In 1855, an extraordinary event took place in England, which has not yet been explained. Winter in that distant 1855 turned out to be very frosty in England. And on the night of February 9, especially a lot of snow fell, and a severe frost hit. The next morning, the local residents, leaving their homes, saw a chain of strange footprints in the fresh snow, left as if by hooves. But the strange thing was that, judging by the nature of the tracks, they were left by a two-legged or even one-legged creature.
Devonian devil
After a more detailed examination of the tracks, the situation became even more complicated - it turned out that the length of the trail is approximately 160 miles and it stretches through the whole of Devon and slightly affects neighboring Dorset. The trail was a chain of hoof-shaped marks imprinted on the snow. Their length was about 10 cm, and their width was 7.5 cm. The distance between them varied from 20 to 40 cm, and their character was as if the creature that left them was either bipedal or one-legged. The most mysterious circumstance was that the traces went not only in open places, but also crossed gardens, walked along haystacks, walls and roofs of houses, passed through barns, and were both inside and outside.
According to some reports, the trail began in the parish garden of Totnes village, and ended in a field in Littleham as if the creature that left it had disappeared, or flew into the air. The villagers, who discovered the tracks, eagerly set about searching for the one who had inherited, but in the process of the chase they saw a lot of oddities. So, it was clear that this "something" jumped over tall fences, passed along the walls and roofs of houses, and when it reached the Ekze River, it simply jumped over it! Then the inhabitants of the villages along which the trail passed, panic seized, and for the first time the word Devil sounded. People became scared to go out in the evenings, children, after listening to the conversations of adults, hid in closets and basements.
The authorities, in order to prevent the increase in hysteria among the population, announced that this trail was left by otters, badgers, frogs - different versions sounded, up to cats and mice. But none of them could explain all the oddities. During the investigation, other strange details were revealed, for example, it became known that in some places the tracks were as if they had been left by a red-hot object - they were melted in the snow. On the wall of one of the churches, the footprints were as if burned out, which added rumors and fears among the population.
That this incident actually happened is a documented fact. There are several reliable sources that detail this extraordinary incident.
Promotional video:
What was it
Today, scientists tend to believe that this event is nothing more than an ordinary joke, or mass hysteria of local residents. But some researchers tend to believe that something strange did happen in Devon County. For all the time, many attempts were made to explain the incident, but all of them did not stand the test.
So, it was believed that different animals could leave a trail, but people simply brought it all into a single whole and gave it a touch of mysticism.
Some speculated that the tracks were left by mice, which are able to run up and down walls and roofs, and squeeze into narrow water pipes. Some associated the strange trail with the escape of a kangaroo from the menagerie. But he could not walk such a long distance during the night. Plus, kangaroo tracks don't look like hoof tracks.
There was also a version with a balloon, which was allegedly launched by mistake from Devonport. The links at the ends of the mooring lines left such unusual marks. But this version cannot explain in any way that the tracks also passed inside the barns, and also stretched for more than a hundred kilometers in a straight line.
Jack the Bouncy, a famous character in urban legends of those times, was also accused of leaving these traces. But Jack's tracks were already known, and their descriptions were different from these.
There was also a completely fantastic version, which said that the footprints were left by a one-legged creature - a strange creature with only one leg, and which, allegedly, had already been seen more than once in those places.
The common people were sure that on a frosty February night, none other than the devil was walking in Devon County. This incident was far from the only one. Similar traces were found in Poland in the same year, and a little earlier in 1840 in Scotland. In 1886, the "devil" left his traces in New Zealand, and years later - in other countries of the world.
Interestingly, after many years, this mysterious creature returned to England - in 2009, pensioner Jill Wade again in winter discovered the same chain of footprints in front of her house. This time, they managed to be captured in a photo and examined. But who could have left such traces is still not known.
The Devonian incident is far from the only mystical and mysterious event that does not have a rational explanation. This anomalous phenomenon requires careful research using modern methods, and then, perhaps, much more will become known about our mysterious world.