Geoscience Reference
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On that day, a local man, John Peace was fishing off the coast when he noticed what
appeared to be seagulls feasting on an animal's carcass. Intrigued by what he was ob-
serving, Peace turned his boat to go and investigate. When he got there he found a very
strange-looking creature, unlike anything he had seen before. The scene was also ob-
served by another Stronsay inhabitant, George Sherar. The creature that was lying de-
composing on the rocks was of a large serpent type, with a long eel-like neck and three
pairs of legs. Sherar was unable to get too close, as the carcass was inaccessible. Ten
days later a gale blew the remains above the high-water mark and a closer examination
was possible. Sherar made measurements and studied the carcass, which he described
as serpentine. It was exactly 55ft long with a neck that was 10ft 3in long. The skin was
grey and rough, although if the skin was rubbed from the head down the back 'it was
smooth as velvet to the touch'. Sherar described the head of the beast as similar to that
of a sheep and the eyes were bigger than a seal's. There were six limbs which extended
from the bodyalong with a bristly mane oflong, wiry hair which grew down to the tail.
The bristles were silver coloured and said to 'glow eerily in the dark'. The local news-
paper the Orcadian , reported the find: 'Its flesh was described as being like “coarse,
ill-colouredbeef,entirelycoveredwithfatandtallowandwithouttheleastresemblance
of or affinity to fish. The skin which was grey coloured and had an elastic texture was
said to be about two inches thick in parts.”'
By the end of that September, news of the Stronsay beast had spread far and wide.
However,thecarcasshadrottedawaysomuchthatthefourmenwhohadseenthebeast
went to Kirkwall to swear to a magistrate that their account was truthful.
The Stronsay beast was discussed at a meeting of the Natural History Society in Ed-
inburghinNovember 1808.TheBeast wasgiventheLatin name Halsydrus Pontoppid-
ani which meant 'Pontoppidan's Water Snake of the Sea' . The name was in honour of
the Norwegian Bishop of Bergen, Erik Pontoppidan, who collected reports of sea mon-
sters.
A more sceptical view was taken by the naturalist Sir Everard Home. He viewed
what was left of the carcass and concluded after examining the vertebrae that it was the
remains of a basking shark, a creature which was commonly found in Scottish waters.
Apparentlytheremainsofabaskingsharkasitdecomposesweresimilartothedescrip-
tion given by the four witnesses in Kirkwall. As a basking shark decomposes, the jaws
(which are only held on by a small piece of flesh) drop off, leaving what looks like a
long neck and a small head. After this, as only the upper half of the shark's tail fin con-
tains the spine, the lower half rots away and leaves what looks like a long serpentine
spine. When the dorsal fin begins to decompose, this can give the appearance of a hair-
like mane. The sixleg-like appendages noted bySherar andthe others can beexplained
away by the shark's lower fins rotting away.
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