The search for an animal unknown to science in the Scottish Loch Ness does not stop until now. Despite the fact that scientists have almost one hundred percent proven that such a huge creature cannot live in the lake, lovers of riddles and secrets continue to believe in its existence. Just two years ago, another photograph of the Loch Ness monster appeared, and then five more people reported about the meeting with him.
Most of the old photographs, in which you can see something like a dinosaur's head sticking out of the water with a long neck, have been recognized as either fakes or pictures of swimming elephants. Some of the authors of these pictures even themselves admitted to deception, explaining that they wanted to become famous. It would seem that after that the easiest way would be to call everyone who saw the Loch Ness monster, scammers, and not attach importance to their stories.
Engineer Tim Dinsdale, one of those actively looking for the Loch Ness monster.
Ancient Nessie hunters
However, in this case, too many questions remain. If the people who saw Nessie in the 20th century made it all up, then what about the older evidence that some huge monster lives in Loch Ness? Even before our era, the Celts living in the vicinity of the lake created stone images of all the animals that live in this area, and one of these sculptures looked like a seal with flippers and a very long neck - that is, approximately the way it is now customary to depict the Loch Ness monster.
In the 6th century AD, a legend appeared about how the monster from Loch Ness was defeated by the missionary Columbus, who was later ranked among the saints. According to one version of this legend, the future saint tried to drive away the monster that was attacking people from the shore with the help of prayer - and the monster turned into a tree. And in the 18th century, the first officially documented evidence appeared of how, during the construction of a road that runs past the southern shore of the lake, blasting operations frightened off two huge unknown animals that threw themselves into the water.
Loch Ness Lake.
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A few more pieces of evidence describing giant salamanders diving in Loch Ness date back to the 19th century. In addition, in the 19th and 20th centuries, there were several references to encounters with a monster similar to a dinosaur in other Scottish lakes. There were far fewer of these than the Nessie stories, and most of them are from Loch Morar. The rest of the lakes located in this area can "boast" of single descriptions of monsters.
Can all the ancient descriptions of lake monsters be called fiction? In centuries past, people seeking fame chose other ways to do this, so their testimonies were most likely based on something. But on what if a huge monster could not live in the lake either earlier or in our time? In order for any species of animals to survive for centuries and not die out, there must be a lot of them - at least several hundred. So many monsters simply cannot fit in Loch Ness, and besides, so many large animals would not have enough food there.
There are several theories trying to explain these contradictions, but only one of them does it almost perfectly and does not raise new questions. This theory was put forward in the second half of the twentieth century by engineer Robert Craig, who suggested that people talking about how they saw Nessie and heard the sounds she made could really see and hear … pine trunks floating up from the bottom of the lake.
Scotch pine, the record holder for the amount of resin.
It's all about resin
Along the shores of Loch Ness, a whole forest of Scottish pine grows, in the trunks of which there is a lot of resin, much more than in other conifers. If an old tree that has outlived its age falls into the water, it begins to rot from the inside, and the resin contained in it is blown up by bubbles, since when rotting, carbon dioxide is formed. When too much gas builds up, the tree floats to the surface. There, the bubbles burst from the pressure drop, the gas escapes, and the barrel again sinks to the bottom.
All this is accompanied by a loud splash of water and a variety of sounds that are emitted by bursting bubbles and gas escaping from them. These sounds can be similar to snorting, howling, growling - in a word, to the "voice" of a large animal. If a bubble forms at the end of the barrel, it will look exactly like the neck of a round-headed dinosaur. However, even if the bubbles are in other places, the trunk that has emerged from afar, and even through the frequent fog on the Scottish lakes, can still be mistaken for someone's neck and head. Especially if a person is ready to see a dinosaur in the lake and is waiting for a meeting with him - the imagination can easily "retouch" the image of the trunk, turning it into Nessie.
The most famous photograph of Nessie, taken in 1934 by surgeon Kenneth Wilson. Turned out to be fake.
The theory of Robert Craig is also confirmed by the fact that most of the Scottish pines grow precisely around Loch Ness. On the shores of Loch Morar, there are already fewer such pines, and the monster is seen there much less often, and on the shores of other lakes, these trees are found only occasionally, and dinosaurs are rarely seen in them. The locals could see floating pine logs in these lakes and hear them “snort” at all times, from ancient times to the present day.
And the legend of St. Columbus, apparently, not by chance tells that the monster turned into a tree - most likely, after the missionary read a prayer, the emerging pine sank not too deeply and local residents could get it out of the water.
So in a sense, Nessie and her “brothers” from the neighboring lakes are still living beings. True, not animals, but plants.
Nessie Museum in Scotland.