The Loch Ness monster, it's just Nessie (or Nisag - according to the definition of the ancient Celts, although they still prefer not to call the monster that way, considering the word too rude), has been exciting the minds of both ordinary people and scientists for several decades. It is interesting for tourists who come to that area to try to see this strange creature.
However, what is it? What can you say for sure about him? Although the exact verdict on this matter has not yet been issued, there is more or less accurate information.
Nessie was first mentioned in the 6th century AD. A certain Saint Columbus in his "Life" told about a meeting with a strange monster. According to him, he, being a Christian missionary, once walked with his disciples near Loch Ness, when he saw that the locals were going to bury a fisherman who, according to them, was injured by a local monster.
To pick up the fisherman, he needed a boat that he left right on the lake, and one of Columbus's students decided to help with this. He rushed straight into the lake, wanting to swim through the narrow strait and drive her. However, as soon as he swam a little from the coastline, a strange something appeared from the water, snapping his teeth. Columbus immediately began to pray earnestly, and soon the creature sank under the water again, without touching the person.
After that, for a long time, there were no messages about Nessie in literary sources or the press. It was not until 1933 that a story from a couple named McKay appeared in the Inverness Courier newspaper. The husband and wife stated that they personally saw the Loch Ness Monster. Mrs. McKay wrote that it was in early spring. She and her husband were returning from the Inverness Fair, when suddenly at the 9 km mark they saw a huge something.
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This something had a large body, and was black in color and at the same time resembled both a whale and an elephant. Mrs. McKay asked her husband to stop the car. However, it was not so easy to do this on the old and narrow road, so when the couple finally got out of the car, wanting to look at the monster, it was no longer visible. Mrs. McKay's husband even thought she was dreaming about it, but she found a local navigational inspector who was also a journalist, told him the whole story, and he published an article that aroused the interest of many people in Loch Ness. Local authorities even cut down trees and bushes so that everyone could look at Nessie and try to photograph her.
In the same year, the British authorities decided to start searching for and killing the Loch Ness monster, wishing to show it later in the London Natural History Museum. However, although Nessie remained partially a legend, only local residents were not recommended to go there, but the very fact of such treatment of the "native monster" infuriated the Scots.
Relations with the British have been strained for a long time, there have been wars and troubles, the Scots still rejoice at any defeat of the British, and then there is also such an attitude almost to the national symbol of Scotland. As a result, local residents even turned to the government with a demand to pass a law to protect Nessie. The law was not adopted, however, thoughts about the possible killing of the monster also disappeared, or, in any case, stopped being openly expressed.
Nessie could be a huge plesiosaur that survived since the Ice Age, or some kind of mutation of a giant sturgeon. Neither this version nor the other has been scientifically confirmed. In addition, some experts believe that the plesiosaurus could not survive in this reservoir at all, since it is somewhat small for it (the estimated weight of such an ancient monster is 25 tons, and the lake can theoretically have a biomass reserve of only 20 tons).
However, it is difficult to argue at all, since it is difficult to examine the bottom of the lake, which is a huge crack in the earth's crust. Its depth is 300 meters, and its length is almost 30 kilometers. There is a version that by the time of the last ice age (about 110 thousand years ago and before 9700 BC) the creature could hide and wait somewhere in possible underwater tunnels that lead directly to the sea, although there is no data on any other large creatures that can thus survive and survive such a long cold, moreover, under water. However, there was an option that the plesiosaur could simply mutate strongly, somewhat adapting due to changes in its own body to the new climate.
Since 1933, eyewitnesses have taken many photographs where they claimed Nessie could be depicted. Some of these pictures were recognized as fake, taken only for the sake of hype, but some really arouse the curiosity of scientists. From these images, it was suggested that Nessie could be 2 meters wide, and her speed of movement was 13 kilometers per hour.
There are versions that the Loch Ness Monster is still just an invention to attract tourists. Allegedly, someone could have mistaken for Nessie a bathing elephant from a roving circus, and someone saw a monster in objects raised from the bottom of the seiche - underwater currents invisible to the eye. Locals could specifically support the words of tourists in order to make money on this, then artificially creating the appearance of the possible presence of ancient life in their lake.
It is curious that just yesterday, April 14, information appeared about a creature that looks like Nessie. The remains were found by a local hunter in the highlands of Montana, USA. Presumably, 70 million years ago, this territory could have been flooded with water, and there lived such long-necked reptiles with 40 cervical vertebrae (previously it was believed that there were 76 of them).
Irina Letinskaya