Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Beatrix Potter on the Loch Ness Monster

English children's book author Beatrix Potter (famed for Peter Rabbit and other animal characters) put forward a theory in 1934 on the Loch Ness Monsters' physiology, according to an unpublished letter to an author of a book on that mystery animal. The letter has recently been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum. (While the receiving author is unmentioned, I'm guessing it was R. T. Gould, who wrote The Loch Ness Monster and Others.)
According to the Times Online, Potter wrote:

"May I hazard a suggestion about the humps? These beasts — whatever they are — frequent deep waters. They are able to sustain immense variations of pressure. I suggest that the humps mainly result from a power of self inflation under a very elastic skin for the purpose of equalising pressure. Frogs & toads, especially the latter, have power of inflation. Toads let off acrid water. Their inflation is in the belly. But it is conceivable that this beast may have a very loose elastic skin all round its body."

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