beam of his headlamp, he saw only the high light along the head and neck of a large walrus. The action of the animal is correct for a walrus as he described it, and the stomach is carried clear of the ground The thick, upturned tail he mentions may well be explained by the habit of the walrus of throwing, the hind flippers when going over sudden declivity, shown illustrations in the “Scottish Naturalist.” The surprising speed of the walrus is mentioned in Nansen’s Farthest North.”
The beast ordinarily feeds on molluscs crustaceans, and shrimps, according to the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, by Lydekker, in his Natural History, he states that they will also eat fish and the flesh of dead seals and whales. Many cases are reported in the Scottish Naturalist of walruses appearing round these coasts. One was shot Orkney; in 1825, and was described as being of very large size —they grow 15 feet long—and in a very lean state. A young walrus appeared in the Severn in 1839, and another in the Shannon in 1897. The Scotsman,of 12th May, 1928, reported a dead walrus at the head of the Gairloch, Ross-shire. The Museum authorities state that, owing to unusual hydrographic conditions in the last two years, there has been a spate of whales on these coasts, also an Arctic skate, never before seen in Britain. Also, from the south, sharks and tunny have crossed the Channel for the first time recorded.
The Walrus Theory; Falkirk Herald - Wednesday 24 January 1934
Another animal which certainly moves the way Grant describes and might look like a cross between a seal and a plesisosaur is a sea lion. Although no extant species of sea lion is indigenous to Europe and as far as we know never has been there are numerous documented, verified historical records, which we have discovered during our research into The Seal Serpent, of these animals escaping captivity; zoos, menageries and circuses as well as being deliberately released into the wild, most notably at the start of both world wars.
The most common animal was the California sea lion which can reach a length of 8ft and a head height of 5ft. Less common, but still historically resident in the UK, have been Steller sea lions which can reach a length of around 10ft. Both animals being otariids can use their hind-flippers for movement on land like the walrus and can move quickly on land.
Telling Tails?
The problem with a sea lion or walrus identity for Grants animal is of course the prescence of a tail which he describes as being 5-6ft long and strangely rounded, but given that there is no animal which has all the features he describes in existence, this would appear to be a misjudgement.
An animal such as a sea lion lying prone, before taking fright and bounding into the loch might give the appearance of a tail (see video links below), which along with the common belief that the monster was some sort of plesiosaur is fairly easy to understand.
A wandering, foraging sea lion which found its way into the loch during spate or flood, (or had been exploiting the environment for some time), able to travel fairly easily on land, would at least offer a believable solution. In fact this scenario is likely to have happended many times around the world over the last hundred years or so and might explain many reports of lake monsters in Europe. After June 1934 there were no other land sightings for 20 years..perhaps whatever was behinf the sighting had moved on...
And funnily enough if we remove the tail from the illustrations of Grants animal we have, what appears to be a sea lion....
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