Myths and reality about sea monsters. Sea monsters

Sea monsters: myths and reality Sensational reports of unprecedented sea monsters splash out on the pages of newspapers and magazines from time to time. Occasionally they are illustrated with photographs. But the mysterious creatures apparently do not like to be photographed - the photographs always turn out blurry and foggy. It was much easier to illustrate similar works in the past. To be convinced of this, just look at the map of the northern seas compiled in 1572 by Antoine Lafrery. Comments here are obviously unnecessary.

But here is a message related to end of the 19th century century. French researcher M. Guerr writes: “In July 1897, the gunboat Avalanche met two snakes 20 meters long and 2-3 meters thick in Along Bay. A cannon shot from a distance of 600 meters forced them to disappear under water. February 15, 1898 the same ship and in the same place met the snakes again; a shot followed from a distance of 300 meters, and the ship went forward at full speed, trying to overtake the animals. At the moment when the ship was already approaching them, one of the monsters dived under the gunboat and emerged. behind her. You can imagine the confusion the crew was in at that moment. 9 days later, off the same coast, the Avalanche again met two such animals. The hunt lasted 35 minutes, but its only result was the coincidence of all observations. There is a lot that is unclear in this story. Firstly, why did only the crew of a single gunboat see the snakes each time, and the crews of other ships did not see the snakes? Secondly, it is difficult to explain the monsters' commitment to permanent place. Finally, thirdly, their invulnerability is absolutely amazing. A military vessel fires artillery at a target at a minimum distance, but there are no results. Having found no explanation for the above facts, M. Geerr points out that “the story about this incident was regarded by the highest authority as a collective hallucination.” The Dutch scientist Oddemans collected all the information about giant sea snakes. According to him, the first documented meeting of sailors with a huge sea snake occurred in 1522. Over the next three centuries, snakes were seen by sailors on average once every ten years - by 1802, 28 cases were recorded. But in the 19th century, encounters with sea monsters sharply increased: between 1802 and 1890 they were seen 134 times! They came across both in the past and this century. Despite frequent meetings with sea snakes, so far no one has been able to clearly photograph or film them. Mysterious sea monsters are equally successful in escaping from artillery fire and from a lens aimed at them. Since the monsters refuse to pose, we have to describe them appearance from passing observations, often based on information not received from the observer himself. So, in 1926, a certain monster was spotted at night off the coast of Madagascar. The French scientist J. Petit reports this in his book “Fishing in Madagascar”. The animal glowed with a bright but unstable light, which flared up and then faded away. It seemed that this light, which could be compared to a sea searchlight, was emitted by a body rotating around its axis. According to the natives, this animal appears very rarely. Its length is 20-25 meters, its body is wide and flat (which means in this case we are not talking about a snake!), covered with a hard lamellar shell. The veto has a tail like a shrimp, and its mouth is on its belly. The head glows and emits flames as the monster rises to the surface of the sea. There was no consensus among local residents regarding the presence of limbs: some claimed that the “master of the sea” was legless, while others believed that he had limbs similar to “whale flippers.” It is extremely rare for a person to be able to touch a mysterious creature, or rather, its remains. So, in 1883, one resident of Annam saw and touched on the shore of Along Bay the decomposed remains of a sea monster that looked like a giant centipede. In April 1977, the whole world received a sensational message about the discovery of Japanese fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru trawler. While fishing for mackerel near New Zealand, the net brought back the half-decomposed corpse of an unknown animal. The condition of the find was deplorable. The thirteen-meter carcass, weighing about two tons, spread a stench. The fishermen discerned a shapeless body with four limbs (either fins or flippers), a long tail and a small head on a thin neck. The catch was measured, photographed, and then had to be thrown overboard. First, part of the best-preserved limb was separated from the body and placed in a freezer. Controversy flared up around the find. Based on several poor photographs and descriptions made by fishermen, Professor Yoshinuri Imaitsumi, head of the department of zoology at the Japanese National Science Museum, recognized the caught animal as a plesiosaur - a representative of a long-extinct group of marine reptiles. Plesiosaurs are well known from fossils. Mesozoic era. 100-200 million years ago, like modern seals, they inhabited coastal areas of the sea and could crawl onto sandbanks, where they rested after hunting. Plesiosaurs, like most other reptiles, were distinguished by their powerful skeletal development. Judging by the descriptions of the fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru and photographs, the mysterious animal had no bones. Parisian paleontologist L. Ginzburg believes that Japanese fishermen recovered from the sea the remains of a giant seal, also extinct, but relatively recently - “only” 20 million years ago. The French scientist came to this conviction based on the shape of the head and the structural features of the vertebrae. The latter, however, were never seen by Ginzburg himself or anyone else, because the entire find was thrown overboard. With such shaky arguments, it takes a lot of courage to insist that the find belongs to plesiosaurs or extinct giant seals. Moreover, there are many skeptical scientists who believe that Japanese fishermen recovered from the sea the half-decomposed corpse of a shark or small whale. But it is still possible to judge the find by the structure of that part of the limb that was left in freezer. Having studied its structure, experts can easily tell who it belongs to: a fish, a reptile or a mammal. The scientific dispute would be resolved simply, quickly and conclusively. However, the owners of the fin or flipper still remain stubbornly silent on this matter. Why don't they publish the results of the study? The answer to this may be given by the story of another sensational discovery. Here in front of us is a small newspaper article dated 1904: “Unknown animal.” "Santiago, June 18. In the province of Magallanes (Chile), an unknown animal was found washed ashore by the waters Pacific Ocean. According to the Chilean newspaper Golpe, it weighs about two tons, is six meters long and two meters wide. The two front fins of the animal, the newspaper points out, are very similar to human hands with five fingers and nails; the two rear fins have no fingers. The animal's head is elongated, its mouth has three large fangs. The animal will be examined by Chilean scientists." The reader has the right to expect that now the veil of mystery will fall, and the world will finally be told all the details about the monster from by human hands and three huge teeth in its mouth. Not so! As soon as a Chilean, New Zealand or any other similar marine miracle falls into the hands of scientists, not a trace remains of the myth. In fact, “plesiosaurs” turn out to be either part of the body of a dead whale, or a shark, or a cluster of luminous planktonic organisms, or simply a figment of fantasy and an optical illusion. It is not for nothing that sea monsters do not leave a mark on photographic film and calmly escape from shells and bullets. Despite large number enthusiasts who really want to believe that individual representatives of long-extinct reptiles are still living out their lives in the ocean, not a single reliable information about this has yet been recorded. Even Oddemans’ statistics (over 150 cases of encounters with giant sea snakes) are not supported by any material evidence of the reality of the observations. This is the practical side of the issue of modern sea monsters. The theory also gives no reason to hope for the reality of their existence today. No species of animal or plant can exist in a single copy or in a small number of individuals. As soon as the number of a species falls below a critical level, it is doomed to extinction. What is this critical value? It is, of course, different for different animals. According to the Red Book, by the end of the 20th century, orangutan monkeys are on the verge of extinction, their total number is 5,000 individuals. Whale and whale fisheries experts believe that with 2,000 blue whale It is still possible to maintain and even restore this species. Science knows of only one case of an increase in the number of a species, when it decreased to 45 individuals. It's about about bison. But this required vigorous measures and large expenditures of funds. All animals were placed in nurseries and zoos. Only under these conditions was it possible to increase the bison herd and release some of the animals into protected forests again. But sea monsters no one protects or protects. Therefore, their number must be equal to at least several thousand individuals of each species. Whether they are snakes, plesiosaurs or other reptiles, or giant seals, they need to periodically rise to the surface to breathe. Why are they so rarely seen? Where do their bodies go after death? Why has the sea not yet thrown up a single bone of these monsters? The answer to this, to the chagrin of lovers of everything unusual, can only be unequivocal. No giant sea creatures except known to science, not in the ocean. They do not exist, just as they do not exist Bigfoot. Marine plesiosaurs are as unreal as the famous Loch Ness miracle. But you don't have to be completely disappointed. The ocean still holds many secrets. It is home to many unknown and little-known animals, even more amazing than any fantastic monster or extinct reptile. You can see some of them in the photographs published below. This unidentified moving object with a diameter of about one and a half meters suddenly appeared in front of the submarine's window at a depth of 770 meters while examining the outer slope of one of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The animal's body emitted a greenish light, and its tentacles wriggled vigorously. Isn't it true that it vividly resembles the appearance of a Martian as described by H.G. Wells in his novel "War of the Worlds"? Looking at this fantastic creature, the dive participants involuntarily remembered the ancient Greek myth about the glorious hero Perseus and the terrible gorgon Medusa, on whose head there were moving hairs instead of hair. poisonous snakes. Studying the photographs showed that this is indeed a jellyfish, which can be classified as a scyphoid. Until now, such huge jellyfish have never been in the hands of scientists; they are not in any museum in the world. Photo from the website: http://chayko.livejournal.com/27676.htm A large predatory seal, the leopard seal, which inhabits the Antarctic waters, feeds mainly on penguins. He either quietly approaches the swimming bird and drags it under the water, or noisily pursues it, raising cascades of splashes, and finally overtakes it with the last long throw. Appearance This real sea monster speaks of its far from peaceful inclinations. While working in Antarctica, zoological scuba divers repeatedly experienced the increased attention of leopard seals. Having noticed the scuba diver, the animal immediately rushed towards him and swam around, gradually narrowing the circles, opening its mouth and showing powerful teeth. No means of repelling the leopard seal had any effect - they had to get out onto the ice. The leopard seal moves on ice with difficulty and is therefore not dangerous. Every year in October and November, on the sixth night after the full moon, the sea is above coral reefs off the islands of Samoa suddenly boils with the sudden appearance of myriads of worm-like creatures that scurry in all directions. From their abundance sea water it becomes like a thick soup with noodles. Schools of fish gather for a feast and seabirds. Samoans calculate in advance the date of arrival of the palolo - this is what they call the culprits of the sudden transformation of the sea elements. For many centuries, palolo has served the aborigines as both a delicacy and everyday food. On these nights, they scoop up prey with baskets and nets, snack on live seafood right there on the reef, bake them in leaves and store them for future use throughout the year, drying them in the hot tropical sun in the morning. Zoologists know that palolos are modified rear ends of marine polychaete worms. The worms themselves, reaching a length of up to half a meter, cannot be seen, since they live in crevices and caves in the thickness of coral limestone. When spring arrives in Samoa, the worms begin to reproduce. The rear ends of the worms, overflowing with reproductive products, break off and float to the surface, where the walls of their body soon rupture, and the reproductive cells fall into the water and are fertilized there. One can only imagine how many of these huge worms, hidden from human eyes, live in the depths of the reef! Doctor biological sciences D. NAUMOV

The sea leaves no one indifferent. Some admire the great and formidable sea elements, others are deathly afraid of her. The changing nature of the ocean, its immense size, and the incomprehensibility of its depths involuntarily shroud it in mystical mystery. Even today, the most experienced sailors become a little superstitious when it comes to the sea. What can we say in this case about people? ancient world! The sea seemed to them full of secrets, inhabited not only by fish, but also by many sea monsters, ready at any moment to drown a fragile boat and swallow the unfortunate sailors.

It is not without reason that almost all peoples inhabiting sea coast, there are many myths about the mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea. Many of these legends live to this day. And from time to time one of the ancient legends unexpectedly receives new confirmation. Sometimes sailors witness dramatic events in open ocean- they see giant sea monsters - snakes and dragons, either devouring each other, or causing the death of either a person or an entire ship.

Sensational reports about this circulate in all the newspapers of the world, occasionally they are illustrated with photographs. But the mysterious creatures apparently do not like to be photographed - the photographs always turn out blurry and foggy. Such works were much better illustrated in the past. To be convinced of this, just look at the map of the northern seas compiled in 1572 by Antoine Lafrerie. Myths give very colorful descriptions of sea monsters.

This is how the ancient Roman poet Virgil in his “Aeneid” sang about the giant sea serpents that killed the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons:

Two snakes, lying down on the waters,
They are swimming nearby and slowly reaching towards our shore.
Breasts rose from the waves, bloody crests above the waters
On end; leaving a deep radiant trail behind,
Tails are beating; straightening, bending, the backs rise.
Foaming, the moisture beneath them makes noise: they crawl to the shore;
The brightly bloodshot eyes both blush and shine;
With a whistle, their nimble stingers lick their gaping mouths.

(Translation by V. Zhukovsky)

Every visitor to the Hermitage can see images of these giant snakes from a copy of a sculptural group from the 1st century BC.

Apparently, huge sea snakes were found not only in ancient times. French researcher M. Geher cites the following curious fact: “In July 1897, the gunboat Ava Lanche met two snakes 20 m long and 2-3 m thick in Along Bay. A cannon shot from a distance of 600 m forced them to disappear under water . On February 15, 1898, the same ship and in the same place again met snakes; a shot followed from a distance of 300 m, and the ship went forward at full speed, trying to overtake the animals. At the moment when the ship was completely approaching them, one of the monsters dived under the gunboat and emerged behind it. You can imagine the confusion the crew was in at that moment. Nine days later, off the same coast, the Avalanche again encountered two such animals. The hunt lasted 35 minutes, but its only result was the coincidence of all observations."

There is a lot that is unclear in this story. Firstly, why did only the crew of a single gunboat see the snakes each time, and the crews of other ships did not see the snakes? Secondly, it is difficult to explain the monsters' commitment to a permanent place. Finally, thirdly, their invulnerability is absolutely amazing. A military vessel fires artillery at a target at a minimum distance, but there are no results.

Having found no explanation for the above facts, M. Geher points out that “the story about this incident was regarded by the highest authority as a collective hallucination,” although he himself, apparently, does not completely agree with the opinion of the high naval authorities. After all, the case with Avalanche is not the only one. Thus, in 1875, the crew of the ship “Polina” twice witnessed the battle of a sea snake with a sperm whale, about which corresponding entries were made in the ship’s log on July 8 and 13. There are other known cases of encounters with giant sea snakes.

The Dutch scientist Oddemans collected all the information about giant sea snakes. According to him, the first documented meeting of sailors with a huge sea snake occurred in 1522. Over the next three centuries, snakes were seen by sailors on average once every ten years - by 1802, 28 cases were recorded. But in the 19th century, encounters with sea monsters sharply increased: between 1802 and 1890 they were seen 134 times! They came across them in this century as well. Despite frequent encounters with sea snakes, no one has yet been able to photograph them. Mysterious sea monsters are equally successful in escaping from artillery fire and from the lens aimed at them.

According to the natives, this animal appears very rarely. Its length is 2025 meters, its body is wide and flat (which means in this case we are not talking about a snake!), covered with a hard lamellar shell. Its tail is like a shrimp's, its mouth is on its belly. The head glows and emits flames as the monster rises to the surface of the sea. Local residents had no consensus regarding the structure of the monster. Some claimed that the “master of the sea” was legless, while others believed that he had limbs similar to the flippers of a whale.

It is extremely rare for a person to be able to touch a mysterious creature, or rather its remains. So, in 1883, one resident of Annam not only saw, but also touched on the shore of Along Bay the decomposed remains of a sea monster that looked like a giant centipede. In April 1977, the whole world received a sensational message about the discovery of Japanese fishermen. While fishing for mackerel on the Tsuyo Maru trawler near New Zealand, the net brought back a half-decomposed corpse of an unknown animal. A thirteen-meter carcass weighing about two tons spread a stench. The fishermen discerned a shapeless body with four limbs (either fins or flippers), long tail and a small head on a thin neck. The catch was measured, photographed, and then had to be thrown overboard. First, part of the best-preserved limb was separated from the body and placed in a freezer.

Controversy flared up around the find. Based on several poor photographs and descriptions made by fishermen, Professor Yoshinuri Imaitsumi, head of the department of zoology at the National Science Museum of Japan, recognized the caught animal as a plesiosaur, a member of a long-extinct group of marine reptiles. Plesiosaurs are well known from fossil remains of the Mesozoic era. 100-200 million years ago, like modern seals, they inhabited coastal areas of the sea and could crawl onto sandbanks, where they rested after hunting. Plesiosaurs, like most other reptiles, had powerful, good developed skeleton. Judging by the descriptions of the fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru and photographs, the mysterious animal had no bones.

With such shaky arguments, it takes a lot of courage to insist that the find belongs to plesiosaurs or extinct giant seals. Moreover, there are many skeptical scientists who believe that Japanese fishermen recovered the half-decomposed corpse of a shark or small whale from the sea. But it is still possible to judge the find by the structure of that part of the limb that was delivered in the freezer. Having studied its structure, experts can easily say whether it belongs to a fish, reptile or mammal. The scientific dispute would be resolved simply, quickly and conclusively. However, this is why the owners of the fin or flipper remain stubbornly silent about this.

Why don't they publish the results of the study? The answer to this may be given by the story of another sensational discovery. Here in front of us is a small newspaper article dated 1964: “Unknown animal.”

“Santiago, June 18 (TASS). In the province of Magallanes (Chile), an unknown animal was discovered washed ashore by the waters of the Pacific Ocean. According to the Chilean newspaper Golpe, it weighs approximately two tons, is six meters long and two meters wide. The animal's two front fins, the newspaper points out, are very similar to human hands with five fingers and nails; the two rear fins have no fingers. The animal's head is elongated, its mouth has three large fangs. The animal will be examined by Chilean scientists.”

The reader has the right to expect that now the veil of mystery will fall and the world will finally be told all the details about the monster with human hands and three huge teeth in its mouth. Not so. As soon as a Chilean, New Zealand or any other similar marine miracle falls into the hands of scientists, not a trace remains of the myth. In fact, “plesiosaurs” turn out to be either part of the body of a dead whale, or a shark, or a cluster of luminous planktonic organisms, or simply a figment of fantasy and an optical illusion. It is not for nothing that sea monsters do not leave a mark on photographic film and calmly escape from shells and bullets.

Despite the large number of people who do not really want to believe that individual representatives of long-extinct reptiles are still living out their lives in the ocean, not a single reliable information about this has yet been recorded. Even Oddemansa’s statistics (over 150 cases of encounters with giant sea snakes) are not supported by any material evidence of the reality of the observations. This is the factual side of the issue about modern sea monsters.

The theory also gives no reason to hope for the reality of their existence today. No species of animal or plant can exist in a single copy or in a small number of individuals. As soon as the number of a species falls below a critical level, it is doomed to extinction. What is this critical value?

Science knows of only one case of an increase in the number of a species after only about 45 individuals remained. We are talking about bison. But this required vigorous measures and large expenditures of funds. All 45 animals were placed in nurseries and zoos. Only under these conditions was it possible to increase the bison herd and release some of the animals into protected forests again.

No one is guarding the sea monsters. Therefore, their number must be equal to at least several thousand individuals of each species. Whether they are snakes, plesiosaurs or other reptiles, or giant seals, they need to periodically rise to the surface to breathe. Why are they so rarely seen? Where do their bodies go after death? Why has the sea not yet thrown up a single bone of these monsters?

The answer to this, to the chagrin of lovers of everything unusual, can only be unequivocal. There are no giant sea creatures, other than those known to science, in the ocean. They don't exist, just like Bigfoot doesn't exist. Marine plesiosaurs are as unreal as the famous Loch Ness miracle.

But you don't have to be completely disappointed. The ocean holds many secrets. It is home to unknown and little-known animals, more amazing than any fantastic monster or extinct reptile. We still have to talk about them, but now we’ll talk about real sea animals.

Sometimes it seems that modern man nothing can scare you anymore. We almost calmly watch even the most bloodthirsty horror films, read mystical novels, and computer games sometimes a variety of monsters of the world are involved, both real earthly and fictional. All this no longer surprises anyone. Even teenagers and small children treat all these creatures with slight irony and skepticism.

What will you answer to someone who claims that monsters and monstrosities are also found in our world today? Will you smile? Twist your finger at your temple? Will you start proving the opposite? Don't rush. Why? The thing is that from time to time, unprecedented creatures still appear to people even now.

For example, after delving into your memory, you will probably remember that one of your loved ones, friends or just acquaintances once, under various circumstances, encountered a terrible monster or some inexplicable creature. Is it true?

What if this is not just a figment of an unhealthy imagination or a consequence sleepless night? What if mythological ancient Greek monsters actually existed and continue to live somewhere in our world? To tell the truth, such thoughts give even the bravest of us goosebumps and begin to listen to the surrounding rustles and sounds.

All this will be discussed in this article. However, in addition to the story about where monsters live, we will touch on other, no less interesting, topics. For example, we will dwell in more detail on epics and beliefs, and also introduce readers to modern beliefs and hypotheses.

Section 1. Mythical monsters from fairy tales and legends

Every spiritual culture and religion has its own myths and parables, and, as a rule, they are composed not only about goodness and love, but also about terrible and disgusting creatures. Let's not be unfounded and give some of the most typical examples.

So in Jewish folklore there lives a certain dybbuk, the spirit of a dead sinful person, who can inhabit living people who have committed a serious offense and torment them. Only a very qualified rabbi can remove dybbuks from the body.

Islamic culture, in turn, offers genies as a mythical evil creature - an evil winged people created from smoke and fire, living in a parallel reality and serving the devil. By the way, according to local religion, the devil was also once a genie under the name Iblis.

In religion Western states there are rakshasas, that is, terrible demons that inhabit the bodies of living people and manipulate them, thereby forcing the victim to do all sorts of abominations.

Agree, such mythical monsters inspire fear even if you just read their description, and you definitely wouldn’t want to meet them.

Section 2. What are people afraid of today?

Nowadays, people also believe in various otherworldly creatures. For example, in Malay (Indonesian) folklore there is a certain pontianak, a female vampire with long hair. What does this do? scary creature? Attacks pregnant women and eats all their insides.

Russian monsters are also not far behind in their bloodthirstiness and unpredictability. Thus, among the Slavs, the evil spirit is represented in the form of a water spirit, the embodiment of the dangerous and negative principle of the element of water. Creeping up unnoticed, he drags his victim to the bottom, and then preserves the souls of people in special vessels.

Let's try to imagine a certain In this case, it is impossible not to mention one of the countries South America. Probably, many have already heard that in Brazilian folklore there is an encantado, a snake or river dolphin, who turns into a human, loves sex and has an ear for music. He steals people's thoughts and desires, after which the person loses his mind and eventually dies.

Another one that belongs to the “Monsters of the World” category is the goblin. He has a human appearance - very tall, shaggy with strong arms and glowing eyes. Lives in the forest, usually dense and inaccessible. Goblin ride on trees, constantly fool around, and when they see a person they clap their hands and laugh. By the way, they attract women to them.

Section 3. Loch Ness Monster. Scotland

The lake of the same name, with a depth of 230 m, is the largest reservoir of water in the UK. It is believed that this reservoir, which, by the way, is the second largest in Scotland, was formed quite a long time ago, even in the last ice age in Europe.

There are rumors that a mysterious beast lives in the lake, which was first mentioned in writing back in 565. However, since ancient times the Scots have mentioned water monsters in their folklore, calling them by the collective name “kelpies”.

The modern Loch Ness monster is called Nessie, and its history began almost 100 years ago. In 1933, one married couple, while vacationing nearby, saw something unusual with their own eyes, which they reported in special service. However, despite the testimony of 3,000 witnesses who claim to have seen the monster, scientists are still unraveling the mystery.

Today, many local residents agree that the lake is home to a creature two meters wide and moving at a speed of 10 miles per hour. Modern eyewitnesses claim that Nessie looks like giant snail having a very long neck.

Section 4. Monsters from the Valley of the Headless

The secret of the so-called one is that whoever goes to this area and no matter how armed he is, it is still worth saying goodbye to him in advance. Why? The thing is that no one has ever returned from there.

The phenomenon of people disappearing has still not been solved. Whether all the monsters of the world gather there or whether people disappear due to some other circumstances is not known for certain.

Sometimes only human heads were found at the scene of the incident, and the Indians living in that area claim that all this was done by the Bigfoot living in the valley. Eyewitnesses of the events claim that they saw a creature in the valley that looked like a giant shaggy man.

Perhaps the most fantastic version of the secret of the Valley of the Headless is that in this place there is an entrance to a certain parallel world.

Section 5. Who is Yeti and why is he dangerous?

In 1921, on Mount Everest, whose height is more than 6 km, a footprint left by a bare foot of enormous size was discovered in the snow. It was discovered by an expedition under the command of Colonel Howard-Bury, a very famous and respected mountaineer. The team then reported that the print belonged to Bigfoot.

Previously, the mountains of Tibet and the Himalayas were considered the habitats of the Yeti. Now scientists believe that snow people can live in the Pamirs, Central Africa, in the lower reaches of the Ob, in some areas of Chukotka and Yakutia, and in the 70s of the twentieth century, Yeti were also encountered in America, as evidenced by numerous documentary evidence.

How they can be dangerous for modern people remains a mystery to this day. There have been known cases of the theft of food and sports equipment, but the people themselves seem to be of little interest to these creatures, so there is no need to be afraid of them, let alone panicked.

Section 6. Monster of the seas. Sea serpent: myth or reality?

Many ancient myths and legends tell about the great sea serpent. At one time, both sailors and scientists believed in the existence of such a monster.

All opinions agreed on one thing: after all, there are at least two large species unknown to science. Scientists suggest that the role of the sea monster is a giant eel or an unknown species of cryptozoology.

In 1964, sea travelers crossing the Australian Stonehaven Bay on a yacht saw a huge black tadpole, about 25 m long, at a depth of two meters.

The monster had a huge snake head about 1.2 m wide and high, a thin flexible body with a diameter of approximately 60 cm and a length of 20 m, and a whip-like tail.

Section 7. Megalodon shark. Does it exist now?

In principle, according to several documents that have survived to this day, such a fish, which could easily be classified as a “Monster of the World,” existed in ancient times and resembled a great white shark.

Megalodon was supposedly about 25 meters long, and it is this size that makes it the most large predator ever existed on the planet.

There are many facts that prove the existence of megalodon in our time. For example, in 1918, when crayfish fishermen were working at great depths, they saw giant shark 92 m long. Most likely, it was this particular fish.

Modern scientists are also in no hurry to deny this assumption. They argue that such animals could easily survive in unexplored ocean depths to this day.

Section 8. Do you believe in ghosts?

Myths about spirits have existed since pagan times. The Christian faith also prevails in spirits, telling about the existence of special creatures, for example, angels who control the elements, and the so-called “unclean” ones, which include the goblin, the brownie, the merman, etc.

It just so happens that kind and evil spirits constantly interact with people. Christianity even distinguishes certain human companions: a good guardian angel and an evil tempter demon.

A ghost, in turn, is considered a vision, ghost, spirit, something invisible and intangible. These substances appear, as a rule, at night in sparsely populated places. There is no consensus on the nature of the appearance of ghosts, and the ghosts themselves are often radically different from each other.

Section 9. Giant cephalopods

From a scientific point of view, cephalopods are creatures without a backbone whose body is formed like a bag. They have a small head with a clearly defined physiognomy and one leg, which is a tentacle with suction cups. Impressive appearance, right? By the way, not everyone knows that these creatures have a fairly developed and highly organized brain and live at sea depths from 300 to 3000 m.

Very often, all over the world, the bodies of dead cephalopods wash up on the shores of the oceans. The longest discarded cephalopod was more than 18 m long and weighed 1 ton.

Scientists who explored the depths saw these animals more than 30 m long. But in general it is believed that such monsters of the world can be more than 50 m long.

Section 10. Mysteries of bottomless lakes

In the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region there is a lake called Bezdonnoye. Local residents constantly tell legends about the connection of the lake with the ocean and about the wreckage of sunken ships washed up on its sandy shores.

This reservoir is considered a real natural phenomenon; despite its small size, only 30 m in diameter, it has immeasurable depth.

In the same area there is another strange object - which was formed more than half a million years ago at the site of the fall of a large meteorite. The pond has a diameter of about 100 m, but no one knows the size of its depth. There are almost no fish in it, and no living creatures live on the banks. In summer, in the middle of the lake there is a large whirlpool, reminiscent of a large whirlpool on a river, and in winter, when it freezes, the whirlpool forms a bizarre pattern on the ice. Not long ago, local residents began to observe the following picture: on fine days, certain creatures began to crawl ashore to bask in the sun, according to the description resembling either a huge snail or a lizard.

Section 11. Beliefs of Buryatia

Another lake of unknown depth is Sobolkho, in Buryatia. Both people and animals are constantly disappearing in the lake area. It is very interesting that the missing animals were later found in completely different lakes. Scientists suggest that the reservoir is connected to other underground channels; amateur divers in 1995 confirmed the existence of karst caves and tunnels in the lake, but local residents believe that it is unlikely to survive here without terrible monsters.

23.04.2016 17:25

Legends of monsters are found across cultures different people. Dragons, sea snakes, unknown animals with mystical powers - all this became the basis large quantity legends.

Let's get acquainted with several legends about unknown monsters. Was there ever a basis for such stories or are they all just horror stories? Who knows...

The Story of the Lambton Worm

This story happened in Northern England with the heir of Lambton Castle, John Lambton, who happened to encounter a monster. Hence the name of the monster - Lambton Worm.

One Sunday, when all the people were supposed to be at the church service, John instead of the service went fishing to the River Weir. However, instead of fish, the heir to the castle took a disgusting-looking worm from the waters of the river. To get rid of the vile creature, the man threw it into the well.

After this incident, circumstances developed such that John had to leave the country. He spent seven whole years abroad and, of course, managed to forget about his strange and unpleasant discovery. However, the worm has not disappeared anywhere; moreover, over the years it has grown to gigantic size.

The monster climbed out of the well and returned to the river. The legend says that during the day the worm rested on a rock located in the middle of the river, and at night it crawled to the shore, where it hunted people and livestock. Local residents repeatedly tried to get rid of the monster, but their attempts were unsuccessful - no matter how much they tried to cut the worm into pieces, the parts grew back together.

When John Lambton returned to his homeland, he learned about the horror that a vile monster was causing to people. The man remembered his long-ago find and firmly decided to get rid of this creature. He turned to the sorceress for advice, who told Jon to put on armor covered with sharp spikes and fight the monster in the water. The heir to the estate listened to her advice - putting on such armor, he went to the river. When he found himself in the water, the worm wrapped itself around the man’s body, but the sharp thorns tore the monster’s flesh into many small pieces, which were immediately carried away by the current, so the pieces could not grow together into one whole, and terrible worm was finally defeated.

The Legend of the Hairy Beast

In many cultures, dragons are considered dangerouscreatures with huge fangs and claws and the ability to breathe fire. The legend of the Hairy Beast, which has come down to us from the Middle Ages, tells the story of a dragon that attacked a French village.

In addition to the ability to kill his victims with fire, the Hairy Beast had another terrible feature. The entire body of the animal was covered with thick hair, for which it received its name. Poisoned thorns flew out of the animal's fur, killing local residents. The villagers were in despair. The beast destroyed fields, destroyed crops, ate small children and killed anyone who got in his way.

One day, the Shaggy Beast killed a girl with whom a fearless young man was in love. Having learned about the death of his beloved, the young man became furious and firmly decided to kill the beast. Pouncing on the dragon, he cut its tail in half, which was the only vulnerable spot on the body of the animal, and the animal died immediately. The brave young man lost his beloved, but it was this pain and anger that helped him defeat the terrible monster, and thereby save the lives of hundreds of other people.

The Legend of the Giant Sea Serpent

This story took place in 1852, when two whaling ships set sail from the port of New Bedford and set sail across the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The ships, which bore the names "Monongahela" and "Rebecca Sims", sailed together. While sailing in the ocean, an unusual encounter occurred - the ships discovered a large animal that from a distance resembled a whale. The captain of the Monongahela, Mr. Seabury, inspired by the find, launched three boats that went in pursuit of the animal. However, it was not a whale.

The captain managed to kill the unknown animal with a harpoon, which, writhing in its death throes, sank two of the three boats. Examining the carcass of the killed creature, people were finally convinced that their find had nothing in common with a whale. It was a huge reptile of a brownish-gray color, whose body was about 45 meters in length.

Due to its gigantic size, it was not possible to take the animal’s carcass with us.possible, so the sailors cut off only the head of the unknown creature, and left the body in the water. According to the sailors, the reptile's head looked impressive - dozens of sharp, curved teeth protruded from the monster's mouth. The find was placed in a barrel of brine, which was located in the hold of the Monongahela - in this way it was planned to deliver the trophy to the shore.

However, when the ships were returning home, a strange story happened - along the way, the Monongahela mysteriously disappeared. The second ship "Rebecca Sims" reached the port safely, but the people from this ship could not explain where the second ship disappeared. Later, the wind carried the wreckage of the Monongahela to the coast of Alaska, but the barrel with the monster’s head was not among the wreckage. Thus, the terrible trophy was irretrievably lost. The only evidence of this story was the ship's log of the captain of the second ship, "Rebecca Sims" - in it the captain described this story, and thanks to him it has survived to this day.

The story of the sea monster from the fog

One day, in 1962, a fire erupted off the coast of Florida. strong storm. It carried an American Air Force inflatable raft carrying five scuba divers into the open sea. People found themselves in a difficult situation, but they all managed to survive the storm.

When the sea calmed down, a thick fog appeared over the water, from which it was necessary to somehow get out. However, as it turned out, the fog appeared on main problem people in trouble. About an hour later, the scuba divers heard splashing water and a strange hissing sound. Appeared bad smell dead fish.

Suddenly, a large head rose out of the water, resembling the head of a turtle. The monster's neck, or the part of its snake body that rose above the water, was about four meters long. The appearance of the monster frightened the scuba divers so much that a terrible panic began among the people - people screamed in horror and rushed about chaotically, trying to find each other in the fog. Ultimately, four of the five scuba divers jumped or fell into the sea, where they met their deaths. Only one person from the team managed to escape, who told about the meeting with this terrible monster. The bodies of the rest of his comrades could not be found.

Anastasia Cherkasova

The sea leaves no one indifferent. Some admire the great and formidable element, others are mortally afraid of it. Sometimes these conflicting feelings coexist. The changing nature of the ocean, its immense size, and the incomprehensibility of its depths involuntarily shroud it in mystical mystery. Even today, the most experienced sailors become a little superstitious when it comes to the sea. What can we say in this case about the people of the ancient world! To them, the sea seemed full of secrets, inhabited not only by fish, but also by many sea monsters, ready at any moment to drown the fragile boat and swallow the unfortunate sailors. It is not for nothing that all the peoples inhabiting the sea coast have many myths about the mysterious inhabitants of the sea depths. Many of these legends live to this day. From time to time, one of the ancient legends unexpectedly receives new confirmation. Sometimes sailors witness dramatic events on the open ocean - they see giant sea serpents and dragons either devouring each other or causing the death of either a person or an entire ship. Sensational reports about this circulate in all the newspapers of the world, occasionally they are illustrated with photographs. But the mysterious creatures, apparently, do not like to be photographed - the photographs always turn out blurry and foggy. Such works were much better illustrated in the past. To be convinced of this, just look at the map of the northern seas compiled in 1572 by Antoine Lafrery. Myths give very colorful descriptions of sea monsters.

This is how the ancient Roman poet Virgil in his “Aeneid” sang about the giant sea serpents that killed the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons:

...two snakes, lying down on the waters,

They are swimming nearby and slowly reaching towards our shore.

Breasts rose from the waves, bloody crests above the waters

On end; leaving a deep radiant trail behind,

Tails are beating; straightening, bending, the backs rise.

Foaming, the moisture beneath them makes noise: they crawl to the shore;

The brightly bloodshot eyes both blush and shine;

With a whistle, their nimble stingers lick their gaping mouths.

(Translation by V. Zhukovsky)

Every visitor to the Hermitage can see images of these giant snakes from a copy of a sculptural group from the 1st century BC.

Apparently, huge sea snakes were found not only in ancient times. French researcher M. Geher cites the following curious fact: “In July 1897, the gunboat Avalanche met two snakes 20 m long and 2-3 m thick in Along Bay. A cannon shot from a distance of 600 m forced them to disappear under water. On February 15, 1898, the same ship and in the same place again met snakes; a shot followed from a distance of 300 m, and the ship went forward at full speed, trying to overtake the animals. At the moment when the ship was completely approaching them, one of the monsters dived under the gunboat and emerged behind it. You can imagine the confusion the crew was in at that moment. Nine days later, off the same coast, the Avalanche again encountered two such animals. The hunt lasted 35 minutes, but its only result was the coincidence of all observations."

The Dutch scientist Oddemans collected all the information about giant sea snakes. According to him, the first documented meeting of sailors with a huge sea snake occurred in 1522. Over the next three centuries, snakes were seen by sailors on average once every ten years - by 1802, 28 cases were recorded. But in the 19th century, encounters with sea monsters increased sharply: between 1802 and 1890 they were seen 134 times. They came across them in this century as well. Despite frequent encounters with sea snakes, no one has yet been able to photograph them. Mysterious sea monsters are equally successful in escaping from artillery fire and from the lens aimed at them.

Since monsters refuse to pose, their appearance must be described from casual observations, often based on information not obtained from the observer himself. In 1926, a certain monster was spotted at night off the coast of Madagascar. The French scientist Dr. J. Petit reports this in his book “Fisheries in Madagascar”. The animal glowed with a bright but unstable light, which flared up and then faded away. It seemed that this light, which could be compared to a sea searchlight, was emitted by a body rotating around its axis. According to the natives, this animal appears very rarely. Its length is 2025 meters, its body is wide and flat (which means in this case we are not talking about a snake), covered with a hard lamellar shell. Its tail is like a shrimp's, its mouth is on its belly. The head glows and emits flames as the monster rises to the surface of the sea. Local residents had no consensus regarding the structure of the monster. Some claimed that the “master of the sea” was legless, while others believed that he had limbs similar to the flippers of a whale.

It is extremely rare for a person to be able to touch a mysterious creature, or rather its remains. So, in 1883, one resident of Annam not only saw, but also touched on the shore of Along Bay the decomposed remains of a sea monster that looked like a giant centipede. In April 1977, the whole world received a sensational message about the discovery of Japanese fishermen. While fishing for mackerel on the Tsuyo Maru trawler near New Zealand, the net brought back a half-decomposed corpse of an unknown animal. A thirteen-meter carcass weighing about two tons spread a stench. The fishermen discerned a shapeless body with four limbs (either fins or flippers), a long tail and a small head on a thin neck. The catch was measured, photographed, and then had to be thrown overboard. First, part of the best-preserved limb was separated from the body and placed in a freezer.

Controversy flared up around the find. Based on several poor photographs and descriptions made by fishermen, Professor Yoshinuri Imaitsumi, head of the zoology department at the National Science Museum of Japan, recognized the caught animal as a plesiosaur, a member of a long-extinct group of marine reptiles. Plesiosaurs are well known from fossil remains of the Mesozoic era. 100-200 million years ago, like modern seals, they inhabited coastal areas of the sea and could crawl onto sandbanks, where they rested after hunting. Plesiosaurs, like most other reptiles, had a powerful, well-developed skeleton. Judging by the descriptions of the fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru and photographs, the mysterious animal had no bones.

Parisian paleontologist L. Ginzburg believes that Japanese fishermen recovered from the sea the remains of a giant seal, also extinct, but relatively recently - “only” 20 million years ago. The French scientist came to this conviction based on the shape of the head and the structural features of the vertebrae. The latter, however, neither L. Ginzburg himself nor anyone else saw, because the find was thrown overboard entirely. With such shaky arguments, it takes a lot of courage to insist that the find belongs to plesiosaurs or extinct giant seals. Moreover, there are many skeptical scientists who believe that Japanese fishermen recovered the half-decomposed corpse of a shark or small whale from the sea. But it is still possible to judge the find by the structure of that part of the limb that was delivered in the freezer. Having studied its structure, experts can easily say whether it belongs to a fish, reptile or mammal. The scientific dispute would be resolved simply, quickly and conclusively. However, the owners of the fin or flipper remain stubbornly silent on this matter.

“Santiago, June 18 (TASS). In the province of Magallanes (Chile), an unknown animal was discovered washed ashore by the waters of the Pacific Ocean. According to the Chilean newspaper Golpe, it weighs approximately two tons, is six meters long and two meters wide. The two front fins of the animal, the newspaper points out, are very similar to human hands with five fingers and nails; the two rear fins have no fingers. The animal's head is elongated, its mouth has three large fangs. The animal will be examined by Chilean scientists.”

Despite the large number of people who really want to believe that individual representatives of long-extinct reptiles are still living out their lives in the ocean, not a single reliable information about this has yet been recorded. Even Oddemansa’s statistics (over 150 cases of encounters with giant sea snakes) are not supported by any material evidence of the reality of the observations. This is the factual side of the issue about modern sea monsters.

It is, of course, different for different animals. Thus, according to the International Red Book, orangutans are on the verge of extinction, although their current number is 5 thousand individuals. Experts on whales and whale fisheries believe that with 2 thousand blue whales, it is still possible to maintain and even restore this species. The giant monitor lizard has survived on Komodo Island in the amount of about 300 specimens, and its number, despite the protective measures taken, has not increased in recent years. Science knows of only one case of an increase in the number of a species after only about 45 individuals remained. We are talking about bison. But this required vigorous measures and large expenditures of funds. All 45 animals were placed in nurseries and zoos. Only under these conditions was it possible to increase the bison herd and release some of the animals into protected forests again.