The Winnipeg Tribune from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Page 38

THE WINNIPEG TRIBUNE touno people's section Africa Still Holds Many Secrets Possibility of Existence of Prehistoric Monsters Related by Explorer SATURDAY, 9 1S3 rrHE celebrated Swire ichthyolo gt, Agassiz, oncf said: "The possibilities of existence runs so deeply into the extravagant that there is scarcely any conception tiiji MtrsnTifincrv fnr rcllir In There are at least two species of been African monsters that have authentically recorded as having a. tore and classification is assumed by many to be remote as that to extract the perience to be able to er.tr act th the sea serpent. The late Karl Hagenbeck, wfcoM same will be familiar to everyone connection with the great exhibition of animals at Olympia Circus, London, some few years ago, men tioned in his book. "Beast and that he firmly believed in the existence of a gigantic unknown asiarine animal living in the interior of Rhodesia. In his travels of that country he heard of it, not only from natives, but from an English gentleman who had been shooting big game in Central Africa.

On the walls of ctrtain caverns in Central Tal" CI un' na of whose evidence it would be theie are diamines of this worshipped this strange reasonable not to acknowledge. strange creature. He actually sent an expedition out to look for the monster, but the party was obliged to return without securing any satisfactory proof one way or the other. In 1919 we read in the papers of expeditions setting out to investigate the reports of a beast which was stated was a sort of Bronto aaurus Relic of Prehistoric One can only, therefore, deal with facts. The mythical animals re ported during the last thirty years' euch as the Okapi, Bongo, Pygmy Hippo and elephant, giant pig.

have all been shot and specimens obtained, also some have been taken alive, but so far no one has to my knowledge obtained any photos of the weird animal reputed by the natives as the Rhodesian Monster. In this article I am going to tell of a huge unclassified aquatic monster which was seen in Victoria Nyanza and its tributaries. British East Africa and named by the natives living on the shores of the Lake Luguat and by the Lumbwa and the Wanderobo as Dingoneck. It resembles in many of its characteristics the extinct dinosaur, a reptile of the Mesozoic period, fossils of which have been discovered by palaeontologists in the sand stone strata both of the African and American continents. The beast is iemmhat smaller than the amphibian referred to and measures approximately from fifteen to eighteen feet.

Whether It is a descendant of the prehistoric saurians that has by a process of adaptation living as it does in impenetrable regions continued with but slight modifications through prodigious ages to the present time, or whether it, is an unclassified reptile or amphibian, it is equally impossible to say, as so far no snteilfiens exist of its bones or skin. That this monster did exist a few years ago, there can be no pa. t.ele ef doubt, although to the reader it may seem very remarkable, and difficult to credit, tut when it is remembered that Lake Victoria Nyanza, in which it lived, although the largest known lake in Africa, with an area or 25,000 to 26,000 square miles, was not discovered on til 1858 this will not ne so bard to realize. James Martin, one of the pioneers or Africa, who guided Joseph Thomas from Mombasoa to the bead i 0f the Nile ception of By John Alfred Jordan and was, with the ex Niamey, spine, anu nt r.r.. lh fire i i.

(V vi I ss a huge animal has been 1. known in this water for many yesrs. Mr. Martin has a gnater I knowledge of the natives tlwi. Miner on the banks of the lake thi.n anv "I living man, and has sufficient ex 1 truth from their exaggerated sccounts.

Another Witness Edgar Beecher Bronson. the celebrated American big game hunur, in his interesting book entitled, In Closed published in 1910. I records the fact that when he was i in Uganda in the November of 1906 I or 1909, he there met Mr. Martin, who stated that it was well konwn the reptile appeared from time to time near the north shores of the Uk'' ftr vrir lo8 inter 1 coming to oe a Mi binger of heavy crops and an in crease of flocks and herds. Mr.

Bronson also tells us that the cele brated African naturalist, G. W. Hobley, C.M.G.. who was at that time senior deputy commissioner (and at whose residence in Nairobi Mr. Bronson was staying) informed him that certain tribes living on the north shore of the lake the Baganda, Wasoga and Kavirondo, had from time immemorial sacrifled burnt offerings of cattle and sheep huge reptile of dreadful appear ance living in the lake and which they called the The Same Monster From Mr.

Hobley'a description of this monster, gleaned from most OUT OUR WAY TT I i careful inquiries among the native tribe referred to th(r can be lit and it! aoul "Lueuat' Dingoneck are on. and the of meeting with a monster same. The Baganda. Wasaga and ati of this description. Kavirondo tribes firmly believe that the whtie man.

or. as tbev call him. the "Muxur.go" had killed theind nooting expedition to the uiTiiaia and tnai in conaeauenee mey nave oecome victims or ine dreaded sleeping sickness plague. Their idea probably is that the destruction of this animal, so long known and worshipped by them, would bring them bad luck, and as about this period 1905 the ravages of sleeping sickness were extraordinarily severe, this is undoubtedly the explanation of this strange superstitious belief. Mr.

Hobley considers that there ta absolutely no doubt whatever as to the existence of the Dingoneck. and hi, evidence is supported by several other authorities, the value Attacked Boat Some few years ago there appear ed in the London Daily Mail a very interesting report of an encounter with this animal. The captain of the tug Clement Hill reported, in the article referred to, that while cruising round the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza an immense water animal endeavored to clamber on to the boat an old steam tug. The beast was so enormous that the crew were osly able to beat bim off with great difficulty, and at one time the boat itself was in danger of capsizing. These old river steam tugs weighed from five to ten tons a fact which gives one some idea I cf the size and strength of the Leapt.

The crews description of this monster tallies so closely with the accounts of the Dinconeck and Luguata that there can be little doubt as to its identitv. It liea within my experience, also, to be able Jo give an exciting ac In 19; 5 I was making a trading 1 Tla, Vf ...1 a va I.rmsnv'a lsataa ranaauiaaiAna in ITakait Africa. I had to cross a river named Magore, a broad and rapid tributary of Lake Victoria Nyanza. On my arrival at the river I found in flood and impossible to ford, so I camped on the bank while I constructed a temporary bridge. After pitching camp I went atari? the bank to search for a good tree to drop across the river, and so found what I wanted.

Telling so boys to start felling it, I sent so i. of my Lumbwa warriors to follow the river bank to try and finl a suitable place to swim pack donkey over. Meanwhile I sat down aid I lighted my pipe with a contented mind. I should think I had b. sitting there for about an ur when some of my Lumbwa warrior) describable terror, all trying to tell me the Mme tiro about strange and weird ooking "imal they had come across 'Jlep it seemed that the animal was a cross between a snake, a crico iile and a leopard! Knowing the natives fai well, I I paid very little heed to the wild descriptions, but decided they bad come across some rare beast that! was unknown to them.

I told them to return and see If It 1 I there; if so, one of them was to! come back and fetch me, a hi: the I others were to keep watch 'a case By Williams I 4 1 for te. Ove. of jchosaPhat "Gcrr IMT AT" KttfcrtEM OCT OF I SlOrlT! To "SEE. it re. I AOOKIW OF V00 GOitsjCrTO I Y'ltJ'lil I VJORVt IS VjORt: TV tAKl iJMtl ii'lrl AGckW QOeMGr rr GtT OOTT I fill Mil i TMCfee Dfenes, Stoo've.

kM it moved. After a period of axut half an hour, man returned to say that the monster was lying fu''y exposed on the water in mi 1 stream. Like Our Ogopogo I at once took my rifle and hur. ried through the forest with my bov to the tilace where the aethers piace me omers were keeping watch. They pointed out the beast, and I got down the bank and stood at the water's edge.

When I had taken up my position with care, I glanced towards the animal, and saw a hug monster, lying lengthwise in the centre of the stream, about thirty feet from where I was standing I made careful observations for some minutes, and will endeavor to state what it appeared like. The beast measured from fifteen to eighteen feet in length. Massive head was shaped something like that of an otter; two large fangs descended from the upper Jaw, resembling those of a walrus. Tim back of this strange beast was as broad as a hippo's, but scaled like an aramdlllo. and the light reflect, ed on the scales gave it the apfat ance of being colored like a leopard.

It bad a broad tail, with which it lazily swished the water. This action apparently assisting It to remain stationary, heading up stream in the extremely rapid cur. rent. My sensations are difficult to describe, I felt a kind of awed pleasure, before me lay a totally unknown monster which I should be the first to record; the thrill of possession was upon me. Takinc careful aim, I fired at the head with a solid .303 cartridge.

Then an extraordinary thing occurred, The beast, facing the bank, kapt straight upwards into the air, standing as it appeared to me. ten or twelve feet on end. What hap. fY Mv a piiri aaaajus A uo not SnOW, for, losing my nerve, I and the Lumbwa raced for about two hundred yards Into the forest before I could pull myself together. Thrie we stood, speaking in whixprrs, scared out of our lives and afraid to go back.

At last, however. I regained my nerve and we return, ed, but no trace of the animal could we find. All over the bank in the sort mud, the spoor of the beast was clearly impressed huge imprints about the size of those of a hippopotamus, but bearing claws like those of a reptile. I camped on this river for some days, searching for the dead body, but without success. The beast could not possibly have lived If my bullet penetrated at the point I aimed at.

The natives called this weird monster the Dingoneck, the name by which it was known among the Wadtrobo. I made searching in. quiries among these people, who seemed to knew all about this strange animal, and they informed me they had seen more than tn one. A Rebus Queerly combined and api arent ly without meaning, the three letters shown on the blackboard pres ent In the form of a rebus a word that makes a good motto for a person who perseveres. The solution is found by pronouncing the three letters in an order that is readily suggested by their arrangement The remitting combination of syllables makes word at once recognizable..