Science is the pursuit.

of the unknown"

L
.JOURNAL
of
The Society Fo-:- The Invastigation

Pf

T.,.

Unaxplaina~

. For the .collection, evaluatian, and dissemination of

information on new discoveries in the natural sciences

.}

VOL. 2,. NO.2

APRIL, 1969

THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVEIn'IGATION

OF THE UNEXPLAmED
(Official abbreviation: S.I. T. U.)
R.D.,. Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: (201) 496-4386

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-21-

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

DR. GEORGE A. AOOGINO,
Paleo-Indian Inst.,
Ea.te~n New Mexico U. (ArchaeoloBY)
N. BURTSHAK-ABRAMOVITCH,
U. of TbUsl
(Palaeontology)

DR. CARL H. DELACATO,

Inst. for Achlev. of Human Potential
(Ment4l0gy)
DR. BERNARD HEUVELMANS
Royal Institute of Natural Sci.,
Belgium (Zoology)
DR. W. C. OSMAN HILL,
Yerkes Regional Primate Res. Cen.
(Comparative Anatomy)
DR. GEORGE C. KENNEDY,
U. C. L. A.
(Geomorphology & Geophysics)
DR. MARTIN KRUSKAL
Princeton UniverSity
.Mathematlcs)
DR. SAMUEL B. McDOWELL
Rutgers University
(General Biology)
DR. VLADIMIR MARKOTIC,
U. of Alberta
(Ethnosoclology and Ethnology)
DR. KIRTLEY F. MATHER,
Harvard Unlversltl'
(Geology)
DR. JOHN R. NAPIER,
Smithsonian Institution
(Physical Anthropology)
JAMES S. PICKERING,
American Museum- Hayden
Planetarium (Astronomy)
DR. W. TED ROTH,
Roth Research - Animal Care, Inc.
(Ethology)
DR. FRANK B. SALISBURY
Utah State University
(Phytochemistry)

DR. ROGER W. WESCOTT,

Drew University
(Cultural Anthropology
and Linguistics)
DR. A. JOSEPH WRAIGHT,
U.8. Coast & Geodetic Survey
(Geography & Oceanography)
DR. ROBERT K. ZUCK,
Drew UniverSity
(Botany)

EDITORIAL
The word breakthrough has been in the dictionary for some
time but it is only during the past two decades that it has become popularly understood and used. It was originally a military
term but is now Officially listed as meaning also: "A sudden advance in knowledge or technique". To this we feel should be
added: "or a major discovery". A discovery is not quite the same
as an advance though one may indeed give rise to the other. Then
again, not all advance's or discoveries are breakthroughs, and
this term has a rather subtle connotation. 'It means, in fact, not
just a sudden jump in knowledge bu~ literally a break, through
what had appeared before to be a barrier. Thus, it connotes a
hoped-for "break" - as the slang expression has it for luck - in
proving, confirming, or truly advancing some already prOjected
possibility.
However, some of the most outstanding breakthroughs have not
been expected, except in a most general sense. The classic
example was the landing of a freshly killed coelacanth fish on
the coast of South Africa in 1938. There had been those who had
been suggesting for many years that not all animals, or types of
animals, thought to be totally extinct need be so. Ainong such
optimists were those who hoped for what is called generally a
dinosaur, however small, to turn up; or for somebody to return
from the Himalayas with an abominable snowman. Curiously, and
yet as is the way of life generally and of what we call nature in
particular, it must needs be a large, brightly colored kind of fish
that first did pop up. We still have to hear of anybody - palaeontologist or mystic - who had ever even wished for a coelacanth
fish, alive and kicking or even stinking. But that is what they
got; and it ~it not just the orthodox zoologists but the whole of
the scientific fraternity a really stunning blow. All kinds of things
had to go into complete reverse. General theories on what could
or could not be, collapsed first. Then, more special theories and
beliefs as to the evolution and history of animate life on this
planet had to be drastically revised. Finally, a lot of things that
had been confidently stated about the actual constitution of the
Coelacanth or Crossopterygian fishes had to be either junked or
rephrased.
This "breakthrough" had its funny side. There is a maxim
which, like Occams's famous razor, should be elevated to the
status of a Law. This is that, in the case of a breakthrough in
any scientific matter, scientists react in the three following
phases: - (1) It's impossible; (2) It's a case of mistaken identity;
and finally, (3) We knew it all the time. In this case, a certain
Doctor of Piscology, i.e. Ichthyology, in one of, if not the, greatest scientific institution in this country stated for the record,
and to none less than the Associated Press, on the hearing of
the initial announcement of such a fishy thing haVing been obtained by a Dr. Latimer of the Port Elizabeth Museum in South
Africa, that it was impossible, because "we all know" that all
coelacanths have been totally extinct for some 70-million years.
That was in August, 1938. In August, 1948, the. same great expert stated, and to AP again, plainly, clearly and categorically
that: "This is probably the greatest zoological discovery of all
time, but we (who are these .!:!!s) have always expected it because it is, after all, a shallow-water fish." (Incidentally, it is a
deepwater fish.)
We have now a breakthrough of a most singular status and one,
moreover, that far transcends the gallant ichthyologist's assess-

- 22I

ment of the poor coelacanth. This is not just "the greatest zoological discov~ry of all time" but the
greatest discovery..21 all kinds - reverse polarity and antimatter not excluded:- because It concerns
us personally, and every aspect of our history, ethics, morals, religion, and general thinking. What is
more, it is quite useless anybody stating on this occasion that they knew it all the time because they
manifestly did not do so, while one and all have gone on record saying thafit was absolutely,definitely, and for all time No. 1 above - i.e. impossible. The simple fact is that we now have a fresh
cadaver of one of our more primitive ancestors that, on even preliminary exam~nation, is obviously a
true "missing link".
It may be somewhat gratifying to know that this discovery was made by members of our SoCiety
through the enterprise of other members of our Society. The story itself is grotesque and will be on
the stands, as the saying goes, in the man's magazine ARGOSY just about the time that, this issue
reaches you. We will not, therefore, reiterate these aspects of the case here. Further, there is already
a technical paper on the specimen in a scientific journal - namely ~ Bulletin Q.f the Royal Institute
Qf Natural Sciences of Belgium. entitled -Note Preliminaire sur un Specimen Conserv~ dans la Glace~
d'une Forme encore Inconnue d'Hominide Vivant", by our Advisor for Zoology, Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans. This describes the specimen in considerable detail. But there is also a :story behind the story,
the incredible aspect of which is that this specimen (which it must be clearly: understood is NOT an
example of what has come to be called an "Abominable Snowman") has been on exhibit on the carnival, midway, and fair circuits in this country for two years.! During this time; not one single person
of the tens or hundreds of thousands who paid 35 each to view it, suspected, 'knew, or cared what it
was ..
As told in the ARGOSY piece, Dr. Heuvelmans and the Director went to inspect the specimen and
saw immediately what it was. However, the caretaker requested that the latter' not publicize his findings until specific permission was given by the owner who was alleged ,to be a "very prominent but
eccentric man on the west coast". Dr. Heuvelmans gave no such assurance. The director later obtained permission to publish, but the parties concerned with the ownership of the specimen refused to
answer half a dozen most pertinent questions as to its origin and history. As a result, Dr. Heuvelmans'
paper. together with his photographs. was circulated among leading physical anthropologists who immediately pronounced it to be an authentic record of a specimen of a type, of M!!!, let along a mere
hominid. It was therefore reported to the authorities. They in turn requested allswers to the essential
questions mentioned above. The caretaker refused to answer these, while we could not do so since
we had been unable to obtain any information. The moment official enquiries w~re initiated. the owner
came to the place in Minnesota where the specimen was stored for the winter on the caretaker's land.
and removed it in a refrigerator truck. substituting for it sC!me form of copy made in wax. It later
transpired that the original (which we have code-named "Bozo" incidentally) ~s now alleged to have
been hidden for a year. This information was given in writing to certain authorities. This exhibit had
always been billed as a curiositJ' and probably a fake, but it had the subtitle' on its exhibit truck of
"Possibly a medieval man (sic) left over from the ice age (again sic}"! Yet, the owner went to great
lengths to ascertain what ltwas when he first got it. and then to even greater'lengths to hide it and
all trace of its origin when confronted with a proper request to allo~ it to be examined scientifically.
These facts and many other even more weird aspects of this case will be pub1i~hed in due course.
The point we wish to make here is editorial. Actually. it is multiple in that several whole matters
are brought to light by it. First, there is the clear demonstration of the abyssmal depths of plain
stupidity and lack of comprehension into which our so-called culture has fallen. That not one single
person out of tens of thousands even knew what they were looking at or its significance until an herpetologist - a Mr. Terry Cullen of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - happened to visit, this sideshow. is not
only tragic but extremely alarming. Just what else, may we ask, is now lying around? Second. if anybody did know what it was - and the owner seems to have at least SusPl;!cted the truth - but failed to
report upon it. shows only that there is something awfully wrong with those who: are supposed to know
what is what. Reversing the coin. we come to the inevitable impact of this -item' on the world as a
whole. This sounds grossly pretentious, but we had better consider the matter. :
Modern scientific thinking runs upon the roadbed of the evolutionary principI~. So does philosophy.
Everybody. except a few dreary holdouts like the remaining fundamentalists, gives
lip service to this
I
notion, but just how many really either understand or believe in this principle; and more especially
when it comes to the matter of ourselves and our origin? Now comes Bozo, and from no.w on it is absolutely useless anybody even trying to argue with what has come to be called "The Darwinian Theory".
Evolution may not have worked the way he suggested, or you may stlll argue 'that the whole idea is
wrong, but you now have a (circa) 25O-lbs corpse to explain. Perhaps the best guide to the readjustment that everybody is now going to have to undergo is to reread the Old Testament, and preferably
in an edition as near as possible to the origi~al old Hebraic or Aramaic, for if you do this, and ignore
all the rubbish that has been laid upon this ancient pragmatic exercise in clear,thinking, you will get
'
a very pragmatic explanation of just what poor Bozo most likely is.

'.

- 23-

CURRENT EVENTS
I. MATHEMATICS
(~ structure and Behaviour of Mensuration)
Number, Quantity. Probability, Arithmetic,
Algebra, Geometry. Trigonometry, Calculus,
Topology, the Theory of Games. and such related matters of calculation.

SQUARING THE CIRCLE

We are constantly asked for some expression on the age-old saw of not being able to "square the
circle". Many people seemed to feel that this is not a true statement, while others pOinted out that
all you have to do is place a thread around a circle, then lift it off and, using four pins, form it into
a square by pulling it as tight as possible. This is an old trick used by surveyors for getting a rough
estimate of odd-shaped areas into convenient, measurable blocks on a grid. Why, some people asked,
if this can be done mechanically - or geometrically. if you will - cannot the method be refined and
expressed in precise mathematical terms? According to the other old adage: if you ask a damnedfool
question you can expect to get a damnfool answer. So we passed this one on to our advisor, Dr. Martin
Kruskal. Chairman of the Applied Mathematics Program ,at Princeton. His reply was most enlightening
and in some respects hilarious, but it also contained a simple lesson in logic that we might all take
to heart. First off, the whole 'question' per ~ is a misnomer and nothing'more than a semantic irrelevance. The problem is not a matter of turning a circle into a square, the four sides of which add up to
the linear length of said circle. This can indeed be done by the purely mechanical method mentioned
above. The real question is can you construct a square that contains exactly the same area as is
enclosed by any circle. At which point you may well say: "So why in the heck didn't they say so?But then come the interesting angles to this conundrum. First, what we will call the four-pinsmethod results in an area which is short by 21.5% less than that of the circle of the periphery with
which you started. This is not so hot, even for rough estima,tes, and in surveying may well be the
reason why there me ,so many disputes over old land titles! The reason for this in turn is that a
circle is the most economic configuration - in two dimensions, that is - for mea. This means simply
that you can get more into a circle than into any other outline or shape of equal perimeter. The real
trouble arises when you try to deterthine just exactly, precisely. and mathematically how much area
you ~ got in any circle. This cannot be done, due to an annoying little factor to which the designation 'If (pi) has. as everybody knows, been given. This may be expressed as 22/7 and thus is
not a precise figure, since you can keep on dividing 22 by 7 forever.
We have all accepted this, but it is nonetheless very mysterious and definitely unexplained. Further, even this 22 over 7 is itself only an approximation. the real 7r being expressible only in the
decimal, duodecimal, or other such system. In this case,' however, it still cannot be made to "come
out-, as the schoolboy expression has it, any more than can the dividing of 22 by 7. What is more. it
is interesting to note that the string of figures following the decimal point are not the same in these
two cases; due, of course. to 22/7 being a mere convenience and only an approximation. So the next
question is naturally what is .. '7t and who invented it?
Nobody really knows who first defined it but it is Simply the length of the circumference of a
circle divided by its diameter. and thus such a simple notion that it was rather naturally assigned
to the Ancient Greeks. Why,those mixed peoples get the credit for so many things. in view of some of
their basic ideas. has always been beyond us. but is probably due to the fact that the Hebrew scholars of Alexandria usually wrote Greek versions of their expositions of Mesopotamian. Egyptian. and
Indian science and technology. Just because the beastly thing has got a Greek name does not. moreover. explain it. any more than the practice of aSSigning anything else of which we do not know the
real origin to the Chinese. Whoever first got onto this was undoubtedly a very bright boy as it was
one of. if not the first true paradox to be set down logically. There is of course a reason why you
cannot so divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter - in the current most commonly used
mathematic. that is - but it cannot br:l given within this framework. Of course. if somebody comes
along and does just this. everybody will be very happy - except mathematicians.

* * * * * * * *

- 24-

II. COSMOLOGY

(The structure 2.'ld Behaviour of Existence)

Ontology, Metaphysics (classical), Space,
Locus, Time, Coincidence, etc.

'\
~

CONDON

We regret having to allocate this much space to this subject but, as we said: in our previous !ssue
under the appropriate head, the subject has, still is, and will continue ~o be 11 very vitl<l part of
history. It ~oes not matter in the least whether this whole business is real or; imuginary. The basic
fact is that it exists; and as a problem that must engage the attention of e~erybody - politicians
(international and national), scientists, r~igionists, the press, and all other citizens. We are speaking of what have come to be called UFOs.
We are fully awore of the fact that only a small percentage of you are ill any
interested in this
business, but certain current events show only too clearly that it is the single ~ost i1r.por&ant problem
of today - and for all of us. Even if the whole thing is based on unreality, the fact remainE that the
problem is very real. Unidentified Aerial (Flying) Objects have persisted in turning u:> throughout the
ages, and with increasing frequency during the past two decades. The public ,demc,llue:! t~, know ot'
both officillldom and 'sciencedom' what they were. They got no satisfactury ans'.ve!; and so, with the
latterday help of the press, they forced the former into taking action - at le~t in tt>Js Cculitry. The
result was a contract between the USAF's Department of Research and the Universi~.Y of Colorado see PURSUIT No, 3 - which enjoined the latter to conduct a scientific survey of the evidence for the
alleged existence of these thir.g s.
This injunction was accepted in late 1966; and its recipients, under the chairmanship of ont! Dr.
Edward Uhler Condon, have recently published their findings. If you ~re interested in such matters,
you must read the book listed in our cumulative bibliography, entitled UFOs~ YES''', by David R.
Saunders and R. Roger Harkins. Be warned, however, that you will obtain frem thil> such I:!.D unbia5.::d
view of the underlying rn~nace in this whole slid affair that you may miss the r~a! signlfican(;; of the
overall "story". There is 'an unwritten bat seldom stated maxii!l Iilung ?ublishers' Row that, While
good (i.e. 1::0) rt:views may sell books, bud ones (i.e. con) almost invariaoh do so. The cOl'cll:uy is
even less often mentioned. This is that bad reviews never do any real harm but th~t too many good
ones call kill a potential best-seller. We are not giving Dr. Saunder's book either a good or a Dad revit!w; we are simply reporting on its existence and suggesting that it should be read. But when we
come to its counterpart - entitled. "SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJE0TS" we are only too happy to give it the worst review possible in the hope that as many people as c:m
find the time to do so will try to read it, because not even a "Ducolic "moron ~o~ld fail to learn something really valuable just from making the effort. The lesson? The deplorable' state into which !ntellectual integrity has fallen, and the preposterous imbecility of the proiJonents and practitioners of
what the public has been led to believe is - but which most definitely is net - ~SCience". These two
'
books are the outcome of the boondoggle that has become popularly known as the "Condon Committee",
set up at a cost of over half a million doll:ars ostensibly to study SCientifically the UFO problem.
Together, these two boo\{s should be required reading for all students entered in or proposing to
enter any coursel> in matters scientific (or technological, for that matter), so that they may know just
what thp-y are getting into.
;
We said in our previous issue that it has been ufology that - sense or nonse~se - has caused the
world to start truly thinking again. From reading of the outcome of the Univers~ty of Coloracio effort
in this l>phere, our remarks have perhaps become somewhat prophetic. But what the world has been
forced to think il.bout is the exact opposite of that which "sciencedom" intended. By its c-plorable
shenanigans and its near blithering report, with its endless contradictions and 'statistical gobbledygook, the Colorado effort should alert everybody to the menace that this sort of cant poses, both intellectually and physically. It is a ':crime" against real scientitlc endeavour and methodology.

way

----

THE CAPTURED CAPTAIN

We must admit to being sorely tempted to transfer this item to Section III on the grounds :hat it is
apparently a clear case of a "disappearance" and, what is more, neatly within one of the most prominant of the world's ten "Vile Vortices" -- for a full exposition of which you: will have :0 await a
number of articles in ARGOS Magazine, and, if it ever sees the light of the bookstores, a large
volume to which the title has not yet been assigned, on this subject. These vile vorticel:: have been

- _. ._ - - - - - _ . _ - - - - - - ; . - - - _ . ._ ' _ _1_ _- -. . .

- 25identified and are being studied primarily on account of their seeming voracity for planes, ships, and
subs, though they admittedly appear to engulf the human crews of such devices just as readily so
that one might perhaps have to add people to their menu. In this case, however, not only was the disappearance highly selective, being of a Single "people", and leaving the rest of the ship entirely untouched, but it is alleged to have had an extremely ufological aspect. At the same time, there 81e
almost as many cases of crews vanishing off ships as there are ships themselves vanishing; while,
to worse confound the issue, other animals - pet canaries, cats, dogs, and such - seem never to be
touched, provided the ship is left for them to ride on. This could indeed form a separate subject but
the mere mention of ufos being involved, as in the case herein under review, gives us pause.An intelligently controlled ufo is much more likely to be selective in this manner than is some mere physical anomaly. So what is the story?
On the night of the 30th to 31st of October of last year, one Captain Charles G. Reid of the MooreMcCormack Line's luxury liner Argentina disappeared from his cabin around three o'clock in the
morning. His disappearance was officially listed as "apparent suicide". This incident took place
smack in the middle of the infamous so-called Bermuda Triangle.
This was dashed rum to say the least; but when we came to investigate the circumstances, it
turned out to be not just fortean but a little terrifying. First off, the initial reports of the incident as
given, and all that was said at the official hearings and investigation later, were shot full of inconSistenCies, and appeared to have been deliberately contrived to circumnavigate the most pertinent
facts in the case. There were also a number of unexplaineds, and some not-askeds, and several unanswereds. For instance, no mention was made of a series of events that had preceded the captain's
being found miSSing, though they had stretched over several hours and had involved his Circulating
among the passengers with words of assurance that are normally for use only in rather extreme emergencies. Second, it was stated that when his officers had gone down to awake him to report still another
inexplicable and potentially dangerous event, he (the captain) was found miSsing - from his locked
cabin with one of its "portholes" open. By some ove!sight, a photograph of the captain's cabin was
submitted in evidence and this showed cle8lly ~ "portholes" in his cabin but instead large, square,
double-glass windows with roll-down handles. Such windows are not emplaced in the outSide hulls of
ships and the captain's cabin was not below the main deck, so that its windows were not over the
water, but were a considerable distance in from the ship's main hull-line and on an upper deck. Thus,
if the captain committed suicide, he took the risk of being spotted by the watch or patrolling officers,
by climbing out of his window, crossing one deck, going down a companionway to the next below,
crOSSing this, and then taking a running dive off the side. Suicidals do many strange things but this
is getting a bit exaggerated.
Before coming to the really hairy part, however, we should perhaps ask why nobody in the news
business seems to have gone into Capt. Reid's background; or, if they did, why they did not publish
on it, and particularly in deference to the feelings of his family. If they did do so, and found some
record of recent serious worry or distress, they should have said so, or the court of enquiry should
have mentioned it. Supposing the poor man had. for instance, been told by the ship's surgeon that
very day that he had a dread form of cancer? But then, a man in his position with a lifetime of responsibility to his crew and passengers would surely not take that way out just before reaching his
home port and leave his First Mate to dock his precious c8lgo. No, this is not likely. No more is any
previous record of mental ill health. People with such simply do not rise to being captains of luxury
liners. Yet, n8lY even a suggestion as to the cause of the man suddenly deciding to take his life in
such a biz8Ire way and at such an unlikely time.
Turning then to another side of the picture, we find a most remarkable full-page article (p3) in
the 17th February, 1969 issue of a weekly newspaper called MIDNIGHT, which purports to be a
straight reporting job on this incident. In substance, this states that this newspaper became equally
mystified by this incident and assigned a reporter to further investigate. In his report it is stated
that: "Passengers and crewmen on the ship were strangely silent about the fate of Captain Reid, and
it was subsequently learned that U.s. military authorities were taking steps to play the incident
down." And. it goes on to say that all those aboard at the time had apparently been rather strongly
advised to, as the reporter put it, "keep mum about what they witnessed on the evening of the 30th
Oct." The reporter then reports that he did a lot of legwork and finally unearthed several crew
members and passengers who were not jus~ willing but rather eager to give factual accounts because
they were most distressed.
The sum total of all these interviews was very simply that around 10 o'clock that evening a huge
aerial object approached the ship. It was enormous, cigar-shaped, glowing, and had rows of portlights. The passengers milled out on deck and members of the crew went to report to the upper deck.
The ship's radio then went dead. The Captain duly appeared on the double, and went around for some

- 26-

time assuring the passengers that there "was nothing to worry about" (I), and suggesting that it was
probably an illusion created by electricity in the air. (That's one of the neatest ones we have
ever heard - and with due apologies to Philip Klass). And the good captain seems to have lived up
to the great tradition of ship's masters, so that his passengers slowly wandered back into the bar
or went to bed. But some did not. They stayed on deck watching and, about midnight, the thing came
back again but much farther away and higher up. Several people then saw a number of smaller lighted
objects detach themselves from the big boy, and these swooped towards the shi~ so that the watchers
thought there would be a collisi on. These jobs were lenticular in form. There were three of them oncoming, but at the last moment they shot up into the clouds.
After this episode, all the passengers seem to have gone to bed so that: it was only a man on
watch who was almost blinded by a similar object that later suddenly appeared within yards of the
ship. It came almost to the hull and then dropped do~n to water level, pace~ the ship for about 50
seconds, and then swished away into the sky. Where it had hovered was appar'ently immediately below the captain's cabin windows.
So much for the story unearthed by the MIDNIGHT reporter: but what of the 13tory itself? One cannot state anything for certain. We were not there; we l\ave not even interviewed any crewmen or passengers; and we are not even sure that the so-called 'official' reports are true. But there is one
question we would like to ask. If this sensational story is ~ true; and all, the quotes in it, with
names, ages, addresses, and places of occupation of those quoted, are fabrications, why has it not
been refuted? We are not advocating censorship or any kind of 'big-brotherism'; but surely somebody
ought to have some humanitarian regard for the victim's family; and ought not somebody give his employers at least an assist in refuting anything so utterly bizarre. And what: of ~he U.s. military
authorities"? Are they going to sit by and see still another pernicious ufolog-ical Pelion piled on
their mile-high, crumbling Ossa? Frankly, we don't believe this. We rather t~nd to take this MIDNIGHT at its word on this occasion. So here indeed is a "pretty state of affairs"~
I

III. CHEMIPHYSICS

<.!!!! structure ~ Behaviour of ~)

Nucleonics, Chemistry, Physics (classical),
Electrics, Electromagnetics, Magnetics,
Gravities, Mechanics, and such related
technologies as Engineering, etc.
MESSY LITTLE BOY
This case would really be more' appropriate under Section VIII - The Structure and Behaviour of
Intellect!; but, as it is based on allegedly physical facts, it must remain here for now. Actually,
these facts are almost irrelevant, being so commonplace. It is, rather, the unexplained behaviour of
the people concerned that is relevant. Perhaps, indeed, there just might be something to psychology
;~after all, and maybe we really do need a science to cope with it. One thing is certain though, and
this is that the "art" (useful or otherwise) that is now called psychology is absolutely and wholly
useless for the pursuit of a matter such as this. But read what follows and th~n judge for yourself.
This gem came to us from the files of Richard Crowe (215) and Richard Grybos' (173) and must as of
now stand as the classic example of both The Wipe, and of human assininity as a whole. It goes as
follows, in totoand in quotes: - =
'
Chicago SUN-TIMES, Oct. 11, South Bend - st. Joseph County sheriff's deputies moved into two
suburban Osceola homes Monday night to see whether Walter Szlanfucht and his uncle really are the
victims of unidentified flying objects. Szlanfucht and his uncle, David Cobert, who live half a mile
apart, complained to deputies over the weekend that for three weeks their furniture had defied gravity.
Chairs, tables, lamps, vases and other household items, they said, had been 'flung about by an unseen force'. The reports might have been treated as a hoax, a sheriff's department spokesman said,
except that one member of the department visited Szlanfucht's home Sunday WId confirmed the unnatural occurrences. Capt. William Handley said that among other things, he saw a rock rise up and
strike the home's aluminum siding. Handley also reported to Sheriff William J. Locks that he saw a
picture fly off Szlanfucht's Wall, a heavy ashtray shatter and a table rise from t~e floor and flip over
at his feet.
Szlanfucht, an employee of Goodwill Industries, said that when vases and ;potted plants began
flying about the home on Greenlawn Av., he at first thought his 9-yem:-01d son J&.ck was responsible.

- 27-

Then. he sald. as he and his wife lay in bed Friday night. Mrs. Szlanfucht's iron new off the sink
and clattered to the kitchen noor. vases fell. a candelabra tumbled down and a key case salled the
length of the house. SUnday night. glass. foodstuffs. furniture. records and other items took similar
flight and stones rising from the ground cracked two windows and shattered another. he said. Uncle
David Cobert. a salesman. meanwhile was reporting similar happenings. and Elmer Key. SZlanfucht's
80-year-old neighbour. said that SUnday night he investigated a thumping and found that his home had
been pelted by some 'plastic things'. The 'plastic things'. described as objects slightly larger than
a robin's egg, Monday were in a box in the safekeeping of Captain Gus Shuttrow. in charge of investigations for the sheriff's police. 'I've got a carton of stuff all busted into little pieces. and a little
box with some stones in it', Shuttrow said . He said that each of the homes was to be. guarded by two'
deputies Monday night. one iDl~ide each house and one outside. 'We'll stay there till we are satisfied
there either is nothing happening or something happening'. sald Shuttrow. who confessed a certain
amount of skepticism. Both the Szlanfucht and Cobert famllles. however. have packed uP and gone to
live with relatives in Michigan until the problem is solved. Szlanfucht said his wife and son are too
afraid to go home. Cobert said his family feels the same way.
"Sheriff's police sald they have enlisted the help of some experts from the University of Notre
Dame to determine whether seismographic movements could be at the bottom of the incidents."
"Chicago DAILY NEWS. Oct. 11. (Repetition of information given above eliminated) But Sheriff
Locks is not laughing. 'This is serious'. he said. 'Something mighty strange is happening here.' So he
invited men from the physics department of the UniversitY of Notre Dame
"The sheriff disclosed that three weeks ago there were at least three separate reports of strange
lights in the sky in the southern part of the county. That's when goofy things began to happen In the
Szlanfucht home Things really began to come out around the Szlanfucht home Saturday Capt.
Richard Hanley. along with Deputy Leonard Golba went to the scene. The captain's official report
contains this statement: 'If I had not been witness to them I certainly would not believe such things
could happen.' He then recounted how he stood in the living room of the cottage and heard strange
popping noises. He suggested that they all leave. As he walked away. according to Golba. a table
began to follow Capt. Hanley and then turned itself upside down. Golba saJd that Mrs. Von Hospek's
portrait (Szlanfucht's late grandmother) then fell to the noor. And. he added. as Capt. Hanley went
onto the front porch. a box of tools there new off a stove. As they turned to investigate the stove. it
fell over. 'They looked for wires or strings.' the sheriff Said. 'They found none.' About then the
Szlanfuchts went to visit an uncle. David Cobert. half a mile down Greenlawn Av. The messy ghosts.
or perhaps it was one. followed them there. Some plates new around the Cobert living room. An ashtray took to the alr and exploded
"(Szlanfucht was asked) Was the house haunted? Had anyone died there? 'Well. many years ago a
man who lived here shot himself to death."
"Chicago DAlLY!iE!. Oct. 13. The ghost of st. Joseph County (if that's what he be) ob~igingly
bloomped for a Dally News reporter and photographer (making) a noise that could be heard 15
feet from the house also heard by Walter Szlanfucht Meanwhile. a team of six University of
Notre Dame scientists. including a psychologist and members of the chemistry and phySics departments began an investigation. They spent an hour in and around the house of mystery and even
searched - fruitlessly - with a Geiger counter. Prof. B. J. Farrow. speaking for the grouP. reported:
'We have found no logical explanation for what has happened In this house.' He said they wanted to
consider the matter further and would report later The sheriff said he continued his investigation
by visiting a library in nearby South Bend. He dug into books about poltergeists (and was) also
looking into the backgrounds of Szlanfucht his wife Jessie. 26. and son Jack. 9."
Chicago DAILY ~ Oct. 14. Sheriff's Official Word: INDIANA GHOST 'A MESSY LITTLE
BOY'. Sheriff William J. Locks (on) Friday unmasked the supposed ghost of st. Joseph County. The
sheriff reported that this was no messy little ghost. It was a messy little boy. He refused to s8J'
which little boy had been responsible for fUrniture and other household items flying through the air at
the home of Walter Szlanfucht. 32. But he called the case 'closed'. Locks sald he would have a talk
with the parents of the boy. He consulted SCientists. Including a psychologist .... before announcing:
'It would appear that all the things that happened in this house were caused by the actions of a
juvenile. not by any phenomena.' The boy. whoever he was. made a mess of the Szlanfucht home for
three weeks. In his gho~t role he succeeded in fooling a lot of people. including some hardheaded
sheriff's deputies. The sheriff declined to elaborate on how the lad pulled off the messy kid stuff."
So incredible are the statements made by presumably sane people In these stories that we do not
feel any comment Is called for in this journal.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .'.. . . . . .- . . .~. . . . . . . . . .I~

- 28-

NOW IT'S MICE

Again we find ourselves having to explain why an item pertaining to anything so biological as in
this case should crop up in the chemiphysical department. To reiterate therefore, we must repeat that
the poor mice are only of secondary importance and that it is their alleged b~haviour that is of the
essence; and this behaviour is a purely physical item. 'They could just as w,ell be stuffed mice or
statues of mice - we believe. Anyhow, animate or not, these worthy rodents on ~his occasion seem to
add another chip to the funny business of teleportation. The report comes from a Mrs. Frederick J.
Beam, of Manasquan, N. J., and goes as follows: "Three or four yeazs ago we had a similar experience (the rat palaver m~ntioned in one of our
earlier issues). When my son was in the 9th or 10th grade he planned a science project involving
sending mice thru a maze. He got the mice but it didn't take long to discover he knew nothing about
constructing mazes or training mice and he gave up the whole thing for a simpler project. Meanwhile
we were stuck with the mice. Since we had three pet cats I kept the mouse cage shut in a small unused bedroom. One day when I went in to feed them I was horrified to discove~ the cage was empty,
tho the door was still closed. Having a typical woman's aversion to mice I left hastily as I caught
sight of one running behind the radiator. I waited for the children to come home, from school and they
somehow rounded them up and shut them in the cage again. We thought perhaps they had forced the
door open and then pushed against it and locked themselves out. We wired the ~oor shut but the next
day one or more mice were outside the cage again - and this continued as ;long as we had them.
Eventually we just left the door open and gave them the run of the room - since they had it anyway.
I don't remember that we gave the mice credit for posses,sing supernatural powers. Our only explanation was that they somehow squeezed their fat little bodies thru the nazrow bars of the cage; it didn't
make sense but it was all we could think of."
:
Perhaps we were a bit hasty in saying that the animation of the mice was onlY of secondary import because a most curious pattern is beginning to emerge in this business. Fi:rst, it was rats above
all; then dogs, cats, horses and cows; and, along with these, grave suspicions were entertained of
certain monkeys and members of the raccoon family. Now, the two last are known champion "escape
artists"; but there is something else. While neither is domesticated, they have ~ecome rather common
pets, and they have even begun to breed in captivity. The other members of the coterie named above
are all truly domestic animals. Domesticity is a very hazd estate to define precisely, as we know
from neazly forty years of struggling with the matter scier.r.ifically; but this is, another matter which
we cannot go into here. What we can and must go into is a::. follows.
i
During the last two decades a number of otherwise more or less previously unknown small mammals
have come into rather wide use in laboratories. Following the South American G~ineapig, of long ago,
came such things as Elephant-Shrews from Africa for the U.S. Navy, the now famous little Palestinian
Golden Hamster, and now, Spiny Mice (Acom,ys) and a form of so-called Sandrat (Psiunmomys). Going
back over the records, we now find that the first importers of all of these exotics, and of several
other small mammals, complained to dealers that the damned things were constantly "getting out.
Also, hamsters were alleged to be "turning up" allover the place. Note therefore that all these
animals have one thing in common; namely, that they aze either fully domesticated or they aze now
coralled in large quantities for breeding experiments or as pets. This is the sort of fortean observation that warrants study.
Could coralling result in some enhanced ability to escape by the employment of teleportation? If
so, is it confined to lower animals, and particularly to the rodents? And, if some monkeys have the
ability - which is by no means certain - why not human beings? Or do "escapees from heavily
guazded prisons, and more especially from 'prison-camps'. in part at least develop this ab1l1ty? There
seems to be a growing drift among people like the so-called parapsychologists towards a notion that
as yet unidentified abilities like their ESP are suppressed but tend to surface when a real necessity
for them arises; as when what we call more normal means of alleviation are stopped. Should domestic
animals, and especially semi-domesticated ones, have a lingering corporate urge for "freedom"; and
might they then be able to dredge UP special, latent potentialities to overcome ~r circumnavigate the
annoyance to them of being so coralled? Think this one over, and please let us1have more reports of
this nature.
PENNIJ!!S FROM HEAVEN
At least that's what the headline said, and it went on, after a comma, to state "to coin a phrase".
You think we're "cute"; watch the Limeys; all the best squibs come from their territory, but their
'heads' are perfectly ghastly. This one went on: - Pennies from heaven fell on ,this Kent.communlty.

- 29-

The 40 or so coins fell in scattered bursts for about 15 minutes well away from high buildings and
there were no aircraft seen in the area." This was datelined Ramsgate, England. So what have we
here? Another alleged case of ITF, methinks, because one cannot suggest any valid reason for "space
people" manufacturing English pennies - they are larger than half-dollars - just to drop on, of all
places, Ramsgate, admirable coastal resort that it is.
This whole bit is; of course, considerably frivolous but, despite the perfectly legitimate sneers
of practically everybody, it needs at least some considered contemplation. Anybody and everybody is
perfectly entitled to pooh-pooh any and all cases of unorthodox items falling from the sky but the
damned things persist in continuing to be reported as doing so. Further, even professional - which
means paid for working - scientists have been literally 'clobbered' by such items, notably by quite
splendidly fresh fish of various species in Marksville, Louisiana, as reported by an ichthyologist in
SCIENCE for the 22nd April, 1949.
The notion of solid objects falling from the sky was readily accepted by the ancients it seems,
and even by the primitive savants of the Dark and Middle Ages in the West, while all Mricans, Amerindians and Asiatics - and even the Australoids - took the matter as a matter of course, and quite
calmly. Finally, meteors broke through our obtuseness - as it were; but other things have not yet
done so. The matter of what forteans call 'Falls" is, as a matter of fact - and this word "matter" is
becoming excessive - exceedingly aggravating to everybody. It is also, it appears, most complex.
We cannot go into it in depth here but if any of you are interested, you should apply to Mr. Ron Calais
(42) who has spent many years collecting such reports and knows more about this than anybody else
we have heard of.
Nonetheless, there is one aspect of it that can be brought up here. This is the fact that the great
majority - in fact, very close to 99% - of all items said to have fallen from the sky are perfectly
ordinary and commonplace earthly items. (We are not speaking of meteorites, tekti tes, and such.)
British (Le. U.K.) pennies are not readily come by and they are of rather a special size, being among
other things quite unique. Be that as it may, the lis~ of items both animate, like fish and frogs, and
inanimate like statues and pennies, seem almost if not always to be identifiable as known earthly
objects.
This would seem to us to indicate that said items don't really fall from the sky but are teleported,
though indeed this performance may involve not only spatial transference but time transference. How
else come Roman coins and beastly old ~uman skulls? Of course there are numerous items said to
have plumped to earth that are not known on the surface of same but, "to coin a phrase", thesrnst
be classed separately from such things as "Pennies (U.K.) from Heaven (sic)".
IV. ASTRONOMY
(The structure I!!!!! Behaviour of ~ Bodies)
The Universe(s), Galactics, stellar &n.d Solar Astronomy,
Planetology, selenology, Meteoritics, AstrophySiCS, etc.
MACHINES ON THE MOON
This one came to us from Europe but we learned subsequently that it was reproduced in substance
in a monied, fairly new, pulp magazine, published in Hicksville, New York, named "BEYOND". The
way we got it read: - "It seems that a former Soviet space scientist, Professor Mohilyn, who escaped
from Russia and is now living in Paris. claims that Russia has already landed two cosmonauts on
the moon, and that they were attacked there by a machine or machinelike creature which came uP out
of the moon's surface. One was killed by it but the other got back to earth. This scientist claims he
was director of craft-to-earth communications and monitored all the conversations between the cosmonauts and earth. He says thei~ space ship was launched on the 5th of June of last year c 1968)." As
we have said elsewhere, the so-called western world is completely schizophrenic when it comes to
anything emanating from Russia; anything official being disbelieved on the grounds that it must be
propaganda; anything alleged, such as this, immediately being pounced upon as some sort of dire re~elat1on. What defecting officials say, often sounds more like science-fiction or pure fantasy.
In this case, we would like to hear more about this Prof. Mohilyn, and just why our informant
added the rider; "He claims he has tried to interest the European and American press in the story
but they did not believe him". We can understand their reasons, even if the good gentleman actually
exists and actually did hold the position that he says he did in the U.S.S.R.; but not for the reasons
you might suppose. The most incredible rubbish is invariably spouted - and has been since the dawn
of history - about any place which has not yet been pro~erly explore". Some of the things that were

- 30 -

prognosticated about the surface of the moon up till only a few years ago, an" sometimes by perfectly
sober, serious-minded scientists, now look in retrospect Quite mad; and the same thing has now
started allover again with Mars, as we recorded in our previous issue. One wonders why these people
so spout when everything they say may be disproved at the drop of a capsule. Everybody worries so
much about their precious reputations that one would have thought they would avoid making such
statements. For instance, one clown repeatedly asserted, and in print, tha~ the Moon was covered
with a layer of ultra-fine dust to a minimum depth of two hundred feet; and then had the audacity to
state that this had been proved by some form of spectroscopic analysis. Almost everybody clamoured
for canals" on Mars until our fly-by disposed of the notion and substituted aJ surface as pock-marked
with craters as that of the moon. So then, we get some close-up photos of tl).e moon's surface, taken
actually on that surface, and what do we find? Sand, gravel, ordinary looking 'stones and boulders and
bare rock just as on earth - and without even the sands of the Nile or the dust of the great loess
plains. There was another fellow, as we also remarked before, who insisted th,at the moon was clothed
in a 400-foot-tall, closed canopy of vegetation! But this is not our point in this case.
In addition to these buffoons, there have also been another group of moon devotees. These folk
have always suggested - not asserted, be it clearly understood - that the' moon, if not having indigenous life, has for long been used as a way-station to and from earth by int~lligent space-travellers.
Their expressions are much more cautious than those of the "great experts 'and they are founded on
a much more possible, though still improbable, assumption; to wit, that said life-forms have always
lived, or taken uP residence there, below the surface. Actually, such a notlon is not by any means
impossible; in fact, it is Quite possible, and there are even those who have either deliberately or
unwittingly presented evidence that could well be construed as enhancing the probability. We are
thinking of the extraordinary history of events observed on the moon that do n,ot conform to the notion
that it is a completely lifeless, sterile, and inert body - see: the CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOG OF
REPORTED LUNAR EVENTS, NASA Technical Report R-277, as listed in our previous issue. Then
again, there is something awfully odd about many of the moon craters. Some kinds are just too perfect.
And what of the rectangular and regular rhomboidal disposition of straight things thereupon? And
again, what of the towering towers and arches casting their vast shadows; and the rays extending
from some features like the scattering of subterranean blasts, and the "fans" that look more like
tailings from Quarrying operations? All very mysterious.
:
But then consider life on our planet. Ninety-nine percent of it, Quantitat(vely, lives under water.
About 85% of the remainder, which lives in air, spends the whole or the great part of its time underground. This is particularly noticeable in desert areas where the variation i~ temperature during any
one 24-hour day is excessive. Why wander about on such a surface, when on,ly two feet below it you
have an even temperature (of about 52-degrees incidentally and everywhere except in the subpolar and
polar frozen-ground belts) throughout the year? If you evolved on a planet like Mars or the Moon, or
you got ditched on one of this ilk, or you wanted to set up a service-station on one, why go to all
the trouble of building such gross inefficiencies as domes, or anything els'e, on its surface? Both
nature, and all really intelligent intelligencies, would never dream of doing ~ything so stupid; they'd
start off by going below; and especially if there was no water or other liquid to duck into on the surface. Only Man could be so abysmally obtuse as to plan cities - and even motels, so help us - under
plastic domes on the surface of anything so unlike its (our) home environment as the surface of the
Moon.
'

&

SUBJECT: GREEN CHEESE

The average American - i.e. citizen of those United states of North Anierica lying between the
southern Canadian border and the Rio Grande - is considerably puzzled' as! to why anybody should
have likened the visible surface of the Moon to green cheese. Its pockmar~ed appearance more reJ
sembles that of Gruyere. Further, we have .l2!!!!. Cheese. Truth be told; we just don't have "green"
cheese, which is Gorgonzola; while our so-called "blue" cheese is not just al). imitation of but a
very fair improvement on the European Roquefort-stilton family. (Incidentally, nobody' seems to realize that both Liederkranz and Limburger are in final analysis American di~coveries or inventions
.
,
albeit by citizens of German origin in Minnesota and Wisconsin respectively.) So what does all this
have to do with Astronomy?'
'
'
During the first week of February a large internati.onal group of selenologi~ts opened a symposium
at the Douglas Advanced Research Laboratories in Hunti.ngton Beach, Florida. At this confab a
number of observations of the Moon, all somewhat commonplace to astronomers specializing in the
subject, were given a good airing. The most outstanding lot concerned w~at were dubbed "light
flashes". Some very pertinent remarks were made on this subject at this i symposium, notably by

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. . . .I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

- 31-

astronomers from Mount Wilson Observatory, which are herewith quoted. According to Clark Harris,
an associate of Wallace Calkins on the staff of that observatory: "The events (were described)as
changes in light levels in certain 8leas of the moon, sudden reddish glows in some craters, and bright,
beacon-like flashes of white light. The 'st8ltling' flashes were the most commonly noted phenomena,
occurring up to 25 times hourly in a small part of the crater Alphonsus, .and lasting from one to five
seconds."
Further remarks made at this sYmposium are taken from a report in The Long ~ Telegram for
the 18th February. They are most enlightening, and we quote: "Harris said a Sighting of a 2O-minute
reddish glow in the same crater by several California observers was later confirmed by astronomers
in the East and in England. A possible explanation of the lunar flashes was given by R. K. Vincent,
spokesman for a group of scientists at the Air Force's Cambridge Research Laboratories. He said a
study of moon craters showed some were similar to those formed on earth by gaseous eruptions, and
suggested the flashes could be discharges of static electricity caused by lunar gas emissions. Dr.
Jack Green, Douglas. geologist and chairman of Monday's session, favors the theory that many of the
events are of volcanic origin, with the possibility that water, as well as warmth, may exist beneath
the lun8l surface."
The curious facts 8le that even the merest suggestion of anything "alive", which is to say indicative of any kind of physical change or action and, in the case of our sister planet, other than the
completely inert, was rigorously stamped upon by astronomers until only a decade ago, Then, NASA
came out with the "Chronological Catalogue of Reported Lun8l Events", as listed in our Cumulative
Bibliography in issue No. I, Vol. 2, which made most startling reading. Since then, observations of
activities - today rather too cutely called "happenings" - on the moon have been increasing noticeably. We wonder.if this might be due to a frantic desire to climb abo8ld the bandwagon or, rather,
moon-probe capsule (or wagon) - by selenologists before positive and concrete evidence of just such
things as both astronomers and the poor amateurs have been describing for centuries are brought back
to earth. This is an old trick exactly equivalent to the one Mr. Low of the Condon Committee's staff
was so proud to include in his preliminary recommendations to the Unive.rsity of Colorado anent their
taking on the Air Force's investigation of UFOs. It's the old: "If you can't get into bed .with them
any other way, marry them", to which we might add the fortean rider: "There's always divorce or
annulment."
That the Moon is not completely inert would seem to have been obvious for a century but just what
the signs of activity there~pon may be indicative of is quite another set of questions. There is some- .
thing awfully odd about its craters as we pointed out in the previous note. We have the possibility of
their being caused by meteor impacts, volcanic activity, or the action of subterranean life-forms. And
this is where the green cheese comes in. We happened to be the recipients of a Gorgonzola cheese as
a present from some well-wishers in Europe. Now, the thing to do with such a cheese is to obtain a
sort of cylindrical spoon and drill large holes with it, chop off the bottom half of the resulting plug,
up-end the cheese, pour beer into it, and then replace the balance of the plug. When you have done
this all 8lound, hang up said cheese in (naturally) cheese-cloth in a cellar :which never gets above
50 degrees F. and with an air-current. That gives you a good cheese.
When we were operating on our cheese, we noted the butt of the inner part of the plugs we had
extracted. They are about l~" in diameter, and, so help us, they displayed just exactly the sort of
surface appearance as the moon. There were craters of three distinct kinds; 'rays' from some of
same; rills, strange cracks in a rhomboidal pattern, and other items most familiar from the new
master photographic moon-maps. This is of course all pure coinCidence, but it does explain a semantic mystery. And, we would point out that while a lot of the markings were green, there were patches
of pink in some of the craters". Moreover, if the perfectly round smooth-e.dged little craters were
caused by cheese-mites - or even .small fly larvae - we would have another analogy; while all we
would then need would be some luminous bacteria in some of tlie larger craters and we would have a
pretty fair approximation of the traditional concept of the moon for youngsters. We are working on
getting some color photographs of the cheese - Just for fun, please understand - for comparison
with some moon-shots.
But there is a serious note to be rung here; to wit, chemiluminescence. The light given off by a
Single luminous bacterium is, proportionate to its size, hundreds of times more powerful than that of
our best electrical power-distribution plant. When we've worked through static electdc8J. discharge,
volcanic gas emissions, and the other suggestions, might we not consider chemiluminescence?

* * * * * * * *

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ._

. . . . . . . . ._ . . . . ..
I . . . . . . . . .~R_. .~

- 32V. GEO~OG)[

(!!!! structure and Behaviour of the

~)

The Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, and

The sublithic core. Geophysics and Geomorphology; Geology (classical); Geography, Geodesy,
Mapping and Dating; and all related studies.
NOISY

CLOUD~

We are always suspicious of a K2, namely a coincidence to the power of only t~o, and anything
short of. a K 4 does not warrant discussion under the headIng of "K- in the general cat~gory II. Nevertheless, when the time factor crops uP on such a tight schedule as this - two outlandish items of a
similar nature in a month - and the matter has not been heard of In over half a century, we consider
this feature of the matter should at least be noted. Also, there Is the spatial separation of the two
.
items to be considered. These reports go, and in toto, as follows: (1) Jacksonville Beach, Florida (AP), 3rd Feb., 1969: "Hundreds of persons - including Police
Chief James Alford - reported strange sounds coming from two clouds. One man described the sound
as like 'someone rattling cellophane'. A woman said it was more like 'someone walking on pebbles'.
Alford ordered Capt. Harold Bryan to follow the first cloud. Bryan did so - to the edge of the Atlantic
where the cloud dissipated. The listeners started to go back inside their homes when, they said,
another cloud repeated the performance. Bryan also followed it to dissipation over the Atlantic.
Officials at the Mayport Naval Air station said they could offer no explanation; neither could other
officials.. (2) MIami, Florida (AP), 10th Feb., 1969: "FlappIng, crInkling, crackling clouds were reported
over Miami SUnday. 'It sounds like a big bird flappIng its wings and trying to get off the ground',
said William Ward. 'No, It's more like huge sheets of wax paper beIng crumpled', said hIs wife,
Charlene. The clouds were reported over Jacksonvllle last week, but rio one there could explain the
'
sounds. Neither could the U.S. Weather Bureau in MIamI.
Now, there are VJlrious posslblllties here. The first Is obviously chemiphyslcal in that the phenomenon could be due to such things as a purely mechanical sort of "Brownian Movement of ice
crystals, or such as the release of mIcro-electrostatic exchanges. But, before we come to further
consIder these we should try to clear away an unpleasant suggestion that Comes from ufologists.
This is that a really very considerable percentage of ufo reports and especially' of daytime ones
speak of these unidentified aerial objects either giving rise to, surroundIng themselves by, or usfng
clouds in which to do their disappearing act. Further, there are the UAPs, or Unexplained Aerial
Phenomena which are themselves, dIaphanous or cloud-like. The general idea here seems to be 'that
some ufos either are (to us) "clouds R!!L!!, or they can create and dissipate clouds at will. Should
either suggestion be valId, it would seem to be quite likely that some of them might be rowdy, and
for either of the chemiphysical reasons mentioned above, or for any of a host of other.s.
The mos't interesting aspect of these two little reports is that a captain of police followed the
cloud and witnessed it dissolve or evaporate. This would seem to indIcate that it was a special type
of cloud only in that it made noIses. Clouds drifting off land over the .ocean very often so dissipate
but thIs prods our memory of the late Dr. Rolf Alexander from New Zealand who demonstrated the
deliberate dissolution of clouds by "taking thought upon the matter from the roof of a large'department store in Miami in 1960, and in the presence of a lot of people, including a palice offIcer and a
radio crew. (For a full discussion of this see Walter J. McGraw's THE WORLD OF THE PARANORMAL, listed in the Cumulative Bibliography.) Further to that one, one of our most, honoured members (No. 55) became greatly intrigued. with that experiment and set about doing a lot of his own. He
claimed to have been. able to so dissolve clouds and we must admit that he gave a rather satisfactory
demonstration one day in Charleston, West VirgInia. He, in company with twelVe others including the
writer and Kent Wilcoxson (152), a geologist and a profound sceptic of all matters such as this, were
in that state on an archaeological. mission. It had rained torrentially for three days before our arrival
and continued to do so all night. Purely kiddingly we asked No. 55. to do something about it. He went
out onto a verandah alone for a time and, Ip and indeed behold, a large break appeared in the dense
dark overcast precisely over Charleston. It stopp~d raining there and the hole contin~ed enlarging
until the sun shone through from a perfectly clear blue sky. The weather remained almost perfect
over about a hundred square miles of the Kanawha Valley for the two days while we conducted our
operations, though it continued to rain all around. Within an hour of completing our. field work, the
sky clouded over and it began to rain againl

- 33 -

Try this some time. It is a great game. All you have to do is lie in a deck chair on a sunny day
with. preferably. puffy. fairly well spaced cumulus clouds. Pick one of notable shape that all of you
agree' you can identify; then shut up and concentrate on it in whatever way you may feel best. It is
really quite alarming how your particular cloud appears either to dissolve within minutes or to do
one or other of all manner of strange things. like changing color and turning into a wisp. and so on.
Mind you, we are not suggesting that this is a practicality; rather. that it is a fine demonstration of
"k". and also to a very high power. What might cause a cloud to crackle. fizz. or go pop is probably
another matter. but it is of even greater fortean import. We do hope that s.ome of you will be able to
dig out some previously published and documented cases of noisy clouds. or let us hear of any personal experiences you may have had connected with same. Decent. pragmatic. chemiphysical explanations would be even more welcome.
THE GREAT EXTINCTIONS
It is a real pleasure to report on this as it is wholly pragmatiC. concerns recorded facts. and is
altogether in the realm of reality. Pleasure is also occasioned by the absence of kookery. though we
have to admit that there is a quota of the usual imbecility overlarded with not a little miSinterpretation. This matter is also most extremely interesting from another point of view. being as it is. a near
classic case of what we have come to call a cross-over. in that it has most pronounced chemiphysical as well as geological aspects. and even cosmological and astronomical links. together with an
anthropological implication. We present it under the general heading of biology for two reasons.
First. this is the way it has been set out in current scientific literature; and. second. because we
are gOing to concentrate on its biological aspects.
Last year, and starting early in January - see SCIENCE for the 26th January. 1968. Vol. 159.
page 421 - a considerable debate was initiated upon a ver\ old question by the publication of an
abstract by Messrs K. D. Terry of the Department of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology of the
University of Kansas, and W. H. Tucker of the Department of Space Science of Rice University of
Houston. Texas, in that periodical (Science). This was entitled: - "Biological Effects of Supernovae". There were numerous come-backs from many sources. which were published both in subsequent issues of SCIENCE and elsewhere. ending with one of the great Dr. George Gaylord.Simpsons
classic evaluations. And it is this that we will discuss primarily herewith.
For the benefit of those not specifically interested in palaeontology. or conversant with this
field. we should explain that Dr. Simpson is not only the dean of that whole department of knowledge
but is in just about every other way a captain of true science. a commander of erudition. and a positive commodore of literate expression. For our money. you can take all the literary lights of American. British. and other current forms of "English- and toss them into either the etymological or
epistemological trashcans. Further. he writes so that anybody can really understand what he is
saying even on highly technical scientific matters. Also. unlike so many so-called experts, he really
knows what he is talking about. It is his comments on this matter that we wish to present. But. first.
a brief statement of what this is all about.
Palaeontological history as it has been pieced together since the commencement of the proper
study of fossil life forms a little over. a century ago, has clearly displayed a sort of cyclical progress.
in at least one respect. Thls is the comparatively (from the point of view of geochronology) sudden
appearances and disappearances of the larger groups of life forms; moreover. those mass disappearances seem to have more or less coincided with appearBDces. or upwellings. of newer and higher
types of organisms. Four of these sort of changeover periods are recognized: - (1) at the beginning
of the Cambrian, (2) at the end of the Permian. (3) at the end of th;e Cretaceous. and (4) at the end of
the Tertiary; namely. during the so-called Pleistocene that immediately:preceeded the present. At
the first change-over, the major types of backboneless animals appeared and gave rise to the fishlike; at the second, terrestrial forms, like the amphibians and then the reptiles. came on the scene;
at the third. the mammals, birds, and flowering plants suddenly "flowered". while the majorit..,. of the
previously dominant reptiles vanished; at the fourth. a considerable number of mammals became extinct and man got going as a quantitatively dominant form. The question that has always been asked
has been - Why?
All manner of suggestions have been put forward, and this theory is only the most recent. It comes
from the astronomers and astrophySicists. In a nutshell. it suggests that the extinctions. as well as
the sudden outbursts of new types. are presumably due to mutation and might have been caused by the
type of exploding stars called supernovae. which the advocates of the theory endeavour to show
should have occurred within a certain distance of this solar system. at set periods. and with peaks

:- 34-

of individual intensity on just about the periodicity of these changeoyers in the dominant life forms
of this earth. The suggestion was, further, that deleterious radiations (particularly various cosmic
rays) would arrive massively over comparatively (or actually) very short periods, and might so adyersely affect some creatures as to cause their extinction, while so stimulating others that they went
into wild mutation, proliferation" and numerical multiplication quantitatively. Then the argument
began.
First, the cosmologists, astrophYsicists, and astronomers had their innings by questioning those
aspects of the theory and its foundations that fell within their provinces. Then the biologists got in
the act, ending with a brilliant survey and critique by Dr. G. G. Simpson in a le~ter to SCIENCE
which was published in their 4th October, 1968 issue, Vol. 162. In this the author put forth his usual
string of utterly logical observations which showed that even if said deleterious radiations did hit
this earth they would more likely have done so spread over a considerable time, even geologically
speaking; while he presented equally cogent reasons why no such outside influences are really needed to explain the rise and fall of the major taxa of both plant and animal life on this planet. However,
even this masterful analyst made some strange inferences; notably by combining tw~ distinct types
of extinction - that of groups of forms of familial or higher order, and that of a number of specific
forms (in individual masses), such as the mammoths during the Pleistocene. These two processes
need not necessarily be the same, though the causes of latter could have been one of the methods
by which the former was achieved.
No more satisfactory explanation of or for the Pleistocene individual extinctions has been given
than has been for the great taxas, disappearances. For instance, there is absolute evidence that
many of the former were catastrophic (though intermittent) in that almost countles~ numbers of individuals of various species of all ages are found fossilized, or partially preserved' in ar~tic muck,
in vast aggregates, but most often not in situations where they might have accumulated over the
years, by some such cause as floods. There are equally massive accumulations of more ancient
forms, ~uch as dinosaurs, fishes, shellfish, and other aquatic forms but there are several alternate
and ready possibilities for these. There is thus considerable reason for supposing that the two types
of extinction are not the same.
There comes then the matter of the OPPOSite of extinction - namely, creation. And here a remark
made casually some years ago by an engineer on being shown a series of fleshed-out reconstructions
of extinct mammals that so suddenly appeared at the beginning of the Tertiary Era, as if ready made,
and just after the equally sudden disappearance of the so-called dinosaurian reptiles, keeps repeating
itself. He took a long look and then said Simply - and with particular reference to these lumbering
beasts "But those look like radiation-induced mutations".
There comes finally the very sticky problem of what stratigraphists among geologists .call "unconformities". This means one strata of a sedimentary rock type, lYing upon another totally different
one of obviously much earlier age:. but with no zone of blending between them, as displayed .by their
contained fossils or anything else. Such unconformities are attributed to the older of the formations
having been elevated and their topmost layers eroded before Sinking again under water where an
entirely new set of sediments could be laid down on top of them. Such time-breaks occur allover the
world between just about every group of strata and also, of course, between most formations, but
there are some unconformities that, age-wise, seem to be universal. The most notable of these is
between the uppermost (or youngest) Cretaceous deposits and the lowest (or earliest) of the Palaeocene which lies at the bottom of the Tertiary. !40where yet discovered are the b<?nes of late dinosaurs
found associated with the earliest tertiary mammals. (Of course, there were mammals during the
Cretaceous period, and many large reptiles iike the crocodilians that are actually relic dinosaurs in
the general sense, have lived on through the Tertiary until today.)
.
Having always been both intrigued and mystified by this, we ~nce. wrote to Dr: Simpson on the
subject and were the recipients of one of his remarkable letters. (How this scientist finds the time to
read practically everything that is published and not only in his own bailiwick, and also answer
letters from outsiders is one of the greater mysteries of life!) This ripped apart all the arguments
upon which we had based the particular enquiry in our letter and thus put. a major slice of tectonics,
geochronology, and stratigraphY on a sounder basis. However, it included the bland and positive
statement that there !!,no universal unconformity between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary.
Perhaps this was a matter of mere semantics, and Dr. Simpson was. referring to geologic nonconformity, in that certain strata are allege'd to have been found, and particularly in. southern South
America, that do seem to blend upwards, one into the other. However; the biologic unconformity is
absolute, and worldwide, even if it may not be chronologically precise allover. Thus, we are still
left with the question;,. Why did whole groups of animal life Just vanish, while new o~es so suddenly
sprang into being, orproliferated so rapidly and enormously? Further, and even more questionable, is

- 35-

why, for instance, did all dinosaurian-type reptiles, both great and small and ,t~e aquatic lacertilians
'sh whl'le the crocodilians the rest of the 1acertlll an 5, and more 50 the
known as Mosasaurs" vanl
'
" , ? Ad
(
t
tl
)
and
the ll'ttle Tuatara' both of which antedate the dmosaurlans,
surVlve,
n,
,
chelomans or ur es
, ,
lat
'
'n
the
heck
did
such
enormities
as
the
vast
herds
of
primitive
ungu
es
sprlng
conversely , where l
,
d'
t
b' laid down?
from at the very beginning of the Tertiary, while only a few mches of se lmen were elng
,
"
THERE IS A VERY REAL TIME GAP HERE,
All in all. it would seem that some outside influence is called for, and the ,m~st llkely explanahon
~or this might indeed be radiation, SO, let us keep our eyes on these astrophysIcists.
VI, BIOLOGY
(The structure and Behaviour of Animate Entities)

--

--

Protogeanology, Botany, and Zoology, and their

related parts, as Histology, Physiology, Anatomy,
etc. Also Exobiology; and Physical Anthropology.
BARTHING VERSUS BAYTHING
Here indeed is an hilarious one; but once again, not because the fact itself is odd but because of
the fact that the fact is a fact, yet seems only just now to have dawned upon the medical mystics.
Honestly, words for once almost do fail us. But let us quote the item..!!!!2!2.. It came from POPULAR
SCIENCE for February, 1969, and went as follows: "Youngsters who balk at taking a bath have science on their side. Incredible !! it ~ (italics
ours), people who scrub themselves remove an inSignificant (sic) proportion of bacteria and may irritate the skin, inviting an even greater bacterial invasion. This, at least, is the conclusion of Dr.
Ralph C. Richards of the University of utah, the most recent participant in a research project dating
back 30 years. Among the findings: Campers who stay in the field for a week or two without taking a
bath have a lower bacterial count at the end than when they started."
Man, like any other animal, takes fairly naturally to water - sometimes - and provided it is not
too hot or too cold. On the whole, however, all terrestrial animals avoid it generally, unless they get
their living. or part thereof. by going into it. Reason? First. it 'says nothing' and it "does nothing"
for you unless to cool you off. Ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-percent of terrestrial animals ne ver go
near it. second, it may be harmful or even lethal. The danger is not from drowning or even suffocating
from lack of oxygen in other ways, but simply that water - and even without "scrubbing" and/or soap
- washes out, and in many cases act.ually dissolves out. the essential exudates of your skin. These
are mostly oils and high esters and they are extremely potent and absolute death on fungoid spores,
bacteria, and other single-celled unpleasantnesses, They are our and other animals' - and even
those that do not 'sweat' - first line of defense against the countless billions of these potential
parasites that surround us from birth to death. All our exudations are almost equally potent as repellants. Take a single drop of tear. It will just about sterilize a million parts of its volume of water
with respect to the normal hazards to be encountered in that medium, Our so-called 'sweat' is even
more powerful.
The trouble with us is clothes. These are not needed except in cases of extreme emergency to
to protect us hairless ones from excessive and sudden changes of temperature. worst of all are hats
and shoes. All they do is absorb sweat, including any bacteria it may not have killed, and then hold
it until it rots. Change your clothes as often as you want but, if you don't change them often enough,
you will - to your fellow citizens, at least - stink. Washing or "barthing" your hair is even worse.
Soap and all the other fancy goos for so-called cleaning are detergents, and they eliminate the natural
oils (or rather lanolins) that literally feed your hairs and protect them from resident fungi and such.
Encase your feet in shoes or boots, and then keep wearing them day after day, and you set up a perfect medium for the proliferation of all manner of parasites like that which causes what we call
"athlete's foot" and even macroparasites like worms. Frankly the whole thing is not only asinine but
extremely dangerous.
Ask any Forest Officer or other person who has really to go into the bush or forest, and he will
make polite noises about "The Boy bringing the evening barth". But what does he do if you are not
around? He does what the benighted natives do. Gets rid of every piece of clothing prescribed by
convention the moment he is out of sight of his peers, and throws off whatever he retains the moment
he stops active movement. Further, said clothes go into the nearest running water or are put to soak.
And, when away from the possibility of hookworm infection, shoes are the first to go. Sandals - Yes.
Bare feet -. much more often than anybody admits. Take a COOling 'baythe' in a stream or river ~

- 36-

Yes. But never, on any account, take a 'barth'. Soap - and even that violent majenta-colored barsoap for washing linen which is so common in the tropics - must of course be used to get off pure
grime; but then a complete 'baything' in clean water should be indulged in afterwards.
So, it's taken the good Dr. Richards and his colleagues thirty years to discover some of these
basic facts. This, indeed, is a mystery. Perhaps somebody some day will re-discover the simple fact
that heels - other than the correct three-inchers which simply make us bipedals walk on the balls of
our feet like deer - cause many of our eye troubles. Ask any ophthalmologist, who happens to have
been interested in general neurology. But that is another matter. Meantime, let it be put on record
that we refuse absolutely to have anything to do with human 'medicine' or pathology; but the simple
little facts described above are a purely biological matter, in the wider sense. -Baything" is splendid, but 'barthing' is a bloody menace. Besides - and this might be of special interest to you younger
people - it destroys, along with our first line of defense against micro-organisms, the "stinks" that
your opposites "smell", and which are the basis of what we call sex. Think that one over.
GIANT SNAKES
The following most excellent report came to us from Mrs. R. L. Pollard (97) who is resident in
Venezuela. It comes from a newspaper named THE DAILY JOURNAL - ,"Venezuela's English-Language Newspaper", which is a most excellent publication, beautifully written and maintaining extraordinarily high journalistic standards. The account is datelined Rio de Janeiro and is ap AP report
with no less than Silvia Landau's byeline. This too is a model of journalism since, unlike even our
best newspapers, all the facts, names, and figures check out; and this after translation from Portuguese through Spanish, into English. And we Anglos still sneer at the Ladinos! But then, how many
of us know that they had universities two centuries before this country declared its independence. The
story goes as follows: "An international hunt is underway in the wilds of the Amazon for a legendary giant snake which
may be the last of its species. Brazilians and forei,gners are chasing after the 'cobra grande' as
several jungle expeditions try to outrace each other to capture the giant snake, which in captivity
could be the main attraction of any zoo. Until two years ago, the snake was believed to be just a part
of the Amazon jungle mythology, but then the huge animal was seen by Italian ichthyologist Bruno
Falci in the south of the territory of Rondonia. As he did not have the equipment to capture it, he
decided not to kill it either. He took some photographs of the animal while it was taking a siesta.
The giant snake had apparently just eaten two calves for lunch. The snake is part of the Indian and
regional legends about 'boiuna' and 'cobra grande' that would appear here and frighten men and
animals. It would shake houses just by rubbing against them, while crawling by. Another story tells
of six members of one family being killed by the giant snake.
"Sometime, later on, comparint the pictures taken by Bruno Falci to tracks left by the snake, it
was estimated to measure between 100 and 130 feet (30 to 40 meters) and weigh one ton. It is believed to be of the 'securi' or 'anaconda species. They usually are much smaller, and hunters and
scientists believe the giant might be, if not the last, one of the last of a speciE!s. In a museum in
Belem there is one securi that although 12 meters long (38.4 feet) and weighing hundreds of pounds
is less than half the size of the 'cobra grande' now being chased. Falci has returned to Brazil to
join the hunt. This time he is equipped to capture the snake and take it to a European zoo. But he is
only one among the several expeditions searching for the 'cobra grande'. II
The matt!!r of giant snakes stems from three tropical areas - Malaya, the Congo, and the Amazon
Basin, and with particular emphasis on the last. The business was covered in considerable detail by
Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans ,58) in his book ON THE TRACK OF UNKNOWN AN~MALS which was first
published in 1958. Quite a lot has happened since that date and notably some extraordinary photographs taken from low altitude in the Congo by a Belgian military aviator. The, Society owns the
originals of these, and we had them blown up and submitted to the Eighth Reconnaissance Technical
Squadron, U.S.A.F. experts in Massachusetts for analysis. A most interesting fact emerged; namely,
that there were two possible interpretations, depending upon, of all things, certain botanical matters.
The point at issue was simply identification of the vegetation'so clearly shown in' the photographs.
Were these little herbs, or forty-foot trees?
,
Now, there happened also to be a num~er of termites' nests of a very distinctive 'type in the photographs. These can be built as high as twenty feet by the insects but this particular species of termite
has the uncanny facility of knowing how to orientate the longer axes - they are like four-~ided pyramids but with two very wide sloping sides and two very narrow ones, and a fiat top - so that their
larger faces receive the greatest amount of sunlight first in the morning and, then In the ~ernoon.
(These insects live precisely on the equator.) Of course, all termites' nests have to start small but

- 37-

it is astonishing how minute a percentage in anyone area are smal1. By the same toker.. most are
near maximum height. Judging from the intense cast-shadows from the nests in these photographs. the
Air Force technicians estimated them to be between 15 and 20 feet tall and. moving then to the surrounding vegetation. they found that it must have been between forty and fifty feet tall. Trouble was.
should this be so. the snake so clearly shown. (even to the sheen on its scales) would have had to
have measured about 200 feet in length. with a girth-diameter of some five feet. And. we repeat; two
hundred!
This snake looks like one of the burrowing snakes of central Africa and it is clear that its head
is in the process of gOing down into the ground. Some of these burrowing snakes are termite-eaters
and have been found only in termites' nests. but they are only a few inches long. If. then. it just so
happened that this reptile was caught above ground in a little bare patch of soil with only -baby"
termite nests and surrounded by some small herbs that look like trees. everything would fit neatly
into the alternative pattern suggest - but for one fact. Photographs of that clarity would have had to
have been taken from a tripod standingoii"thegrOUrid; but analysis of the shadows of the termites'
nests made it almost. if not absolutely. certain that they had been taken from the air and from just
about 500 feet altitude as the flier had stated!
There is then a rather nasty come-back to the assumption that there ~ 200-foot-long burrowing
snakes. Just what do they eat? Despite the profuseness of termites and the ability of snakes to
maintain health and growth on an astonishingly small amount of food with long intermediate periods
of fast. the notion that they could be insectivorous is most dubious. Could they subsist on burrowing
animals of which there are many of fair size even unto the pig-sized Aard-Vark and other purely subterranean dwellers? Almost all size-groups of life have appropriately sized predators to contend with.
and the idea of an aard-vark-eating blind-snake is rather delightful. But there is a third alternative
that we suggest might have been overlooked.
Might we. in fact. suggest that this snake was photographed from only about fifty feet uP. and
simply be a large python going back into its hole? In this case. the termites' nests would be only
about a quarter built and the vegetation modest bushes. In fact. we have only the flier's word for the
altitude from which the thing was photographed.
SUPERSENSORY PERCEPTION
This is another case of a near cross-over" and very nearly a three-way one at that. si~ce the
mentalogy boys in the guise of so-called parapsychologists have long wished to grab it for their
beloved ESP. The real link, however. in this case comes between chemiphysics and biology. and the
latter wins on this occasion becaus~. while the procedure is plainly physical. the effects are not only
primarily but uniquely biological. As a matter of fact. it is becoming increasingly doubtful as to
whether there is any Section VIII since of the four aspects of a living entity - body. brain. intellect.
and identity - three have now been shown to be either entirely. or at least as far as we have so far
been able to find out. chemiphysically based. Who's to say that the last stronghold of the "mental" i.e. the identity. individuality. psyche. id. or whatever you want to call "it .. - is not founded on and
controlled by the same forces acting upon the same principles? Be all this philosophical conjecture
as it may. let us present still another case of SSP chopping a slice out of ESP.
For over a century naturalists. plain country folk. and other keen observers of wildlife and even
working scientists have reported extraordinary behaviour on the part of animals prior to earthquakes.
Oriental peoples have accepted this fact for millenia. The matter has cropped up once again currently
in reports from Peru. Seabirds that normally fish close inshore suddenly moved miles offshore in
some hurry and confusion along a three-hundred mile coastline. Ten hours later a series of modest
earth-tremors shook that coast and apparently shocked (mechanically) a lot of fish to death that later
floated to the surface. The seabirds who took evasive action were divers!
This is a massive subject on which there is equally massive documentation, so we will give only
three examples before commenting. These are: (1) In a letter from T. L. Boye of Denver:; concerning the severe quake which hit Seattle. Washington. in April. 1959: "The following excerpts from the letter I received from a friend there may be of
interest to you: 'I was in the kitchen when it hit and I looked out from there and it was just raining
dead birds. I saw one pheasant die. It just came running around the house and fell dead on the front
walk.' I enclose also a piece published in the Denver Post at the time of the big quake in Yellowstone National Park In 1963; the wild fowl duplicated this phenomenon from west of Denver to as far
north as Saratoga. Wyoming."

- 38-

(2) Denver POST, Aug. 26, 1963: Waterfowl and other birds apparently sensed the comingof'the
Aug. 17 earthquake in southeastern Montana, and left before the first shocks, according to a univerSity professor. Dr. Edgar W. Spencer of Washington and Lee University, who has been studying the
area, said the birds mysteriously disappeared from the major quake area the afternoon before the first
shocks were felt. He said the departure of the birds was not noticed at the time but their absence
since has been remembered.
'
(3) The same year also the same thing was reported from Yugoslavia. According to press reports,
animals in Skoplje sensed the oncoming disastrous earthquake which hit that city early on the 26th
of July. At 4:30 a.m~ keepers and officials were awakened by a tremendous uProar ~ong the animals
in the zoo. Wildly rtrumpeting elephants charged the barriers of their enclosures;, lions and tigers
roared and paced, etc., etc. Patrolling policemen noticed that there were no birds about, while those
at central headquarters struggled with their two bloodhounds which howled and leaped at the windows
trying to escape. One couple was awakened at 5 a.m. by scuffling and fluttering noises downstairs.
On investigating they found that their pet canary had beaten itself to death against the bars of its
cage. With more sense than most showed, the husband packed uP his wife and two children and immediately fled the city. At 5: 17 a.m. the earthquake struck, devastating over 80% of the city. A few
birds returned to Skoplje the next day.
These are, as we say, but three examples out of hundreds of reports of animals showing evidence
of prior warning of earth-tremors and also of being seriously injured or killed by them. There is also
evidence that human beings are likewise affected and it has been shown that UP to 80% of mental
patients appear to be upset by geomagnetic disturbances; and in some cases in advance of detectable
aberrations. It is, in fact, now demonstrable that such events start long before the,y are detected even
by our most sensitive instruments and that these effects may be other than purely seismographic,
which is to say mechanical. Evidence of this recently came from a somewhat unexpected source.
In the 15th September, 1967, issue of the JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH (Vol. 72,
No. 18), Messrs. L. Mansinha and D. E. Smylie of the Department of Geophysics of the University of
western Ontario, London, Canada, published a paper entitled "Effect of Earthquakes on the Chandler
Wobble and the Secular Polar Shift-. Their summary of this work starts off: "The representation ot.
the displacement fields due to the faults associated with major earthquakes by the elasticity theory
of dislocations shows that these fields are very extensive, both laterally and vertically.... It is
shown that ... the results are compatible with the hypothesis that earthquakes excite the Chandler
Wobble. " Perusal of this fasCinating paper brings to light the simple fact that there is good evidence
that the wobble of the axial pole seems to be linked to earthquakes, and with particular emphasis on
those caused by m~or fault slips.
Then, in the 13th September, 1968 issue of SCIENCE (Vol. 161, p. 1127) the same authors presented a subsidiary paper, the abstract of which reads: "Observational evidence is presented in suPport
of the hypothesis that large earthquakes excite the earth's natural wobble and produce the observed
secular polar shift. Previous theoretical calculations based on elasticity theory and earthquake
statistics had predicted a significant effect. There appear to be some premonitory signs of large
earthquakes in the pole path. Translated into laymen's terms this means simply that there is direct
evidence that the so-called Chandler Wobble has been shown to be possible of detection before or in
advance of the earth tremors to which it is subsequently attributed.
Now, the earth is - to us at least - a colossal flywheel with enormous mass, and to tilt its
axis-of-spin takes an enormous force. SUch force could be applied from 'outside' or from within the
body itself and this work seems to show that it comes from the inside. as it were. This force would
seem, further, not to be released SUddenly but to be a build-up; and such that truly sensitive mechanisms like animals indigenous to this earth should surely be able to detect them. 'Birds are particularly sensitive creatures in many respects. So also, it appears, are human beings' in certain states,
some of which we call "insane". Perhaps what we have come to call human "sensitives- are equally
so, leading to such (misinterpreted) announcements as the "End of the World- .In fact, it does look
as if all this is chemiphysical.

* * * * * * * *

- 39-

VII. ANTHROPOLOGY
(The Structure

Behaviour .2!.!!!!l!!!!!. Enterprise)

Archaeology. Pre-history. History. Etbnology. SOciology.

Folklore. Philology. Economics and the Arts.
Architecture. Agronomy and otber useful arts.
and their related technologies.
EARLY EUROAMERICANS
In the NEW YORK TIMES of Sunday. October 20th 1968. there appeared a brief but very pertinent
article by our member Andrew E. Rothovius (100). wbo is also Secretary of tbat most excellent
society N.E.A.R.A. - the New England Antiquities Research ASSOciation. of New Hampshire. This
was entitled "Mystery Hill's Riddle: 1600's or 3000 B.C.?- - meaning. we assume. -The Riddle of
Mystery Hill; A.D. 1600 to 1699. or circa 3000 B.C. - This described present work at a site of that
name near North Salem. N.H . which has puzzled scholars and laymen alike for several decades. It
comprises a number of small but massive structures with tunnels. drains. what appears to be an altar
slab. and other curious features that could possibly be interpreted as either some sort of colonial
cider-press. a maple-syrup refining plant. a potato storage. or suchlike. On the other band. the history
of the place is very garbled and obscure; there are records of its having been much larger in colonial
times. and of masses of other constructions having been vandalized for their stones; also there are
reports of many other nearby sites of similar odd construction.
The really interesting paragraph in this article is. however. and we quote: "At the 33rd annual
meeting of the Society for American Archeology (sic). Robert A. Kennedy of tbe Pembroke shire County Museum. Wales. reported that 'a substantial body of sound archeological (sic) evidence can be
presented to demonstrate that such early trans-Atlantic contacts actually took place between 3500
and 2000 B.C. The pottery evidence alone is irrefutable.'
This would seem at last to bring us face to face with not only pre-Columbian but also pre-Erikson
infiltration of the Americas from the east. It has always seemed strange to us that the general concensus of opinion. both popular and even scholarly. should be that nobody "discovered- America
prior to the Norse; when. at the same time. everybody has accepted the fact that the Amerinds came
from east Asia and the Eskimos later by the same route across the Bering strait. The very idea that
an endless stream of Korean. Japanese. and Chinese ships. sometimes with survivors aboard. could
have drifted around the north Pacific via the Kuro Slwo and east-wind-drift-currents. has always put
everybody into a tizzy; but that Europeans could have deliberately boated over here when still in
what is termed a neolithic stage of civilization invariably produced much more dire repercussions.
Now. however. facts are beginning to make themselves felt. and an increasing number of scholars on
both sides of the Pacific and of tbe Atlantic are. one by one. taking a quite different view of the
matter. And. N.E.A.R.A. for all its youthfulness has played not a small part in this. sln~e tbey and
their members from long before they became associated have been Just ploughing along investigating.
mapping. and describing one after another of a seemingly endless list of neolithic type massive stone
structures scattered allover both North and South America.
This has meant that not only have other old myths. such as that the Northern Amerinds did not
build in stone. have fallen by the wayside. while a whole host of alternatives have come to light.
First went tbe Columbus myth; then came the Norse; next the Phoenicians; and finally the copper
and early bronze age folk with their hlll-forts. bison corrals. megalithic graves. and other monuments.
We've had Phoenician inscriptions - and in both of their scripts. and even with tbe names of certain
of their kings in both - from the Amazon since the 1870s; now we have Bronze Age (of Europe) ty'pe
pottery in the northern hemisphere.
The Phoenicians in South America constitute a matter that we will have to take up at greater
length later. but let us Just quote from that most excellent publication THE LOG. Vol. II. No.6, of
June. 1968. On page 103. the news editor reports: Prof. Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University thinks
a tablet he has translated proves that Phoenicians touched the New World 2000 years before Columbus. An inscription on the tablet. left by a .crew of 12 men and 3 women. tells how their ship left the
Gulf of Aqaba in the company of nine other ships during the reign of a Slxth Century B.C. king of
Sidon named Hiram. Dr. Gordon feels the ship was blown off course on a trip around Africa before
500 B.C. and .ended up on the shores of Brazil. The tablet bearing an inscription was first discovered
in Brazil in 1872. - Shades of poor Prof. Ramos of Brazil.

- 40 -

CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
(This Is not a paid advertisement.)
NOTE: We continue to list books which we consider will or may bc of interest to members - in print,
'out of print', and forthcoming. This is 'arranged alphabetically by author. However, in Vol. 2, No.4.
we propose to publish an amalgamated bibliography of all titles by (a) author and (b) subject. At the
same time, a subject index of the first two volumes will be issued. Books by members are indicated
by an (*).
Baker, Robert A., ed. (1969). ~ ~ Analysis Qf i strapless Evening Gown, W!!I Other Essays I!.U:
I Scientific ~. New York: Doubleday-Anchor Books~
,
Barrett, Charles (1946). ~ ~. Melbourne: Reed & Harris.
Boland, Charles M. (1963). They All Discovered America. New York: Pocketbooks, Inc.
Condon. Dr. Edward U. (as Project Director) (1969). Scientific ~ Qf Unidentif(ed Flving Ohi~.
New York: Bantam Books.
(Continent Series: These are the best modern geographies you can get, but -they
expensive _ $20
each - all published by Random House, New York.)
*Sanderson, Ivan T. (1964). I!!!. Continent ~ ~ On. (North America)
Curry-Lindahl, Kai (1964). Europe.
Brown, Leslie (1965). Mrica.
Keast, Allen (1966). Australia !!!!! the Pacific Islands.
Dorst, Jean (1967). 2!!ll! America !!!!!! Central America.
Pfeffer, Pierre (1968). Asia.
Coon, Prof. Carleton S. (1954). The story Qf M!!!. New York: Knopf.
(1962). The Origin 2.!~. New York: Knopf.
*Corliss, William R. (1967). M.vsteries 2! the Universe. New Yorle Thomas Y. Crowell.
Darlington, Prof. C. D. (1969). l:!!! Evolution Q1 M!!! !:lli!! Society. New York: Simon amI Schuster.
(This is scheduled for pUblication in April, 1969. Readers should bear in mintl that
scheduled publication dates are sometimes accurate and sometim~s wishful thinldng
"
on the part of the publisher.)
Loehr, Rev. Franklin (1969). The Power Q! Prayer 2!!~. New York: Signet M,ystic (NAL).
*McGraw, Walter J. (1969). ~ World of the Parenorrnal. New York: Pyramid.
(NASA) Scientific & Technical Information Facllity (1964, liW5). Extraterr~stri:i.l LUp.: d Biblio~, Parts I and II. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office.
Santesson, Hans stefan, ed. (1968). Flying saucers WE!!:! !ruI Fiction. New York: Lancer Books.
Saunders, Dr. David R., and Harkills, R. Roger (1968). !.!EQ1 U!. New York: N'ew American Librery.
Trench, Brinsley LePoer (1960). !ill! hl People. Hackensack, N. J.: Wehman Bros.
Turnbull, Colin M. (1961). The Forest People. 'New York: Simon and Schuster.
Vasll'yev, L. L. (1967). Mysterious Phenomena 2!' the }luman Psyche. Clearinghouse for Federal
Scientific and T~chnical Information, No. AD 661 891, $3.
The Clearinghouse collects reports from Government laboratories and industrial
firms and private institutions under contract to Federal Agencies. It receives about
40,000 each year, and they are available either in paper copies ($3 each) or on microfiche (sheet microfilm) at 65ft each. New reports are announced semi-monthly in 46
separate categories; thus one need subscribe only to announcemen~s covering those
fields of particular interest. Complete information on the services available and
subscription rates may be had by writing to Clearinghouse (410.61), U.S. Department
of Commerce, Springfield. Va, (22151).
'
The Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., also has 8.1.1 a:stonishillg variety
of documents in all fields, for nominal prices (5 and up). "The Government" has
available information which it is not only willing' but eager to pass on to the public.
If you have a question or need information in a specific field, try writing to the Department involved; you may have to wait a bit, but you will probably be inundated
i
with relevant free material.
Wllcoxson, Kent A. (1966). Chains Qf Fire: The story of Volcanoes. Philadelphia: Chilton Books.

are

As to whether titles are actually -in print- (as is technic21ly known in the trade), those'interested
should apply to their llbriuy for search in the two standard works Books in Print, and~ Cumulative
~~

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New membership is solicited; but, to this end, the Society does not "promote". Therefore, it is up
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'We do not solicit membership or contributions unless respondents have satisfied themselves 'that
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it was then further decided to div(uce the purely intra-Society news and affairs from the journal, for
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for distribution concurrently with PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No.2, in April, 1969. The first issue of SITU
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The publishing schedule as now envisioned is four quarterly issues of both PURSUIT and SITU
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NEWSLETTER

DATE

NEWSLETTER No.1
NEWSLETTER No.2
(contained in)
(contained in)
(contained in)
SITU NEWS, No. 6

May, 1967
March, 1968
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Jan., 1969
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These are out of print and not available.

JOURNAL

PURSUIT,
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I,
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No.3
No.4
No. 1
No. 2

"Science is the pursuit of the unknown"

.,.

~,

-, ,

."

.JaUANAL
af
The Saciilt:y. Far The Inveat:igat:ian
Of The Unexplained

. For the collection, evaluation, and dissemination of.

information on new discoveries in the natural sciences

,,

. r

~.

VOL. 2, NO.3

JULY, 1969

THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION

OF THE UNEXPLAINED
(Official abbreviation: S.I.T.U.)
R.D., Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: (201) 496-4366

* * * * * * * *
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,-

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..

. ,

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- 41-

EDITORIAL

...

Two splendid young men - John Byram and his brother - somehow managed to get lost on our
back road. noticed the sign at the gate of our New Jersey Research center. and turned in to make
enquiries. John is studying forestry at Juniata College. and his brother is in high school. john was
delightfully frank as. we tInd. is the way with the up-coming generation. He told us that he had
always been interested in Unexplaineds" but that he never had hoped to find an organization devoted
to their pursuit. This was. as you may well imagine. more than just gratifying to us labourers in this
vineyard. But then this most excellent young man also came up with what just might be the answer to
the most troublesome of all questions asked of forteans - and asked constantly. and by everybody.
The number of people who have heard of Charles Fort. even in the Anglosaxon-speaking world
must probably be figured at something like ten to the p.ower of minus nine. and of those who have
heard of this late. great pixie. the percentage who are interested enough to get with his philosophysurely do not exceed ten percent. The main trouble is. of course. that Fort didn't really have a
philosophy. and he abhorred cultism of all kinds. If there is life after physical death - whichFort
more than doubted - the poor boy will be turning in his grave as a result of the increasing number of
thinking people who call themselves forteans. Which brings me back to the knotty problem. Simply
stated. this is: What is a fortean?
We've struggled for 25 years with this one. and we've tried all sorts of approaches, but there has
always been a certain something missing. In trying to answer this simple question. simply. one invariably found oneself launched into a. semantic morass. For instance. one might say that there is
pragmatic knowledge (i.e. scientific) on the one side. and mystical or purely mental exercises on the
other. but that forteans stand squarely in between and are interested only in facts. doubt everything.
and try to pursue said facts through logic. This at first sounds perfectly splendid. but one immediately
finds oneself in a veritable jungle of further semantic and ontological obfuscation. What. for instance.
is a "fact-? What constitutes "proof- of anything? And by \Y.hit Logic? By this time. the whole pOint
has been missed and the basic question forgotten. This is where John Byram came in. When we were
trying to explain all this to him. he said very simply "Oh. I see what you mean; you deal only with
TANGmLE things-. And so help me. that's the word we've all been looking for.
starting from this "earth-shaking discovery". we reviewed the old standard classi fication of
knowledge and ticked off thereon the tangibles and the intangibles; and something very interesting
emerged. In this field. we've been running for half a century on what can only be called a library
basis. as typified by the Dewey Decimal System. But then about twenty years ago knowledge suddenly
exploded. and it became necessary to simplify the horrendous resultant mess. This resulted in the
eight-part classification that we have always used in this Society. This is still. however. strictly a
librarian's approach to the problem., and it never really worked because it had no places for either
what we call "cross-overs- or for some of the most important fields of pursuit. such as UFOs and
OlNTs. Only one look at the old 8-point .... heel. in the light of what John Byram had inadvertently
brought up was sufficient to demonstrate. and simply and pragmatically. what the trouble had been.
The new approach is. of course. just as empirical. but it does at least give us a working basis;
and this basis is the division of knowledge - i.e. pursuit. search. research. thought. and imagination - into ten rather than eight .general departments; and these may then be graphically displayed
as shown on page 42.
By this purely diagrammatic means. we percei ve that half of these major categories are concerned
with tangible items. while the other half are intangibles. Forteans are concerned with the former
only. and would be well advised to stay within their bounds. This is going to have a profound effect
upon our Society. as will now be explained.
Let us take these ten major. and admittedly arbitrary. divisions of knowledge. one at a time.
Mathematics has been described as the only exercise that is really real but which does not actually
exist in the absence of an intellect. In other words. though the most precise of disciplines. it is
totally intangible.
Ontology is altogether less precise. but is just as intangible and. like mathematics. its exercises are purely intellectual. Just consider them-Cosmology. which means simply
the constructlion of existence; space (whatever that is); time; locus (i.e. position); and so forth.
When we come to what we call physics. we run into a curious paradox. If anything is practical. and
what we call "down to earth-. this is it; but. on analYSis. it transpires that. as a science - and we
are not referring to its handmaiden. Engineering. which is actuallY an adjunct to Biology and Anthropology - it deals wholly with intangibles. And this goes for both classical and nuclear physics. Subatomic particles are there all right. as is proved by their effects. but their behaviour is. frankly.
altogether intangible. And this is precisely the difference between these three departments of intellectual activity and the two at the other end of the spectrum; or. alternatively, at the opposite side

" ~"""""""'''''I~'''''''''''''''L.''''''''''~I1~''._''''I''''''''I''~

~""

- 42-

of the wheel, and which we will come to in a moment. Meantime. as we pass on below the horizontal
line that bisects the wheel. we enter the world of the tangible. No comment is called for here. except
to point out. once again. that this is where our (fortean) interests lie. and the baili wick in which we
should stay. Proceeding then from the works of man. we re-enter the upper half of the wheel again and
find that we have to advance through the world of what is called the -mind- and its behaviour and
finally to its concepts. These pursuits are totally intangible. though psychology stands in much the
same relationship to biology and anthropology as does physics to chemistry and astronomy. The
marvel is that we end up just where we started - namely. with a purely mental exercise. Trying to
prove the existence of God. or of any other universal power. is just about on a par with trying to
square a circle.
There remains. however. a fascinating problem. Just where does the greatest bugbear of all go?
This is what has come to be called Ufology.

THE TAXONOMY
OF KNOWLEDGE
INT ANGIBLES

III

MENTALITY

PERFORMANCE

VIII

TANGIBLES

(See also P. 58)

- 43-

A NOTE ON THE INTANGIBLES

(Sections I, II, III, IX,' and X)

-.

This is frankly a continuation of our editorial. In accordance with our new expressed policy, nothing relevant to the five departments listed above the horizontal line on the diagram on the opposite
pag!! is going ~o be written up for this journal by anyone except those who have spent their time over
the years studying these matters, either professionally or as what may be called -professional amateurs - and if that doesn't satisfy the pros nothing will!
During the past Quarter we have received a number of most fascinating items in all these five
fields, but our grim determination to follow our new policy - as a result of the -great discovery precludes the possibility of such expressions being finalized in time for this issue. However, take
heart, as they will be along in due course.
Under the head of Mathematics we have an hilarious analysis by Prof. Martin Kruskal of a member's
sugg'estion as to how to -trisect the angle". His suggested solution appears to be valid but is - according to Dr. Kruskal - not "according to Hoyle" or, otherwise, "the rules". Funny people, mathematicians! There is worse to come in departments III and IX: but again, more of this anon. We have more
than' enough t9 try.and cope with in the five departments of the TANG~BLES: as follows: IV. CHEMISTRY
The Structure and Behaviour

Q.!

"IT JUST BURST IN'TO FLAMES."

Our me'mber, Herr Horst Freidrich (39) of Bavaria, F.R.G., wrote us regarding a matter that has
puzzled us for long time. The pith of his letter reads: "When walking around here in our country-side
I have been wondering for some time about just who makes so ma~ little fires all around on fields
and meadows at every season, for in my opinion the number of apparently Quite recent (max. several
daYs) places where little fires must have burnt and now only ashes etc. remain is astonishingly
large."
This is one of those puzzlers with which our ordinary, everyday life is filled but which we ignore.
We are conditioned almost from birth to handle such enigmas in an entirely pragmatic manner and, in
this case, by such consoling expressions as: Oh some idiot threw a lighted cigarette out.of the car:
or, Must have Deen struck by lightning: or, A pile of leaf mould got damp and started smouldering. All
perfectly splendid and Quite possible, but are they the true answers? Frankly, there are just too many
of these little fires, month after month: year in and year out, and apparently all over the world, and
even in areas of very high precipitation. What is more, the vast majority of them are nowhere near a
road from which an idiot could throw a lighted cigarette, none ever seems to cause enough rumpus to
prompt a call to the local fire department, none is seen burning, and there is very seldom any record
of lightning at the time. But there they are, just small burned-out patches of ashes.
This brings UP a whole series of extremely nasty Questions. First, we have to ask just what is
"fire". and just where does it start and end? Smouldering on the one han,d, and flames on the other,
are related Questions. Nobody seems to be able to provide a straightforward answer to these Questions.
Take flames, for instance. Do they constitute another form of matter in the same general way as do
plasmas? And what of "smoke' without fire" - i.e. smouldering? So. OK; certain SUbstances in certain
condi~ions promote certain bacterial action that raises the temperature to a point where the mass
starts to what we call smoulder, and smoke (without flame, please note) starts seeping out. Then - at
least it is alleged - if the mass gets too dry, it bursts into flames. Wet straw and hay are said to be
prime candidates for such performances; but then why don't all hay-ricks, baled hay in damp barns,
and all other mulch heaps go off? In fact, what's to prevent a sort of continuous Gotterdammerung?
But this isn't even a tithe of the problem. First, why do some substances or even composite things
"burn" while others don't? True, by raising the temperature sufficiently all substances will .....but
wait a minute! We almost said "burn", but most of them don't. They may start to glow, and right up to
blue-white, but then they either liquify, and so. won't burn, or they dash through that estate and vaporize: ~d in the latter case they sometimes won't "burn" even then. Then take what pure potassium or
calcium does when tossed into water. It .darned near explodes: and this brings us to another set of
enigmas. Just what are explosions and detonations? Why should a combination of carbon, sulphur, and
saltpetre go bang when properly annoyed? And please don't dredge UP the Question of oxygenation. .
Little spontaneous fires that duly put themselves out all over the countryside are, one would have
thought, bad enough, but what of all the people who appear to just burst into flames spontaneously?

- 44-

The historical record is littered with these. The most famous was, one must suppose, that of the
almost total consumption of the famous author ~emple Thurston in his favourite armchair at his home
in England in 1933. The most famous modern case is that of aMrs. Mary H. Reeser of st. Petersburg,
Florida, who was discovered shortly after 8:00 a.m. on the 2nd of July, 1951, almost totally consumed
by' fire, in a room that was otherwise untouched but for the' ashes 'of her armchair and the' melting of
candles' and light fixtures due to excessive heat. Mrs. Reeser did not smoke; ther~ had been no
thunderstorm or other meteorological electrical discharge; the main wiring of the house was in perfect
order due to the fuse having been blown, presumably by the -fire" in Mrs. Reeser's room; and no noise
or smell of smoke had been recorded by the other occupants of the house or by neighbours. -All that
wa~ left of Mrs. Reeser were a left foot. an incredibly ~hrunken skull. and a few charred vertebrae.
Dr. Wilton Krogman. senior pathologist of the Unive~sity of Pennsylvania, who was called In by
baffled police. firemen, and the coroner's office stated for' the r'ecord: "Never have I 'seen a sJ(ull so
shrunken or a body so completely consumed by heat. This is contrary to normal experience and'I
regard it as the most amazing thing I have ever seen." It was estimated that a heat of at least 2500
degrees F. would have been needed to"consume the 17o-lb Mrs. Reeser.
,
What is needed is a little more research, and original investigation "in laboratories, on what may
be called combustion - spontaneous and otherwise. It might also be nice to hear from 'the physicists
just what electrical potentials do get Bround in natural conditions, let alone 1"n our new man-contrived
environment. If you can detonate a pile of dynamite by instructing said' detonator to go to work via an
electrical impulse, why not a dung heap by an escape of static? Some practical information, please.
Perhaps a start has been made in this, at least from the chemical point of view. In No. 12, of
Volume 1, of the Journal of APPLIED TROPHOLOGY, dated De"ci!mber, 1957, and published by Standard Process Laboratories of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - and, incidentally, marked "Restricted to Professional Use" - there is a five-column article entitled "INOSITOL (Vitamin B-10), Potassium, and
Phosphoric Acid". This is not signed. After' going into t.he part' played by this and other v.itamins in
mammalian metabolism, it states of the natural biochemical Phosphogen as follows: .
"Phosphogen is a compound like nitroglycerine, of endothermi~ formatiQn. It is 'no doubt so highly
developed in certain sedentary persons as to make their body actually combustible', subj~ct to ig-:.
nition, burning like wet gunpowder under some circumstances. (See Jack Moffitt's article In Los
Angeles Herald-Express, March 14, 1956 reviewing a num.ber of such cases)."
.
Only after great trouble and several deriials was 'this article traced but it did not contain neally as
much information as one by All an W. Eckert in TRUE Magazine of MaY, 1964. This latter is d'efiriitely
preferred reading for all forteans. It produced the most violent response from certain segment~' o'f the
medi.cal profession and notably those involved in forensic pathology, one of whom denied. ,in a :letter
to the magazine that any such cases had ever happened! One might as well say no airplane, ev,er exploded in the air. But then,
course, until comparatively recently there ~ere no such things as
meteorites.
I

,I

of

V. ASTRONOMY

!h! Structure

and Behaviour

2! Gross Bodies.

MORE GREEN CHEESE

Apart from the uproar over pulsars~ the Music of the Spheres seems to have deteriorated -into a
dreary, ,monotonous, one-theme, one-chord, one-phrase dirge. just as jazz has petered out into the
current monotony of current pop. stuff. Apparently. it's the Moon or nothing. And just as apparently,'
there seems tn. be nothing we can do about. it until some enlightened people come along to rescue us
from it; as the so-called "Blacks or Negroid peoples from Africa have now rescued oilr popular music
half a dozen times in this century.
. Frankly,. what with the outpourings on the truly marvellous achievement of Apollo 10, which wer~
more than just legitimate, and the endless scientific papers on our sister planet, and' the' small
mountain of clippings and reports that accumulate on our desks relative to same, we have bec'ome
almost as "bored" with it as we have with the interminable UFOs. But, as with those items, plolighing
through all this material has brought to light one most astonishing disclosure. This is that the pr~
foundest and most respected professional astronomers have;, in the past, made almost as great assess
of themselves - and in print - as have the mystics and -pseudoscientists. One can hardly believe
one's eyes when one reads some of the things they published only a few years ago. '
In our last issue we remarked upon the really extraordinary amount of material that 'has been
published in certain quarters about observation of the moon' that is frankly fortean and at complete
variance with the line that has been fed the public by astronomers for a hundred years. These were

- 45 -

catalogues of oddities observed on the moon, such as were reponed in the almost monumental ~
logical Catalog .Q!,Reported ~ ~ published by no less than NASA; but this is not specifically what we are discussing here. That of which we do speak are positive statements as to the nature
arid composition of the surface of the moon, derived from the most refined and precise instrumentation' ,
and analyses by the best machines and other devices at the disposal of the mo~t respected astronomers and other scientists. What we cannot understand is how said r~al experts would risk making such
bold statements when e:ven the worst pessimist would hardly declare that we would never actually get
to the moon. What is more, some of these pontifications and assertions hav'e even been published after
we did get there - by controlled machines, that is.
)
You may recollect our two favourite pontificators; one: who asserted that the moon was covered
allover with a four-hundred foot forest of vegetation; the other who said it was not vegetation but
dust? Well, believe it or not, but in an erudite work entitled ATLAS OF THE MOON, by one Vincent
de Callatay (Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1964), with a preface by no less than Sir Bernard Lovell of
Jodrell Bank, it was categorically stated that: "Professor Bernard Lyot initiated a large number of
laboratory analyses (of the polarization of the light reflected by the moon) and was thus able to'
conclude that the lunar surface must be composed of a powdery material bearing a strong resemblance
to volcanic ash." Need it be painted out that no down-to-moon photograph~ have so far detected any
dust of any kind but rather sand, gravei, stones, boulders, and bar~ rock. The same paper goes on to
say that the French astronomer Dr. Audouin Dollfus continued Prof. Lyot's work and set out specifically to study the polarization of light reflected from lunar surface areas that showed, visually.
marked declivity. It then states: "Since there is a critical angle for every slope beyond which a powder must of necessity slide off a,nd thus lay bare the underlying rock., it would be right to suppose
that the steep parts of the Moon are not covered with the same material as the flat surfaces. Now this
is not so; experiments which have been made on the cliff forming the 'straight Wall' and on the slopes
of a valley, have shown that there is no difference ill polarization between sioping regions and the
neighbouring areas. Dollfus was therefore able to conclude that this powder not only adheres to the
surface, but that it fills the wrinkled cavities under the nction of forces whiCh appear greater than
gravity." - - - - Unfortunately for the good doctor, this is not so either!
The pay-off is the concluding paragraph of that section of this book ~hich states: "Lyot's conclusions were in this way confirmed and improved: the lunar surface is very probably covered with a
substance composed of granules of volcanic ash, irregular, opa.Que, and of small dimensions. The
overlying layer is very likely powdery, and perhaps very shallow, but covering the surface every":
where." At least the good fellow did say "probably": but still, it's still u damned-fool statement for
any scientist to make: What we would like to know is: first, is it their instruments that don't do what,
they are supposed to do; or have tl\ey got the basic principies upon which such instruments work
wrong in the first place: or don't they know how to interpret what said instruments seem to tell them;
or is it just that their whole concept of possibility and thus of reality is all awry? The really terrifying thing is that they can be this far off all a simple thing like this. Just how far off may they not
be on more difficult matters such as, for instance, the Doppier Effect. This is one of which we have
always been suspicious in any case. So let's hand it to the technologists. At least they got out there
f!.I1d found out just what is what by the good old and tried method of "going look-see".

A recognized name for a specific feature on the Moon's surface.

WATER IN THE MOON

In view of the above item, we trust that the next lot of experts know more of that of which they
speak. This is anent the recent outbUrst over what have been called Mascons, which all began as a
result of tracking and monitoring the paths of Lunar Orbiters 3, 4, and 5. A team of scientists at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., discovered six mass concentrations of dense material
beneath the surface of the moon. Since then six more have been discovered.
"Dr. Paul M. Muller of the JPL, and his colleague and cod~sco,verer of mascons, Dr. William L.
Sjogren,' found from the radio Signals from the Lunar Orbiters that the spacecraft speeded up slightly
as they passed over these areas, or 'ringed seas' of the moon. He and Dr. Sjogren, have ,since constructed a gravemetric map of the moon's near side that clearly locates mascons. or gravity highs.
1n the depre,ssed lunar basins. The excitement caused by this discovery was stirred partly ,by the
possibility that these were real seas billions of years ago. Dr. Muller suggests that underneath'these

- 4:6 -

huge cratered areas (some are 600 miles across) there may be residues of water or ice. If this speculation is correct, it would revolutionize lunar exploration plans, for it raises the aw.esome prospect of
finding some form of primitive life on or below the moon's surface. If there i ,water, or ice, or 'frost
trapped below the moon's surface - now an attractive theory among scientists - then the prospect of
fi~ding some primitive lite form somewhere below the, moon's surface also becomes a realpossibillty.(ex: The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 10 May, 1969).
'This is all perfectly splendid, but, then come Messrs. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Stanton J. Peale,
and Gerald Schubert, of the Institute of Geophysics and' the Department of Planetary and Space Science, of the University of California, Los Angeles, with a long paper in SCIENCE, of May, 1968 (Vol.
161, PP. 226-269), that boldly tackles the problem of what appear to be dry river-beds on the moon.
This paper starts out by saying: "Photographs obtained by the Lunar Orbiters 'show sinuous rills resembling the meandrous channels of terrestrial streams; about 30 are visible from Earth and were
first described in 1788. The sinuous rills appear to originate in craters on relatively higher ground
and to terminate on lower plains, their widths often decrease with distance from the crater, and they
tend to occur in groups. Significant new features revealed by the Lunar Orbiter photographs are a
much smaller meandrous channel in the bottom of Rima Prinz I, and mature meanders in the smaller
channel on the floor 'of Schroeter's Valley, which require reexamination of our theories of the origin
of the rills. The obvious similarities i!'l appearance between the rills ,and terrestrial river channels
early led to the suggestion that the rills were produced by erosion by water.The rest of this article should be read in full as it is a \'ery clear presentation of the theory of
these scientists. It is not easy to put it simply, however, because the reader is expected - and in
this case quite rightly - to know of, understand, and accept a number of assumptions both of planetary
structure, surface geologic mechanics, meteoritics, and hydrology. Let us say then that the idea is
that there could be a layer of vast, curved, lenticles of fossil ice not too far down under the surface
of the moon which were produced by certain expansive pressures from below. This would initially be
what' \Y e call "water-. sort of squeezed out of the lower layers of the moon's mass but which, on
reaching near to the surface, congealed into ice and remained there ever since, and in lieu of other
-rock. (Please note that ice is a form of "rock".), The next stage of the process, as envisioned by
these scientists, is that a meteorite of more than a certain critical mass hit the surface above one of
these buried masses of palaeocrystic ice; and that, as a result, the covering layer of ordinary rock
was punctured. The result of this would be that, for various reasons, the ice would "boil and well'
u'p into the crater causee. by the meteorite and, in certain circumstances, top the rim of this and pour
down onto lower ground in the form of rivers or rills as they call them.
The flow would diminish as it went - unlike our rivers that mostly increase in volume from tributaries - and finally peter out in the super-desert conditions of the !'lIoon. Such "rivers might well
be under a' serpentine cap of ice but they would still do their cutting into the surface iust as ours do,
following slopes, getting around more resistant points, and generally "meandering-. Eventually the
supply of water topping the rim of the crater would run out and the heat that melted the buried ice
would dissipate, and everything would return to normal. Any water vapour diffused upwards would be
lost due to the lack of. atmosphere; which in turn is due to the low gravity of this planetary body. The
last sentence of the summary' or Abstract of this fascina.l.ing paper reads: "A sinuous rill could be
eroded in about lOO years. We would just like to steer all of you to a science-fiction work by that
true master of science fiction, Robert Heinlein, entitled THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS (1966),
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.
EXIT-HATCHES, SILOS, OR WHAT?
Our Member No. 292 sent us a funny one regarding this confoun~ed moon of ours. It read as follows:
"On page 30 of this issue (Vol. 2, No. 2 of this journal), in the diSCUSSion of life ~ the lunar
surface, not one word is mentioned in re those 'silos' shown in a Surveyor photograph. These ,5 silos
appear to show the entrance-exit openings for sub-surface vehicles which do not need to 'land' before
entering. Consequently, the lunar surface in their immediate vicinity shows nothing. I have no idea
if the NASA-R-277 report has a copy of this p~otograph or not; and the engineer who showed me this
picture didn't say if it was classified or not - we were discussing other things. '
We have not seen this particular photograph but we have got others released by NASA that show
what indeed appear to be masses of perfectly circular dish-like depressions that reflect light, all of
the same size, perfectly regular and dotted all over the place. Then there were the very clear photographs 'Of that allegedly 75-ft obelisk that was released on the 20th November 1966 (the best of which
was No. 66-H-758). Something looked wrong about this shot and so we had a photographer make a
negative' and, sure enough, all kinds of things came to light, including a lot, of domes, as well as

- 47 -

saucerl1ke depressions. In fact. the photo issued by NASA was itself a negative! When one got ,a
positive. the bloody obelisk was standing upright rather than lying down; a~d it turned out. in point
of fact. to be what looked like "its shadow in the NASA photo. We begin, to wonder how many other
officially released pixs are negatives. They can be awfully confusing to amateur photographers and
astronomers. and just about everybody else. Maybe some of these so-called silos are actually domes.
~ ~

Spirit!!! Science.

From a speech given to the Council on Arteriosclerosis of the American Heart Association at
Miami Beach by Dr. Irvine H. Page. as quoted by the NATIONAL OBSERVER: "(Do) you remember the!
,footnote in a paper which said. 'Since this pape,r was written one of us has died' - anonymity in it~
most sophisticated form?" (What?)

-.

VI. GEOLOGY

l1! Structure and Behaviour of t.h. E.!&n.h.

PETRIFIED ORANGES
Back in May. 1962. we received a letter from a Mr. J. S. F. Carter of Carter & Nansen Co Inc.,
of New York. an engineering firm specializing ,in the installation of distillation and absorption plants.
Mr. Carter. himself a chemical engineer. had spent many years in South America. His letter announced
in most businesslike terms the following: ...:. "A number of years ago I was in Uruguay and. together
with three friends, took a trip in a Model-T to the north of the country. into Salto Province. Near the
, town of Constitucion there is a river called Arapey. a branch of which has the most amazing properties.
The water of this river will petrify a fairly large tree. and I have seen some at least 18" in diameter
,completely petrified. within a period of a year. The small branches will petrify in three to four weeks.
I saw. for instance, half an orange in which the pulp had been removed in some manner, but the rest
of it. including the outsi!ie skin. the little center posts and the small veins which run from the post
to the outer skin, completely petrified. and at the same time retaining their original color. The local
people told me that this happens regularly within three to four weeks. I suppose that the answer is
the river water is very high in ,<alcium salts together with some others."
,
In August of 1962 he wrote: "It so happens that an Argentine friend of mine, Dr. Parodi, is leaving
for Uruguay in the next few days. I have talked to him about the petrification of wood and oranges
and he is gOing to get in touch with a friend of mine in Montevideo. the engineer Valetti, who is Chief
Engineer of ANCAP! their local alcohol. sugar, and cement. goverl'!ment trust. ANCAP has a plant,
fairly close to the Site of this river so that we should be able to get somebody to go up there and get
some samples of wood. and also possibly some oranges which have been p~tr~fied. It so happens that
Sr. Parodi is quite interested in this situation and he suggested that if"there were no oranges evident
in the water that the ANCAP peo,ple could 'plant' some therein and let them petrify. After this has
happened he would, of course. send samples up to me. Or if some oranges happen to be in the river
,he will have them sent up as soon as possible."
,
On the 20th November Mr. Carter wrote that: On last Friday Dr. Parodi suddenly dropped dead of
a heart attack so I certainly will not be able to talk to him agahi! As a result of this, however. another friend of mine left for Uruguay on Saturday and he is going to ,follow the matter up. It may be.
of course. that ANCAP has been going forward with the work anyway. At least we should know before
too long." Unfortunately we had to leave very urgently on an extended trip abroad at that time and, to
be perfectly frank. we just failed to follow the matter up. Now we cannot trace the company, or Mr.
Carter. in the New York area. (Incidentally. there is not one single Nansen listed in the New York
telephone directory. This we find to be completely incomprehensible.)
This Is a rather sad little story; but then, almost all fortean ones seem to turn out this' wily. So
often. in fact. do they just "evaporate" that it cannot be mere coincidence. even if you are prepared
to accept a Kn - i.e.
boihcidence to the power of infinity. The average person's first reaction to
this Is that they never existed in the first place and are therefore all phonies. This can not be the
answer because a very high proportion of them are tangibles. and a by no means inconsiderable
number of them exist .p!U se. in museums or in private collections; and an ever higher proportion have
been photographed and exM:;ined by real experts in the presence of more than ,enough witnesses. still,
they just seem to fade away; Take our beloved Bozo". It is highly doubtful that' anybodj will ever
again see the specimen, that Heuvelmans and your director saw. so that everybody may 'legitimately
put the thing down as a hoax or a case of mistaken identity. Considet'al~o the little steel cube with a
machined groove around it that was found in a Miocene coal bed (Circa 3O-million years old) that was

---------------,------------------------ 48 -

examined by every type of scientist and machinist but which still lies in the Salzburg Museum in
Austria. Here is absolute.ly irrefutable evidepce that either somebody had invented steel and machinery
.some 28-mUlion years be~ore the .first hominids even evolved on this planet .. or some superiortechnicians came to this earthand dropped a spare, or worn-out, part into a swamp. But .even the father of
e~obiology, Dr . Carl Sagan of Harvard, who first suggested that this planet might have been so visited
.by intelligencies since ever, and even went so far, in his great book .INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE
UNIVERSE, to suggest that archaeologists ought to start keeping their eyes' open for ~vidence of such,
has never mentioned the matter. (Of course, he ought to have added palaeontologists to archaeologists,
but we don't feel that it would have done much good in view of the standard outcoine.)"
We would very much like to have half a petrified orange that had clearly been halved by human
agency. If it had "SUNKIST" stamped on it, and the purple ink had also gotten petrified, we would be
positively elated, and for the following reason. We have become increasing~ suspicious over the
years of the established and still current beliefs on the time factor for the preservation of identifiable
bodies - animal, plant, or artefact. The whole matter of such natural preservation is extraordinarily
complex and will be briefly reviewed in a minute, but please consider a case that really jolted geologists. This was witnessed by the writer (ITS) in Mexico in 1940. The police at a place called Navajoa
in the State of Sonora had a nasty crime on their hands involving several deaths. The allegation was
that certain parties had driven inland towards the Sierras in a truck and butchered a whole family in a
tiny settlement on a dry arroyo. We were living in the town and had become very friendly with the
Jefe de Policia, a most splendid and enlightened man from the State of Nayarit who read Proust in
French. We were collecting rare rats and chasing Nazis and the Jefe gave us enormous help in both
endeavours, so he came to us with his problem since we were outsiders and therefore not involved in
local affairs. What he wanted was help in getting casts of the truck tracks but there had been a flash
flood about a week after the crime had been committed and now the arroyo was covered with concretehard silt. They had the tracks up to a certain point but then they just petered out,and there were no
return tracks. Everybody put their heads together and decided to dig farther UP near the settlement.
This was done but it took pick-axes and crowbars, and we had to go down almost three feet; but, sure
enough, there was the old road (a euphemistic term if I ever heard one) surface, and on it, tracks. Then
we had to drive back to the town to round up cold chisels and light sledge-hammers because, in just
a month, the silt deposited on the old road had hardened to a sort of argillaceous marl and was as
hard as some limestones. What had happened was this. The night of the alleged slaughter it had rained and the road surface was sort; then for some days it was baked dry by the desert sun. Next cam'e
the flash flood and the silt. Then this too was dried out, and apparently calcium-carbonate, or some
such dissolved in its water content, cemented its granules into solid rock. In other words, we had
here fossilized truck tracks in just over a month.
Objects can be preserved in n'ature in many ways. You can have them .preserved for millenia in
frozen soil (muck) such as the mammoths in Siberia and Alaska; you can find them preserved in crude
.oil seepages such as the famous family of Woolly Rhinoceroses in Stirunia in Poland; you have the
Pickled Danes in peat bogs of Mesolithic age. Then, you can p.ave imprints like our truck tracks, and"
of dinosaurs, and what else, produced by the method described above. Next, you have casts, produced
. by things like Shells being trapped in a mud deposit, then completely dissolved, and finally another
substance deposited in the spaces left by them. Finally, you have petrifaction, which means the replacement, molecule by molecule, of the original materials by various minerals. The commonest of
these are the famous petrified forests, found all over the world. The most usual mineral to so replace
is opal, which is an amorphous form of Si02 and this has the curious ability to preserve the original colors of the objects in some cases. ~Ir. Carter's half oranges would seem to be of this order.
However, while fossil truck tracks only a month old were 8J.arming enough, the idea of the petri. faction of things like oranges in a few weeks presents geologists - and palaeontologists - with some
very awkward questions. If fruit, let alone wood, can be so rapIdly petrified, why! not animal bodies;
and if so, why are not a high proportion of fossil animals 'complete bodies' instead of mere skeletons - and skeletons still in perfect order and properly articulated, rather than rent apart? Perhaps the
chemistry of what we call animal, as opposed to plant, life-forms ,precludes the substitution of
simple mineral depositions. '
It is, however,. the time factor that gives us considerable pause to think. HappilY we do not employ
mere, petrifaction for dating the "fossils" we unearth. Rather, the type of animal and its stage ot
development on the evolutionary scale is considered; then the strata in which it was, fo'und, and
finally the new physichemical methods of dating those stfata are brought into play. Nonetheless, it is
a bit alarming to have to realize that things can be truly fossilized in a few weeks and that said
fossils can then be buried under dozens or even hundreds of feet, 'and literally overnight by floods or
by subaqueous disturbances. We intend to take up the pursUit of Mr; Carter's oranges.

- 49-

From a letter to our president: "I want to compliment you on your journal. Y0t.lr ~ife m.us~ be ex...
citing inve.stigating strange happenings. I guess some ~re of natural Cat.ll;l.es. but m~be ~om~ are (or
real."
VII. BIO:t.OGY
The Structur.e and Beh:avi.our Q{ Animate Entiti"e~
AN IVORY-BILLED WOODP~CKER

So what's so important. about this. an.4 wbat of It is unexJ?lain,ed? First. it is a magnif.icent bird
of vivid black. white . and l:ed colorati.on. and larger t.han a crow; second. most ornithologists have
thought for some decades that it is totally extinct. That whi,ch i.s u~e:Jtpl.ained is why it is st~l~
constantly being reported. ~ow. our member Franlt Shields. (155)t.he an~ma,l artist and. sculptor does it
again. and comes. up with a feabher (found near where he sa,w thE! gt;eat b~rd. twice) which can not
have come from any other known North American species. But fil:st to adescl:ipti.on of this bird. w~ich
we take verbatim from Roger Tory PetE!rson's now famous Field ~ t2 the Birds: .... "Ivory.,bill.ed
Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis). !t. very large Woodpecker. larger than "8 crow; maJ.E! with a
flaming red crest; female with a black. crest. Known b;y its superiQ~ ~i~E!. ivory-white bill. a,nd large
white wing-patches visible when the bird is at rest. Formerly (distributed througb) the primaeval
river-bottom forests of the southern United States. Last reported from north .... ouisiana. To Qe looked.
for in Florida and South Carolina. ". (For full description and il~ustrations. seE! P. ~~5 . 1947 edit~on,.
Houghton. Mifflin Company.) J;i'rank Shields now lives in Interlachen. Fl.or~da. and owns a ~arge tract
of forested land around his studio.
The "trick" with this bird is that enthusiasts often mistake the smaller but c~osely related
Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomu!! pileatus) for it. This too bas a flamlng red crest but tbe bUi is
black. It also has white on its wings but this does not show when it is ~t rest or climbi.ng. In the
Ivory. the hind edge of the wing is white; in the Pile~ted. the ~ead ed~e. At this polnt we quote from
Frank Shields' letter. since the positive identification of a single (eather c~l1s {o~ specialized knowledge. and it just so happens that Frank has spent a lifetime specializlng in the qolor patterns of
animals and notably of birds. He writes: "On April 4th & ~5th I ~~w an tvory l3illed WoodpE!cker on our place. It is so near extinction that
some authorities say it is. Qther-s say there may be a do:?:en alive in this country. mostly ~n~ou,.isia~a.
The second Sighting was better. Saw, it on a. tree only 80 (eet away and the wh~te (m the b~ck was
clear and positive id.entificaUon. Then on June 11 I went to turn on the gar4en bQ!;!~ I.'.l\cl n,Qt~d ~
strange black and white feath.er in the grass nearby. It ran,g a, bell in my lllind ~nd I \tnew it was a
feather from the wing of an Ivory :ail.l; there is !l.Q ~ ~ that coul4 have such a feathe~. ~t ls one
of the smaller 'inside' primaries ~djoining the second.Blies;" it is 7 and 5/8 incp~s lon,g. an~ bl!I,Ck an,d
white striped and marked like this. (See cut.) An ivory bill's wing feathers are all bl~ck, on top exc~pt
for the secondary feather (those near the body) and the white of the second,aries ~uns QV:~~ partia~iy
into the next few primaries adjoining. This feather I have is one of these prilllar~E!s. These marginal,
primaries have white slashes that carry- the white of the secondaries
on a "bit farther but
these
have
.
. -.
. . --black tips just as my specimen has. Therefore I have positive contemporary evideQce Of th~ ~~i~t~nce
of one live Ivory-BiUed WoodJ?ecker in this part of Florida."
As we remarked in our last issl!e wheQ speaking of New Ze!llanc;!'s Moa; what woqld Q~ so !lll-{ire~
exciting in getting a live one? Yo", may ask the same question about this lesser bird Q~t yoy wiU get
the same answer: to wit. it woulcl just be a lot of fun and upset a lot of people. Al~Q. pow th!l,t th~
National Audubon Society ba~ been informed. we might get a proper survey arid sOllle actton in QQ~
servation of the animal.

OOPHOLOGY - AS OPPOSED TO UFOLOGY

As you may have divined by now we have an all-consuming interest ill anything to do with eggs.
which we endearingly refer to as oeufs. If we can borrow all those other words from the French, why
not this one? Besides. it gives us a much more mellifluous-sounding designation for the study of
these splendid forms than the official Oology. which somehow always sounds to us like a pop song "Oh! 011ogie" .. Two beautiful items in this department have come to us recently. Since the first
hardly needs comment but is such a delightful shot. we can't help breaking lout in a rash of illustrations. The caption under the firs~ remarkable photo is perfectly -ghastly" and we apologize for it.
The photo is ex good old AP; the caption was composed by those classic punsters at the NEW YORK
NEWS. It went: - "THE EGGONY AND EGGST ASY. Proud mother hen inspects her young fry in
Salem. Oregon. where she laid an egg 8 inches in diameter and lived to cackle about it." We've seen
some big hen's eggs in our time. one containing three yolks. but we are wonderi~g if this is a record.
Further. just what brought it'on?

OLD THREE-TOES AGAIN

The other item is really of rattier a different natuft!. All the information we have as of now is
taken from an article by Harry Butler in the March, 1969 issue of SCIENCE DIGEST. for permission to
paraphrase which we are grateful to both the author and the publishers. This was entitled Ie Australia's
Embarrassing Egg" and was listed rather splendidly itS a "Science Advent,ure". We wonder what
Messrs. Butler and Richard Dempewolff. Editor of the magazine. will have to say when they see this.
And. incidentally. we are grateful to both the latter and to "Keystone" for permission to reproduce the
astonishing counterpart of AP's hen. also reproduced in the above item. Th,is shows an inquisitive
MYnah Bird inspecting an ostrich egg~ No wonder the Australians are embarrassed by their egg; it's
almost exactly twice as long as the ostrich's. What is more. an average ostrich egg has a capacity
1.18 litres; the Australian oof has a capacity of 6.50 litres! This story goes as follows. '
. In the year 1930' the younger son of' a ranching family living near a place called NannuP some
250 miies south of Perth. western Australia. was rounding uP cattle down in the coastal, sand dunes.
and left his horse tethered in order ,to look around for cattle tracks. This young man~s name was Vic
Roberts. and he had with him a friend named Chris Morris. Suddenly Vic spotted this vast egg just
lying on top of the sand. It was very heavy but it has not yet been stated whether it is fossili'zed.
filled with something,. petrified, or just plain heavy. Nearby they found some bones and 'a very large

- 51-

skull with a beak. Vic Roberts' mother was a school teacher and a lady of rather wide knowledge and
she was considerably excited by her son's find. She said it looked like the egg of the Aepyornis, a
vast flightless bird of Madagascar. the semi-fossil egg of which is about the same size. She wrote to
the west Australian Museum in Perth about the item but they merely asked her to bring it in to look
at. It was a long haul in those days so she had her daughter take some photographs with a hen's egg
for comparison and sent them in. Nothing happened, so she gave UP and just sat on the egg, until
Harry Butler, a well-known Australian naturalist who has done much collecting for Australian and
foreign museums in his country got wind of it in 1962. He visited the farm, was shown the egg, and
set some wheels in motion. Finally the object was given to the museum in Perth on permanent loan by
Vic Roberts. It was put on display and became a worldwide five-day wonder, but then it just sat on
its pedestal in the museum forever after.
This is a fascinating enough story in itself but it has a wildly forte an aspect that has been overlooked. Harry Butler tells in his article of Vic Roberts having later found some more bones and
another skull; while he himself was shown some flat rocks on which were the imprints of kangaroos
and other modern animals as well as some enormous four-toed bird tracks. These form nearly a cross",
as follows:
in that the middle toe front is'Tn direct line with a backwardly pOinting one.
Now, most
people will immediately say that you can't imprint tracks into solid stone, and
they would
be quite right. However, imprints in mud or other soft ground surfaces can be
very rapidly
"fossilized" themselves if said surface is dried hard and then a layer of silt is
deposited
upon it which then too dries. (See Petrified Oranges, above.) Mere chemical
leaching and
drying may turn many surface materials, and especially in lagoons and beaches,
to !!Itone in
very short order. As we said above, we. once assisted the Mexican police in
chiselling some truck tracks out of what was very tough and solid sandstone! These Australian tracks,
however, look more like weather-worn petroglyphs made by man as they included some strange symbols.
Harry Butler goes on to speculate what bird could have laid this egg. giving several possibilities; namely, first. that it was some huge species, suspected from some bones and eggshell fragments
found in Queensland and other parts of South Australia to have existed in Pleistocene times. Second.
that it might be an Aepyornis egg that had been washed out of a sand bank in Madagascar and floated
across the Indian Ocean. (The currents to make this possible do exist and junk from the other side of
that ocean does come ashore about this point.) Another suggestion was that it was a trophy that ~ame
off one of the whalers that customarily called in Southwest Australia after leaving Madagascar. But
his last suggestion is the most pertinent. He says: "New evidence may turn up that will clinch matters
for one. of these possibilities - QI that '!!.ill indicate ~ !D entirely ~ explanation! ~. II So
to such a suggestion.
In 1948 there was a tremendous uproar in Florida about a protracted series of enormous three-toed
foot-tracks that cropped up on beaches for several months and ending about forty miles up the Suwanee
River. We investigated this case personally and it is described in detail in a book entitled MORE
"THINGS" (1969; Sanderson, Ivan T.; Pyramid Books, N. Y.) It is a very long story but may be summarized by saying that. when all was said and "done. the only kind of. animal that could have left such
tracks would be a giant penguin. Two dozen sane. sober citizens saw just such a creature along that
coast that year. and all concurred in that it stood about 15 feet tall and had enormous feet. The same
year the skeleton of a seven-foot penguin )Was found in New Zealand. Then the presence of such
creatures was brought to light through early descriptions of the Kerguelen Islands which lie in the
middle of the south Indian Ocean. Penguins are southern hemisphere birds,.... though one species just
gets north of the equator in the Galapagos Islands - and they are essentially sub-antarctic creatures.
They all go ashore together once a year to lay their eggs and rear their young at special places only.
Giant penguin foot tracks have been recorded from all around the Antarctic oceans and as far north
as Queensland and Nantucket Island. Penguins are great wanderers and might in some cases lose
their way and get north of the equator via the great cold Humboldt, Benguella, and West Australian
currents. Southwest Australia is right in their natural range. Did one get washed ashore there .in a
storm and have a ready-to-Iay egg in it which got left intact when the body rotted away or was taken
apart by beachcombing animals, and then just 11e around on the surface of the sand? If there are such
giant penguins, this could have happened only a couple of years, or even months, before Vic Roberts
foun~ the egg.
Both Aepyornis and penguin eggs have some rather distinctive surface and structural features. We
would like to .suggest that this Australian embarrassment be examined by some oophologists - or
Oologlsts, if you want to be a purist.

- 52-

OCEAN-GOING ELEPHANTS
About four years ago there was a terrific uproar in New zealand where a vast hairy corpse was
found by a game warden on a beach, and photographed to boot! A very great 'expert stated that in view
of its hairiness it might be an elephant! Since there are no elephants swimming about in the extreme
southern Pacific 'and they are not hairy we can only presume that the professor was misquoted ,and
that the' newsboys 'had once again appealed ,in desp'eration :to that o1.d standbY'- a Woolly Mammoth
that mel~ed out of an Arctic iceberg. The same suggestion h~ been: made by a really leading government mammalogist in Australia a few years before when the famous MGlobster- was found on a Tasmanian beach. (It had no hair, incidentally!) Now come two more little ditties dredged: up for us by
Member No. 190, C. J. Fortner, of Long Beach, Cal. The first is dated the 20th March, 1960; the date
of the second is indecipherable.
GRIMSBY, England (AP) - "A British trawler caught an elephant Saturday. The huge beast, stone
dead, came up in the nets of the trawler AMPULLA off Flamborough Head on England's northeast
coast. It was 50 heavy it burst the trawl and ~ awav on the tide. Skipper Fred Ireland said he
had no idea how the elephant got into the sea."
We would have been much surprised if the skipper had known,' but we 'are much more surprised to
know that an item so heavy that it burst a trawler's nets could then "float away". Very bizarre.
BORDEAUX, France (UPl) - "The body of a -l3-foot-long, lo-foot-wide 'sea monster' washed UP on
,the beach at nearby Arcachon actually is that of, some kind bf lana-based mammal, possibly even an
elephant, experts announced. The remains, still covered by thick hair, had been in the sea too long
for, positive identification, the experts said.
Another fine bunch of "experts". One bone would have given them the answer; failing that, they
"
.
.
could have pinned it down from even very small sampl~s of flesh. Did it contain any organs? It's the
same old story.
So we hav~ beached hairy elephants; beached hc..irless things said to be hairy elephants; elephants
swimming about the Pacific; and filially elephants that sink when dead. All ~ost enlightening. Of
course, if an elephant, in a shipment to a dealer or a zoo, dies en route, the cllPtain of the transpl,lrting freighter is well advised to rig a heavy hoist and toss it overboard;, record th~ matter in his log;
and report it to the shippers and ilasurance brokers. A dead elepha,nt can. surely without meaning to,
become Singularly unpleasant~ and in a surprisingly short time, and even in cool weather. Only one
trouble is, elephants float and continue 50 to do until the gases within them are released by the body
bursting. But then they won't ever rioat again. Quite lot of elephants do die at sea. '

THAT TECOLUTLA MONSI'ER

, Back in March of this year, the press went'into a near tail-spin over a story that a sea-monste'r had
been washed, or pulled, ashore at a small coastal town named Tecolutla, on the Guif Coast of Mexico
in the State of Vera Cruz.' The story was kicked off by the local Mexican press but the international
wire services picked'it UP and it went worldwide. Apparently some of the home offices of these organizations don't know Mexico; also, it should still have been the off-season for monsters despite its
rather far southerly appearance; but at least UPI in New York got the clue and were, we would like to
record, more than just cooperative.
Over the 'years that we have spent perusing reports OIl fonean items, we have' accumulated a reference index of classics - classics of stupidity, misinformation, (lnd meildacity. The reports on this
item have been duly registered therein as Jle cannot find anything in the'monster-himti'ng department
that ,comes 'anywhere near it by way of concentration of idiociel:!. We would like to make it clear,
, however, that we are not blaming the, press on this occasion but rather those whom 'they have Quoted.
Both the wire services and the working press have become very leery of publishing' their own speculations, and especially in such departments as the, biological. They've been stung too' often~ Certain
commentators, and especially those of higher reputation, however;,contimie:to publish the most arrant
, nonsense on practically ail fortean matters. On this occasion they could not' even get their dates
straight.

- 53-

The affair actually began on the 27th of February when a visiting non-local learned from the local
inhabitants_ of this tiny fishing village - about two dozen fami'lies - that there was something unpleasant and of large size on the beach of a lagoon nearby that is separated from the Gulf by,a sandbar .. After inspecting this the gentleman in question appears to have hot-footed it (there being no car
available) to the high road and taken a bus to Vera, Cruz. There, ,he reported the Thing to be about
thirty feet long and eighteeri feet wide, to be covered with huge plates, and to have an enormous
single horn sticking out of the front of its head. He further stated that it had first been spotted at sea
by some local fishermen who said that it was then still alive. This gentleman then vanished from the
scer,Je and, needless to say, 'nobody has tried to trace him. He seems to hav~ be,en !l man of considerable in~tiative and, in view of the fact that there ~ a something on that beach, he ,was obviouslY not
a plain liar." He might be the one person able to describe the thing as,it truly appeared on first being
found. The' first report of this appeared on the 6th of March, in the Mexican papers; was picked up by
the wire services; and then broadcast that night allover the U.S" ,Canada and abroad as a news item.
Then the blather was on. These reports went as follows, and we quote: Villagers have found a 35-ton sea creature which has washed UP on the beach here. The carcass
of the creature was described as about 30 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a 'serpent-like body', covered with hard armour, jointed so it would swim. It was also reported to have a 10 foot tusk. The
creature washed up on February 28th and marine biologists are studYing it in an effort to determine
if it belonged to the age of dinosaurs. Mexican authorities (according' to a UPI story) on prehistoric
sea life say that the sea monster could be 50,000 years old. Dr. Bernardo Villa of the National University of Mexico said the creature may have been trapped and preserved in an arctic iceberg and discovered when t'he iceberg finally melted. Superstitious fishermen recovered a fin, two tusks and large
portions of hide before scientists arrived but authorities have recov,ered most of the pieces cut from
the animal and turned them over to scientists. The fishermen who sighted the animal insist the animal
was 'alive- when they first saw it and only died later. Scientists say the body has not become too de-'
,
composed because it still is in salt water. ~
, There's worse to follow but let us analyze this first. How did anybody weigh this thing, more
especi8.J.lY as later two' bulldozers and thirt,Y men could not winch it onto a flatbed truck? Have you
ever seen anything of a 'serpentine form' that is two thirds as wide as it is long? (We will ignore the
lo-foot tusk for the moment.) What is 'hard armour' and why does it ~ave to be jointed so that its
owner can swim? Turtles are fully armoured, not jointed, b'ut swim like hell. "Belonged to the age of
dinosaurs. Now, really! Just what was this supposed to mean? That the corpse had been that of an ,
individual animal that had been swimming around for some 7o-miilion years; that the species to which
it belongeci had managed to survive, so far undetected, since that time; or, that it was a kind of fresh
fossil? But then comes Dr.' Bernardo Villa, presumably one of :he "experts on prehistoric sea life".
First of all, the word prehistoric is a bit vague to sa..v the least. What are these gentlemen special-,
ists in? Life in seas and oceans immediately prior to the invention of written history, or palaeontologists specializing in extinct marine forms of life? Why 50,000 years old? That, by current notion,
puts us near the end of the InterglaCial in the northern hemisphere. Could,it be that the new dating of
~ of the animals preserved in the muck of Siberia by the Russians could have influenced their
thinking? Then comes the greatest drivel of all. First off, no animal has ever been found trapped in
ice, for the very simple reason that ice forms downwards and a corpse below it keeps being- pushed
down. If the ice finally reaches the bottom and grabs the body, that body is the first thing to be released when the ice melts. All the frozen bodies of the north are in a kind of 'frozen soil called muck;
~ h! ~ ~ (QJmg W,~, either glacial or, more especially,' in an iceberg. Even'if one ever
was, who' ever heard of an iceberg drifting majestically down to the Mexican Gulf, ag8.inst the Gulf
stream among other things, and finally releaSing its load. Should anything sci preposterous be possible
said load would go straight to the bottom, as it would have been degassed by ice pressure and
bacterial action stopped, so that it would not float. Don't any of these experts -ever-read anything?
The next phase began when some -biologists and other scie~tists" reached th'e corpse. And, so
help us, theY'issued the following: - "But after seeing the corpse (Yfe) could no~ match it with any
sea creature known to man". Now really: biologists! Further, some of them, and at ~ ~, said
it may be the body of a sea creature from the age of dinosaurs; preserved in arctic ice. This is quite
inexplicable. Couldn't they even tell whether' it was a mammal or a reptile? And since when has
Arctic ice been lying around for 70-million years? We theQ. get into the usual run of corollary nons~nse'.
Firs~.' they' got the nam.e of the village wrong (and' three ways) and th~n changed it 'from Tecolutla to

'ali

- 54 -

Casitas, while one idiot even put it in the State of Yucatan! Perhaps this, was due to the fact that the
next batch of 'scientists' swooped down from the north; i.e. from Tampico:
, ,These 'were biologists Sergio Garcia and Martin Contraras of the Mexican Navy's Marine BiologIcal'
Station at that city. These gentle!flen see~ to hav~ kno}yn their stuff as they took one look at the
thing and stated that it was a highly decomposed corpse ,of a small Sperm Whale with nothIng much
left but sQme vertebrae and the stomach, the skull, and one ramus of the lower jaw. They need hardly
have taken the trouble to go look-see because the photographs of the famous "horn" obtained by UPI
were clearly of one half of the lower jaw of that animal. Further, one sensible Mexican ne~sman had
already pointed out that it was 'made of bone and not horn and was very porous. However; a "great
exPert- in'Mexico City, who had never seen the thing, told two of our members that this bone was one
side of the upper jaw of a baleen whale of some sort. We should point out that such a bone is curved
and blunt and quite unlike this thing on the beach. So endeth the umpteenth lesson in sea-monstery.
It's.. a classic in its own way and in its own class but is, of course, in no way in the category of The'
Messy Little Boy we reported on in our last issue.
RETURN OF THE TOK
, The PAKISTANI TIMES of 12th' June of this year carried a Reuters report ex Rangoon, Burma,
which warmed the cockles of whatever forteans use for a heart, for it's been over th~rty years, since
our _old, friend it described was last heard of - at least as far as we know. This report goes: ,"TWO giant ~Monkey Men' recently sighted roaming the jungles along the Mekong River near the
Thai-Burma-Laos border have been terrifying local villagers. According to ,Press reports, the tWQ
creatures are said to be about 10 feet tall. The 'monkey men' were first Sighted by a group of hunters
le'd by a local preacher in the Taimilek area. However, the hunters were so frightened by the creatures
that they fled without flring a shot. A few days later a farmer reported seeing the two creatures by
m-oonlight in his fields. He said they made sounds like those Of a chiid crying. ARangoon daily newspaper, THE NEW LIGHT OF BURMA, said a third Sighting was made by a group ,of Lahu guerillas. The
guerillas had run for their lives after one of the creatures hurled 'a rock at them. T_he newspaper gave
no dates on when the sightings were made but said the creatures had 'khaki' coloured hair on their
bodies."
We can find no fault with this as a news re JXlrt and, in view of the e'arlier reports, we do not presume t,o smirk. The Tok or "Mouth-Man" has long been a tradition all the way from the northern border
of Burma to what is now central Malaya, and east to Cambodia. The best account of an encounter with
one was given by the grown son of an American missionary resident in the Shan States in the 'late
1930s. Sceptics should beware of deriding these reports just as they should those of the more apelike, original "abominable snowman", Meh-Teh or Yeti of the eastern Himalayas immediately to, the
north, and of our homegrown Sasquatches. "Bigfoots", Oh-mahs, and all the otners. As Dr. Allan
Hynek said of UFOs, they are as of now but reports, but once 'a report is_made it too becomes a fact',
and all facts should be investigated.

See ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN - Legend Come to Life ,(1962), Chilton, Philadelphia.

ENDS BOW"- WE THINK

We feel that our members are entitled to a sort of preview of the epil~gue to this astonishing and
so widely publicized case. There is still a very great deal more that could be said about 11 but we
have been asked not Ix> pubiish further on it by just about everybody', and we have given our solemn
promise, ~,journalists, not to ,do so until and unless given, specif~c permiSSion .. This sort of promise
is the only thing a journalist really holds sacred. It is an unwritten law because, not jilst their reputations (if any), but what is much' more important, their integrity depend_s upon the,ir respecting the "off
the record" request. ,This does make it a bit difficult for us.
The story, in a nutshell, is this. Our mell!ber No. 58, Dr. Bernard Heuyelmans, who was Visiting us
from France, and the writer (ITS) drove Ol1t to Minnesota last December to in~pect ,an ex1"!ibit housed
in a coffin in a special trailer truck on the private property of a Mr. Frank D. Hansen. This consisted
of ~hat appeared to be' a large hum-anlike corpse clothed in -thick long hair, and sunk in ice that was
partially clear and'partiallY,opaque. Dr. Himvelmans photographM this and, ITS made some technical
scale dr~wings. Mr. Hansen told us that he was not the o~ner; that he did nQ,t know what ~,he thing
really was; and that he didn't want to know as it was a better: e~hibit for fairs and midways w'hen
advertised as a mystery. Later. he told us that -he had been led to it. i~'a'deep-freeze plant in Hong

- 55-

Kong, and had subsequently bought it, on the request of the owner. He refused to say who this person
was .or how the object was imported Into the country. He further told us .that said owner had had a copy
'made in Hollywood by a professional model-maker (for film makers and wax niuseums) MJust in case
. ~omething like this happened M The MthisM. was the possibility that a sci"entist of Heuvelmans' stature,
_who happens to have spent over twenty years investigating the possibility of' such ultra-primitive
homin.ids still existing, examining it, and then publishing a scientific paper on it - which hedid in
the Bulletin of the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium in February of this year.
As a. result of this publication, the world press became a lerted, and many scientists and notably
the. Smithsonian. Institution became interested and the latter" formally requested 'permission to inspect
and X-ray the specimen. This request was flatly refused by Mr. 'Hansen ih a letter in which he also
stated that the ~pecimen which Heuvelmans and ITS had inspected' had. beim removed by the owner and
would, never again be exhibited, while a manmade ,copy was being prepared for the coming show
season. Why such was needed when a copy was allegedly already on hand is not clear. However, the
Smithsonian was led to a professional model-maker who stated that he had made just such a copy in
April of 1967. Meantime, we had traced another professional mOdel-maker who stated just as categorically, and for the record, that he had made another 'in April of this year. Both parties asked that
their 'names -not be divulged, but our man did say that he had been so requested by Frank Hansen!
Hansen then turned up with the new model on exhibit in St. Paul, Minn. with a new truck containing.
a MsomethingM in ice. This, however, did not resemble the thing'we saw, and in five essential points.
Further, the new signs on. the' trailer called the exhibit "SIBERSKOY A CREATURE" - A Manmade
Allusion M (sic); and it had a large notice saying .M As investigated by the F .B.!."
. This considerably worried our Russian friends since one of the first stories told as to the origin
of the thing was that it was found in Siberian waters by a Russian sealing ship; was then confiscated
by the Red Chinese; 'but finally turned up in Hong Kong. Incidentall~, the F.B.I. did not investigate
the matter since.- as they stated officially to the Smithsonian; they had no grounds fot doing so. In
'. "iE'w of these fact.s, the .Smithsonian decided to drop the matter; and in this we heartily concurred
.-t'l: ause there w0uld be no use in examining a wax or latex-rubber model clothed in bear fur and stuffed .with sawdust! However, there are a number of points left up in the air, and we can almost guarantee
that you have not heard the last of this case by a long.shot. As far as we are concerned, however, the
matter is no'w,completely out of our field since it is no longer an item of purely scientific interest. If
this mysterious o.wner rE'ally exists, and be other than Frank Hansen - who, incidentally, is a very
fine showman and understands the operation of true; moderri publicity - and brings' out of hidingthe
thing that HeuvE'lmans and I saw - which we will know at once, for certain reasons that Mr. Hansen
does not seem .to appreciate - and permits it to be x-rayed, we ,would get a positive answer to the
, purely- .scientific Question involved . If :he doesn't", there' IS n'othing more that we can do about it.
o

' .

.....

' . '

,i'

~."

'. The '''English'' Language ...

.. ~fter ~any years, and losing two othE'rs :because we did not make a note. of them at the time, we
were recEmtiy enchanted' to . finally capture one of our favourites. This came in a caption from a
northern Midwestern state', and read:. LOCAL FISH HATCHERY REEELING ITS POND, and went on
to say that some disease or 'other enviro'n~ental change had caused all the eels in this commercial
'enterprise to die or quit. The ponds were thereforE' being r~led. One day Americans may rediscover
tlie hyphen so that we may once again co-~perat'e instead of cQQPerati"ng. .
.
VIII. ANTHROPOLOGY
'ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ELECTRICIANS
.....
.
, .. , " A most disturbing new 'concept is 'arising to pi ague us. Concrete evidence cif and for this' is com'ing -ih 'at an increasing rate, and forteans are just going to have to' .shift an~ther gear, and fast,
. be'caus'e for once we show signs'of being over-ridden 'both by the mystics iY!.!!"t~.!'l scientists. Yet, if
anything was strictly down, or up, our alley' it is this. The reasons for our having ove'rlooked or
.. deliberateiy ignored this development are, we believe, two-fold. First, Fort' died before the' dawn of
.. the modern' technological age, so that those who 't~9k him as their starting point .for' their 'general
- . interests were no't confronted with it. Second, we feel that honest forteans have been scared 'away
. from' it due t~ its having for a long time b~en a particular pet of the mystics,' including 'not a few
:. ; 'teligi~nists" and' of the armies' of kooks and krakpots - even unto the' promoters of lost continents
_ like Mu;' The matter at issue is whether there was a woildwide technological civilization on this
.. earth in' extremely ancient times, and certainly before 4000 B,C.
.
-'.
of, 'ETIs - Extraterrestrial Intelligencies
as they
are. now called, and
everi .by
.-. The concept
.
. -.' ...
,..
. '
. .'such
.
,~,!e~ple~' as t.he. scientists y!ho worked on the benigQted -.Condon C.ommittee - visiting. thi:s planet

- 56-

throughout not Just our historical period, but since we evolved some two milllon years ago, and way
back before that point in time to the very start of our earth as a cosmic entity, is quite acceptable.
Even Dr. C~l Sagan, who is more or less the father of exobiology, suggested just this as a possibility: in his book INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. The researches, of Charles Hapgood (No. 55)
into the origin of ancient maps - see his MAPS OF THE ANCIENT SEA KINGS - seem to prove as
nearly as anything can be proved that some intelligencies mapped the whole surface of the earth circa
20,000 B.C., using most refined sperical trigonometry, and probably did 'so for the most part from the
air. But the idea of mere humans running around laying coaxial cables, using computers, and building
batteries circa 4000ac., just about when agriculture, writing, astronomy and other simpler things
are believed to have been -invented-, is asking perhaps a little too much of pragmatists. But there
ue now very concrete ~vldences of such advanced technology, so that one is forced to ask the
question: How?
There are dozens of suggestions but, as we see it, there is only one, as of our current state of
knowledge, that is outstanding. This is that not only the basic enterprises like agriculture, medicine,
writing, religion, law, and so forth, but also a full-blown technology were brQught to this planet at
the same time and possibly by the same entities. The best bet is that this took place just about
20,000 B.C. and that said entities first mapped the joint; then landed and started getting our earthevolved ancestors organized by herding them into -Gardens of Eden- and so forth and teaching a
priesthood to govern them by exercise of a limited knowledge of practical technology; but finally
buzzed off again to look for more Water Planets. This they would appear to have done about 5000
B.C., eIther'leaving us wholly on our own or under the care 'of a few supervisors and our home-trained
priests.
According to this' notion, being Virtually thrown on our own resources for the first time, we proceeded to make a monumental muck-up of everything, as is apparently our wont. The trouble may have
been that then, just as now, we simply had not been sufficiently educated to cope even with the
basics, let alone the residue of advanced technology. This latter was left in the hands of the ll'iesthoods but they rapidly went all mystical and forgot how to make and run the essential machines though some hung on for millenia and did not completely lose their minds, if not their grip. But a few
of the basic things did "take hold, like metallurgy; and it was this that, more than anything else, kept
the remnants of the pre-ancient, ETI technology glimmering. A most puzzling and provocative example
of a possible residue of this higher ETI technology is this picture.

~I

- 57-

This appears in a book published in Sweden. The caption reads in Swedish (and we give this in the
original so that we may not be accused of mistranslation): - "Denna bild frln Dendera Templets sal 5
visar uppenbarligen elektriska lampor uppburna av h1:5gspinningsisolatorer. Templet 1r egentligen ett
slags museum. Tekniken i Egypten stod vlisentligt hOgre fore den stora katastrofen in nlgonsin senare." The hieroglyphic text on this wall-painting is being translated for us, and we will report on it in
our next issue.
rhere are several points of interest in this depiction. First, the Egyptians indicated rank by the
size of the figures shown. Here the two main figures are very large in comparison to four in the background. They are also almost" twice the size of the tailed baboon, holding a knife, standing behind
what appears to be an altar. This is most unusual. Thus, the two main figures must have been considered very important indeed, yet they have no regal appurtenances and are dOing manual labour, even
if they are ~igh-priests. But, of course, it is what they are bringing to this supposed altar that is of
major interest.
Nothing like this has been found elsewhere in Egypt. Each appears to be bearing an object of very
carefully composed form - and this a most complicated one -' which would seem to be transparent
since items that appear like snakes are shown within. These transparent constructions seem to be inserted into solid bases with some kind of circular, and perhaps threaded, closure at the end. From
each of these come what look like coaxial cables. which join and run into the little altar. Each main
~tructure is apparently supported on a pedestal. These are somewhat, but not by any means entirely,
similar. Both have four flanges, but that on the lert has two supporting arms extending from the second
of these. and a small dome on its toP. There are those who have contended that these are an elaborate
form of the sacred symbol known as the 'ankh' but this is shaped like this: Frankly, they look much more like certain modern insulation fixtures for very hightension power lines. What is more, the large transparent objects that the two big
figures are carrying look almost too much like enormous "lightbulbs" containing
heavy filaments.
Naturally, any EgyptolQgist who is asked to interpret this depiction will come up with a wild, explanation simply because one just cannot have priest-technicians of technician-priests wandering
around in Egypt four thousand years ago installing high-tension cables with what one engineer suggested were some very clever 'male' and 'female' (i.e. positive and negative) terminals. Another
technician took one look at this and threw it down. Then. he looked again for a longtime and said,
"My God, the answer to tri-di-tv".

OLD AMERICAN ELECTRONICS (?)

Meantime, however. Barney Nashold (87) rolled in from Chicago. He and his wife have been on a
SITU. expedition to Centroamerica during the past year. When we showed him this frustrating business
of the Egyptian "whatever-they-ares", he really flipped because he has over the years accumulated a .
file of drawings taken from Nazcan and other South American painted ceramics which appear, on detailed analysis, to be formalized (and in part "allegorical") layouts for electronic circuitry. This is a
very interesting bit and we will report upon it in considerable preliminary detail when Barney has had
time to prepare his report with documentary evidence and analysis. Meantime, he requests that anyone
among our ranks who might have been harboring Similar suspicions and collecting supportive evidence
get in touch with him via SITU. Any electronic engineers who enjoy working with puzzles might also
like to lend a hand in this effort.
Expenditu~e

"

on Research

According to the official records of the British House of Commons, a backbench member, in criticizing the government's expenditure on scientific research, quoted from one of its publications. And
we quote: "From this intensive survey it can be stated that half the married people of this country
are women." (Aside: How about their new law permitting marriages between homosexuals?)

- 58 -

1:.HE. LEFT-OVERS
There are a few items of general interest, at least to quite a high percentage of our members,
that might appear to have been sort of left over from the formulation and classification of facts as
demonstrated on page 42. There are three of these. Two can be quite rapidly disposed of for, although
they at first appear to be extremely esoteric, they are really quite readily assignable .
The first is the matter of what are called Poltergeist Manifestations. It must be clearly understood
that we are not here speaking of anything like a Geist or Ghost which, we presume, being as far as
we know a classic intangible, must fall somewhere within Segments IX a.p.d/or X. What causes these
purely physical and measurable "manifestations" would seem to fall into the segment assigned t9
Life-:-Forms (i.e. the Biological) since they seem to be entities, and possibly to hav.e an intellect if
not./.!. mind. That they may be invisible; invisible to some but not to others; or able to become visible,
is beside the point. It is what "they" Wl. that is of interest to Forteans. since these doings are perfectly tangible. Thus,. one discusses such dOings as expressions of the behaviour of some life-form.
For the nonce, however, unexplaineds of a similar nature - such as stone-lobbing - for the activation
of whiCh there is not as yet any evidence of volitional control must reinain in limbo but be dealt with
within the terms of Physics andlor Chemistry ..
The second minor left-over is the matter of Brain Control and Mind Patrol. A living entity at the
evolutionary state of Man is manifestly composed of four interlocked and coordinated units. These are
a purely.physical body; a computer built upon biplogical principles and run by electro-chemical
mechaqics and wh.lch we call a brain; a mind, or intelligence, or intellect if you want, that is completely inta[)gible but which can be probed by such mentalogical procequres as psychology; and finally
a Personalit~, which may be called a Soul, Spirit, Id, or what-have-you. It now transpires that we, by
taking thought' upon the matter, can to a considerable extent control the physical body. During the
last quarter century we have made giant strides in controlling the brain - vide, such outfits as The
Brain Rese.arch Institute of UCLA in Los Angeles, which has no less' than fourteen thousa~d. ~o
op.erating scienti~ts with doctorates throughout the world. Much has also been done - but little
publisi)ed - on the rather unpleasant matter of the control of the mind or intellect. This is a very
sensitive.area of research, smacking as it does, and rather too forcefully perhaps, of Orwell's "1984".
But, when it comes to tampering with the individual personality of a living entity, it appears that, at
least so far, we are completely buffaloed. Maybe one day we \'Iill find out how to influence or even
alter the basic!!! of an individual but, as of now, it appears that the only way ,we can do this is to
eliminate or "kill" the entity and start allover again. Nonetheless, these matters manifestly fall
squarely into Segment IX, though with possible features of Segment X.
But then, there is still the greatest of all Unexplaineds still left over. This is that of the UFOs .
. ~ere . we run into something that does truly stand outside all the rest. We must first accept that
these entities exist. Given this, we have to take note of the fact that, as of now, they display both
tangible and intangible qualities. They are, in fact, as we have said several times before, basically
cosmic in that they represent a whole "other world", or represent another space-time continuum (or
continua), or universe(s), or however you choose to define it. Whether they are machines or life-forms;
whether they contain life-forms or are robots; or whatever they may be; they present us with aspects
of all ten segments of our wheel of knowledge. They may be infinitely varied in origin, construction,
and intent but, until we have got at least one and tried to analyze it, we have no starting point for
question-asking on anyone of these ten aspects of its existence.
Therefore, we are from now on taking all ufological matters out of our general classification, and
out of our expositions, and will in future report upon them here, at the end, as a sep~ate subject.

I.HE TAXONOMY

QE KNOWLEDGE

An Elaboration of the Working Chart

Presented on Page 42.
The definition of the word Taxonomy (as per Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, 1965)
reads: "The study of the general principles of scientific classification - i.e. systematics". This
precisely defines what we were talking about in our Editorial. Knowledge as a term, per se, covers
what we know or think we know of reality, and this may best be expressed as a closed circle which
starts with the most intangible of all exercises and ends with it. You can keep on breaking down
"knowledge" ad infinitum but we consider it to be wise to constrict this process as much as possible.

- 59-

In doing so, the ten segments allotted in this wheel are not, of course, of equal status in that, for
instance, the affairs of little Man, although vastly important to us, in no way have the importance of
their opposite, which just happens to be Physics. Then again, the Earth is but a very minor Gross
Body and therefore a part of Astronomy but, again, it is of much greater importance to us than any
other planet ..
. Just to be sure that you know what we are talking about, the following is an elaboration of that
simplified chart, listing the departments of enquiry which fall into each segment. These are th
standard - but not yet standardized - sub-sections as listed in such taxonomic works as Dewey's
ABRIDGED DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION, and other standard works used by library scientists and
computer programmers. We are going to have to come down to some such earthy system sooner than
later if we are going to maintain any control over the explosion of knowledge, and more especially
over so-called education. The elaboration goes as follows: I. MATHEMATICS - The Theory and Practice Qf Measuremen~, ill Mensuration. Number, Quanti,:
ty, Probability, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Topology', the
Theory of Games, and such related matters of calculation.
II. ONTOLOGY - ~ Theory Q! Existence. Cosmology, Space, Time, Locus; Classical Metaphysics, and such items as Coincidence.
III. PHYSICS - The ~ !!W! Method Qf Performance. Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics, Atomics (in part), Classical Physics, Electromagnetics, Mechanics and the Theory of Engineering.
IV. CHEMISTRY - ~ Structure and Behaviour Q! Matter. Atomics (in part), and both Inorganic
and Organic (i.e. Carbon) Chemistry.
Structur~ and Behaviour Q! ~ Bodies. Galactics, Stellar and Solar
Astronomy, Planetology, Selenology, Meteoritics, Astrophysics, etc.

:-- V. ASTRONOMY - The

VI. GEOLOGY - ~ Structure !ill! Behaviour 21 the ~. This includes everything connectoed with the Earth Sciences - Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Lithosphere - plus the
sublithic core. Thus: meteorology, hydrology, glaciology, oceanology, geophysics and
geomorphology, geology (classical), volcanology, seismology, petrology, mineralogy,
etc. Also - geography, geodesy, mapping, dating, etc.
'VII. BIOLOGY - The Structure !.!!!! Behaviour Q! Animate Entities. These are the Life-Sciences,
-(apart from mental expressions) but including Exobiology as well as the life indigenous
to this planet. It thus covers all life-forms, from the possibly non-material to man: and
embraces Protogeanol<?gy, Botany, and Zoology; Histology, Physiology, and Anatomy, anet
Human Physical Anthropology (i.e. man, physically, as an animal).
VIII. ANTHROPOLOGY - Manu-facture, ill The Work. Q! M!m. Archaeology, Pre-history,
History, Ethnology, Sociology, Folklore (but not Mythology), Philology, Economics and
the Arts, Architecture, AgronC?my, and some other useful arts, and their reI ated technologies.
IX. MENTALOGY - The Anatomy- Q! Mentality. Psychology (of all life forms, including Man),
Ethology, Behaviourism, Comparative Intelligence, Brain Control and Mind Patrol, Ethics.
X. MYSTICISM -

Concepts. Aesthetics, Logic, Religion, Mythology, the Occult.

-;

By usinga wheel system such as this there is allowance within it for what we call "cross-overs
and also for the seething mass of technologies and other useful arts. Outside the wheel or circle
lies the world of the unknown, which presumably reaches to infinity. In other words, the circle is
constantly expanding, and it is probably tri- or multi-dimensional in that everything comes back to
where it started as Einstein prognosticated cosmological realities, like space and time, should do.
It's a pity that we can think only tridimensionally and express ourselves only two-dimensionally,
but iI. slice of a cake is better than nothing and, above all, we need order in our thinking.

................................

.....................

- 60-

CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
(This is not. a paid advertisement.)
NOTE: We continue to list books which we consider will or ma,y be of interest to members - in print,
'out of print', and forthcoming. This is arranged alphabetically by author. However, in Vol. 2, No.4,
we propose to publish an amalgamated bibl1o,graJily of all titles by (a) author and (b) subject. At the
same time, a subject index of the first two volumes will be issued. Books by members are indicated
by an (*).
Anderson, John R. L. (1968). Vinland Voyage. New Yo~: Funk & Wagnalls.
Berrill, Norman John (1964). Worlds Without End: ~ Reflection !ill Planets, Life, and ~. New York:
Macmillan.
Catoe, Lynn E. (1969). Y.E2!i !ill! Related Subjects: ~ Annotated Bibliography, Washington, D. C.:
U.,!S. Government Printing Office.
This 400-page bibliography contains about 1600 items (each described' briefly) divided into
some fifty categories. Included are books, journal articles, pamphlets, conference proceedings,
tapes, original manuscripts, even cartoons, ranging all the way from contactee stories to highly
technical works.
'
Constance, Arthur (1956). The Inexplicable Sky. London: W. Laurie.
Cornwall, I. W. (1965). Bones W the ArcheolOgist. London: Phoenix House.
(1967) . .Q!! for ~ Archeologist. London: Phoenix House.
Firsoff, Valdemar A. (1963). ~ Beyond ~ ~. New York: BaSic Books, Inc.
Godwin, John (1968). This Baffling ~. New York: Hart Publishing Co.
Graven; Jacques (1967). Non-Human Thought. New York: Stein & Da,y.
Gregory, R. L. (1966).~ and Brain. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Heard, Gerald (1950). The Riddle ~ the FLYing Saucers: Is Another World Watching? London: Carroll
& Nicholson. (Also published by Bantum Books in 1953 under the title ! Another World Watch!!!g: ~ ~ e! the Flying Saucers.)
Hochberg, Julian E. (1964). Perception. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall
Izzard, Ralph (1955). The AbominablE:! Snowman. Garden City, N. Y.: Doul?leday & Co., Inc.
Jackson, Francis L ... and Moore, Patrick (1962). ~ ill the Universe. ,New :York: W.' W. Norton ..
~ Qf the Interplanetary Exploration Society (1961-1962). New York: I.E.S. (Only four issues were
published. It !!!.!.Y be availa.ble in libraries.)
,
Library of Congress Legislative Reference Service (Nancy T. Gamarra) (1967). Erroneous Predictions
!-.lli! Negative Comments Concerning Expl:lration, Territori al Expansion, Scientific !!ill! ~
nological Development: Selected statements; Pre IBred at the request of the Senate Committee
,on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. Ask your Congressman for it.
Lore, Gordon I. R., Jr., and Deneault, Harold H., Jr. (1968). Mysteri~,~ e! the Skies. Englewood
Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall
Lorenzen, Coral and Jim (1969). UFOs: TI!!: ~ Story. New York: Signet Books (NAL).
Menninger, Edwin A. (1967). Fantastic Trees. New York: Viking Press.
Moore, Patrick, and cattermole, Peter J. (1968). ~ ~ 91 the M.Q.Qn. New York: W. W. Norton.
Mowat, Farley (1965). ~ Viking. New York: Atlantic, Little, Brown.
Munitz. Milton K. (1957). Theories 2! the Universe from BA.bylonia~ Myth t2 ~ Science. Glencoe,
Ill.: The Free Press.
Owen, A. R. G. (1964). Q!!!. We Explain the Poltergeist? New York: Garrett Publications.
Rawicz, Slavomir (1956). ~ Long Walk. New York: Harper & Row.
Sauer, CarlO. (1968). Northern Mists. Berkeley. Calif.: University of California Press.
Scherman, Katharine (1956). Spring on an ~ Island. Boston: Little, Brown. '
Silverberg, Robert (1963). ~ History: The story 2! Underwater Archaeology. Philadelphia:
Chilton Books.
Spence, LeWis (l968-reprint). The History 2f Atlantis. New Hyde Park, N. Y.: University Books.
Vallee, Jacques and Janina (1966). Challenge to Science; The lli:Q Enigma. Chicago: H. Regnery Co.
Also in paperback - New York: Ace Books.
Wood, Robert W. (1961). PhYsical Optics. Ed. 3. New York: Dover Publications.
As to whether titles are actually "in print" (as is technically known il). the trade), th~se interested
should apply to their library for search in the two standard works Books ill Print and 'rb! Cumulative
Book Index.
We'"8:re""always grateful for suggestions regarding books for inclusion here but would appreciate it
if all pertinent information is included. This saves us considerable time and effort.

'"
.;

THE' SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Agogino, Dr. George A. - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute.
Eastern New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Burtshak-Abramovitch, N. - Academician. Georgian Academy of ScIence, Palaeobiological Institute;
UnIversity of Tbllsi. (Palaeontology)
Delacato, Dr. Carl H. - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Pot~ntial. Philadelphia, (Mentalogy)
Heuvelmans. Dr. Bernard. - Scientific Collaborator with the Royal Institute of Natural Science.
Belgium. (Zoology)
Hill. Dr. W. C. Osman. - Associate Director: Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center. Emory
University. Atlanta, Georgia. (Comparative AnatomY)
Kennedy, Dr. George C. - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology
and Geophysics)
Kruskal, Dr. Martin. - ,Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
,,
McDowell, Dr. Samuel B. '- Professor of Biology, Rutgers -University, Newark, New Jersey.' (General',
Biology)
,
Markotic, Dr. Vladimir. - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of
Alberta, canada. (Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
, Mather, Dr. Kirtley F. - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Napier, Dr. John R. - Director, Primate Biology Department, Smithsonian Institution. (Physical
Anthropology)
Roth. Dr. W. Theodor. - President. Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology)
Salisbury, Dr. Frank B. - Head, Plant Science Department, ,College of A~riculture, Utah S~ate University. (Phytochemistry)
Wescott, Dr. Roger W. - Professor and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University.
Madison, New Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Wraight, Dr. A. Joseph. - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Zuck. Dr. Robe:t K. - P:cfezso: a:;d Chai.ffian, Depw'tment of Botany. Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (Botany)
SPECIAL NOTICE

...

:.'
. ....

.'
.'.

TQ. SUBSCRIBERS

, There seemS to be some confusion among subscribers about the expiration date of their sub- ..
scriptions. As stated on the inside front cover of PURSUIT and in our brochure, the subscription rate
of $5 is for !ill!!. issues of PURSUIT. The 'extension' granted to members, i.e. those joining after a
certain date not being due to renew until January of the next year, applies only to corresponding and
contributing members and is based on the fact that they Rre entitled to other services and pay higher
dues for them. If you requested back issues initially, your subscription was recorded as starting with
the earliest issue sent; but this means that renewal will be due in less than a year. Those who received Vol. I, No.4 as their first issue are due to renew NOW.

The publishing schedule as now el1\'isioned is four quarterly issues of both PURSUIT and SITU
NEWS. dated January, April, July, and October each year, and numbered, in the first case, as annual
volumes - Vol. 1 being 1968 and before; Vol. 2. 1969. and so on - and in the ,second case, serially.
starting with No.6, dated April, 1969
NEWSLETTER" "
NEWSLETTER No.1"
NEWSLETTER No.2"
(contained in)
(contained in)
(contained in)
SITU NEWS, No.6
SITU NEWS, No.7
These are out 'of print and not available
.. Sent only to members.

DATE
May. 1967,
March. 1968
June. 1968 .
Sept 1968
Jan 1969
April. 1969
July. 1969

JOURNAL

PURSUIT,.
PURSUIT.
PURSUIT,
PURSUIT,
PURSUIT.

Vol:
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

1. No.3
1. No.4"
2, No. 1
2. No.2
2. No.3

,'1

1.
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, I

.Vol.2, No.4.

October;1969

ORGANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society Ble managed by a ~ of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the state of New Jersey. These officers are five in number: a President elected for f~ve years,
and four founding members - two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and a SecretBlY. The names of the present
incumbents of these and all other offices are listed in each issue of the Society's quarterly journal
PURSUIT.
Gener~ policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists of the
Trustees and four other officers elected annually. These are: an Administr~Assistant: a Managing
Editor: and two Directors for Publicity and Promotion. The First Vice-President is the Administrative
Director, and the Second Vice-President is in charge of the physical establishment. The Administrative
Assistant is also the Librarian.
Implementation of decisions taken by the Governing Board is then prosecuted by an Executive Board.
This is composed of a standing Committee of nine officers, and an unlimited number of Regionu.l Officers.
The former are:
(1) a Chairman, who also supervises all fieldwork;
,(2) a Deputy Chairman in charge of admin~stration:
(3) an Executive Secretary who acts as coordinator:
(4) a Director of Research in Basic Science;
(5) a Director of Industrial and Technological Relations;
(6) a Public Relations officer, who also handles press relations:
(7) a Liaison Officer fur governmental and other official relations;
(8) a Consultant on Scientific and Technical Publications;
(9) a Supervisor of Regional Officers and Affiliates.
Finally, the Society is counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, which is designateo the ~
tific Advisory Board.

PARTICIPATION
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~jl of these except Nu. 5 receive all the Society's publications.

PUBLICATIONS
The Society pubt'ishes a quarterly journal entitlEia PURSUIT~, This is both a diary of current '~v .. nts and
a commentary 'and criti9ue of reports on these" It also distributes a quarterly newsletter on Society affairs
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IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-members. (This does not, of
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Vol. 2. No, 4

PURSUIT

October. 1969

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE

I N VEST I GAT 10 N 0 F THE UNEX PLA I NED

Editorial Director: Donald R. Bensen

Executive Editor: Ivan T. Sanderson
Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett

CONTENTS
Editorial: A Matter of Semantics
Mathematics: Marion's 67
Ontology:
Physics: Rats Again - Teleported on Lombok
Chemistry: Muonium and Youth
Astronomy: Quotes of the Month - Moon Shots and Mars
Geology: Much About Muck
Nobody Does Anything - London Weather
Vortiginous Vortices
Biology: Another Matter of Semantics _
"Blackfish" & "Medussa"
That Damned Bone - Not Nessie's
So They Made It at Last - Giant Snails in Florida
Archaeology: Ancient Egyptian TV?
.
South American Circuitry? - Designs on Chimu Pottery
A Modest Unpleasantness - "Mystery Hill", N. H.
A Real Unpleasantness - Our La Brea Tarpit
Choas and Confusion: Frowsy Little Thing
- Korean Riding a Turtle
Five-Da.v Work-Week
Ufology: An Open Letter to All Parties

63
64
65
65
66
67
68
70
70
72
72
. 73
74
75
76
76

All communications should be addressed to:

S. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey 07832.
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366.

77
78
78

THE INTANGIBLES

I.' MATHEMATICS (Measurement) - Number,

Quantity, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry,
Trigonometry,
Calculus,
Topology,
Theory of Games, Probability, Coincidence.

III" .!'HYSIC~ (Performance) - Theoretical

Physics, Nuclaanics, Classical Physics,
Electrics, Electromognetic&, Mognetics,
Mechanics, Etc.

IX. MENTAlOGY <lD!!.!.IE!) - Psychology,

AesthetICS, Comparative Intelligence.

V. OtEMISTRY (Mott.r) - Atomcis, Molecular Chemistry, Crystollography.

ANTHROPOLOGY (11!!m!m Enterprise).

Archaeology,
Pre-History, Historyi
Ethnology, Sociology, Folklore (but no
mythology), Philology, Economics, Art
Arch itecture, Agronomy, ond tne othe
useful arts.

I
ASTRONOMY imu. lWliu) - The Universe, Galactics, Stellar and Solar Astronomy, Planetology, SelenolollY, Meteoritics. Astrophysics.

BIOLOGY
(1.if!:forms) Protogeanology, Botany, Zoology, Exobiology; Histology, Physiology (and
Biochemistry), Anatomy (including Man);
Genetics ond related studies; Physical
Anthropology; Palaeontology.

GEOLOGY (The Earth) - AlmosphDri~s

and MeteorolD\iY; Dceonology, Hydrology,
and Glaciology; Tectonics, Vulcanology,
Seismology, Geophysics and Geomorphology; Petrology ond Mineralogy;
Cartography;
Geodesy,
Geogrop hy,
Dating.

THE TANGIBLES
"\

63

EDITORIAL

A MATTER OF SEMANTICS?
We 'had hoped that it would not be necessary to
bring this matter up again, but it has become increasingly neqeSSarY that we do so. What is more, it
looks as if we will have to continue to devote all the
space that we can spare to reiterate what we now
have t<? say, and for a long time to come, because,
unless this business is straightened out and soon, a
lot of people are going to get singed. For politeness
sake, we are assuming for the moment that the whole
thing is merely a matter of semantics. If it is not, our
whole civilization is in an even worse condition than
the wildest "protester" 'has so far suggested. Regrettably, howe~er, there can be no question but that the
semantic confusion is due to plain outright lack of
education, or ~-education, and much more likely
the latter.
We are referring to the absolutely preposterous
procedure of classing the fortean aspects of scientific enquiry - namely those segments of knowledge
numbered I throl!gh VIn on the chart on the opposite
page - with Segments IX or, more especially, with X.
By the same token, to class anything in the last as
"science" displays not just ignorance but distinct
indications of chicanery.
To be explicit, to class such fortean aspects of
the sciences as; - Mathematical Paradoxes, in I; Coincidence, in II; Quarks, in III; Muonium, in IV;
Pulsars, 'in V; Sky-quakes, in VI; Yetis, in VII; and
the Assyrian battery, in VIII, as "occult" or "mystical", displays not only lamentable but deplorable
ignorance. The same may be said of those who would
class UFOs (rurr gl), poltergeist manifestations,
brain control, and other such tangible items in Segment IX. That these matters have aspects refera~le
to the expertises grouped in Segment IX is only too
true; but to muddle an UFO with an hallucination, or
a poltergeist manifestation with a ghost, or electronic
brain control with mind patrol, indicates only an
abyssmal lack of understanding of the nature of these
items.
Everybody is entitled to "think" what they like at least so far - but as we have constantly pointed
out, the Age of Belief is over. Today, in order merely
to survive, we just have to know. Facts have replaced beliefs as the basis of survival. Therefore, we had
better start, as the old saying goes, "getting our
facts straight"; and we had all better begin by learn-

iog the rudiments of the classification of facts and

how to separate them from beliefs.
Our Society (S.I.T.U.) was established by a few
dozen pragmatists who, through their daily work,had
learned this simple fact. There are now five hundred
of us. There are many scientists and topnotch technologists with us, most of whom are household names;
there are an equal number of professionals in the
publishing and mass media fields; and what binds
these to us ordinary working stiffs, and particularly
to that very high percentage of our membership that
is under 25 years of age, is just this appreciation of
reality.
We, as a Society, do not and have never interfered
with, or even criticized any other organization or its
poliCies, though we naturally reserve the right to
differ with their objectives and statements. Further,
we recommend other organizations strictly upon their
own statements of interest. We demand therefore that
all others, from government departments to the publishers of kooky "fanzines" treat us - in print and by
word of mouth - with similar circumspection. During
the past year, however, we have received a steady
now of written (and Signed) evidence that other
organizations - ranging from some academic establishments who ought to know better, to private
outfits which don't know at all - have had the
audacity to class us with the "occultists and
mystics". These people don't seem to know the laws
of their land, and they are hereby advised to acquaint
themselves with the terms of reference under which a
society such as ours is chartered, and in accord with
both Federal and State requirements. This is, in fact,
a fair warning.
Our Society is incorporated and registered as a
scientific and literary organization, 'indulging also
in humane works for animals. We are not registered as
a religious organization, and we do not concern ourselves with anything in Segment X. For this reason,
stating that we do so is actionable. Quite apart from
this, those who so glibly state that we are involved
in such activities might perhaps consider the following.
This is a free country. The power of the press and
other mass media is really extraordinary. People who
fail to read our charter and our published objectives
should be a little more circumspect.

Department of Geography
"Everybody, says the knowledgeable Parisian weekly Jeime Afrioue, knows the French are poor at ge0graphy: Ask one where Noumea is and he'll answer: "Noumea? I don't know'" That is, unless he had read
Figaro' on November 22nd. That great daily announced a "snowman" was being sent to New Caledonia as a
stunt to promote French tourism. Just think, one of its reporters wrote: "Snow in the heart of Africal" , .. (!)
(ATLAS, Feb. 1969)
,

64

I. MATHEMATICS.
As our name implies, we are primarily interested
in the unexplained aspects of existence and with
particular emphasis on those departments of enquiry
which are commonly called t'he natural sciences.
Further, it is our advertised intention to disseminate
information on new discoveries in these fields. We
are not sure if this bit falls into the category of the
natural sciences at all, mathematics being so superior
and exclusive. and we are fully aware that it is not
a new discovery in any way; nonetheless
This began when our executive secretary who puts
this journid to bed. prepared a chart for ready refer~nce in m'aking line, word. and character ~ounts for
a standard page of the text. This is a somewhat" irksome 'task as she (M.L.F.) rp.ceives original copy off
at least four different typewriters, each having a different typeface and character mil\!age. From one of
these machines the number of characters, after rectification, was 67, so, simply to save endless multiplication, she prepared a chart. This went as shown
below.

ing as our only mathematician (M.R.F.) was still in

the Navy, so we transferred a request for enlightenment to our adviser in this most, esoteric department
of knowledge - Dr. Martin Kruskal. His reply was a
'delight and is herewith given in full: "There's nothing especially remarkable about the
201. So if you add 67 sucnumber 67, but 3 x 67
cessively and look at every third entry, the two-digit
numbers 'on the right' keep increasing by 1. And
67/100 is very nearly equal to 2/3, the numbE\rs 'on
the left' (obtaining by always ignoring the two, rightmost digits) increase by 2 every 3 steps, that is by 1
alternatingly per step or per two steps. You would
find a similar effect by adding 33 successively, since
3 x 33 = 99 = 100 - 1. though now the number ~n the
rig ht would decrease by 1 every third step and the
number on the left increase by 1 eyery '3 steps. Or,
if you would add 43 successively, because 7 x 43
301 you would find that every seventh entry increases
on the right by I, while on the lef~ the successi:ve
entries increase by 3 every 7 steps, that is by 1 per

67
134
201

1072
1139
1206

268
335
402

469
536
603

670
737
804

871
938
1005

Reading across the lines frorn left to right you will

see several regular progressions.
Having observed this, MLF completed the chart
for the 60 lines per page in short order and without
having to add, and multipl~' for each figure. Delighted
with, t his 'discovery' she appealed to the rest of us
for an explanation. This nat uraH,}' was not forthcom-

Photograph of hands of Gerald Garde of Lyons,

France, currently in jail for picking pockets.

1273
1340
1407

1474
1541
1608

1675
1742
1809

two steps, per two steps again, and then per three
steps, in rotation. Many other numbers would give
more or less similar effects. "
Pla.\'ing with numbers is great fun and may be indulged by anybody who can add. It has been so indulged since man began to count, which apparently
started with our ten fingers, proceeded to the use
also of our toes, and then usually went on to say
things like "more", "lots more" and, as the West
Africans sas facetiously. "make-'im too too much".
All kinds of jolly things emerge from so playing
around with numbers and. of course, it was not long
before philosophers and other deep thinkers began to
wonder what the underlying causes of and for these
might be. Hence, mathematics. Result was that these
mathematicians had to set up a set of rules to work
by, since there were, and still are, all kinds of different ways of adding and dividing, and much of this
was done in the early days without the concept of the
zero. That this happened to be designated the right
pink.v" , counting from left, to right, was actually
quite fortuitous. If we mammals had had six fingers
per hand we might well have had a much better system, '
n8.J!lely the duodecimal, with zero being our 12, i.e.
one, two, three, four .. five, six, seven, eight, nine,
Unh, Uh-unh, ten. Given such a base-twelve system
we could divide into both Quarters and thirds precisely, and do away with all this 33 lI3rd and 66.6%
nonsense.
And anent all this, we reproduce herewith a photo, graph of a chap who was lucky enough to be born with
six perfectly normal fingers on each hand. Could this
be the reason for his 'profession'?

65

II. ONTOLOGY
This fraternity seems to have been considerably
piano recently, possibly because the cosmologists
appear. still to be exhausted by the "big bang" versus
the continuous creation" hypotheses. We don't know
if the following qualifies as cosmological but it is
certainly cosmic in its implications. We seem to have
come full cycle.

(Quotes): Perhaps the American commentator

aboard the USS Princeton had the last word on
Apollo 10, as the dizzyingly! sophisticated complexities of modern electronics splashed it
down dead on time and place. (i.e. Time and
Locus) He said it had all gone like clockwork.
(PUNCH, England)

No further comment.

III. PHYSICS
RATS AGAIN
But what are they doing here? Simply that, once
again, these pestilential creatures are involved in an
aspect of physics that is of the most profound interest to forteans. This report is of particular significance in view of the medium through which it was
first publicized. It came to us from Peter Kamitchis.
(No. 66), arid was published in Column 1. on page 1
of no less than the Wall ~ Journal, of the 25th of
August" of this year, and was headlined: "Life in
Lombok - Hunger. starvation Are Day To Day Worries
on Plague-ridden Isle", and datelined Batudjai, Lombox. In40nesia. The essential portions of this report
read as follows: "On the outskirts of Batudjai, a half dozen farmers
are squatting in a ricefield. chipping lazily at the
dry earth. The object of their attention is a rat hole.
'Most of the rats have left this field because they
have eaten all the rice,' says one elderly man ...
'They came six months ago. before the rains e:topped',
says another farmer. How did they come? 'They fell
from the
From the sky? 'Yes, in bunches of
seven and then they spread out across the land', the
fSlmer adds matter-of-factly. 'They are led by a great
white rat as large as a cat,' says a third farmer. 'The
white rat is very smart. It knows when we plan to
harvest. If we plan to harvest a field the day after
tomorrow the rats will eat the field tomorrow night.
If we plan, in secret, to harvest the field tomorrow
then the rats will eat it tonight.' A visit to the home
of the Vlllage chief, the only fat man to be seen in
Batudjai ('He is of a higher caste,' explains a
villager) repeats the farmers' story. Led by a white
'king of rats as large as a dog' the rats appeared last
December, falling from the
in bunches of seven.
he says. As they landed, the rats separated and
spread in seven different directions, he says. Some
farmers saw this happen, says the chief, and several
nearby farmers nod."
The significant statements in this report are
italicized by us and they are the more astonishing for
having appeared where they did. More power to the
Wall ,~ Journal for even so much as mentioning
ITF (i.e. teleportation) and a FAFROTSKY (i.e. a
"fall" of something 'unauthorized' from the sky) in

ru'.

ru

the same paragraph, and on page 1. We certainly

never expected to live to see anything like this. But
to clear some of the entangled corollary aspects.
First, the biological: namely, what rats? Were they
the common Black Rats (Rattus rattus), Brown Rats
(Rattus norvegicus), or another of the several hundreds of species now identified? It would be nice to
know because the first two have constantly cropped
up in alleged cases of ITF. (See PURSUI'.I', Vol. I,
No.4. p. 5. etc.) There are some rats, notably the
genus Cricetomys of equatorial Africa, that are indeed as large as small cats and dogs but the implic!!=,
tion in this story is that the so-called "King" rats
were much larger than the others. Also they were
white. Albinos occur in all animal species it appears
so that the color, or lack of it, of these so-called
"kings" is not too odd. However, that they should be
so much bigger is very much so. (It must be understood that a so-called "King Rat" is in no way the
same as the horrible Rat-Kings which are bunches of
huge rats tied together by their tails and maintained
by rat colonies.)
.
Another extraneous item to this report would seem
more likely to have a mythological origin and connotation. This is the interjection of the mystical number
seven, so anciently ingrained in the animism of the
East Indies, and prevalent also in Muslim tradition.
Rats have a habit of appearing suddenly and in
what often seems to be a most mysterious way, and
to be quite uncanny on occasion. This usually happens when they run out of supplies which, in the case
of the house rats, is when people do so. The greatest
rat exterminator who ever lived, Mijnheer Jean Olischlager of Maastricht, Holland, demonstrated that for
every rat you see at night there are nine more in the
immediate vicinity. Thus, the sudden appearance of
swarms might well prompt the belief that they fell
from the sky. We would have thus written off this
report if it were not for the constant allegations that .
Caged rats teleport. Besides, the farmers of Lombok
are not ne81ly as superstitious as one might suppose,
and they know the ethology of their local animal life
very well indeed. The "falling from the sky is.
directly contrary to normal behaviour of rats which

.66

pop out of the ground. Thus, this report has a double

significance.
It is perfectly. permissible for everybody to go on
saying that nothing falls from the sky except meteorites and bits and pieces of our rockets, but all
manner of other objects and things like blood, flesh,
gases, angel-hair and. so forth continue so to do.
What is more, these items are now being reported in
orthodox journals. Isn't it about time that. somebody
collected the reports on such falls and computerized
them with a view to some statistical analysis? And.

to this end we once again herewith ~'~ge that Member

No. 42, Mr. Ronald Calais, do just this, as he seems
to be the best informed person on this matter.
Basic questio.n is: Are what appear to be "falls"
an aspect of ITF or inst~t-transference? If they &le,
they might well forma most worthwhile approach to
the whole matter of teleportation, and this is definitely a purely physical matter, regardless of .the items
teleported, or whether they "fall from the sky- Qr just
appe&l. By what physical process do they do so - if
they do?

IV. CHEMISTRY

MUONIUM AND YOUTH

We are' weil aware that there are those, including

even .. some of our members, who are not clear as to
just what the inte.nt of this journal is. They seem to
think that they will' find in it original technical
papers: They won't because we have not yet reached
that stage tqough we aim toward it and will implement
It when some more formalities and legalities have
been' dealt with. Meantime, we profess to be only a
journal of commentary, second-hand reportage, and
critique; and in the last case verging on the world of
protest! Thus, it is more than likely that at least
some. of our members will have already read of at
least one of the items upon which we do so comment.
Nonetheless, our major objective is synthesis and
the crossing over and passing over of information of
a current nature between all fields of interest in the
tangibles of the natural sciences and also such items
in what we call the intangibles' that appear to us to
make some sense. We have a modest eKample here.
The authoritative publication Science News, in
its ~th October issue of this year, devoted a page to
a most. noteworthy r.eport entitled "Muonium Metal".
The implication of this 'discovery'
be given in a
moment, duly vetted l1your adviser on basic chemistry,
but we ~elcome this as an .opportunity to air something else which does not normally fall within our
purlieu. This is a frank salute to what is euphemistically called You~h, and more power to Science News
and the scientists and others concerned for so plainly
stating the 'facts of this case. In this respect one
Dr. D. John Pastine's name ought to go down in
history and be enthroned by the" upcoming generation.
The story goes as follows.
Apparently two years ago a young man, then aged
15, took on a summer job under this most estimable
Dr. Pastine in the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in
Silver Springs, Maryland, under a National Science
Foundation grant. 'This young man, now 17 years old,
tackled the problem set (theoretically) by contemplation of the possibility that certain changes could be
made in electrons. This consideration :Nas succinctly
expounded by Science News as: "The characteristics
of materials depend on the electrons in their atoms

will

and the forces that bind the electrons to the nucleus .

If the electrons could be changed, phYSical properties
- such as boiling poir)t, melting point and densitywould change as well. Paul McKenna set out to find
exactly what other changes would follow change in
the electrons."
Apparently this admirable YOUng scientist figured
out the possibilities and then suggested their application to cosmic chemistry. His findings: Starting
from the assumption that "the single electron of (the)
hydrogen atom (be) replaced by a Mu-Meson, which is
200 times as 'heavy' as .an electron," he demonstrated
by the appropriate cl!lculations that, should such a
substance be able to exist, it could "exist either as
a solid or a liquid, provided environmental conditions
were right and there was a steady source of muons
nearby to replace them as fast as they decayed-. The
article continues: "Mu Mesons are among the strangest inhabitants of the elementary particle menagerie.
Except for their mass they are exactly like electrons,
and physicists an see no reason why they should
exist at all. They are so ephemeral that, up to now
at least, no one though~ they had anything to do with
stable matter.
"Muonium is hard to make because mu mesons are
created only in high-energy experiments and they disappear radioactively in two-millionths of a second.
. "Despite terrestrial. muonium's tendency to disappear, the theoretical calculation made by McKenna
and Dr, Pastine indicates that muonium could exist
either as a solid or a liquid, provided environmental.
conditions were right and there was a steady source
of muons nearby to replace them as fast as they decayed. The calculation shows that muonilim is highly
cohesive and that it would form a solid inetal with. a
melting, point of 65,000 degrees K.. and a boiling point
of 250,000 degrees K. Solid muonium does not exist
on earth because it also requires density of hydrogen
of 10 23 atoms per cubic cent~meter and a pressure ~f
2 million times the earth's atmosphere. Muonium is
also very dense, 28 million times the' one-grarn-percubic-centimeter density of water. 'if any existed on
earth,' says McKenna, 'it would sink right thraugh.'
But it could exist on !1 star,. and th~" suggest Mc-

67

Kenna and Dr. Pastine, is where solid or liquid

muonium may be ,found. 'I'm convinced it exis~s,' says
Dr. Pastine.
"Young'McKenna is already the senior author of a
paper (concerning the Gruneisen parameter for aluminum) published in the JOURNAL OF APPLIED
PHYSICS. This grew out of the previous summer's
work with Dr. Pastine."
Many of the facts given above are of course considerably too technical for most of us but, as interpreted for us, the whole bit would seem to demonstrate one of the first attempts, however theoretical

it may be, to postulate the reasons for matter in forms

other than those known in our tiny spot in the universe. Matter in certain types of stars has been calculated to weigh up to ten thousand tons (by our
weighing system) per cubic inch but nobody previously got gOing on the "how" of this sort of suggestion.
We wonder what the space boys", should any such
really exist and be mOnitoring our efforts, think of
such erudition and clear thinking. Maybe we are getting somewhere; and we hope only that this Paul
McKenna will not be pensioned off with a Nobel Pri~e
before he stops thinking.

V. ASTRONOMY.

QUOTES OF THE MONTH.

No.1. Still , the people of China occasionally
manage,.to steal glimpses of the outside world. In
recent weeks, Canton has been swept by rumors that
the Americans landed men on the moon. Hardly anyone takes that report seriously, and the authorities
are attempting to find ,out who planted the (dirty)
Capitalist Lie." NEWSWEEK, 13 Oct. 1969.
No.2. '''The whole thing is a fake,' said the banker member of our group as we watched the still-unbelie'vable moon landing on TV that night of July 20.
He was deadly serious. 'It's a government trick.
They shot thB.t whole thing out on the Nevada flats
last spring and now they're fOistin,g it off on us so
they can boost our taxes again without getting any
Edit,orial by Richard Dempewolff in
squawks. ",
SCIENCE DIGEST, October, 1969.
Well, everybody is entitled to his own opinion,
even behind the bamboo, iron, or yashmak curtains,
but we must once again point out that'the age of
"belief" is over. As t hat jolly little mathematical
comedian, Tom Lehrer, sang in one of his profundities a couple of years ago: "To spend two billion
dollars to put some clown on the moon" .... Well, they
did, Maoists and ,American bankers notwithstanding:
and, might, we be permitted to say, Damned good
show; what"? However, as we have also pointed out
several times, the age of reason dawned with the
little incident at Hiroshima and it is about time that
all of us'stopped braying and got with reality instead
of sounding off.
We went through a steady stream of braying about
the Moon right up to the time that we landed said
poor 'clowns' thereupon and got the first real answers
to a number of questions. We're now going through the
whole routine again vis-a-vis Mars. Oh yes indeed!
It's covered 'with a four-hundred-foot layer of fine
dust; it's crisscrossed by 'canlili';' it's got no atmosphere; it's got an atmosphere but there's no Nitrogen
in it; the, polar caps are pure carbon dioxide; ,they're
only a thin layer of hoarfrost; they're not - they are
ski-slopes; the planet's dead; it's alive; it's all flat

desert; it's covered with vast mountain ranges; and

so on and on, ad nauseam. Why, oh why, don't these
clowns shut up until they get some real answers?
Speculation is not only great but it is the very
essence of progress in thinking. Without it we would
never develop an hypothesis and, lacking that, we
would never get a theory; and, without a theory to
work on, even the technologists would throw up ,their
hands. So why can't we work on what we have obtained from this really fantastic and competent
achievemert of landing two poor clowns" on our
sister planet?
As more or less everybody realizes, or has at
least been told, it will be a long time yet before the
examination of the rocks brought back from the moon
is completed. Meantime, however, the matter has
become consillerably clouded by some unnecessary
speculation, so that it is very difficult to ascertain
just what we have discovered. We recently inspected
an exhibit of some moon rock specimens in the Field
Museum in Chicago - a vilely lit display with very
small and weak lenses through which to view the
samples - but which are surrounded by a large series
of magnificent photographic blow-ups. Unfortunately
the descriptive labels for these are placed on adjacent panels so that even the petrologist who conducted us around was sometimes hard put to it to
know which referred to which. The overall impression
gained was that, while the moon has a rock-strewn
surface and its crust appears to be what we call
solid rock, its composition is basically quite unlike
that of our planet.
This brings up a most fundamental question that
has already been widely debated; namely, (1) did it
originate from our earth and then change radically due
to different circumstances, or' (2) were we both
created at the same time but separately and then
went our separate ways physichemically, or (3) was
the moon a rogue'body that was captured by our solar
system and then by our earth? All three are possible
though the first is now considered the least likely,
and the notion that the Pacific Ocean is the hole it
was ripped or blown out of is almost as dead as any
theory can be. The second suggestion is possible

68

but calls for the erection of quite a large number of

corollary theories as to the effects of reduced gravity,
lack of atmosphp.re, radiation, and other factors to
account for the very basic differences in the composition of the surface of our twin planets. The third
suggestion does not call for any such elasticity in
theory but, curiously, it has so far been rather deliberately. played down.
There is an enormous amount of junk wandering
about in the universe, both gaseous and solid a.nd
possibly .even plasmic and liquid. This would seem
to be more concentrated in galaxies, and therein tend
to get caught up in solar systems; and, in both cases,
because of the enhanced amount of gravitational
forces concentrated in them, compared to intergalactic space. Let us not forget that the galaxies
are roaring through space themselves like vast
brooms, while all the. matter within them is likewise
rushing headlon!;; around inside them. Within this
maelstrpm, .s.olar systems are dOing likewise on a
lesser: scale. Given time enough, therefore, the universe .will get a pretty good spring-cleaning whether
it started with a big bang or keeps creating matter.
The chanc.es of capture of planetary-sized rogue
bodies by stars is therefore rather high, and that bs
planets ev~n highe.r still, especially when it come;;
to the little stuff. Which brings us to the planetoids
(previously and quite erroneously called asteroids)
of our solar system.
These. constitute a subject for Literally endless
debate and again with virtually the same three leading suggestiolls; to wit, (1) that they are remnants ,)f
a larger body that blew :JP, (2) that they were formed
at tne same time as the rest of the planets but have

VI.

not yet coalesced into a single body, or (3) that they

have been captured. In their case, however, the last
is the least likely because of their disposition in
our solar system more or less all.swirling along a
single" path, despite their wide variety of size, and
also just w here old Bode's Law would place a
planet of just about their combined mass. "
It has therefore been suggested that rogue bodies
that are gathered up by a solar system meet with
different ends due mostly to their comparative' size.
Little ones, "from meteoritic dust to the biggest
astrobleme short of -moon-size- (according to the"
size of the planet they approach), get sucked into a
planet. The larger ones, according to their speed,
inclination, and so forth are captured, and becomesatellites. Very large ones, or those with great mass,
may just pass on through on their appointed courses
~nless they hit something on the way. (Shades of
Velikovsky!) Our moon would seem to be at just about"
the upper limit for capture by a planet of our size.
But the great debate now is just when" was it captured?
They are getting on with the laborious process of
dating the moon rocks and there have been hints
that these are older than the surface rocks of. th~
earth. At the same time, we have to wait for samples
of the solid roCil below the surface before the overall age of the moon as a whole may be a.ssessed. If
it proves to bE' either notably older or younger than
us, it would argue very strongly for its being a
tured rogue body from anothE'r part of the universe.
It would also land a body blow to the big bang theory
of creation, but perhaps we will have to w~it for
Mars-rocks before we can go that far out.

cap-

GEOLOGY.

MUCH ABOUT MUCK.

In a fine report on a highly informative "talk given

by a Mr. E. M. Benson, Vice-President of the North
American Producing Division of the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company, tot he Long" Beach Petroleum
Club of California on the new oilfield in northern
Alaska, there appeared a rather noteworthy quote.
This read: - "Drilling down through the WOO-foot
thick frozen earth can produce some surprises. One
of our wells brought up an 18-inch long chunk of tree
trunk from almost 1,000 feet "below the surface. It
wasn'~ petrified - just frozen", the oil company ~xe
cutive said. The reason this statement is noteworthy
is not because the reporter seems to have been impressed but rather that a man of Mr. Benson's experience - and he started as a worker in the fields should use the word "surprise" in this case.
W~ are going to hear a lot about this frozen earth

or 'muck' from now un because of this vast oil strike

on the Arctic shores of the Alaskan peninsula. It is
indeed full of surprises but a tree trunk in it, and
even at a depth of a thousand feet, is not at all surprising. What surprise there was on this occasion was
probably due to the fact that it came to light in an
area devoid of trees today and hundreds of miles from
any forE'st growth. The riature of muck is not general-"
ly understood, and the theories on its origin "are even
less Widely known.
Frozen soH," as diammetrically opposed to ice on
the one hand and rock on the other, constitutes one"
of the greatest mysteries on our earth's surface. What
is more it covers no less than one seventli of the
land surface of the earth, and all of it encircles the
Arctic Ocean and lies within the Arctic circle at
what we consider the top side of our planet. Actually,
it is a form of 'rock', despite its very mixed" composi- '

69

tion, at least to the extent that a tillite or pudding-

stone may be. The reason for stating this is that the
material that binds it is water, and water in its solid
form as ice is also technically a rock and behav~s as
such. When this frozen soil melts it results in an
appalling and often stinking sort of soup composed
of goo with silt, sand, pebbles, and boulders, often
with masses of preserved, semi-decayed, or fully
decayed vegetable and animal matter. This is what
is called -Muck-.
A world map of the distribution of this frozen soil
and muck reveals several very interesting things, the
most . outstanding aspect being that it lies on low,
level plains or tablelands. Unless it was caused by
some cosmic forces that we have not yet detected, it
would appeiu to be a subaerial deposit derived from
massive erosion of higher grounds 'and with steeper
slopes. However, its depth in some places, and over
enoriiidus areas, bas 8J.wayS caused even the most
open-minded geologists to boggle. The Russians,
who o.wn the majo.r land areas covered by this substance; . have conducted prolonged studies on it for
half a ce~ttiry and h~ve in some places drilled down
to over .4000 feet but still without reaching solid
rock. The conundrum is, of course, how do you get
that thickness of what is manifestly surface-derived
mate~ial. if it is the result of mere run-off? To this
there would appear to be but one answer.
First,. the lands no~ blanketed with this material
must at one time have been much higher above sealevel, I so that stuff could be deposited upon them,
rather than running on beyond and out into the sea.
AlternativelY, the sea level would have to have been
much 'below that of today; but in this case are we
asked to suppose that uiliversal sealevel was not too
long ago,. geologicaily speaking,. more than 4000 feet
lower?' If neither of these situations pertained when
the first, and lowest layers of this muck were laid
down, just what were the conditions, since no such
strata could be laid down even under shallow, trB:nquil coastal seas? To suggest that the uplands from
which this stuff came were much once higher and had
a steeper run-off is begging. the question, and doesn't
help at ali. Yet, there is the bloody muck lying all
over the lot and to enormous depths. It has to be
accounted for..
Let us next' turn back to Mr. Benson's remark.
This was to the effect that finding a section of a
fair-sized tree trunk a thousand feet down' in this
frozen muck was a 'surprise'. It may indeed be to the.
average person who has not had cause to investigate
or read about this incredible natural phenome~on,
but it comes as no surprise at all to geologists who
have specialized in the surface constitution of the
Arctic regions.A mere section of tree trunk is amild
relief compared to some of the things that the muck
has yielded. In the New Siberian Islands. for instance,

whole trees have turned up; and trees of the family

that includes the plums; and with their leaves and
fruits. No such hardwood trees grow today anywhere
within h';o thousand. miles of those islands. Therefore the climate must have been very much different
when they g~t buried; and, please note, they could
not have been buried in frozen muck which is rockhard, nor cO,,!ld they have retained their foliage if
they were washed faz north by currents from wazmer
climes. They must have grown thereabouts, and the
climate must have been not only wazm enough but
have had a long enough. growing period of summer
sunlight for them to have leafed and fruited.
Ergo, either what is now the Arctic was at the
time as warm as Oregon, or the land that now)ies
therein was at that time elsewhere. Geophysicists
don't go for an overall warming of this planet to
allow such growth at 72 degrees north; otherwise
everything in tpe tropics would have boiled! Thus,
we are left with the notion that. either the whole
eartt.'s crust has shifted, or bits of it have drifted
about. But then comes another problem. - the Time
Factor ..
Along with the plum trees, and other rion-azctic
vegetation there are found associated animal remains
of many kinds. One of these is the famous mammoth.
Now, everybody has somehow got the totally erroneous idea that these great hairy beasts are found
in ice. Not one has ever been found in ice: they aze
I'll in thi s frozen eazth or muck. Then, just because
of their layer of fat and their covering of long hair
everybody likewise thinks that they were azctic
types. A moment's consideration will disclose just
how ridiculous an idea this is. A large elephantine
needs some half a ton minimum of fresh green food a .
day to maintain itself, and there were appazently (at
least according to the number of their bones and
bodies that have beEm found in the muck) hundreds
of thousands of them up till only a few thousand
yeazs ago. For a minimum of eight m"nths out of the
yeaz there is nothing for such large animals to eat
north of the tree line in the Arctic, though some
Barren Ground Caribou and a few Muskox get along
by scratching through the shallow snow to get at
tundra moss and lichens. Therefore these elephantines must have migrated far south for the winter or
the climate must have been much milder than it is .
today, or the lands they lived in were elsewhere.
But not. even this pinpoints the reason for the
muck or explains just how all the junk that is found
in it, even down to thousands of feet, got there. Mr.
Benson's tree trunk may not have been a surprise
but it is. still a mystery in one way. And we should
contemplate the many aspects of this mystery in
order to be ready for the many inore enigmas that. we
are gOing to be told about as our technicians slice.
into the far north.

70

NOBODY DOES ANYTHING

As the old saw has it: Everybody complains about
the weather but nobody does anything about it. Well,
we 'are at least trying to do something about it now
what with cloud seeding and huracan chasing 'but we
still have to make a real concerted attack upon the
Climate. The British never even attempted to do anything about the former; hoI\' could they, poor s'ouls, in
view of the latter into which they were born. Today,
they just grumble in a mildly philosophical kind ot
way and hope for next summer's three days 'of sunsl!ine. (The westcoast Norwegians, incidentally,
don't even bother to grumble. How could they with an
average of 350 days of rain, per annum in places like
Berge~?)

Nevertheless, the vagaries o'f the weather have

been duly noted by those inhabiting the western
fringe of Europe throughout the centuries; and-, apparently, noted with considerable complacency. We
stumbled across a delightful example of, such phlegm
in the latest issue of, no less than, the :lill!!!!.!J of
the Royal Geographical Society of London (Vol. 135,
June; 1969). This' appeared in a review of a book
entitled London Weather, by J. H. Brazell, published
by H. M. stationery Office, in 1968, written by ntJn~
less than Dr. J. R. V. Brooks. As quoe-ed by this
reviewer;' this book stated blandly that: "There are
three seh; of appendices. The first r~ads like a
chronicle
and
catalogues historically-recorded
weather in London pr~-1841. The observations that.
i::l A.D. 4. 'a rain of blood lasting five hours' and in
A.D. 131 'The Thames dried up for two days',
sug&est, that the peculiarities of London weather are
nor confined,to the twentieth century. It is also interesting -to note ,that no fogs are recorded anywhere
before, 1663". This book. incidentall,Y. displays
statistics 011 "all agents of weather from A.D. ~. to
1964".
Accustomed as we are in' this Society to being
confronted with the unusual, unexpected. unexplained,
and often' seemingly inexplicable, we must admit to
being wellnigh flummoxed not just by this quote but,
by its three quite separate implications. Let us take
these' one at a time.
'

faUs. In fact the whole notion is rubbish. On the

other hand several rains 'of a gooey red substance
have been properly investigated and' analyzed in a
modern laboratory,.... notably in Italy - ,and proved to
be organic (not sand) and to contain red corpuscles
that looked most likely mammalian. '(They had a red
'rain i'n England last year.)
(2), The Thames dri~d up for two days, did it?
,'Well, now really! This river is admittedly a rather
dreary little trickle when, it is oompared with the
average river throughout the WOrld, and it is fluite
hard even to find on a world map but, as it passes
through London, it is quite substantial for the size
of the country. Further, it is really rather deep. Also,
it is tidal. Thus, in ord~r to "dry it up" you would
not only have to cut off all flow from the hinterland,
which by the way has a very high rafnfall throughout
the 'year, but somehow stem the high tides of the'
Channel and hold back all the water pressure ,of the
North Atlantic! We don't quite see ,how both such
necessities could have been accomplished in A.D.
131 but, if the British said that the result recorded
happened, who are we to sa$' them nay? Perhaps the
Whole London 'Basin rose UP for a couple of days and
then sagged again. There have been some very ,uPseLling seismological upheavals in Britain even in
recent yeW's and they have been typically 'soft-sell'
efforts. hardly appreciated even' by the locals until
they woke up to find that the sea had just taken a
day off, off-coast-wise. Well; that is that' report.
(3) So we come to this really astonishing statement that there were rio fogs recorded until 16~3 with
the pertinent rider "anywhere". Just what does this
mean? Anywhere in London or just plain anywhere in
England, or the world, or just what? Very intriguing.,
And how, pray, could such a thing 'be? Does it mean
that until the burning of coal became the thing the'
oceanic mists that customarily roll in over the London
basin from the southwest throughout most of the ye'8.r
just rolled on as mist? Was it the coal dust and other
home and industrial wastes belched into the air that
gave London its famous "peasoup fog" ? Or did the
climate cha.nge. circa A. D. '1663? We have not
found any reference' to such anywhere else' in half Ii.
century of browsing both through literature and said
fogs. Very bizarre.
'
Seems that somebody did do something about the
bloody weather about that date but got his coordinates
mixed.

(1) So it rained blood for five hO,urs? How very

jolly. Rains of blood are old-hat to forteans and have,
been "recorded throughout history and from all over
the world. Naturally anywhere within a thousand I
miles of a desert these incidents are immedia~ely
VORTIGINOUS VORTICES
laid to -desert sand" borne by rainstorms. In western
Europe it is the Sahara that is naturally picked as
Member No. 286: of South Amboy, New Jersey,
the culprit but nobody has ever yet found a sufficientdropped us a modest note last July 'which packed the
ly substantial area of red sand anywhere in that vast
proverbial wallop and has prompted many of us to
region; nobody ha.s pinned down a single wind blowspend a very great deal of time follo~ing, up his _
ing from anywhere in it northwest and thus contrary
suggestions. -His observations "stemmed from our,
to all prevalent and local winds at all levels; and , PUbliciz~ng the m'atter Qf vortigi~ous areas of anomaly
nobody has ever identified the red material in said 'that appellJ' ,to girdle the earth ip two layers equally

71

north and south of the equator. What causes these is

not yet known but within their apparently lozengeshaped confines all manner of strange things happen,
like the total ,disappearance of planes, ships, and
subs. , The ,most f~ous is the so-called "Bermuda
Triangl~" (~hieh of course it isn't) which hit the
news, and quite wrongly as it happened, when the
U. S.,nuclear sub, the SCORPION was lost. What this
correspondent wanted to know was as follows.
Dp these .vast, vUe, vortices that cover tens of
thousand~ of square miles have anything to do with
the little things that have become equally if not more
famous in inshore waters and even on land, like the
tidal maelstroms or"the Faroe Islands and the coast
of Norway, and more especially the now really very
well-known "Oregon 'Vortex". This raises a number
of qu~stions.
,
T.he whole b,usiness of vortices, in gases, liquids,
or sqlids, is complex to say the least and we advi se,
any specific,ally interested and who are not engineers
and so have not had cause to study the mechanics of
these dynamics, to obtain a book entitled, SENSITIVE
CHAOS by Theodor Schwenk. This gives a very fine
JXPosition of the mechanics of vortices and applies
its principles to both .nanimate and animate Ufe.
Unfortunately however, the author is some kind of
mystic and wanders of( .into esoteric speculation of
the'most advanced order by way of explanation of his
thes,is. Neverthele'ss, that thesis, itself is well docu-'
mented and accompanied by numerous valid photographs, charts,', and diagrams of vortiginous motion
and patterns as fouild in nature. From this it will be
seen that the vortex does indeed play a very cogent
part in nature and that, despite its apparent chaos as
the title of this book implies, it actually follows some
very precise rules.
It appe'ars that there are innumerable vortices and
patterns of vortices covering the whole surface of the
earth, and others within it. Also, the solar system,
the galaxies, and possibly our 'uni verse itself may be
nothing more than vortices. In fact, the Whole bloody
shooting-match may indeed be based on the principle
of the vortex: and don't forget that a spiral (as in
chromosomal chains) are but t"ortices stretched out
like springs at a right angle. Thus, there may well
be little vortiginous anomalies of all manner of kinds
like this troublesome "Oregon Vortex".
'This is an item that we will have to take up in
.greater detail at another time, so suffice it to say
for n9w'that the owners (and thus ~egitimately pro-

motors) of this place have got several different

matters mixed up in their presentation. Some of these
are truly related, and some others may be, but the
major premise appears to be enoneous. The one valid
explanation of this local phenomenon was published
fifteen years ago both in scientific journals and some.
better popular magazines. Copies of these papers and
articles used to be posted behind glass screens
along one side of the walkway into this exhiblt.
Despite this, everybody has persisted in ignoring
this proper work that was done at this place, ,and
parroting the old cliches. about vortices", "magic
circles", "the place where gravity does not work",
and so forth. People, it seems, prefer. sensational
and whacky theories to what ! known, and even if
the' latter is even more weird and extraordinary.
The trutli of the matter is that this Oregon Vortex.
does not display any gravitic anomalies, and people,
houses, and so forth do not lean inwards as advertised. These are all optical illusions such as may be
seen in two dozen other advertised road-stops all the
way from southern California to the Canadian border.
But what is odd about this Oregon place is just as
stated in the scientific papers and magazine articles
that the owners display. This is that for some reason,
light appears to be 'bent' as it passes through it and,
what is more, only when passing through in certain
directions. Such bending, it is also suggested in said
articles, might well account for all or a lot of the
optical illusions everybody seems to encounter therein. But then something else cropped up: and in an
article in FORTUNE Magazine.
This described the alleged discovery of what were
called "magnetic stripes underlying the region in
which this exhibit lies. These were said to run
parallel to the coastal mountain chains of Oregon
and the offshore, undersea ridges. Their singularity
is that each stripe" or strip of the basaltic rocks of
which the parallel ridges are composed have alternating polarity. Could this cause light to bend at certain
nodal points? So help UlJ, but we do wish Professor
Einstein had not passed on, as we wish that this
suggestion might have been brought to his ,attention
before he did so. If light dissemination can be 'bent'
by the gravitational forces of the sun, could it be
likewise affected by any field as weak as earth
magnetism?
But, above all, why and how did this phenomenon
ever get called a vortex, and why has that name
stuck?

('

BIOLOGY - Subsection PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

18rANBUt., Turkey, '31~t July (Reuters) - Californi~ elevator operator John Libi, 69, has broken off his
fourth attempt to find Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat because of bad weather, ice, and a stone-throwing bear."
No animals other than humans, and possi,bly other hominids, can "throw" things, least of all bears. HoW-:
ever,' there have been persistent reports of just such other hominids in this general area for centuries.

............ ........ .....I............I....

~""l"""""""""""'.'

~I

_~

72

VII.

BIOLOGY;

ANOTHER MATTER OF SEMANTICS.

A- subscriber dropp~d us a really' very flattering

letter but asked that wedevote more sP8:ce to straight
reporting and less to twitting the, ~orking press and
the 'expert' spokesmen for scientific enterprise. Fair
enough, but as we are an expressedly fortean outfit,
our primary duty is just such twitting because a ver:y:
high percentage of the new, discoveries in the natural
sciences and, we suspect in other departments of
enquiry, get lost due primarily, to misinterpretation
by these med,ia. As we have re~eatedly said, we hope
that most of tjlis ~varication. is caused only by'. semantic confusion but. even ,this may result in the most
app~ling mif?con~eptions. Then, .there is of course
within the multiple and diverse anglosaxon dial.ects
today the most awful foul-up. For instance, the same
species of one, kind of fish is called a "Bass" on
one .side' of the Florida peninsula and a, -Bess" on
the other;, while two different species of another kind
of fish are called Porgies on b.oth sides.
Therefore, with due apologies to that lady. we
have ,to comment upon a report on a 'finding' of the
crew aboard the research submarine, the Ben Franklin. that drifted. for, 30 days up, the Gulf Stream last
summer. This read as follows: SAVANNAH. Ga. (AP): SUB SPOTS HUGE
FISH .. Size believed 10 times normal. "Marine
'creatures 10 tim'es their normal size have been
spotted twice by the crew of the research sub-.
murine"Ben Franklin on her 30-day underwater
mission to explore 1,200 miles of the Gulf
Stream. The six men "'aboard reported to their
surface support ship via sonar telepHone Tues~
day that they' had seen 'eight blackfish 30
feet long.' Walter Muench, director of the Ben
F'rlinklin mission for the GrummaJl Aerospace
'corp., sBid at his West Palm Beach, Fla.,
headquarters, 'We still 'find it hard to believe,
but: they saY those fish were 30 feet lorig. We
hope the underwater photos confirm this sight~
ing when they surface.' Earlier in the mission,
the men aboard the sub said they saw amedussa
(sic) with tentacles 30 feet long and four
inches thick."
'
Needless to say this report was neither repeated
nor ~ommented upon, but 'some of our non-zoological
members may have seen it and become either con':
fused or even somewhat excited . so let us giv~ the
outcome.
The Blackfish is not a fish but a species of
Cetacean ('whale' to you, if you are so semantically
inclined) of the family of DelphinLdae, which is to
say that of the Dolphins which does NOT include the
Porpoises which are anatomically quite distinct and
constitute the family of ceta<;:ean,s knpwn as ~he
Phocaenidae. (Tl.Je creatures that jump thro'ugh hoops

. and 'so 'fo'rth are Bottle-nosed Dolphins and in no way

porp'oises which are smaller, comparatively less
agile, and placid fish-eaters that inhabit coastal
cooler waters.) The Blackfish grows when, adult to
an average of 30 feet 'in length. It is very common in'
the North Atlantic' and' is the animal that every so
often comes ashore in'schools much to'the amazement'
of the public, the incomprehension of the biologists.
the fury of the city' councils of resort and ilther
coastal townships. It is the second largest of the
Delphlnids. being beaten in bulk only by the large'st
Killer "Whales": and please note :this further' semantic nonsense.
Just a final note on the easy-to-m'ake typo of' ,
"medussa" (meaning an Arabic story-teller)' for' a '
Medusa which is the name given to the free~swimming
form of the marine Coelenterates of the group that
includes the Hydras, and which are more commonly' "
called simply "Jellyfisli". The largest 0'( these known'
is named Cyanea arctica which h~ been weighed .in
at over a ton and amply fits the specimen observed
'
'
from the Ben Franklin.
THAT DAMNED BONE.
In September of 'this year' there was a coloss81
outburst in the U. K.Jhat was noted in the U. S. and
had repo?rcussiolls throughout the world. This .was
caused by the announcement that two businessmen,
who did not wallt' their names publiCized for fear 'of'
ridicule. had found an enormous bone on the shore of
the famous Loch Nes's. As this story went. they had
been fishing from the shore and pulled what th~y
thought was a log up the beach to sit on. They then
noticl"d, they repor~ed. that it was very light ~n
weight and appeared to be hollow. When they cleaned
it off a bit and looked closer. they found that it was
porow,; and. 011 slicing through it found 'that it was a
part of an enormous bone. Havi~g released this, s~ate
ment' the press went off like one of Dr. Wernher von
Braun's better efforts, spraying speculation allover
the earth.
The story then began to build as such stories,
usually do. Within days the 'Experts' were in the act.
and that Dlch promoter 'of the wild, the DAILY MAIL
of London picked up the theme and, it would now
seem, the tab. T~eir first effusion was date-lined
Loch Ness and started off: - "Loch Ness today gave
up a 'gargantuan thigh bone - if not Nessie's. then
,perhaps from one. of her prehistoric cousins. The bone. found by Daily Mail re-aders and reported
to us by them. still lacks sure identification. B~t at '
first sight an expert on sea mammals said 'it could be :,
half the thigh bone of a. vertebrate animal. not kn?~n
to science today ~ a beasqhat .colild have ~toOd :30
feet high. The bone provided the rriino~. sensat'ion of
the first day of the' two-week monst~r htiri~ in 'which
the DiUly Mail is taking part. Today I saw the 'bone

73

on the shore of the loch at the spot where our readers,

who want to remain anonymous, found it during a fishing trip last MII3'. I lifted it with difficulty. It w~ighs
more than 200 lb.,_ measures 4 ft. 2 In. from tip to
tip, 31 in. across the bulbous 'knuckle' end and 22
in. across the marrow end. The marrow hole rUQning
clean through it was so big that I could bl!ry my forearm in it. David TlI3'lor. a vet, who is Director of
Whales and Dolphins at Flamingo Park Zoo. Yorkshire. said: 'I_t looks like the upper half of the femur
of -an animal that doesn't exist to d113'. " -This expert
then went -Qn: "-It has many features _of the thigh bone of a vertebrate animal. It must have stood 20 or 30 ft. high,
depending on w,hether it walked on two or four legs.
It would haVe" been bigger than anything we know
todll3' - bigger then _an elephant, for example. It
could _have been an aquatic mammal. but it is not
possible to sll3' exactly. what it is without chemical
and histological examination.'
"Only experts can tell. And the bone's owners,
guarding their investment. are uncertain how to proceed. Should the bone proY-e to have no connection
with Nessie's family . . . should it turn out. for
example. to-be that of ~ pr~historic monster, it wll~.
none the less, be a valuable property. Said Mr. Taylor; '~knowpeople who would pay thousands for it.~
Presumably we should apologize to our subscriber
once again, but this one is really too- much.
Similar and related newspaper reports continued
to stream out of the U. K. '.>n this story and most of
them were amiably reflected in both wire service and
U. S. -columns. The whole thing sounded so whacky
that we picked up the telephone and rang D'avid
James. the initiator and spark-plug of Loch Ness
Phenomena Investigations Bureau Ltd. to find out
just what the heck was going on. David w.as away on
the moors after the Loch Morar incident (a similar
beasticle had been reported from that body of water
earlier in the year) but we got an old personal friend,
Clem Lister-Skelton at the Investigations headquarters by the Ness, who was in charge. "What's
the story?" we asked: "All balls" he replied. "So,
please give" we shouted: and he did, forsooth. The
truth......
The bone was the back four feet lopped off
the lefthand ramus, or side, of the lower jaw of ~
large Blue Whale that had been dug up on the eaSt
coast of England. It had been "acquired (rented?) by
,two persons acting on behalf of a sponsor" from a
small local museum in that area, with distinct implications ,that it had come from -at least the area in
which the Flamingo Park Zoo is located! Ends story
but for comment.
A lot of- monster stories end up like this, but this
one has very distinct undertones of outright skullduggery. Who was this sponsor, and' how could a
veterinarian, who jolly well has to be an expert if
he is gOing to earn a living, make the rabid state.merts attributed to him; and by name at that? A ve~
at least ought to know the difference between the

jawbone of an ass and the upper end of its femur. and

as to mistaking 'a whale jaw for a part of a leg of
some 3D-foot tall "prehistoric monster" p-asseth all
understanding. In fact, it's virtually impossible. so
the whole thing must hllVe been a plant; and a particularly virulent one at that. Of course money was probably at the bottom of the whole exercise but we
are wondering just when the -press will wake up tothe fact that not only is the public not quite so
gullible as it still seems to -think but that forteans
like the Loch- Ness Investigative outfit are pretty
bright. Even if a vet, a museum official. or any otper
kind of "expert" is incapable of identifying a large
mammalian bone, there are an awful lot of people who
can do so - and even without any biological training
or even having taken a course in zoology. -Could this
obvious "plant" therefore be a deliberate attempt to
denigrate the investigators of the Loch Ness and other
freshwater monsters? We must admit to having the
gravest suspicions on this score. especially as we
are also in the news business.
GIANT SNAILS IN FLORIDA
There is a perfectly terrifying thing afoot. the
real Significance of which is apparently being missed
while the story, although duly published in the N. Y.
TIMES, probably passed unnoticed even bY-our more
biologically inclined inembers. For this reason alone
we report it in some detail. But there is much more to
it than even- this straightforward account -might
indicate. As of the Sunday, 28th of September issue
of the TIMES, the situation wa:s as follows: _ MI.&.MI, Florida, Sept. 27 CAP) -- FIST-SIZED
SN AILS INFEST AREA IN MIAMI. -"A lush area in
north Miami is infested with fist-sized snails that
are eating _about everything in sight - even the paint
on houses. 'They're giant African- snails,' said ArtCalvert, area administrator for the Florida Agriculture Department. He estimated that there were 20,000
-of them in a 13-square-block area. He said that the
snails thrived on foliage and calcium and presented a
threat to south Florida's cash crops if they were not
contained. Mr. Calvert and a dozen agriculture experts
visited the area Thursday in the Miami Shores section
- and collected hundreds' of-the large', brownish snails.
'I saw some shells bigger than my fist,' Mr. _Calvert
said. 'Inside, the snails were almost a foot long.' He
said the snails were Introduced to the neighborhood
three years ago by -a boy returning from a trip to
Hawaii_. 'He brought three of them as a present to his _grandmother. Now there are thousands out thlElre,' he
said. The snails, capable of producillg 600 offspring
each y~ar, _eat the lush fOliage and paint from the
- houses to get calcium. '\fe found them on r09fs.
clinging to ~alls - and hiding beneath eaves,' Mr.
Calvert -said. 'They were everywhere.' He said that
the snails could not be sprayed from a piane because
they were in a' populaied area.' '~ we'~e going to put
a granular substance on the lawns,.' he said. 'Con, ventional poisons don't bother them.-' Then_ he a,dded:
'One solution c;:ould be to eat them.'
- -

74

The Giant Snail concerned is properly called

Achatina and did in fact originate ,~rom the east
coastal regions of Africa. It has a very remarkable
history since it first was exported - inadvertently'it
seems - from there' by Arabic dhows first to s~me of
the Indian Oceanic islands at the end of the last,
century. It multiplied on some islands literally "like
mad" and in some cases actually ate the whole place
into oblivion - 'including itself! It then cropped UP
in Ceylo'n in, its baby form among vegetable~ and
immediately went to wo~k mUI:\ching up everything
vegetative in sight, but, was contained because it
was soon discovered to be highly edible to both
human beings a~d, many other animals. In fact, it
seems to have- been more or less ,eradicated in that,
country but., ,not ,before it had been transported to
some Islands off', the south coast of Sumatra. The,
writer encountered it there in 1927 on one of the
smaller Mentawi -Islands, ,come wars and charging
elephants, we have never encountered anything quite
so terrifying. Being conducted along the beach by
some locals with whom we could not talk in any
mutually understood language we became aware of a
rumbling noise' like an approaching earthquake but
continuous and persiste'nt. In due course we saw the
jungle tre,es cra'shing to the ground just back from the
bushes froi:)ting, the beach just as if giant bulldozers
were pushing them ov~r. We cut into the bush and
there were trillions of these enormous snails just
eating',' arid their combined weight bringing huge
branches to the ground every, few minut~s within our
limited 'vi~w, :while the !"maller trees toppled ove~, in
toto. We feft that place and two weeks later the last
human 'inh'abitant -left' thp. other end of the island.
The 'Achatina hit m~~y more Indonesian islands

but it was not until the Japanese arrived in World

War II that they made,their next leap eastward. When
things got sticky' for the widely, deployed 'Japanese
troops and "the, American counter-offensive got, into
,gear, supplies ran short in outlYing posts. The snails,
:which are very fast grOwing were therefore carried to
some south Pacific islands and released 'for food.
And they went to work' with a vengeance. But when
the Japanese troops were' withdrawn they once again
got out of hand. Then some of the local seafarers inadvertently transported some of them in various "
vegetable products to other islands, and ever east-
ward until they hit Hawaii and o'ur west coast. Containment was again the order of the day and happily
some parasites turned UP to aid us in our efforts.
Things did not get out of hand there but now, due to
a bizarre present to a loving grandmother, they have;
burst out again; and don't think that this isn't ~re~ly
serious plague.
Achatina is worse even than the Floridian conser-,
vations seem to realize. Not' only is it a horribly fast
grower and willing to eat everything but it has a~
parently stepped up its proliferation every time it
hits certain climatic and ecological conditions within
a certain belt north and south of the equator. This is
not latitudinal but vegetational. It will surely get out "
of its present 13 blocks in the form of eggs or its
initially tiny progeny. What happens then remains to
be seen after a winter. If if survives tilis, just about
the only hope would be to burn the whole place, bulldoze the leftovers, spray the lot and mount a guard
around the' area. Achatina eggs can survive emersion
in some horribly potent liquids and the immature can
move an awful long way in a night. ~owever, they do
make v'ery fine chowder and they are healthy.

VIII. ARCHAEOLOGY

ANCIEl':lT, ~YPTIAN TV? ,

We promised in our last issue to give the results
of examination by 'various experts' in various fields
of the' fresco from the Temple of Dendera which we
illustrated on p. 56, showing two figures holding
objects on pedestals that look like giant light-bulbs.
The whole endeavour has become extremely complicated due to - shall we call them ,- ,more or less
extraneous concerns. This was not unexpected. be-'
cause a 'quarter 'of a century of experience has taught
us that 'the 'average fortean item. however tangible, is
a pain in the neck to everybody but .forteans. None-'
theless, we did get somewhere in two departments.
The first is a proper translation of the caption
under the illustration in IVBJ;l Troenig's Kulturer
Fore Istiden (Culture Before the Ice-Age), published
by Nybloms, Uppsala, Sweden, in 1964. It reads: "This picture from Hall 5 of the Dendera Temple'
obviously shows electric lamps held 'up by hightension insulators. The temple is actually a sort of

, museum. Technology in Egypt was 'considerably more

advanceCI.....
'
The text on the page opposite goes: - "A variant
of this symbolic vignette (referring to another item
mentioned previously in this book - Ed.) is found in
the Egyptian Dendera Temple .... this temple may ,be
regarded as a museum. since objects of historical and
technical interest were gathered together there. There
are several reliefs (i.e. wall paintings) which without
a doubt describe, (i.e. depict) some type of enormous
electric lamps - probably' of an urladdriingstyp
nature* - that is some sort of construction similar to
,,
.
our (electrical) lamps. ,,' ,
At least we have got this bit straight but it ran us'
into the matter. of this Temple of Dendera. This we
will come back ,to in a moment.
The best translation of this is 'radio or tv discharging tube', the word urladdning me'aning "dis-'
charging".
'I
'

75

The other piece of common ;sense ,that we have so

far received' came from .the engineers (No .15 .~ .alii)..
His assessinent.reads as follows: ...:;.
.'
....
"Certain ,.elements, eSP~ciallY the c~bles. are
virtually an exact copy .of engineering illustrations
as currently u~ed~ The' cable -is shown 'as v.e:ry heavy.
arid striated - indicating a bundle of many .(multi'purpose) conductors.,rather than a.single higli...voltage
cable. As a ;matter .of ifact. 'a :single (high-voltage)
cable 'would" De much' thinner; i:t :the insulation w.as
'required to be t~!U ,h'~!l-vy :for 'extreme !high 'yoltages.
or moderately, 1!igh v.oltages at .high currents. rest
assured that' no':technician wonlii ,be 'holding the
'associated' device. Corona leak~e would 'get' him
'most swiftly. Th'e supporting staniis would be 'much
taller and" heavier',. to withstand such voltages.
"It is' much .more likely that the ,cable is. 'as
stated. a mtilti-conductor. wrapped ,and insulated w-ith
an outer iacket. ,~f-.tilis were:a ~1ight .bolo' , .the 'maxi'mum 'size of both wotild be explainable iby heavy
current demands; :but high-voltage .insulators 0'( such
large 'size wOulii :nol; .be :requireil. ]t ~woulii seem ito
follow that moderateiy !high 'voltages ,are :in .use; a
connector .is obviously' employed; some typ.e 'of
.supporting .base to ~gll':ss ,seal'seems .apparent. 'However, .the two '.bulbs' 'are not"itienticlil, 'as.sho~n:by
the designs "on their :sides,',anilthe 'base::stanils .I :do
not think :that .they are .transparent, .as ahe '!te~hni
cian's' body 'is 'not visible .through the device; :it
would see'm 'more' obviou~ t~at these':are jilentif.ying
markings, ;or 'coilings (as ;a :type numb:er on :a .1W
camera .tube); probabl~':indicating .use ,Of the ilevice.
"Since the cables ~seem :to originate ,at 'the "~altBl" ,
one .wonders if this 'is 'a 'manually 'controlled setup.
or remotely controlleil. iF-urther, .w.ith :both ~iiev.ices
.set at' an angle, .and 'shown .aimed ~~ ,the:w.all could
they not be the 'ancient equivalent ,cif':the 'moiiern 'TV
projection system?
"One'should :also note that ,the :two ~technicians.'
:especially'the one on .-the .left. seem Lto i.be .wearing.:a
mask device ('eye ;shhild?);- and 'ulilesslthe'drawing'is
'badly 'reproduced, 'both 'have some :ty;pe :cif apPOlatus
'in .their ears, ,suggesting:the .equiv.alent:of~modern TN
(cameramen. complete with :radio "receiv,er 'and/or
. earphones for 'direct .instruction ,during ..a 'show'.-

iY'

. Several to 'whom w.e :ap'plied .have :not :even"answered;

.one said 'he c.ould 'not translate,the hieroglyphs :shown
iin the .depiction .. and,'another 'said Jhe would 'not!
. 'When it came to .the :business .of ,trying ,to identify
this .Temple of .Dendera. ,w.e ran into ~some pretty
obvious ,chicanery. Ev.erybody .s.eems to -translit.erate
Ancient 'Egyptian names.in their own ways - we have
Denduras. Dendaras, Dhenduras,. 'and on :and 'on _
but the most popular ,form .of our temple .among these
sav.ants seems to :b.e :t'he little 'one-room :temple .of
:Dendur that has now 'been 'acquired ;by ;the 'Metropo\itan 'Museum of New York :and 'which 'is being re:erecteii under a .special 'dome 1n 'New York's c.entral
,Park. a-:his is. of course, the 'safest path to ,follow
because 'it has only ,Q.!!g Hall :anii 'no such depiction
in it. 'So iievious, in f~t . have :been :the 'responses
of :the Egyptologi:sts ,that ,we ihave 'applied :iiirectly to
:EgYPt.sO 'once ,again; we 'must .ask you ,to :wait.
'SOUTH AMERICAN ClRCUlT.RY?
Designs .On "Chimu .:Pottery.

'./Uso 'iil our last .issue we 'mentioned .that IBOlney

:Nashold (No. 81) 'hail :been :collecting ,t~aciflgs of ,a
'numb'er of odd (designs ,on 'Chimu :and other :ancient
.South ,American :po~tery, :anil~that we'.would:be r~port:- .
:lng ,further 'on 'this. 10nce again. Iw.e .ar.e frankly not
. "reatly. "Barney' N ashdld ,has ,gi ven us .some .photographic 'reproductions :of these 'weird ,designs 'with ,accompanying comment.ary :but. :so ,complex .are "old
'Amerindian .iI~pictions.lthat these 'woulii 'mean nothi'ng
!unless ,accompanied. 'by ,di~rams with :all .pc;lints
mentioned clearly :mBl'ked I.by !arrows. We are working
.'on,this by means ,of ,large "blow-ups which. w.hen so
. annotated, :~ill :be reproduced .for ,publication. One in
'particular :is taken .from:a ;plate ;in ,:AN.CIEN:r .CIVILIZATIONS .0.F'T.HE :i\:NDES :by IPhilip fA. 'Means.
-We 'would 'very :much ;}ike '.to lPubUsh Nashold's
suggestions iforthwithtbut, ,without :arproper .reproduc,tion ,of this :amaZl.ng~y '.complex :depiction. it wolild
mean 'nothi!),g. :rhe 'point .at .issue iis. :how.ever . that
.all the :funny animals, :and :l1ttle ;people. 'and ~squiggly
,lines 'depicted on :these ceramics. could 'be :symbolic
:r.epresentatlo!l11! of :something 'like 'our ,cOlded tran'sistor circuitries or, :as Nashold ,remarks .and 'not
~altogether facetiously . something "IUke .a.combination
'solar-storage battery".
Engineers are wonderful. ,espect-ally when t'hey
The rhy.me. and/or ,reason 'for .'so 'much Amerindian .
contemplate matters 'outside :their strict regimen.
.pictorialan~:plastic :art :has.always!.been so obscure.
There 'was 'a 'rider ,to .the above ~from <this :fraternity ,that the average archaeologist .has :fralikly ~gi;ven up
that ,stated: - "It should ,be noted .:in ipassing ;that
on 'it, 'and 'falle.n back 'upon preconceived notions of
'the priesthood(s) of old w.ere.past.masters ':at '~putting
what 'might be what 'from .the p.urely ~European -pOint
on a show' ,to impress 'the Iloc8.1 !Datives. And what
of view.The.Amerinds. ~il notably:the.more:ancient
,could be more convincing oBheir "mag~c!i.l' :li.bilities
:ones. just :do .not.todaythInk the way Europeans'.do.
than 'a mysteriously appeOling i(and ili!3appearing) ..,l:Uld they nev.er iliii. An .European . wanting :to ;get a
:image on a temple wall? Mter all. the "best ,way to 'solar [battery working 'would draw a .blueprint with
impress the .natives is:to : scare them half' to death,'- . .ruler. :set-sq~Ol~. and compass; an Ancient Egyptian,
The replies so. far received 'from ,the:Ol~ha~logists ,it 'seems, woulil paint ,a .r.e~isUc. two~dlmensional
:and historians. :al),d: notably iEgyptologlsts. have, been 'representB:tion 'on. a:plaster.:wall:for.IPosterity'; .but .an
in 'marked .:contrast . to ,these ,pragmatic .comnients. :Amerind .w.ould: seemto.favour 'equating :batterlea:.with

76

centipedes, leads ,from the tongues of little idols, '

and plugs in the form of tiny drqons' heads. Then
they linked up the whole mess with these squiggly
lines. using one color for the positive and another
for the negative. Neat?
'
As with the' Egyptian' tubes, we have put the engineers to work on this esoteric suggestion. Let us be
patient and see what they come up wUh this time.

from appropriate levels that gave valid radiocarbon

datings. This m!lterial, unearthed by James' P.
Wh1ttall Jr., came out (repeatedly) at 1000 B'.C. (plus
or minus a small pverlap). Then the fun began. This
was kicked off by the press arid was best stated. in
our opinion, by the NEWARK SUNDAY NEWS, for the'
the 7th September, 1969. This read in part: "NORTH SALEM. N. H. (ex: UPI): "Artifacts found
at the 'large c!>mplex of stone chambers,' including ,
A MODEST UNPLEASANTNESS
tools and pieces of pottery, indicate the structures
were 'built by a culture similar to those which ,in-,
"Mystery Hill-. N. H.
habited the Mediterranean from about 3000 B. C. to '
500 B. C . and Whittall's theory is that the chambers
We ,have more than once advocated contacting a
and shaping of the' stones are strikingly similar to '
most excellent organization named The New England
the megalithic ,culture known to have existed 'on the'
Antiquities Research Association. (or N.E.A.R.A. fo"r
Iberian Peninsula {Spain and Portugal). Some experts
short) of '4 Smith St Milford. N. H; 03055. Tl\i's
even feel they may be of Phoenician origin. or persociety publishes a very interesting and sound
quarterly which is' full of worthwhile' material. most , haps occupied by Phoenicians after they' were built.
Many archaeologists ha~e felt Phoenicians and other'
, of it new to the average person and even to' archaeBronze Age ~ea adventurers of that time may have
ologists. This society's interests range' over the
crossed' the At~antic Ocean using the prevailing
whole field of pre-colonial North American culture
winds and sea currents' which would sweep them
and with particular reference to w hat is rapidly
southwesterly and then ~P, the American East. 9oast."
appearing'to be evidence of a Pre-Amerindian, stoneage. megalithic culture here. The president of this
Need it be said that this s,ituation did not meet '
society. Mr. Robert stone (a mild coincidence per- ' with the approval of the orthodox, though the outright
haps!).' happens also to be the proprietor of o'ne of
dissenters were strangely pance for once. You cannot
the most remarkable megalithic monuments in this
have Bronze Age Mediterraneans running around New
country." This has been known for generations but for
England a thousand years before Christ. bu~lding
the most part ignored. It is called "Mystery Hill". is
little beehive stone igloos. It is. and' we have to
located near North Salem, New Hampshire. and is
admit this, almost indecent. It was bad enough when
open to inspection bY the public.
i.he Ancient Monuments Board of the U.K. agreed that
Ma:1l.}' people have excavated in and around this
just suc'h people brought a My~aenean culture to
strange complex' of low and sunken chambers. with
Britain in time to build stonehenge III. But. in North
drains' and other rather sophisticated adjuncts. for
America! What about our poor. beloved. sO-,called
mBllY' years; but., unfortunately. many who did so
"Indians"? Dear. dear, dear! We can't 'have this sort
were what professional archaeologists ...: i. e; those
of thing let loose on the champions of poor old,
permanently employed as such b,v established instituCristoforo ,ColC?mbo. or even Leifr Eirik~son. Phoetions - so scathingly call 'amateurs'. so that their
nicians, indeed!
findings were ignored. Admittedly; there were also
Nonetheless, go and have a look at Mystery Hill
over the' years others who really were amateurs. or
, if you happen to be in the Northeast. It is well worth
even outright vandals. None of this helped the proper
a visit anyway - (and this is not a paid advertisediqnosis of the origin of this remarkable complex.'
ment or even a solicitation) - and now that, we do
but there were some approved scientists who also dug
have these datings. the whole mysterious place takes
and delv'ed on this site. a,nd some of the things that
on
quite a new ambiente. And, ,given this. you may
they brought to li'ght gave pause for most serious'
take
a: somewhat different view of the dozens of other
thought. However. it was generally 'preferred that
megalithic monuments that dot the whole of this
this whole site be dubbed some sort of old "colonialcontinent - and South America; and probably Centroconstruction for the storage of potatoes and/or the
america if only we could, find them among the overlay
purifying of maple' syrup. or some such. There was,
of early Amerindian' monuments.' walls. causeways.
it must be admitted. evidence that a lot of the stones
had been moved around, removed altogether. or used' hydroponic" tanks. ,and, 50 forth. Get in touch, with
N.E.A.R.A.
for later buildings nearby. Nevertheless. the basic
structures remained enigmatic to say the least.
When' NEARA took over the, site, Bob stone initiated a policy of inviting professionals to inspect
it and to dig. For some years he was not encouraged
by, the results of this offer but last year some professionals whOse'findings could not be ignored accepted the offer and brought to lilht, some material

A REAL UNPLEASANTNESS
Our L~ Brea'Tarp1t.
An absolute classic of inisinformation 'appeared 'tn
a California newspaper on the 12th of, June 'last. We
don't name the paper, and - we have deliberately'

77

dropped the identity of the "expert" named in this

report because the whole thing must have gotten
completely muddled somewhere along the line, and it
is more than likely that both said expert and the reporter have been misquoted. Nonetheless, here it is
for what it is worth to people who want to get the
real facts about matters of this ilk: "Saw-marks on 15,OOo-year-old animal bones believed to be the oldest evidence of man yet found
in the Western Hemisphere - were reported Thursday
by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural
History. A paleontolOgist there said the bones, taken
from La Brea Tar Pits, which previously yielded
bones of prehistoric sloths and tigers, have been
analyzed over the past three years. He said the cuts,
apparently by primitive stone tools, were made in
bones of animals that died about the time the cuts
were made. The cuts were made in the leg bones of
anim als, including sabertooth tigers (sic), giant
California lions, giant ground sloths, camels, horses
and bison. "
"The same expert said the oldest previous evidence of human artifacts in North and South America
dates back only about 10,000 years, but evidence of
man's works goes back 50,000 years or more in Asia,
Europe and Africa."
This whole statement is, substantially, pure rubbish. First, Dr. Helmuth de Terra brought to light not
only artifacts but even statuettes in bone and ivory
from the central Mexican plateau more than two
decades ago and these were dated as of over 20,000
years B.P .. Then, none less than Dr. George F.

Carter of John Hopkins, mooted a date of 300,000 tor

some not too primitive stone tools found in grav.!l "
pits in Oklahoma somewhat later: and, only recently,
the remains found in a rock-shelter in Washington
have been repeatedly dated at 30,000 B.P. Even some
of Dr. Orr's dates for charcoal found in association
with human detritus and pigmy elephantine remains
on the Californian islands antedate the La Brea
items. What is more, evidence of man's works goes
back some million years now in the Old World. Where
have these" boys been in the past two decades?
But the thing that does interest us is this busim!ss
of 'saw' mark s. We have for quite some time wondered
about this Californian 'La Brea' tarpit. Why should
it, alone among all the tarpits all over the world and
even the La Brea pit in Trinidad, be stuffed full of
animal bones, while all the others are completely
sterile? The idea of little animals, let alone big
ones, meandering into a tarpit and getting stuck, and
then bogged down, and finally engulfed, is actually
quite ridiculous. This might have happened if said
"pit" was covered with shallow water and surrounded
by normal-looking vegetation but, frankly, we doubt
it. Large animals just do not march headlong into
tar or any other goo: they are far too sensitive to the
ground beneath them. But: if they were driven into
such a 'trap', and then slaughtered by hum-an hunters,
we might well have an explanation for their otherwise
inexplicable behaviour and presence.
If evidence of tampering with the bones of such
trapped animals has been found, in the form of these
so-called "saw-marks", we might have some reasonable explanation of the whole crazy business.

"P AIR RESCUED FROM MONSI'ER. Purley, England (UPI) - The 'monster' banged against the door with
its hard white head, waking Mrs. Marion Faulder, and then scuttled off into the dark. 'It looked like something"
from outer space. My husband took a quick look at it, but he wouldn't go near it', she said. The police rescued
the Faulde~s froni a hedge-hog with a yogurt carton jammed over his mouth and eyes."

XX. CHAOS AND CONFUSION.

FROWSY LITTLE THING.

Charles Fort, though trained as a zoologist, was
never a taxonomist. Perhaps that is whY both his eye
and his imagination were able to rove so widely. This
in turn made him a very real philosopher and a true
scientist, for he was the f~rst great "cross-over" boy
since Pliny, always seeking links between the various departments of enquiry. In other words he was
always on the lookout for things that didn't fit .into
any neat pigeonhole: and he once remarked in his
classic style: "Look out," frowsy little thing coming
up now". One such appeared in August this year that
would have delighted him. Quotes: -

SWEDISH SHIP FINDS KOREAN RIDING TURTLE.

MALMO, Sweden (UPI); 27 August, 1969: "A Swedish
ship is headed for Los Angeles carrying a Korean
who had clung to the shell of a giant turtle for 15
hours before being rescued from the Pacific Ocean.
The bizarre incident was reported by radio from Capt.
Horst Werder, skipper of the Swedish motor ship
Citadell, to the shipowners, Per Liljegren of Landskrona, north of Malmo. Werder said the unidentified
Korean tumbled off the Liberian freighter Pedelara
about 113 miles off the coast of Nicaragua Friday.
The Korean spotted a giant turtle nearby, climbed on
its back and clung desperately for 15 hours. A lookout saw a man's head bobbing on the surface when

.................................._............................................................_.....

78

the Cit adell was steaming northwar'ds in the Pacific.

'We were shocked to see it was a live man on the
back of a giant animal', Werder said. 'We managed to
get him aboard and he fell unconscious on the deck'.
The Korean recovered quickly and was in good cbndition, Werder said."
There will doubtless be those who don't see anything particularly (ortean in this but then they need
not have had any particular interest in marine biology.
Unfortunately it is in just this department that we as
neo-forteans and with a mania for taxonomy would
like a lot more specific detail. The first question we
ask is what kind of turtle? There are three True
Turtles, all of them marine animals having four
paddles. (We in America have got our metaphors
mixed and persist in calling water-tortoises turtles).
These are the Green, which we eat, the Loggerhead
from which we get out best "tortoise (so help us)
shell", and the Hawksbill. There is also a distantly
related beast known as the Leathery Turtle or Luth,
which grows to a really surprising size: six foot in
body length and weighing over half a ton, though
specimens twice that size have been stated to have
be'en captured.
All these animals live for the most part in the
surface layers of the seas and oceans, mucking about
in tropical lagoons and coastal shallows, and comir.g
ashore once a year to lay their eggs. Almost everybody resident on tropical coasts rides a turtle sooner
or later, but when it comes to citizens of Korea dOing
so in the open ocean for fifteen hours we become, as
Fort would say, "open to a new expression". Yuu
see, marine turtles spend 99% of their time under,
water, not cruising about on its surface. Perhaps it
was a language barrier between the Swedes and the
Korean concerned that prompted UPI t~ state flatly
that he had been so cruising on said turtle for 15
hours. Frankly we think it much more likely that the
poor boy fell off his ship some 15 hours before he
was picked up and just happened to have climbed
aboard a Luth in a hurry when at the point of ultimate
exhaustion and shortly before so being spotted. If
this is a misinterpretation, the chap has certainly

created a record of some kind and enormously contributed to our knowledge of the ethology of marine
turtles at large.
FIVE-DAY WORK-WEEK.
We have always been strong advocates of such
common-sense moves as transferring from the decimal
to the duodecimal system, standardizing the size of
typing paper, getting rid of things like gills and
furkins, and even changing to a l3-month year with
four seven-day weeks in each and one left ov'er to
recover after the New Year bash. But now comes a
suggestion of which, frankly, we had not previously
heard: and Py Jinkoa (as the Basques say, and which
incidentally is the origin of our old-fashioned expression 'By Jingo') makes more sense that any of
these. It stems from the now almost universally expressed wish - from Maoists to Wall Street - for a
five-day week. It goes as follows: There being 365 days in the standard year, a five,day week would give us 73 weeks per annum. staying
with our twelve months p.a. we would get 6 weeks
per month (73 + 12) and 5 days or one week left over
- 6 days in a leap year. This left-over week would
constitute a national holiday, and just when this
would be inserted into the calendar would be left up
to each individual nation because the most advantageous time for such an annual lay-off and bash differs
by latitude, climate, custom and tradition. It would
not interfere with all the other traditional h~lidays
including presidential birthdays and so forth.
We think this is a perfectly splendid idea. Places
of worship would get a 3: 2 enhanced permit to solicit;
everybody working would be delighted; liquor laws
could oe adjusted to everybody's advantage; accountants and just about everybody else would stand
up and cheer. Only would the manufacturers of computers and othe~ accounting machines devised specificall.y to work out monthly (as of now) matters like
wages have tu go through a period of chaos and confusion. Hum! A w~ek off at full pay? Maybe the Vietnamese have got something with their "'.I..tl".

UFO LOGY
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL PARTIES
Since the publication of the Condon Committee's
rellort, and the book UFOs? Yes!'" by Dr. David R.
Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, we have received a
mounting flood of requests from radio and TV talk
programs throughout the nation and Canada for interviews with our members on the current status of
I1fology. We have logged 27 handled directly from our
headquarters since February, and we have referred
twice as many to interested members outside the
northeastern area. In addition, there have been many

long-distance beeper interviews, the exact number of

which we cannot keep track of as they crisscross the
continent from out-stations to members recommended
by us directly elsewhere. As a considerable percentage of these interviews have been on the larger network shows and leading local programs, we have hit
a very large and wide audience.
The response as analyzed from mail transferred
from the stations and by reports from the program
producers is exceedingly interesti~g because it falls,

79

and almost to the letter, into two clearly opposed

camps. The composition of these has come as a considerable surprise and, we may say, as a shock to a
lot of people, though it was not altogether unexpected
by us. It transpires, in fact, that there is a clear-cut
break and even antagonism between the buffs (of all
people) and all the way from the old-guard ufologists
to the wildest saucerians on the one hand, and the
general public on the other. The former are almost a
hundred percent -infuriated with our stance in this
matter; the latter are literally ebullient in their agreement with our attitude. We believe that we have stumbled across the explanation of this seeming paradox. Once again, it
seems to be basically a matter of semantics but, in
this case, bolstered by a simple lack of knowledge
of the facts. In the case of the general public this is
due to a lack of real information on the subject,
augmented by the flood of misinformation that bas
been poured out by officialdom and "sciencedom",
the press, and even more so by the buffs themselves.
Even those who have not been specifically interested
have become sickened with this folderol and so have
given a prolonged and concerted cheer at being given
the opportunity to listen to a little common sense.
The buffs, - on the other hand, and most notably
those who set themselves UP as being scientific" in
their procedure and approach, appear one and all to
be hooked on some particular pet theme; not to have
any training in true scientific methodology; and not
to have acquainted themselves with the facts as
published. And this is where the matter of semantics
comes in.
It was pointed out to us by a visiting member
doing research into quite another matter, that the
buffs in his field cannot tolerate our approach to it.
The reason? That we are "so diffuse". Upon enquiring what this might mean, we learned that buffs are
not interested in the overall picture of their speciality, or its "How" and "Why". Further, they believe
that science should be wholly concerned only with

the collection of data (i.e. the "What"), which alone

they call facts. This is exceedingly interesting and
probablY true. Moreover, it might explain why not
only the buffs but those scientists who have taken a
serious interest in ufology have got precisely nowhere.
Data collection is a pleasant pastime, and the
essential primary basis for scientific investigation,
but it should not be an end in itself. In a subject
such as ufology, moreover, if it is pursued to the exclusion of speculation, hypothesis, and theory. tt is
well nigh worthless. Even if you analyze by computer
roomsful of "reports" on funny lights and other things
in the sky, what have you got? Maybe evidence of
temporal or spatial incidence, shape, color, behaviour
(alleged), and suchlike, but the whole exercise is
useless unless you have at least ~ theory as to
how such statistics should or might be interpreted.
None of the buffs have any real theories except some of the older organizations that insist all UFOs are
machines - but deny that they could contain living
entities, we should note! - and the contactees" who
express themselves as convinced that they are all
manifestations of glorious "space people". No wonder
our opinions do not find favour with any of them.
We therefore suggest to the buffs that they might
profitably read the books that we recommend, since
the opinions expressed in these are going to continue
to be offered to the general public through the mass
media, and on a massive scale, by us. Further ,these
opinions are open to discussion and critism by everybody, including scientists, technologists. ufologists,
saucerians. and all other interested parties both
private and public. Those wishing to indulge such
debate had, however. better do their homework and
get their facts straight before criticizing those whose
works we have recommended. This is something the
buffs have persistently refused to attempt but the
general public has apparently made a valiant effort
to do - an effort that has so far, unfortunately for
them. proved futile and frustrating.

From the Spokane Daily Chronicle, 18th April, 1969. (Seattle, AP)
"A member of the Condon Committee on Unidentified Flying Objects said Thursday three UFO's sighted by
astronauts in space never have been explained. Dr. Franklin E. Roach, a visiting professor at the University
of Washington and consultant with the Battelle-Northwest Laboratory. said one object was sighted by James
McDivitt during the Gemini 4 flight. It had antenna-like extensions from both ends. Roach said. 'Our first
interpretation was that it was another satellite, but on checking we couldn't come up with any known satellite
with an orbit that would take it near Gemini.' Another unexplained sighting was by Frank Borman in Gemini 7
who reported sighting a spark-surrounded object traveling in a polar orbit, Roach said."

Watch out for a paper to be read t~ the annual meeting of the AAAS on the 26th to 27th December next,
and which will in due course be published. This is entitled: - "Unidentified _Flying Objects. Arranged by
Thornton Page (NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston). Philip Morrison (M.I. T.). Walter Orr Roberts (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder), and Carl Sagan (Cornell University)."

80

GOVERNING BOARD
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)

President (and Chairman of the Board),

1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
2nd Vice-President (and Deputy Director)
Treasurer
Secretary
Administrative Assistant (and Librarian) ,
Managing Editor
Chairman, Publicity Committee
Chairman, Promotion Committee

Hans stefan Santesson

Ivan T .. Sander~on
,
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. Sanderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L. Fawcett
Donald R. Bensen
Walter J. McGraw
Milt Machlin

(*) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, 'i~ accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Chairman (and Supervision uf Field Work)
Deputy Chairman (Administration)
Executive Secr,etary (Coordinator)
Director ,of Research in Basic Science
pirector of Indu~trial and Technological Relations
Public Relations Officer
Liaison Officer for Governmental and other Official Relations
Con sultant on Scientific am Tec hnical Pu blications
Supervisor of Regional Officers and Affiliates

Jack A. Ullrich
Ivan T. Sanderson
Marion L. Fawcett
Richard W. Palladino
Ernest L. Fasano
(Open)
J. Warner Mills III
Helga Roth
Michael R. Freedman "

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BO ARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman. Department of Anthropology. and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of Science. Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director. Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)'
,
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin University, Dublin. Ireland (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology. Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin,Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics. Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology. Rutgers University, Newark, New,Jersey. ',(General Biology)
Dr. V,ladimir Mark.otic - Professor of Anthropology. Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus. Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Director, Primate Biology Department, Smithsonian Institution. (PhYSical Anthropology)
Dr. 'w. Ted Roth - President, Roth Research-Animal Care. Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology),
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, Plant Science Department, College of Agriculture, Utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
. '
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief 'Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Ocelinography)
Dr. Rot)ert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)
, "
. .' ,

..
A.

'

11

-ICUMULATIVE INDEX
(Of plrllnent artl.le. publl.bed In PURSUIT fIom Volume I .. No. I. tbroucb Voluml 2 No.4.)
Vol .. No. " Pase
I. MATHEMATICS
. IIquorllll Ihe Circle
Oddlllt. of Ihe Number 67
D. ONTOI..OGY
COmmeal OD lhe Apollo
Splashdo"n
10. PHYSICS
ITF by COCed Ra&.
Rosue MI.slles Shatler
1II.Ddo"s.
Wedllllll RllIIs
Meebanl.al Dowsllll
A Canadian Pollerselsl
M...Untallon
An 1DdI...... Poller,lllt
lIanlfeslatlon.
Penni from Heav.n
ITP by IIlee
Ret. Dum Ibe Illy OD
Lombok leland
IV. CHDlI8TRY
&poDl ...eou. Plre
Tbeorell.al Discoyer, of
lIuoDlum
V. ASTRONOMY
Theories on MII'B' Surface .

All ..ed "llachines" OD Ibe

lIoon .
Ll,Ms on the MOOD
Tbeorlee on Ibe IIOOD'.
Surface
Water OD Ibe lIoon
Po lble construction. on
the Moon .
Th. APollo Landini on
the MOOD.
.
Mora on Mars .
VI. GEOI..OGY
Rllllins Ro.k.
.
Tbe Mechanl of IcecoPS
SUbterranean RIYlr B7slems.
1101 Emanetlni from
Clouds ' .
lIass Exlln.lloD. of Anlmols
Rlllid Petrifaction.
"Muck" - a Geoiosleal
M)"lIIer,y
Vorllce
EDIsmas from the Reeon!
of London W.atber
VII. BIOLOGY
All..ed Pllm of a BllIfOot
Pbo..". RePort or a Giant
Armlldillo
EDd-up of Glaat Armadillo &lory
A "Globller" OD a New
zeallnll Beacb. .
IIDnaler and Out-Dr-Place FI.b

2: 2.
2: 4.

64

2: 4.

65

23

EI.. .

I: 4.

II

I: 4.
I: 4.

II

1:40

Blolol7 cont.
Vol .. No. " Pas.
lea-COw. ...d "Wat...Hor.es" a: I.
12
Th. R.turn 01 &leller'.
2: I.
13
Saa Cow .
14
2:L
Multicolored Chl.k.n
15
2:L
A Dime In a ChI.ten Ell .
Pros Produced from a
15
2: I.
SllIIle Ell . .
18
AD MOas May Nol B. E.lln.t
2:L
A Hairy HomlDId Pr.served
21
In I.e .
2 ~
311
Bath_ Are Not HeallhfUl .
2 ~
36
Giant &nolle.. . .
2 ~
n
2 ~
SUper_enlory Percepllon .
The Ivor"...bllled Woodpecker
2: 3.
48
In Florida
50
2: 3.
Aulllrolla'. 011Ull Ell .
50
3: 3.
Olanl ChI.ken Ell
Elepbant. Pound Flo.lI..
52
2: 3.
In lhe Se . .
52
The Tecollllia "lea MODs& .."
3: 3.

15
15

2: I.

2: 2.
2: 2.
2: 2.

28
2B
28

2: 4-

sa

a:

3.

43

2: 4.

-86

2: I.

2: 2.
2:2,

29
30

2: 3.
2: 3.

44
45

a:

46

The 'Tok I or -Mouth Man- of

BE Asia Alsln .
Eml-uP 01 "Bozo" Ihe

2: 3.

54

-Iceman-. for Now .

2: 3.

Blackftsh Misidentified .
The Loch Ness Greal

2: 4.

54
72

Bone Hoax . . . .

3.

2: 4.
2: 4.

67
67

I: 4.
2: I,
2: I.

12

2: 2.
2: 2.
2: 3.

32
33

a:

2: 4.

68
70

2: 4.

10

I: 3.

I: 3.
I: 4.

10
3

4.

1: 4.
2: I.

GI ...t &nails In Florid.

ANTHROPOLOGY
&lone ISPheres. . .

via

8
8

18
10

(B).

Pre-Amerlndian AmericanCullures . .
Ancient EI,ypU ... TV-Tubes
E-M Clrcultr,y on S. American
Chlmu PoIler,y. . . .
More on Ancient Elyptl ...
Technololl" . .
More on S. Amerl.an OM
Circuitry . .
Tbe Callforni ... La Br.a Tarplt
Rodlocarbon Dallnll 01 My.lery
Hili. N. H
UroLOGY
Tho Inlllol E.tabllshmenl 01
the COndon COmmittee. .
lID.. on the COndon COmmlllee
J.osuP ...d Ibe Allende Case.
Tbe Varo Eldltlon of Ibe
Jlasup Book
The Current &latu. 01 Ulolol1
1II..... uP 01 tbe Condon
COmmittee Fla"""
AU.led "Capture" 01 a Shlp's
Cllltaln boY an UFO
Oeo.rol Blplanallon 01 Ihe
PosilioD of Ulolol1
An Open L8Iter 10 all
UI<>1ollot. .

2: 4.
4.

a:

72

73

I: 4.

19

2: 2.
3: 3.

38

2: 3.

57

2: 4.

74

2: 4.
2: 4.

78

2: 4.

76

3.
4.
4.

11
7

4.
2: I.

10

2: 2.

24

i:

5D

75

2: 2.

24

2: 3.

58

2: 4.

78

(b). M1SCEl.LANEIOUS
Th. Orilin of Porteanl..,
Charle. Port - An Edllorlal.
Ob.arvllloD Balloone: A
. Too1 for learch. .
Fori'. PhilosoPb7 - an Eldllorlal

I : 3.
I : 4.

IS
2

I : 4.
2: I.'

A DenDilioD of Porteanlam
The Tuonom,J of KDowledle
Elaboration .of the Tuonom,y
01 Knowledse. .'.
A Korean Ride. " Turtle. .

2: 3.
2: 3.

41
42

2: 3.
2: 4.

58

CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Thi. cumulative blbllolrlllb7 Iaclnde. alllbo.e publl.hed books IIsled In i>URSUIT. and In Ibl Ne ..sletl.rs
"blob preceded tile pUblIcatioD 01 PURIIUIT. Th.y are arr.....d alphabetically by author:

AD.n. Tom. (1865). t!!t i!!!!!: A I!R2D 2!! Ellratlueolrlal Wk. Philadelphia: ChIIlDD Booke.
Anderson. JOhD It. L. (1888). YlIIl!!!!!. 'l!!l!U. New York: Funk /I: Wasnalls.
Boker. Robl" A.. ed. (1968). 6 IiIWJ 6!!!!lm 2l ! Slraole Eyenlni <i2!:!!. !!I!d Q!!l!! gum C2! ! ItWJ1!!ll: W. New York: DoubledBrAllchor Book
Barre\I. Chllio. (11146). tl!l1I!!!lZ!I!. Melbourne: RaId & Harrl.
Bartholomew. John (11182). '[III 4!I!ID!;m! 6UY 2l ModelD ~ (6th edll.). N.w York: McGr ...Hlll
. Book COmpany.ID..
.
BerrlU. Norman John (1984). !!!lilIJ. Without ti!!!!: 6 ~ I!!! Pl ...et YfI, II!II l:!mI. NI" York:
Macmillan.
Bloecber. Ted. (1967). !!l!!!!! 2!! !!!.! UFO !!!! ~ !!!!.! (Apply 10 u.)
Boland. Chllie. M.(1883). 1'.!!!.l: @ Dleco.orld &!!Ids!- New York: Pocketbook ID
Burton. Mauri (1961). Thl Elusive Monster. Londoo: Rupert Hart-Dayl .
Carrl""on. RI.hard. (l957~Mennalds and MaslodoM. N." York: Rlnebart & COmp8ll.Y. Inc.
Catoe. L,ynn E. (1969). UFOs and Related SubJecte: &! ~ Blbllollaohr. W..hlnlton. D. C.: U. S.
Government Prlnlllll om .
Churchill. All.n. (1860). !l!!1!'!!.!! ~ Back. New York: Ace Books
Col Dandrldle M. InII Donold W. Cox (1984). Islands !!! !!.Il!!: 't!!! Chollense ~ U!t Pl ....told.. Pblla
delphia: Chlllon Books.
Colp. Harr,y D.. (1953). The Slran..et !!!!!!l ~~. Now York: E .......lllon Pre
COndon. Dr. Edward U. (as Projlcl Director) (1969). ~ IilII!!.l !!l Unldenllped DzlDL!l.IIIG1!. Ne"
York. Bantam Book ..
CODslance. Arthur (1858). D!! In!lullcable!il!.Y. London: W. Laurl
(Conlinenl Seri.e: Random House. New York.
Sanderson. lvall T. (1984) tm! ConUnent !! hl!! Qn. (Nortb America)
Curry-Lindahl. Kal (1884). Europe.
Brown. LeBlle (1965). M!!!
K.a.t. AD.n (1966). Auslralla ...d \!!! Pacific lalando.
Dor.t. J .an (1967). I!!!!!1ll Amerl.a and COU!!!! ~
PI.ller. Plene (1968). 6!!!!.
Coon. Prof. Carleton S. (1854). The ~ ~ M.... New York: Knopl.
(1862). The 2!!1!!! !!! Race.. New York: Knopf.
Corll WIllI... R. (1967). Myslerles!!! II!!~. New York: Thom .. Y. Crowell.
COmwail. I. W. (1965). !!!!!!!! ~ II!! Archeolol'_I. London: Phoenix Hou.
.
(1987). SOIl. fg[ tl!! Alcheolo,'sl. London: Phoenl. House.
Crowther. S. J and MartoD Fawcell (1968). Science f! MediCine !2 l!l!!. ~ II! tl!! ~
PblloeoPhlcolllo.lety Y!IUu. Philadelphia: Amerl.... Phllo.ophl~al SOciety LlbrllQ'
(lOS S. Plllh III .. Phlladelpbla 19106).
Darll""on. Prol. C. D. (1969). The Evolution 2l!!!!!! !!!II~. New York: SImon and Schu.ter.
Dlnadol TIm. (1988). '[blI~. London: Roulledi. " KesOll Paul.
.
(1961). Loch N Monsl.r. London: Roulledl. & K.. on Paul.
Earley. Geo.... 11868). Ijlncounl.rs with AU ...: ~ FlelioD II!!! 1!fSl!!. 1.0. AIIlell.: Sbarbournl Pi....
Evan8. RalPh II. (1MB). 6D IGlroducllon
New York: .bhn WIII,y '" SO... Inc.
Fawcell. P. H. (19113). L2!!!!!!!!. LOIII~. Ne. York: Funk" WasDall~.
FlrBOII. Valdem. A. (1963). y!! Buoad l!!! i!!l!!. N." Yor~: Basi. Book Inc.
Fort. Cherll (11141 and subsequently). tllllI2aY 21 ~ E:!!U. New York: Henrl' Hall" co.

m!O!!!2.

-111Gaddie. V1DceDI, (198&). III!.II!!!!! Horl2Dps. Phllad~lphl.: ChIltoD Boot

(1987). MYOlerlous ~ IlIId Ys!!I!. Nlw York: David Mc KII,J Co IDC.
Godwlo. Jolm (1888). Thl. BlnU.. !!!tl!!. Nlw York: Harl PubU.hlnl Co.
.G~uld. Rupert T .. (1985). ~. No.. Hyde Park. N. Y.: UDlverslty Books.
(1945). ~. London: Geoffre, Blea.
GraveD. JICqU.I (l967). Non-Human Tho.8hl. New York: stein &: Da,y. .
..
GreID. Jolm (1988). 2!! l!!! ll!!<!!.1!! Ih. ~. Alasalz. B. C.. Canada: Cbem Puhllll1lln, Ud.
GrlllOr,. II. L. (1966). !iiUand!!!!!n. New York: McGraw-HIli.

H~aI. Je_Plarre (1987). ADlmal Kilab.. New York: Rendom Houll.

BIIIIOod. Cbar11. H. (1958). Earlh. @!!!!Y!lII QIm. Naw York: Pantbeon Book Inc.
(1966). !!!!I!!!l! tl!! ~ !!!!Uil&!. Philadelphia: Chlilon Books.
Hlard. Gerald (1950). I!!! Rlddll 21 lhe Flyln. Sa.oer.: !! Another !!2!!!! ~ Landon: Carroll '"
Nlcholaou. (Also publl.hed by BarIIam Book. In 1953 under the tltle.l! Mother !!lrll! ~: 'IIIJ

!!.W!! !II tl!! f!.I!!!a liI!!W!..)

H.uvalm8Da. BerDard (1958). Qn lbI'1l!!E!! !l! Unknown Anlmoll. LondoD: .Rupert H_Davlo. (Abrldled
odltlon. 1965. New York: Hill and Wanl.)
.
(1968). I!! t!IJ !!!!9 !!I: U!!! SeaSerplnt.. New York: 1!UI '" Wan Inc.
Hochbo... Jull.. Eo (1964). Parcepliu.. Enllewood Cllas. N. J.: Prlnlice-Hall
HoU!lay. Ted (1968). Ill! Qt!!!. Orm: II prICtlcai Inquiry !m!! tl!! nBlure !!!I !!!I!!!! !l! Freahwater !I!!!!Ilm.
NI" York: W. W. Norton .
_
. Irwin. Cooalance (1963). Flllr God. and stone PICe New York: st. Martln's Press.
Izzard. Ralph (1955). TheAboiiiIiiilbieSnQ;jjj.~arden ClIl'. N. Y.: Doubleday '" Co Inc.
JICkson. Francis L . aiiilMOiiiI.'PiiirciiCi9i2i: Yrlt iP I!!! Unlvsrse. NI" York: W. W. Norloo.
.!2.!!m!! 21 the IntsrplanelarY Exploration SoclelY (1961-1962). New York: I.E.S. (Only four Issul. were pub. llahed. It !!!!l be available In libraries.)
KI.l. Jobo A. (1958). Jadoo. London: W. H. Allen.
Lawrence. Llnooln (l98'i)."'""Wer. WI Controlled' Now Hyde Park. N. Y.: UnI.er.lty Books.
LQ'. W11l;y(l951). Dryons i!! Amii'er:li'OWYiirk: VlklDi Pre..
.
,.
.'
(1955). Salamandor'!l! ~~. lIew York: VlklDi Press
. (1948). The Lungflsb. 1l!!! !2!!!!!! !l! !l!! Unicorn. Ne" York: Viklns Pre
. (1967). Q!! E!!!b !!!!9 ill !!!! !!z. New York: A~e Books
'. (1968). I!!!!:!! 21 Zool0l!Y. EDilewood CUffs. N. J.: Pr...t1.e-Hall. ID
.
Library of Consre LeBialBllve Reference SarYI.e (Nancy T. Gamarra) (1967). Er.oneous ~ III!I
Nllatlve ~ Concerninl Exploration. Territorial Expansion. BelenHn. '!!!!! TechDolojlcai 121U\.
Mento Selecled Slatements; Prepared III Ihe reQu.sl uf Ih. Senate Committee on Aeronautical .ad Spac.
BelenceS:--- - - - .
.. Lo~hr. Re~. Franklin (1969). !!!! ~ 21 Prayer ~~. Ne .. York: Signet M.vBllc (NAL).
. Lor Gordon I. R" Jr . and Deneault. Harold H. Jr. (1968). Mysteries 01 the Skle EDilewood Cliffs. N. J.:
PieDllce-Hall
--- - - -LOrenzan. Coral and Jim (1967). ~!!!!!!:!r Occupaots. New York: S1lnet Books.
,
(1988). UFOs Over the Amoilcas. New York: SIgnet Books.
(1969). !!!::Q!: W ~ 1iIWJ:. N.w York: '51lnet Books (NAL).
'McGraw, Waltlr J. (1969). '[l!! !'2!!f!l!!l!! Paranormal. Ne .. York: Pyramid
. ' Mathsr. Kirtley F. (1964). The'Earlh Beneath Ua. New York: Random House.
MenniOler: Edwio A. (1987). Fanlastlc Tre.s. 'N.w York: ViklDI Press.
Mlddleburst. Barbara M.. eI aI (1968). Chronolollclll ~ 21 ~ k!!D!! ~.
NASA T.chDIcai Report R-277. WaShington. D. C.: NASA. (For sala b:r the Clearlnsboule lor Pederal
, Beleotlnc '" Technical Information, SprlDineld. Va. 22151; price 13.00)
Miller. R; DeWiIt (1947). Impossible ~ !! Happened. N... York: Ace Books.
(1955). stranaer!l!!!!!ill!. 'New York: Acl Book.
Moorl. Patrick, and Catlermole. Petlr J. (1968). !!!! ~ !l! !l!!!I!9!!!!. N.... York: W. II. Norton
_
Morrle. DesmoDd (1988). Tbe!!y!!! /!.Pr. New York: MCGraw-HI}1
Morris. Ramo.. and Desmond (1968). Men aod &!!!. 'N.w York: Bantam Books. (1986. New York: IIcGr....
Hill. for hardcover edltloo.)
.
MoWai. Parley (1985). !!!! Vlkl!w. Now York: Allaollc. Little, Brown.
Munltz. MIltoo K. (195'). IIw!d!!!!!f I!JJ. 1lnI!a!!! fmm BIII.tl!!!!!!n MDIIIl1I15!Bm ~ Glenco W.:Tbe
PreeP.eu.
.

Murrll,J. Marian (1967). !!!!III.II!I

~ New York: The Maemlll.o Company.

rw

~.,.

I ..

(NASA) Beleollftc '" Tecbnlcal Inlormatlon FacllIll Cl964. 1965). Extraterrestrial LIf.: ~ BlbllopsahY.
Pari. I and D. Waahlll8loo. D. C.: GovernmeDi Prl"IDI Olnce.
OUdlmans, A. C.. (1892). I!!! ~ sea-serpent. LeldeD: E. J. Brill; LOadon: Luzac '" Co.
OweD. A. R. G. (1984). ~ ~ iIR!!!!! !l!!- Polle"el.!? New York: Garrett Publlcatlona.
Patter.on. Roger (1966). !l!! Abominable Sno"men 211!!!!!!!a R!l!l!l Ellat? Yakima, W.shlollon: FrantUo
Press.
_
' .
PUII1. Galus Sacunclue (tran.latloo b, H. RIICkIwD. W. H. 8. Jonla, '", D. E. E1cbbolz) In 10 ,aloma (193881).. Natural HistorY. Both orilloa! Latlo aDd _Usb tolt. Loeb Classical Library. Cambrldse. Msss.:
Harvard Unlvlralll' Press.
Potter. Charles Franc1s (1982). II!! t.2!I !!!U !!f ~ BI!ulGI!. GreeDwlcb. COM.: Fawcell Publications
Inc.
Rewlcz. Slsvaml; (1958). '[!!f &!!!!I Wall<. Nlw York: Harper'" Row.
Rue. Leooard LIe. m (1988). Sportsman's!!l!!!!!!!! ~ I!!!i!!!!!!. New York: Harper'" Row.
Sanderson. Iv.. T. (1987. 4tb Printing). Abominable Snowmen: Le nd Q!e! !!!~. PbUadelphla: ChUtoo
Books.
(1967). "'I'hI ... Nlw York: Pyramid Book
.1198'11. ~d '!!!!!!!!!: ! blolo!dat ~ M ~ New York: Cowles Educalloo
Corp.
.
(1969). ilia ':l:I!!ou!'. Ne.. York: Pyr.... d Books.
llante~son. Hans Slefan. ad. (1968). f:!l!DI &aucers !!! E!!!:! !!!l! ~ New York: LIDclr Books
Ssuer. CoriO. (1968). Northern M!!!!I. Berkele1, CallI.: Unlvlrall,y 01 California Press.
Saunders. Dr. David R.. and HarlllDa. R. Roaer (1968). UFOa?!!!!. Nlw York: New American Library.
Behar..... KBlhllloe (1958). !!1!!!!1 ~ !!!! ~ l!!!!!!!. Bostoo: Little. Brow..
Shklo...kll. I. s. ...d _an. Carl (1988). InteUI.lol Y!!!!!!l!! Vpiver.a. IIan Francisco: Holde...Da,y. Inc.
SUverberl. Rob.rt (1963). ~ 1Il!!!!u: Il!! !I2!l 21 UoderWBler Archaeolop. Philadelphia: Chilton
Books.
SIIvlraky. D and V. Talml (transIBlors) (l968?). Q!!!l!! '!:I!!!..!!f Dlscov.rT. Moscow: Pro.,.a" PubllsberB.
Spence. Le ..la (l96B-reprlDl). I!!! HI"log 2!~. Ne .. HYde Pork. N. Y.: Upiver.lty Books.
Slantoo. L. Jerome (1966). ~ Saacers - !!l!!! 21 Reallb? Ne.. York: BalmoDl Book
steller. Brad (1966). !ii!l': I!!!!r!l!!!!!~. No.. York: Award Book
(1968), ~ ~!l!!!!!J!!. Ne.. York' Belmom Book...
(1968). !!!!!!I! Oueotl. Nlw York: Ace Books
(1966). strwer. f!9m Ihl @!g. New York: Award Books
(1986). rM Uoknowo. New York: Popular Library
(1967). IU2lI!! YnIw~. New York: Popular Librai)'.
(1967). !l!!! EnI.ma '!! ReincornBllon. New York: Ace Books. .
(191'11. !!!D!!!I!!!!P!!!!!!!l!!!!!!J. Ne .. Y:ork: Popular Library.
(1967). w.ith Joan Wbrltenour. Plylnl Saucers '!!! Hoatlle. Ne.. York: Award-Tandlm.
(l~68). with JOID Whrltlnour. l!fQ Breakthrolllh? ~ Allende~. N York: AwardTandem Books.
!!l!!!I!!!!!!!! !!!! Unld.ntlfied [!l!!!i Oblects: Heeri... before lb. Commlltel 00 Sclenc. and Altronautlcs. U.s.
House 01 Representatives, July 21. 1968. Washlncton. D.C.: U.8. Go..rnmeat PrloUnl Ofrlce.
Tre.Ilc:ll, Brloslay LePoer (1980). I!!!ll!!!l Plopl Hackeosack. N. J.: Wehman Bros.
Turabull. Colln M. (1961). !l!! ~ People. New York: Simon and BehoBter.
Vallee. Jacques and Jllllo. (1986). Challen.. !!! Science: 1:I!t !!EQ Ei!!!lm..L Cblc",o: H. ReIDer), Co. Alao
Plllerback - New York: Ace Books.
vasu YaY. L. L. (1967). M1a&erIoa. ~ !!!!l!!!!l!!!!!!! PBlcbe. Clearl,,"'u.e for Federal ScleDtinc
.
and Tecbnlcal Information. No. AD 881 891. p.
WahI.,eD. Erik (1958). Kenslyto0!l!9!!!- II Ifl!!!!lliolved. Msdlaon. IIIscoo.ln: Uohersll,y 01 WlaconaiD
Pre...
"alowrlght. F. T. (1958). The PrOblem !!l!l!!~. Nlw.York: PhUoaophlcai Library.
"avell. stewarl (1958).. I!!! ~ World !!I'!l!!~. London: Souvenir Pres..
.
Wh1to. Cona&ance (1957). !!WI II!!!! ! 1d&!I!!I: tI!! !!1m: !!l !l!! I.!!!i!I liD!! !Im!IUr. LOndOo; Bamlsh
Hamlllon.
Wllcouoo. Klot A. (1988). C!lalns!!f~:!l!!!!!!r.Y!!f Yl!!a!!!!D. Philadelphia: Chilton Books.
Wood. Robert w. (1961). Pbzslcal Optics. I!ld. 3. New York: DaYer PDbUcalions.
"'allht, A. JOBepb (111'88). QJJ1 Dl!!!IIIIs W2Il!!: 1I.!I!Ku.Y IB Modem CA!!!mel!l. Phlladelphta: Chilton Book .
yo .... Mort (1987). ~. ~ IIs!l.. Ne. York: EBaande Spacial EdItions !Slmoo '" Scbuater).

,.."

In

-._. .

........

'.

_____ ._________ ._-- -------- -----------------------------1

_________ .___ --_._--_.._-------------__---------1

VOL. 3, NO.1

JANUARY, 1970

9RGANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of
, ees in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These officers are five in number: a
I
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and four founding members - two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Secretary.
names of the present
incumbents of these and all other offices are listed in each issue of the So I
's quarterly journal
PURSUIT.
I
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which consists of the
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JI...lI of these except No.5 receive all the Society's publications.

PUBLICATIONS
The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a di
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes a quarterly new I
to members in categories (1), (2), (3), and (4) above. The Society further issue
certain projects, and special reports in limited quantity on the request of Sponsors I
(Subscription to PURSUIT is $5 per annum, including postage.)

of current events and

ter on Society affairs
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Contributing Members.

IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-m
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course, affect private correspondence with Ivan T. Sanderson.) Further, the ""'."."'.~ does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its pu cations are those of
the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any members by
of mouth or in print
may be construed as those of the Society.

PURSUIT

Vol. 3. No. 1
January. 1970

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Editorial Director: Donald R. Bensen

Executive Editor: Ivan T. Sanderson
Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett

CONTENTS
Instant Everything: Plus.
Trisecting the Angle.
Did They Come Home in Reverse?
Those Damned Quarks Again!
"Polly": Where's the Water?
A Look at the Past (Quasars).
Ringing ROcks Again. ..
More on Mars.
What Moon?
Geology:
An Original Land-Mass.
The Great Saharan "Lakes".
London Weather - Finish.
"Polyponds" and "Polylakes".
Biology:
Now It's Nine Nostrils!
Not So Frazzled Nerves.
More African Neodinosaurs.
An Iguanodon from Dahomey.
"He Have Head for Trunk".
At Last Some Common Sense (Mammoths)
Anthrol!oloS;Y: Giant Skeletons on Lundy Island
SO Help Us! Atlantis Again.
Ancient Glasses.
No-Count Dracula.
Ufology:
The AAAS Symposium.
The Facts About NICAP.
Chaos:
Underwater SOunds.
Book Reviews and Cumulative Bibliography

EdItorial:
Mathematics:
Ontology:
Physics:
Chemistry:
AstronomY.:

3
4
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10

11
12
12
13
14
14
15
16
17
18
18
19
20
21
22
22
24

All communications should be addressed to:

S.1. T. U.. Columbia. New Jersey 07832.
Telephone: Area Code 20 I, 496-4366.

THE INTANGIBLES

I. MATHEMATICS (Measurement) - Number,

Quantity, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry,
Trigonometry,
Calculus,
Topology,
Theory of Games, Probobility, Coincidence.

ONTOLOGY (Existence) - Space,

Locus, CO,smology .

III. PHYSICS (Performance) - Thearetical

Physics, Nucleonics, Classical Physics,
Electrics, Electromagnetics, Magnetics,
Mechanics, Etc.

MENTALOGY {Intellect} - Psychol09ll,I

Aesthetics, Comparative Intelligence.

CHEMISTRY (Matter) - Atomics, Molecular Chemistry, Crystallography_

At-!THROPOLOGY (Human ~~!!)-!

Archaeology, Pre-Hi
Ethnology, Sociology,
mythology), Philology, Ecolnomics,
Architecture, Agronomy, and the
useful arts.

V. ASTRONOMY (Gross Bodies) - The Universe, Galactics, Stellar and Solar Astronomy, Planetology, Selenology, Meteoritics, Astrophysics.

GEOLOGY (The Earth) - Atmospherics

and Meteorology; Oceanology, Hydrology,
and Glaciology; Tectonics, Vulcanology,
Seismology, Geophysics II'Id Geomorphology; Petrology and Mineralogy;
Geodesy,
Geography,
Cartography;
Dating.

EDITORIAL
INSTANT EVERYTHING, PLUS.
In a book reviewed in this issue - Chariots Q! the Gods? by Erich von Daniken (see p. 24) - there is an
interesting paragraph. This reads in toto: less the last two sentences of panegyrics: - "Today science reaches
many of its goals with seven-league boots. It took 112 years for photographY to develop to the stage of a clear
picture. The telephone was ready for use in 56 years and only 35 years of scientific research were needed to
develop radio to the point of perfect reception. But the perfecting of radar took only 15 years~ The stages of
epoch-making discoveries and developments are getting shorter and shorter; black and white television was on
view after 12 years' research and the construction of the first atom bomb took a mere 6 years. These are a
few examples from 50 years of technical progress. ".
This presents a rather eerie prospect, especially if we do a little intrapolating as well as extrapolating.
First, let us go back a piece. It apparently took several million years to produce 11 human being; it took these
creatures at least a million years to institute an industry - i.e. the regular creation of wood, bone, horn, and
stone tools.oThen, several hundred thousand more years were needed before these creatures stumbled across
metals, metallurgy, and true industry. That appears to have been some ten thousand years ago, but humans
then strt~ggled along with copper, gold, silver, tin and bronze for a long time before they got to iron, and it
was only 200 years ago that the basis of modern technology - i. e. steel - was developed. If you put this lot
on a graph below von Daniken's examples you will note the fact that such major developments form an almost
perfect geometrical progression. So let us turn the coin and do a little extrapolating.
You can keep dividing forever and still never get to zero but, considered time-wise, by the time you get
this graph uncoiled to the point where it appears to go straight up - i.e. the Einsteinian speed of light - you
will have virtually instant discovery. What a fortean must then needs ask is what happens next? Does enquiry
and development come to a stop, or do we break the time barrier and start developing things before they are
developed; or alternatively, develop things before they have been planned or conceived? There being no such
thing as the present, are we confined within certain limits, or can we jump this theoretical barrier and predict?
Could this be an opening wedge into the whole field of prediction and precognition?
The greatest confrontation coming up today is between two parties of pragmatists; not between pragmatists
and mystics. This dialogue will absorb an increasing amount of time and thought on the part of all pragmatists
and especially scientists because concrete (i.e. tangible) recordable and reproducible proof of a number of
intangibles is now turning up. The best example Of this may be found in Walter McGraw's book The World of
the Paranormal. Now, comes another book, previewed in this issue, by two extremely intelligent young ladies
who describe that which was demonstrated to them in this field during an extended trip through Russia,
Bulgaria, Roumania, and Czechoslovakia, at the invitation of scientific organizations working on such things.
Their report concerns utterly pragmatic matters.
The essential point that everybody has to appreciate is that by the use of new physical machinery,
electronic and otherwise, we are now beginning to be able to obtain proof of at least some of the mental and
other non-tangible processes that manifestly control not only life as we know it but the entire universe and
existence itself. In fact, we are taking the "oE" out of "ESP" and replacing it with the much more realistic
"S" for "super" (or supra, if you will). In other words, there is nothing spiritual, mystical, or even occlllt
(meaning literally 'hidden') about the amazing actions and reactions of man and other animals and plants. The
list of man's senses passed the 25 mark long ago and every day more are being added although we don't know
yet what physical parts of our body constitute the mechanism of their operation. The sensory proclivities, and
both for sending as well as receiving, of other animals are positively overwhelming in their multiplicity. Take
for instance the fact that almost a dozen "sense organs" have been found (as physical structures) on the onebut-bottom segment of the antenna of one small fly; and we don't know what any of them are for!
Another essential point to bear in mind is one for the technologists. This is that the electromagnetic is
not the only energy band in our cosmos. How many others there may be remains to be discovered but there is
definitely one of immense capability upon which what we call mental waves operate. Pointedly, moreover,
nothing that we know of in the EM band has so far been demonstrated to interfere with this (let us call it)
'mental band'. Nor can we detect the M-Band through the EM-Band. And just because there now appears to be
some evidence of a "G" (for gravity) Band, for goodness sakes, let us not jump to the conclusion that thought
runs on gravity.
Ivan T. Sanderson.

I. MATHEMATICS'

TRISECTING THE ANGLE

It has always been our intention to plough through

all the old mathematical saws, oddities, enigmas,

paradoxes, and suchlike but we had no idea just how
wild this pursuit would become. In our last issue we
had a little clean fun with numbers; time before, we
got a lucid explanation of the old one about 'squaring
the circle' which, after all these years, turned out
not be that at all but, quite differently, how to convert the !It!. of any given circle into that of a
square, or other rectangular periphery, of precisely
equal area. Now comes the' next one.
This is equally venerable: to wit, can you trisect
an angle? This one was launched at us by Member
No. 328, in a neat letter covering a monumental
battery of mathematical formulae, geometrical diagrams, and algebraic calculations. We did not have
the heart to send this one on to our advisor in this
department - Martin Kruskal - after the aggravation
.that our previous pleas must have caused him: so we
sent it to two other mathematicians, accompanied by
mild bleats. We expected polite blasts in return, but
to our amazement, both replied that the damned

'theory', or whatever you want to call it, works and

that furthermore it is theor~ticallY precise. However,
both pulled an old saw thetnselves in that they said
our honourable member (Nol 328) was not abiding by
the rules. We have obtaided assurances from said
professional mathematlciads that they did not wish
in any way to imply by this that said member was
'cheating'; and both ass/ned us that his mental
exercise - and also his g~Ometric analysis - conformed to the strictest logi~ but that his methods fell
without accepted mathematical principles or laws.
I
We must admit that we don't quite get this. Does
it mean that our logic is nbt mathematically precise
or that mathematical principles are not logical? In
fact, so puzzled are we th~t Je are gOing to "take
the angle by its horns" as it were, and toss the whole
thing to the long-suffering Dr. Kruskal. Meantime,
any who are interested might like to write directly to
No. 328, care of us. We do bot have massive copying
facilities so the best we clan offer is to put you in
touch with him and let yah take it from there. Not
only the problem itself, but the responses to it laid
out above, are unexplained Indeed.

Hair-raising Semantics
There is a very simple matter that has proved to be absolutely deadly; and this in all aspects of our modern
life, from economics to nuclear phySics and the space program. This is purely sem~ntic, but it just does not
seem to be appreciated even by many scientists; and especially those who learned English and studied in the
.
British sphere, as opposed to the American. This,is the matter of the word "Billion".1 .
In the United states, this word connotates a thousand million, or 1,000,000,000. In the rest of the world it
means a million-millions, or 1,000,000,000,000. The whole world fortunately agrees that a Million is 1,000,000;
but a Milliard is equivalent to a U.s. B111ion in France, the U.K. and the British sphere, and in Germany.
An increasing number of technical works and even popular books written in 6ther countries, either in
English, or translated into English (not American), are now being issued in their ori.~inal text and disseminated in this country. We have recently run Into some classic misstatements in both pOP~lar and scientific journals
resulting from this semantic muddle and lack of appreciation of it. In fact, physicists, and particularly American ones, check your figures. Don't forget YOU are only 16.5% of the world's technologists.
II. ONTOLOGY

DID THEY COME HOME IN REVERSE?

Wouldn't you know it? In our last issue we mentioned, perhaps somewhat too casually, that this fraternity and especially the cosmologists had been considerably piano for some time. So, of course, the
whole basic argument over existence and its origin
immediately bursts forth in almost overwhelming
vigour. The problem is antimatter.
This outburst was beautifully laid out for us
ordinary mortals by Dietrick E. Thomsen in an article
entitled "The Universe's MiSSing Antimatter" in the
13th December, 1969 issue of Science News. One
should not be flip about anything so serious and
fundamental but we have to admit to a number of
chuckles derived from it.
The basic issue is that while cosmologists deal

with the grossest aspect~ of matter and energy,

particle physicists are trying to cope with the smallest. The concensus of sci~ntific and philosophical
fundamental principles
thinking as of now is that the
I
of both should be alike. ~owever, the physicists
insist - and offer acceptable proof to boot - that
every particle must have ani anti-particle in its ultra-
tiny cosmos. The cosmologists, on the other hand,
have not found any valid (tb them) cause to include
anti-matter in the formulae Iby which they endeavour
to descnbe our universe and its beginning. Thomsen
goes on:- "The cosmologi~ts' dilemma is that observation seems to be knobking down theories deSigned to include an eved balance of matter and
antimatter; instead, it back~ the so-called big bang
theory, which has no such Ibalance. But if they try
to put matter-antimatter symmetry into the big bang

as particle physics would require, they wind up with

instant theoretical destruction of the universe I!! the
beginning, ~ creat~Q.!l ~ had !!: chance." This
would seem to be a pretty dreary thought. One might
opine that the big bang theory is manifestly nonsense
on purely ontological if not on what are called
scientific grounds. If everything began with such an
atrocious phenomenon, what, might we ask, was
going on before? Was it, as the Jud'aeo-Christian
Bible says, that there was then nothing but an Universal Spirit (the Whole of the Buddhists) or God; and
incidentally, if so, whose God? Furthermore, did that
Entity also start with a big bang?
So The Almighty d'ecided to pop off a universe?
Fine; but how many others did he create before ours;
and how many others since? And if He did, where
are they? And, for that mattE;r, where is "He", in
time and/or space? The whole exercise is, of course,
ridiculous. Either we exist or we don't. But this is a
problem for the ontologists, not cosmologists.
How much more reasonable might it. not be to
suggest that matter of all sizes, from infra-quarks to
universes, is and always has been, .and always will
be continuously created? In the infinity of our universe (alone) all this "missing antimatter" may be
some place quite else, and either in space or,
let us not forget, in time. The time factor in the
creation of particles and anti-particles is, in fact,
as this excellent article 'points out, a very vital
integer in what we must call the "creation formula".
Perhaps when new matter - i.e. a combo of energies
_ is created, matter shoots off at one time angle and
anti-matter at another. just as busted particles do in

a cloud-chamber. If this is what happens when we

deliberately break up what we call matter, may it not
also apply when natural forces create it? To every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction; etc.
Thomsen goes on, when 'discussing Dirac's exposition of basic matter-energy' propagation that:"If a proton and an antiproton come together they will
annihilate. That is, they both vanish. and the ultimate result is a burst of energy in the form of gamma
rays. Convers'ely, a properly energetic gamma ray
sometimes creates a particle and its antiparticle.
But creation comeS! only in pairs, never one side or
the other alone. If in these miniscule act~ of creation
in the lll;boratory, the matter-antimatter balance is
al ways held, physicists reason, then why not in the
gigantic act of creation that made the ',universe?"
. Anybody interested in these fundamental matters
who wishes to read a simple and straightforward exposition of them should obtain sight of this fine
article. Nonetheless, after reading it for the Nth
time, we could not rid ourselves of a memory namely, a couple of stanzas from a recording by that
truly great c.:0median Johnny Standley, entitled "It's
In The Book". After reading the line from the classical nursery rhyme "Little Bo Peep" that went: "And
they will come home, wagging their tails behind
them", Standley remarked: "Did we think they'd wag
them in front? Of course, they might have come home
in reverse. They could have done that: I really don't
know." It is really strange what an extraordinary
insight true humourists sometimes have into the
deeper recesses of reality. Could it be that antiprotons come home in reverse?

III. PHYSICS

THOSE DAMNED QUARKS AGAIN

Nobody knows w hat a Quark is, or' even if any
exist, but they have been employed for some years
now as a sort of "x" symbol in the formulae of basic
nucleonic physics. The damned things ought to be
there if our current formulae are to pan out; and they
could be there, either as ultimate or near-ultimate
particles. But nobody has pinned one down yet.
Recently, an Australian scientist, Dr. Brian McCusker,
stated that he thought" he had found them during the
course of the analysis of cosmic rays. Then the fun
began.
Quite a number of physicists have been searching
for these subatomic particles in all kinds of places
on the spectral band, and two of these scientists
also specifically in the range of cosmic rays. However, cosmic rays range over an enormous band of
the EM spectrum: and just because nobody has found
any within the limits between which they have been
searching, other searchers got a bit tough with poor
Dr. McCusker. The ins-and-outs of this matter are,
of course, quite incomprehensible to us ordinary folk,
but the bare bones of the' dialogue were splendidly

put by Science News in their December issue: and

this is comprehensible if one just bears in mind the
following.
Think of all 'the known "wavel.engths" as being
laid out along a straight line, from the shortest
known, to the longest known. Then write below this
the k.nown frequencies of these, and you will see a
simple and perfectly straightforward progressi~n. The
(secondary) Cosmic Rays lie to the extreme right end
of this band - though, of course there is an infinity
beyond that end. They form quite a spread, as is
displayed in the c~t on p. 6, which of course is quite
incomprehensible to all but specialists. Nonetheless
we reproduce this so that said specialists may appreciate the significance of a paragraph in a report
on all this in 5cience ~
This reads:- "Drs. Adair and Kasha have also
been looking 'for quarks in cosmic rays and have not
seen any. They have been looking at a lower energy,
100,000 billion electron volts (GeV) rather than Dr.
McCusker's 3 million GeV, so they calculated the
possib~e ways Quarks could be made in cosmic rays
to see if they should have seen some in their energy
range. From the flux of quarks that Dr. McCusker

1011 "

IIGS

UICONDARY

. BAY

COSMIC BAY

kfCiMIST NATUIAL

IIDIOACTIV'( 'SUISTAficr

rHDIIUM 101

WAIf AlLfN lilT IAD'AT'ON

reports, Drs. Adair and

calculate that they
should have seen 1,000
where they saw none.
They suggest that the clo
chamber, tracks .Dr. McCusker takes for Quarks
made by high-energy
electrons or mu mesons."
that great brains are
Well: it's a happy
working so assiduously
something that nobody
most q,ertainly not exknows exists and which
to our famous "wheel
plained. If you will refer
of knowledge" you will
I that No. X (Concept) is
separated from No. II vU.Ur"U5,)' only by the matter
of Measurement. An awful
of people have spent
millenia searching for the
est of all things presumably what we call 'od - but now they are
after the smallest things:
nobody has a clue as
to either the 'existence, or
of either. We begin to
may not lie in No. I (M
1

s....
-This
- -fact-of-life,
- -as.reported ------in the
York Times,

"Humor has no place in . science with a capital

~
was discovered the
way by Prof. James v.
McDonnell of the University of Michigan, editor of the Worm Runner's Digest, who
lost grants as a result
of it, .and Dr. Alexander Kohn of" the Israeli Institute of Biological Research,
of the Journal: of Irr~
.producible Results. The latter included Dr. Kohn's paper "The Kinetics of
n of Glassware" (it
breaks), one by H. J. Lipkin on "theoretical zipper dynamics", and the discovery by
aren and Michie (after
reading one of Isaac Asimov's pieces) of the properties of .thiotimoline - "a UO:j~';I:Lnc;e that dissolves just
cefore water is added to it". For more, on water, see below.
I
~or humour in Science, Dr. Kohn quotes the following from a (charitably) uni~
fied staid journal: "A
change elicited by an affect or effect or by an affectant in the affectee is a passive
active response affect
or response effect. If it counters the affect or effect of the affectant which elicits
it is an active counteraffect or countereffect. If it is an active counteraffect or effect, it is a counter-acti
affect - i.e. a reaction
in the strict sense of the term used by pathologists." You figure it out.
'

IV. CHEMISTRY
"POLLY": WHERE'S THE WATER?
Just about everybody who is interested in life,
reality, and the unexplained must by now be som~
what bored with the strange business of what has
been called Poly water. This has been written up in
just about everything from Fate Magazine - see Curt
Fuller's latest column - to a ponderous West German
quarterly devoted entirely to Wass.er. This recent outburst has come three years behind the times as' so
often happens when something really great is discovered and/or announced. Once again, it was our
Russian friends who first announced it, but it appears
to have been an Iranian who first spotted this natural
anomaly. Then again and almost just as usual, nobody believed it except the British, who solemnly
proceeded to try and reproduce this messy stuff; did
so; and then also announced the fact. Again, as
usual, nobody else except, as far as we have so far
been able to ascertain, a lone Pakistani chemist
even took the trouble to comment upon these findings.
As we said, this business has been written uP in
just about every appropriate scientific and technical
journal and in many popular publications but we

find that Curt Fuller's

sition in his column "I
See by the Papers in the
, 1970 issue of
his .magazine Fate, is the best: and so, with his
kind permission, I herewith
uce it. It goes as
follows: "We choose to discuss
discovery not only
because such a discovery is amazing for a substance
that has been studied and sed so extensively, but
because the behaviour of
water') as it is called, is
ordinary water and may "'''a'''''''''
mysteries for which
planations in the past. For 1"''' ......111.
is about 40. percent den

~apers

, Other
worth
I
on this fascinating
subject are: I
(1) "Polywater . The
Popular Science,
Dresner.
(2) "Prospecting for
r", Newsweek,
29 September 1969.
, SCience Journal ,
(3), "The Structure of
November 1969, by S. R. Erlander.

Instead of freezing at 0 C. it freezes at 40 below

zero, and then solidifies into a glasslike state rather
than the crystalline' state of ordinary ice. ~hen it
comes to the question of "boiling" we hit a very
strange paradox which has not been explained' per
se, and which nobody seems to be able to "explain".
Simon Dresner in his article in Popular Science
states: "Whether Polywater has a real boiling point
is not known. It seems to be stable UP to about
650 0 C., at which point the molecules vibrate with
enough energy to shake themselves apart, and the
polywater decomposes into ordinary water."
This is all perfectly splendid (though we don't
like the word 'about' as italicized above), but it
opens up a much greater mystery. Ordinary water
"boils" - i.e. starts to vaporize - at 100 0 C. Now,
if polywater does not do so until a minimum temperature of 650 0 C., what happens to the resultant "ordinary water"? It should bE! super-duper- heated water
vapor, or what we call "steam", and you know what
that's like. Does polywater, in fact, when it reaches
its boiling point, whatev:er that may be, blow up? If
not, how does the resultant ordinary water behave it not being water but a super-heated gas? You can't
have it both ways, and we would like to hear just
what does happen. As to its freezing at minus 40 0 which incidentally is the equivalent amo\lnt of absence of heat on both the Centigrade and the ridiculous Fahrenheit scales - we would like to have an
answer to another question that does not seem even
to have been postulated. What of latent heat? I. T.
But perhaps the most important characteristic of

sJ

* So-called "ordinary" ice (as a term) means nothing. The most normal types of ice found in nature,
moreover, are not crystalline but, rather, amorphous,
just like glass. Dozens of forms of ice are known,
one once described by Dr. D. Porter of Oxford, as
being "red hot" due to confinement under extreme
pressure! Snow crystals are ice, and they are crystalline. So also is that extraordinary form of ground-ice
found on the Arctic tundras known as "cigar ice"
which is composed of closely packed, upright
spindles but which themselves are not crystalline.
Ice from a refrigerator is not in a crystalline state
as anybody can see when it is shattered. However,
it does not break with what is called a concoidal
fracture as do glasses of all kinds.

polywater is that the chemical bond holding it together is much greater than the bond between the
molecules of ordinary water. If this bond is sufficiently strong it may help bond clays together, for
example; it may help make the earth we walk on
more stable; it may be helping to 'glue' living organisms -' holding them together. In actual fact, polywater has not yet been found in nature but the search
for it and the attempt to understand its mysterious
properties has begun. So far polywater has been produced in minute quantities in laboratories by condensing ordinary water vapor in capillary tubes the
diameter of a human hair. After about 18 hours the
polywater is condensed in the tubes into a long
array of identical molecules. No one knows how this
happens and science is just beginning to theorize on
its meaning for all living creatures."
This is all perfectly splendid but it leads us into
much more mysterious contemplations, outside the
field of chemistry. You will note in Curt Fuller's
piece, and in the others quoted if you can find them,
constant reference to the possible existence of this
form of water in nature, and the hint that it might
have something to do with the extraordinary and the
often quite unexplained mechanical bonding of clays.
Now we're into the field of geology, and to be
thoroughly facetious: "Polly, old bird, just where is
the water?" If this 'polywater' does exist in nature,
and particularly in clay which is characterized by
extremely fine capillary tubules, might it not explain
the uncanny and totally incomprehensible business
of ponds and lakes that never freeze? (For a discussion on this, we refer you to page 12 under the
general heading of VI. Geology.)

Incidentally, don't ever try to calculate anything

in nature on the Fahrenheit scale. It has no 'base'
and is entirely arbitrary. If you want to find out what
people are talking about who use it, apply the
following formulae:
To convert Fahrenheit to
Centigrade: (a) Above 32 0 F. (Le. Freezing, or 0 0 C.)

~umber of Degrees F, Minus 32. times 5J

divided by 9

(b) Below 32 0 F.

~)itt(),

but PLUS 32.

To convert Centigrade to Fahrenheit .... Who wants to?

V. ASTRONOMY

A LOOK AT THE PAST

Another notch has been hitched in the pursuit of
the Quasars - or quasi-stellar radio sources. No full
agreement has yet been reached on either their origin
or their true nature. About a Jtundred are now known
and all lie billions of light-years distant, which
means that they were in existence before our solar

system came to be. In fact, they may have ceased to

exist or changed into something quite else billions
of years ago. Thus, in "looking" at them, we are observing the earliest cosmic events of which we have
evidence.
They are very strange items in that they are almost
unbelievable power-houses, estimated to be some ten
million times the size of our sun, and which emit

light and radio waves in amounts between that given

out by very large stars and certain compact galaxies.
The latter. although equally distant and also emitting
tremendous energies are. however. enveloped in
gaseous envelopes that often form spiral arms like
many ordinary galaxies.
The "notch" was hitched by Dr. J: Beverly Oke of
C,altech. who has suggested that these objects form
an evolutionary chain. Quasars being the most primitive and the oldest. This brings us back to the fundamental debate among the cosmologists; namely the
steady-state versus the big-bang that we discussed
above. The really pertinent Question in all this is:
Do we in fact have a true and reliable method of
measuring inter-stellar and inter-galactic distances?
This expertise is founded on two precepts; the speed
of photons (light) as a fixed standard. and the so-called Doppler Effect (and note this designation 'effect')
as a method of measuring distance.
Both these standards work. However. there is no
known or even conceivable reason why other subparticles - Quarks. for that matter - could not move
faster than photons; and not even the good Lord seems
prepared to say what other forms of radiant or radiating energies on bands other than the electromagnetic
may not exist. Second. the Doppler "Effect". while
workable. provided you work !!: priori and backwards
by begging the Question. or otherwise UIDg it as a
factor in proving it. runs into the following.
space-phySicists have now demonstrated and concluded that there is actually an awful lot of what we
call 'matter' in space. Admittedly this is mighty
tenuous as we think of the density of matter. However. if there is only one atom in a cubic centimeter.
or in a hundred. or a thousand. or in ten thousand
cubic centimeters of space. you will find that by the
time you (or a photon) have travelled through a billion
light-years (i.e. 186.000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 1billion miles) you will have encountered a mass
billions of times denser than lead. What. we ask. do
the poor little photons do by way of getting through
this atomic soup?
Do they swerve around all these billions of
billions of atoms on their way - according to Einsteinian laws - or do they bang into them. It is known
that. if a photon does so bang into the nucleus of an
atom. it vanishes; but another one comes out the
other side. (Whether this is the same one or not is
not yet decided.) However. might not this banging.
passing through. and/or giving birth. cause a mini.s cule slow-down that would show up as a shift to the
red end of the EM spectrum; and. the more bangings.
the more to that end? If so. we would have our good
olp Doppler Effect. and would it not increase with
distance? Of course; but it would still be an effect.
not a valid basis for measurement of distance. either
spatially or timewise. since Matter density in space
is already known to vary greatly from place to place.
Then again. even if this effect does genuinely
disclose distance it need by no means indicate

motion (away from) the

of observation. It could
be simply distance away
This would mean that
the universe is not exp
I but completely static.
and one would not need
the creation of new
bang to maintain it.
matter or this ridiculous
There is no reason why
and globs of matter.
cannot evolve in situ. ,They don't need to go flying
they could well go
apart while they do so;
through both an ontogenous
a phylogenetic evolution in situ just like other
forms. ending in what
we call 'death'. during
turn-over point. not
one iota of matter or any
energy is lost. In other
go cosmically. just
words; round and round we
as we do terrestrially.
RINGING ROCKS
There was an initial
e over the matter of
the seismic resonance nh!~f'!l"uif'!rt on the landing of the
unwanted lunar-landing d
named Intrepid which
was thrown down after it had
vered the two moonwalkers to the Apollo 12
for return to earth.
This controversy is still
on.
It was very well
by William Rice in an
article in the N. Y. News.
ed Houston. Texas.
the 21st November last. this ad: "Scientists at the
Manned Spacecraft Center
played the guessing.
game today. trying to
'what on moon' could
have caused the long sei
reverberations after
the impact of the lunar 1
ship Intrepid. They
had been stunned by reports that the impact set up
shock waves recorded for 30 minutes on the seismometers placed on the
surface by astronauts
Pete Conrad and Alan
And they were further
nation of data showed
dumbfounded today when ex
55 minutes. A simithat the shocks actually
lar impact on earth would
registered on seismometers for only a minute or
Asked what theories
were being advanced about he seismic event. Dr.
Gene Shoemaker. geologist 0 the California Institute
of Technology. replied: 'The
is that there is no
theory. The best seismic e
are not about to
suggest an answer right now.' I "
Well: the following may
ear considerably pre'be said. This Society
sumptuous but it might as
has for three years now be
working Quietly away
on the "Ringing Rocks" of
planet - starting with
the examination of several
elds" of these amazing
rocks in northeastern P
I
We have learned
possibilities have
a lot about them but. while I
come to light with some con
evidence on which
to found them. no full explan
have so far been
forthcoming. Meantime. we
been informed of
similar strange bare rocks with various percentages of rocks. small and
that ring. allover
our Southwest. in India.
nesia. various points
in Europe. in northern
and in South America.
As a result. when the
report was issued.
two of our members. both
and one with the
needed knowledge of
wrote to the Manned
I

Spacecraft Center, offering our findings on this matter.

These communications were referred to Dr. William
Hartmann of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of
the University of Arizona who is the principal consultant to NASA on this matter. He replied that,
while the whole thing .sounded most extremely interesting, his department was so swamped with work
that they could not undertake any other investigations,
however relevant they might be. This, we contend is
a pity, . because the answer to this lunar rock resonance might be lying right here under our noses.
There is, as we have said more than once be~ore,
something damned funny about these rock-fields on
which nothing grows and upon which nothing but a
few spiders live - a fact that has been on record for
two hundred years in the Pennsylvania area - and
in which various percentages of the rocks 'ring'
while all similar-appearing rocks. made of the same
stuff according to geologists and lying all over the
surrounding countryside, don't ring. These "fields"
look like spatters of stony meteorites from space;
and more especially as they are all aligned.
Why, oh why, don't these hard-worked scientists
just stop spending money, time, effort, and anguish
for a couple of days and look into this matter, instead of sitting around propounding theori.es that
they admit they do not think are valid? For instance,
let's take the rest of William Rice's splendid report.
This goes as follows: .
"(Dr. Shoemaker) did however .outline a number of
directions in which the scientists were .~ooking ....
They include: (1). The Moon, like a bell, is made up
of a substance which has a high ~. The Q level is a
measure of the number of timEls a body will reyerberate when you hit it. It would be quite difficult to
explain why the moon would have this quality, he
said. (2) The moon has some kind of wave guide or
layer, similar ~o the thermal layering in oceans,
which channeled the shockwave and kept the seismic
energy going. (3) The moon is unstable and filled
with faults so that 'when you hit it, it just collapses.'
It would be hard to explain, however, why collapses
did not occur during bombardments of meteorites
which the moon has undergone. (4) 'The properties
of the structure of the moon are much different from
what we expected; there may be something totally
unimagined involved.' ..
Might we not save a little taxpayers' money and
find out why some of our rocks ring before spending
millions more for legitimate speculation on those of
the moon? Theories are great fun and absolutely
necessary but there's nothing like doing a bit of
measuring and weighing if you want to get at the
facts.
MORE ON MARS
One thing we can say. for the Mars probes: they
have at least woken up our chauvinistic, earthbound, anthropocentric and egomanic thinkers to get

with reality. First came the 'absence' of the bloody

"canals" or canali; next. the craters as per the Moon;
then, the ski-slopes in place of a thin scum of CO 2
rime at the poles; and now this: - Popular Science,
November, 1969.
.
"The Mariner photos showed large areas of the
red planet to have a much-cratered surface strikingly
like that of the moon. The computers 'have clarified
some previously undecipherable closeups taken by
Mariner 6. These pictures reveal. in the bright region
west of the Sinus Meridiani, a totally unexpected
Marscape of confused terrain that is like nothing man
has seen on Earth, the Moon, or M~rs before. For
hundreds of thousands of square miles, precipitous
hills and valleys are jumbled together without pattern.
And to add to the mystery. this puzzling region is
some two degrees warmer than the surrounding area,
whereas it should, logically speaking, be cooler."
Why, might we ask, should the surface fe!ltures
and structures of other planets in our system, or of
other gross bodies elsewhere, come as such a surprise or. shock to us? Are we so hopelessly terracentric or earthbound that we cannot even conceive
ot environmental and tellu.ric .:... or should we say
lithospheric - conditions being different elsewhere
to those on and about our planet today and during its
past history? We do not know for sure yet what the
surface conditions of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, or Pluto are, but all that we have so
far assumEld is that none of them is a "Water Planet".
We now know that Mars and our sister-planet. which
we call the .Moon, are definitely not. Ergo, as of
now, our planet is unique in at. least one respect.
For a very long time it must have hovered between
0 and 100 Centigrade, otherwise life as we know
it would .have either all been frozen or boiled.
Nevertheless. this temperature stability predisposes various. instabilities, simply because of the
presence on the surface of our planet of a hydrosphere (i. e. water), sandwiched between the solid
surface and an atmosphere. This brings on dynamic
forces such as evaporation, precipitation, erosion,
and so forth. so that the whole thing is in a constant
state of adjustment and readjustment - as long as
its temperature does not slip out of this tinY range.
Let us not forget that ultimate 'cold' is Minus 273C.
(approx.) but that stellar temperatures up to millions
of degrees are known. so that a range of a mere hundred degrees is strictly nothing. In the absence of a
hydrosphere (or any kind of liquid envelope), and
more so without an atmosphere, a gross body such as
a planet could be utterly passive for billions of
years. Just nothing would happen on it apart from its
being hit by meteorites or other rogue bodies. Is this
not just what our preliminary observations of both
our Moon and Mars seem to show?
Nonetheless. such gross bodies as Mars are there,
and they must have had an origin. This need not, by
any means, have been the same as ours, even it if
was . created at the same time. Due to a different

10

distance from our star (the Sun), and possibly all

kinds of other factors, it may never have had a
liquisphere, or even an atmosphere; yet, its surface
must have takep up some shape. Our mountains,
hills, valleys, and gorges appear to have been formed
by erosion due to precipitation and crustal movements. Those on Mars' appear to have been caused by
quite other agencies and activities. And why could
not internal thermal factors have created them over
four million years? Radioactive material is not evenly distributed under the surface layers of our planet,
so why should it be under that of any other? Ever
watched a potato heated from Ihe center outwards?
It is most interesting, and sometimes results in a
monumental explosion.
WHAT-MOON?
We have always been taught that the object we
call the moon is a satellite of this planet. However,
astronomers specializing in planetology and selenology long ago pointed out that for many reasons the
moon should be looked upon as a sister planet of
ours forming a binary system, and mostly because of
the masses of the Earth and the Moon, and the distance between them. This results in the center of
gravity between the two lying inside the earth. The
Moon does not revolve, of itself, but presents the
same face to us all the time because it may be
likened to one of the stones on a bolas and thus
attached to a gravitic cord anchored in the earth.
Educated to think of the Moon as being a satellite,
the average citizen has taken for granted that it is
our only one. Not so said Dr. John Bagby, of the
Hughes Aircraft Company, in an article in the perfectly acceptable publication Icarus (Vol. 10). Recent
telescopic and photographic observations suggest
that the earth possesses at least ten natural satellites or "moonlets". Further, it appears that before
1955 a much larger satellite was circling the earth,
a satellite that broke up late in that year."

A report on this in the 1st of May, 1969 issue of

toe ~ Scientist, went on to say: "Even though it
is quite possible for the earth to capture small
natural satellites, their existence has never been
generally accepted. But Bagby has collected direct
and indirect evidence which shows that several large
natural satellites are orbiting the Earth in similar
orbits. They have diameters of 100 feet or so. By
gathering together data on a few suspected observations of natural satellites, some putative orbits for
these objects were calculated. A thorough search
made last year using a camera with a large field of
view revealed two satellites on the predicted orbits.
A surprising result emerges if some of these orbits
are prOjected back in time: they all converge to the
same place on 18 December 1955, which indicates
that they are the debris of a larger satellite which
broke up on that day. Indirect evidence for small
terrestrial satellites is very convincing, because they
alter the orbits of artificial satellites quite drastically
on close encounter. Some of this evidence is shown
in the diagram, where the sudden jump in the orbital
parameters of Explorer 26, occurring in December
1965, was caused by an iriteraction with the natural
satellite mc. Natural satellites can account for
over 150 similar anomalies in artificial satellite
orbits."
In several respects this is the most astonishing
report we received last year and primarily because
of the wide range of implications it suggests: jumps
in orbiting artificial satellites; sudden jumps in the
Marsprobes; UFOs reported by astronauts; anomalies
of several other kinds; and most of all this 'breakup'
of one in 1955. What caused this last? Had it been
circling into the earth or what; and, if so, why did
it not burn up? Talk about 'cliff-hangers'. Could
your story, Dr. Bagby, please be continued in your
next? And what about exploring or capturing one of
these potentially useful objects?

VI. GEOLOGY
Geologists seem to have gone a bit balmy. After
decades of pomposity, jeering at no less than that
old iconoclast Cuvier, laughing at Wegener, and
mocking anybody and everybody else who ever so
much as mentioned that the earth's crust might shift
or break up and drift around, all of them are now
scrambling to climb aboard the proverbial 'band
waggon'. First, Wegener's hypotheSiS that the continents have drifted apart, which had been for so long
so heartily condemned, became the main theme song
of these latterday. scientific saints, just as if it was
their discovery - see now endless articles in scientific journals and in their handmaidens like the
Scientific American. Then, ,all of a sudden, Hibben's
perfectly logical conclusions about the only possible
causes of the inhumation of millions of animals in

the muck of Siberia and Alaska, which had likewise

been ridiculed, became the 'thing'. Now Hapgood's
hypothesis of a total, overall shift of the crust from
time to time due to the liquifaction of the asthenosphere, which is the next layer down below the crust
of our earth, has become almost orthodox. So the boys
have finally started to take thought upon all this and
try to make some sense out of it. An example:AN ORIGIN AL LAND-MASS
Dr. Patrick Hurley of M.I.T. has been pondering
the possibility of a single, original crustal (land)
mass, which he calls Laurasia, and which he opines
must have cracked and then come unstuck so that its
various bits drifted about to form the present conti-

' - __1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ...___________

1."_ . ' . _ . _ _ __

11

nents. His theory is summed up in Science News

(Vol. 96, p. 478) as follows:
-(Dr. Hurley) "has taken the available geochronological data and plotted innes of similarly aged
tectonic and igneous activity on maps showing the
northern hemisphere continents in their estimated
predrift positions. The configuration of age provinces,
he now reports, definitely suggests a concentric
arrangement of the zones, with the oldest material at
the center and youngest material at the periphery.
This, he concludes, supports the hypothesis that
Laurasia was formed by a continental accretion, or
coalescence, process in which an ancient nucleus of
crust was surrounded by progressively newer crust
being continually generated by the mantle and shoved
by an inward-moving sea floor toward the nucleus.
The work, he notes, supports the concept of Laurasia
as a continuing and developing land mass up until
the time, several hundred million years ago, when the
process was reversed. The supercontinents then
broke apart and the great drift episode now in progress began. There apparently was no large-scale
breakup of Laurasia prior to that, he says."
This theory is, of course, shot full with inconsistencies. First, how come, regardless of whether
this planet was formed of a cooling mass getting
ever cooler or an aggregation and conglomeration of
material at absolute cold which subsequently heated
up due to internal radioactivity and heat rays trapped
from solar radiation, did we get only a partial crust?
Second, if we did, why didn't the earth fly apart due
to imbalance? True, our planet is very slightly pearshaped and it does seem to want to get as near to
being a vast tetrahedron as possible without flying
apart but, unless this original super-continent was
very precisely centered on one of the poles of the
axis of spin of the earth (the mechanical one, that
is), it would have done just this.
Let us therefore consider the possibilities. If
there wasn't enough light stuff to form a complete
crust in the first place, or there was so little that
such a crust would be too thin to hold together (like
too little oil floating on the surface of a pan of hot
water) it might form a scum only about a third of the
area of the then surface of the planet. But then, assuming that said planet was spinning, how could such
a crust get up around a pole? If it was floating about
on the next below denser layer, why would it not
obey the laws of mechanics and settle in a belt
around the equator? Be it noted that the "push" of
the surface layers of a sphere that is spinning is
from the poles towards the equator, so that any such
scum that formed such a belt at its equator would
meet almost every conceivable opposition in getting
to either or both poles.
Coming next to Dr. Hurley's theory that such a
single primary continent once existed - whether it
was centered on a pole Qr not - and that it accreted
as do films of oil on hot water, what actually could
cause it then to crack and virtually fly apart? Ob-

viously centrifugal (i.e. 'flying away from the

center') force, but unfortunately for this theory it's
the heavier material that goes to the outside periphery in a centrifuge! Does Dr. Hurley then mean that
the denser materials in his primal continent, being
in the center, flew apart first and thus pushed out
half a dozen great rafts, or segments more or less
triangular in shape, with their 'heavy' portions at
their original apices?
This does make sense since all seven present
continents (and these are not precisely what we call
continents today) are more or less triangular and do
appear to have the oldest and densest portions at
one apex or another. Moreover, once set adrift, these
continental masses would naturally be drawn to the
equator and would have the hell of a hard time getting
over it (and don't forget that the circumference of the
earth is 26 miles longer at the equator than it is
longitudinally) or beyond it. Be it noted that all continents. apart from the sister ones of Antarctica. are
above or depend from the equator. The Antarctic
rafts could have broken off two of the others and
wandered south to balance the rest; and this is just
what certain studies by such as Sir Edward Bullard.
as laid out in an article in the Scientific American
of the September issue of 1969. would seem to indicate. In fact, are we really getting somewhere at
last?
THE GREAT SAHARAN LAKES
This is not unexplained, or so it seems, but it is
the first time we have seen a solid statement on a
subject that has been bandied about for half a century. This is frankly swiped from that most excellent
bimonthly. entitled The ETM Log. iss~ed by Explorers Trademart, Ltd.. P. O. Box 1630, Annapolis.
MD 21204, from their Autumn, 1969 issue, Vol. III,
No.4, p. 71, and reads:"It's hard to believe but true. An American oil
company recently turned the Sahara Desert into a wet
sandbox. Working in Libya, the company found a huge
Ice Age reservoir hundreds of feet beneath the duneli
which is said to hold as much water as the contents
of the Great Lakes. The water apparently seeped
underground during the last years of the Ice Age
when the Sahara received heavy rainfall. The supply
cannot be replenished, but the water there will be
used to make the Libyan Desert a spot of green in
the great Sahara. Alfalfa crops are said to be thriving
quite well on the water provided by this newly discovered source."
The last so-called "iceage" wasn't because there
are always two ice-ages going on on this planet at
all times. When, however, the crust of the earth
slipped the last time it brought new parts of it up
under the axial poles and northern Europe became
glaciated and southern Europe a tundra. while the
Mediterranean and North Africa underwent what is
called a Pluvial Period - i.e. one of excessive rain-

12

fall. As a result, what is today the Sahara Desert

belt flowered and appears to have been a center of
primitive palaeolithic civilization. There were giants
there in those days - in the form of elephants,
hippos, rhinos, and a lot of other large animals as
displayed in the endless rock paintings and petroglyphs scattered allover the area. The Sahara consists of a number of enormous basins formed' in
geosynclines, and from the above repo"rt. it appears
that these retained a lot of the rainwater that fell
during this pluvial period that lasted at least ten
thousand years.
That this water is now estimated to equal the
volume of the North American Great Lakes, and this
for only one of these geosynclinal basins, ought to
be a very encouraging thought. If we can pump this
water aloft and plant the arid deserts above, we will
according to certain other new thoughts (which have
:also been lying around for many years) bring on enhanced rainfall due to the evaporation of heat,
oxygen. and carbon dioxide by the plant cover. Thus
the combined effects would be cumulative. But we
wonder just what the overall results might be. The
damnedest things can happen when you start fiddling
with nature on a mega-scale.

confined to a perfectly natural phenomenon having

nothing to do with air pollution, or even with the
percentage of particles suspended in the lower atmosphere around which water vapour can condense.
Thus, when you are barreling along a super-highway
in the outlands, ahd descend a piece," and run into
an atmospheric dedsity which reduces your vision to
virtually nil, don't Icall it a "fog"; call it what it is,
namely a mist, and~slow down.
Most of us, having been brought up on the other
side, have tended to take a rather facetious view of
all this - admittedly most legitimate - uproar about
schmogg. Angelenos should have had to live in
London in the teens, twenties, thirties, and forties;
then they would appreciate their inrolling mists from
the Pacific which shove their air-pollution back
against the mountains to the east. We tremble for
them should they ever get stuck in a real London
pea-souper; as black as midnight at midday; and with
a pinkish tinge under the street lights, and an aer id
stench that floored even young ladies. We thought
nothing of it, apart from inconvenience and, we must
suppose, died like flies in Wintertime, though nobody
appears to have recorded the fact.
POLYPONDS

LONDON WEATHER - FINISH

Just as we suggested in our last issue, this oncoming of (about 180 years ago), and disappearance
of (since 1957), so-called fog, now known to us as
smog or schmogg, in London, England, appears to
have been due primarily to the introduction of the
use of soft coal for domestic heating al)d commercial
use with the development of what has come to be
called the industrial age. If you want to see the
differenc e between the decades prior to 1957 and
today, try to get the 15th December issue of g. ~
News & World Report, and turn to page 77. The two
pixs reproduced thereupon are manifestly souped-up
but they do display the difference. This agreeable
result is stated categorically to be due to an ordinance banning such burning of soft coal.
This is perfectly splendid but UPI reported that
the last "pea-souper" was in 1965. Be that as it may,
a certain mystery remains. We believe that this is
purely semantic. The publication we quoted in our
last issue stated that "fogs" had been unknown before L665. The trouble is with the word "fog". "This
is not the same as "mist". The latter term should be

Reverting to thk item under the major heading of

Chemistry on page; 6, which went into the matter of
"Polywater", we :herewith proceed to the equally
mysterious, and possibly related, matter of what we
call, for lack of any other devised title, Polyponds.
Let it be clearly understood, however, that this
could just as well and probably better be called
"Polylakes". It is really extremely o"dd, and somewhat aggravating, because nobody seems ever to
have done anything about the matter.
We have dozens of cases of this strange phenomenon, and dozens more alleged. Let us consider three;
and let us ask Simply if there might be a possibility
that the bottoms of1these
lakes might be composed of
I
clay or some other' deposit that, when compacted, is
riddled with hair-fine capillary tubules which could
provide the physiciIJ. set-up for the natural formation
of polywater. These three examples are very widely
separated in both space and size. Let us take first a
modest example. ,
This is a large pond alongside a main highway on
Long Island, New York. (We apologize for not being
able to give proper references to this location here

Swiped from the ~Tl\1 ~

"Not long ago the editors of the Farmer-Stockman printed a picture of a deserted farm house in a desolate,
windswept field, then offered a prize for the best 100-word essay on the disastrous effects of land erosion. A
bright Indian lad from Oklahoma bagged the trophy with this graphic description: 'Picture show white man
crazy. Cut down trees. Make too big teepee. Plow hill. Water wash. Wind blow soil. "Grass gone. Door gone.
Squaw gone. Whole place gone to hell. No pig. No corn. No pony. Indian no plow land. Keep grass. Buffalo
eat grass. Indian eat buffalo. Hide make plenty big teepee. Make moccasin. All time Indian eat. No work. No
hitch-"hike. No ask relief. "No build dam. No give damn. White man heap crazy.' "

13

and now, but we investigated the matter over twenty

this and he said the probable explanation was either
years ago and we cannot lay our hands on the apa form of minute animal life in the water or some kind
propriate documents. However, the full facts are in
of secretion from the mountains around the lake.
some newspaper morgues in the New York City area
'But the color never changes and the lake never
and we are making search). As of circa 1950, it was
freezes,' he said, adding softly, 'It is a most pereported in the press that this pond had never been
culiar lake.' ..
known to freeze even in the coldest winters - and
The third example we offer is that wholly incredithe year 1948 was cold indeed on Long Island ble area in Antarctica known as the Bunger Oasis.
while many other ponds in the immediate area did so,
This, along with two other smaller areas in other
and to a very grim extent. We visited this pond and,
locations, is composed of a number of meandering
sure enough, not only was it unfrozen while its
lakes between islands of bare rock and with icesurround was under a foot of snow and ice, but there
free shores, set right in the middle of the endless
were frogs jumping in and out of it.
sea of upland ice. These lakes are also either vivid
There were no visible or known influents or efgreen or blue, and many of them remain completely
fluents to or from this pond; there were no nearby
ice free. Some are freshwater, and others saline
houses, nor any industry. More curiously, the surface
with either the exact mineral equivalents of sea
water appeared to be, by thermometer, just a fraction
water, or with a much higher concentration of some
below freezing point while the water immediately
elements such as chlorine. Various explanations
under the ice of adjacent ponds was a few degrees
of this phenomenon have been put forward, notably
above that point. Ponds freeze from the top down.
by the Russians, but this is another story. All
Figure this one out. We were shown this pond by a
make sense but none has yet been fully accepted.
hydrological engineer because we were doing a The basic fact remains that some areas - and one of
series on water on the Island for a newspaper syndithem of over 800 sq. kilometers - remain unfrozen in
cate. Having never, of course, ever conceived of
the midst of a whole continent of ice with a mean
polywater, we enquired whether the water in this
annual temperature below freezing, and whereupon
pond might have a differen~dissolved mineral content.
lows of more than -185 0 F. have been recorded.
Our guide stated that it had been tested but that no
The behaviour of these ponds and lakes is not
difference had been deteeted.
explained. But, in bringing this up, we do not. mean to
imply that polywater is the explanation. However, if
Our second example is Lake Seton, near Lillooet,
in British Columbia. The best on-the-spot description this should be a natural product and, as has been
suggested, "the original basic form" of that substance,
of this was by the well-known B.C. columnist Alan
am if it does not freeze until 40 degrees below,
Jay, who wrote of his first visit: "I caught my first
glimpse of Seton Lake a few hours earlier while fly- . might not a percentage of it above a certain point in
ing into Lillooet from lOo-Mile House in a private the waters of such ponds and lakes prevent all its
plane. I immediately noticed that the water of the liquid content from freezing at what we consider the
lake, unlike any other stretch of water in the area, normal temperature for doing so? It took us a long
was a brilliant green. I asked Paul the reason for time to discover heavy water.
Father of the Year~:
"To the Municipal Swimming Pool in Sydney, Australia. After swimming in the pool, a fifteen-year-old girl
began having pregnancy symptoms, although a doctor testified that she was a virgin and that the symptoms
were 'false'. Nine months later she gave birth to a baby boy. The courts decided t~at she had been impregnated by male sperm in the water."

VII. BIOLOGY
NOW IT'S NINE NOSTRILS!
What on earth has happened to the august Wall
Street Journal? In almost every issue they solemnly
propound at least one item of profound fortean significance, and usually on the front page. left column.
On either the 11th of October, or the 10th of November, according to which way you record dates (1) anyhow, of their Vol. CLXXIV, No. 92 - they ran an
interesting piece by Peter R. Kann, entitled "Vietnam Journey". This was pretty straightforward stuff,
but about halfwa,y in, staff-writer Kann solemnly
states:"The trip (made by him from Saigon to Can Tho

across the Mekong Delta:, then northwest to Tre Ton

and Chau Doc, and back to Saigon) offer(ed) glimpses of recent progress and of perennial problems, of
new threats like North Vietnamese battalions and of
more esoteric .dangers like a nine-nostriled watermonster allegedly loose in the Mekong River. II After
which, the writer goes straight on to more military
talk.
Nine nostrils is a new one to us. One or three
horns on the snout we have been told of, but we
don't know of any animal living or fossil that has or
had more than five horns, as in certain giraffes.
Bernard Heuvelmans in his book
the Wake Q! the
~ ~ records a number of reports from the

14

Gulf of Siam of some kind of vast, armour-plated

something with spikes all along its sides, but this
has a small hornless head. We must suppose that
there is no reason why an animal should not have
nine instead of one or two blow-holes but it's funny
that we don't know of any. If the locals mean horns,
the thing becomes somewhat more feasible but would
some zoologist please tell us of any animal, vertebrate or even invertebrate, that has such. And why
nine? We pass.
(l)We Americans (of the central slice of the continent of North America that is) still suffer from a
complex, amounting almost to a trauma, that began
with the Revolution - which everybody else, ,incidentally, calls our War of Independence. This was,
and still is, to do everything different from the
Europeans. For instance, almost every item of men's
clothing has a different name on either side of the
Atlantic; pants are trousers, vest are waistcoats
while undershirts are vests, hose are socks, socks
are stockings, jackets are coats, topcoats are overcoats, and on and on. But probably the most deadly
mix-up - and which caused the death of several
thousand troops in WW. II. on one occasion - is our
assinine insistence on taking two items out of the
normal progression for measuring time and reversing
them. There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes
in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 28-31 days in a month,
and twelve months in a year. Thus naturally 11/10/69
means the eleventh day of the tenth month. So then
we must needs write it 10/11/69. This came so hard
on the military trying to get essential supplies to
their beleagured forCES that they finally had to get
with the rest of the world and adopt the sensible
practice of writing 10/Nov/69 and so forth. The rest
of us would be well advised, and especially in the
distributing businesses, to do likewise.
NOT SO FRAZZLED NERVES
We can not offer any valid reason why this one
gets us, but it does. Any person having taken socalled biology in a school knows or has been told
that there are gaps (called synapses) between nerve

endings or tips. The electrical currents that carry

'messages' along nerves have to jump these and said
jumps can be controlled by what is called the volition of the whole animal. There are billions of
synapses in a human brain. However, we have, I
think, all developed a mental picture of a nerve tiP
as being just that - a tip. Now comes this astonishing photograph of said tips.
Do these 'endings' bring anything to your mind?
Well; baby mushrooms maybe, but have you any other
idea? several of our members had and this was most
unexpected. One and all, and all separately, said
something like "But they look like those crazy
patterns on early Chimu and other South American
pottery". Naturally, we buzzed this off to Barney
Nashold who was the first to suggest that such (to
us) balmy designs might be EM circuitry - see
PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No.4, p. 75. Then the engineers
working on Barney's findings pointed out that these
sort of terminals are used in the design of some very
special artificial synapses. All animals are basically
electrical by function. Do we have a threeway meeting here of nature and ancient and modern technology?
It's worth a second thought.
MORE AFRICAN NEODINOSAURS
Hard as we may try to explain this business away,
it keeps cropping up, and from all manner of widely
separated and separate sources. If you want to know
the background, try to get hold of a book entitled
More "Things", Pyramid Books, 1969, and read the
first chapter. To sum it up, let us state that, for a
century now, all manner of people have been saying
that they have encountered large reptilian (dinosaurian) type animals in out of the way parts of Africa,
and particularly in swamps in the forested equatorial
belt. But then comes this from the arid south of that
continent.'
The Sunday Express, London, England, 7th Dec.,
1969, by John Monks, Salisbury... A fantastic mystery
has developed over a set' of cave paintings found in
the Gorozomzi Hills, 25 miles from Salisbury. For
the paintings include a brontosaurus - the 67 ft.,
30-ton lizard-like creature scientists believed became extinct millions of years before man appeared
on earth. Yet the bushmen who did the paintings
ruled (sic) Rhodesia from only 1500 B.C. until a
couple of hundred years ago. And experts agree that
the bushman always painted from life. This belief is
borne out by other Gorozomzi Hills cave paintings accurate representations of the elephant, hippo, buck,
and giraffe. The mysterious pictures were found by ,
Mr. Bevan Parkes, who owns the land the caves are
on. The brontosaurus, a member of the dinosaur
family," can be seen clearly on the rock. its long
"This is popular jargon, of course. Brontosaurus,
and related small-headed, long-necked, and longtailed reptilians, belong to a group known as the
'Ornithischians.

15

neck reaching out of a picture of a swamp. Experts

are planning to climb into the cave with special
photographic equipment. Rhodesian museum authorities refuse to believe that the brontosaurus lived in
Rhodesia in recent times. For all the fossilized remains they have examined have been millions of
years old. Adding to the puzzle of the rock paintings
found by Mr. Parkes is a drawing of a dancing bear.
As far as scientists know bears have never lived in
Africa."
This is a fascinating story in itself and especially in view of its source, but it makes one point of
particular interest, to wit: "Experts agree that the
Bushmen always painted from life". This is just
exactly what we have been trying to get over for
twenty years.
All kinds of incredible drawings, petroglyphs,
statuettes, bas-reliefs and so on, have kept turning
up for years, showing animals that looked incredible
both to the average citizen and also to scientists
caught in the net of orthodoxy regarding what is and
what isn't, and what was and could be. Such animal
depictions have thus been written off, simply as
"mythical" or "religious" fantasies or symbols. However, almost if not all of these mysterious depictions
appear to have been the work of master (albeit primiti.ve, in our eyes) craftsmen who at the same time
depicted all the rest of their local fauna intimately
and in such exactitude that even a lousy zoological
taxonomist can put a specific name on each. If
ancient artists in SOuth and North America. Eurasia,
Africa, and even Australia could achieve such perfection, why should all of them suddenly go quite
balmy and model imaginery creatures which, as it
turns out, are complete and perfect reconstructions of
animals we think have been long extinct, and the
outside shape and form of which we have only recently arrived at by very tedious andPrecise scientific and technological considerations and skills? Let
us give you a specific example.

mark and they are recognized by everybody, and all

the way to other continents. The precision of workmanship of these molds is so great that any zoologist can spot each of the animals depicted at a
glance and put a specific name on most of them and even down to one kind of lizard as opposed to
another. Dealers in gold in what used to be an
illiterate country had to be precise. Their reputations depended upon it; and also their very lives,
lest there be so much as a smidgen of doubt by
sellers, buyers, authority or anybody else. SO then
Manny turned up this one:-

r -------,--... _--."-:--'~-

':"
!.

-.

.-.

-I---.--~--:::';.-----------~

".

.'.

-:--

---.,

.!

AN IGUANODON FROM DAHOMEY

A few years ago, one of our founding members
(No. 117), Emanuel ("Manny") staub, who is a leading jeweler and jewel deSigner, and who was entrusted with copying some of the priceless gold and jewel
collections of some of our great museums, was asked
by the University Museum of the University of
Penns.vlvania, to prepare copies of a large collection
of small gold artefacts from West Africa. Thesewere
little weights used by native (to the country) dealers
who bought 'raw' gold from native collectors, melted
the material down, and cast it in molds - special
and unique to each of them. Each dealer has for
centuries adopted, or has had assigned to him and/or
his family, a specific mold. Most of these are of
animals; each resulting cast being of precise weight;
and all having exactly the same weight, and by any
scale. These little figurines are the dealer's trade-

This exquisite little thing had been lying in the.

museum collection for many years and Manny staub
sort of "brought it to light"; the only resultant reaction might be summarized as: "Well, those stupid
natives have vivid imaginations and believe in all
kinds of ghosts and mmbis and things"; and the very
few who had ever been to West Africa or knew anything about its most ancient culture, implied simply
that Africans have a lot of "gods". Yet all the other
statuettes, or whatever you want to call them, were
vividly accurate representations of known animals of
that country.

OK! So this is a lousy effort by some benighted

"native" to represent some kind of lizard. Well; will
somebody then please make so bold as to tell us
just which west African lizard. There are Agamid
lizards in Centroamerica that stand UP on their hind
legs. raise their tails in the air with an upward curve.
and go careening through the bush and even over
water. so fast do they go. They are very common and
called colloquially "basilisks". There are; of course,
agamid lizards in West Africa and notably the
brilliantly multicolored Agama agama but neither
they nor any of their local relatives so stand up to
run. So what is this creation?
May we make so bold as to suggest that it is a
Elahomeyan representation of their "M'Bemba" (a
variant of a name found all across equatorial Africa
for an enormous swamp-dwelling J:eptilian); rendered
precisely to scale; in its natural ,pose. when on dry
land; and displaying its typical characters? Would
you kindly take a look at the: depiction of a reconstruction of an Iguanodon (Fig. 2' abov~) and tell us
honestly if you do not think that it looks more like
Fig. 1 than any lizard or photograph of any African
lizard that you might have ever seen? And we should
add that the sort of twisted 'spiral: of the ,neck of this
little African artefact is a well-known convention
indicating wrinkles; while' the t8.il (when viewed
from above) forms a' sort of" fan. This is another
convention, indicating movement from left to right
and. what is more, said movements are clearly so
indicated on the "fan" at the back of this little
figurine by a series of grooves. forming a herringbone pattern from the base of the tail.
Sorry: but it is our opinion that some West African
artist saw alive, or had fresh second-ha!ld knowledge
of, some form of very large vegetarian, Ornithischian,
(dinosaurian) reptile. If he didn't. how come he so
long ago produced a model so very closely alike unto
the best our scientists. technologists, and technicians have come up with only recently, working
from complete fossilized skele~ons and already
mounted in poses tp.at the 'articulation of their limbs
indicate were natural?
"HE HAVE HEAD FOR TRUNK"
Continuing this African business. we present
herewith, and in toto, a transcript of a recent account
of one of these creatures, (this time called "MOKE'
Nbe"). given to us by a scientist who is probably the
only animal collector toda,y with full scientific training; the degrees (ex Europe) to back this up; who
was for many years Director of one of the greatest
zoos in the world, and who is now director of a
private research center. He is a leading ethologist,
and is our member No. 176. Here is his report:"In 1959, along the rather swampy western tributary of the Oueme River in Dahomey, locally called
N'gode or N'gobe (N'gore?) my carriers. who had unhesitatingly braved two previous swamps with me,

threatened to "Wabandonner toute ~ suite" if I

persisted in proceeding thru another swamp which
looked quite safe to me. Since we had not gone too
far from a village, I decided to return to it for palaver
and/or to get a crew of local carriers, since I suspected that we might be heading into another tribal
area of people unfriendly to the tribe of my carriers
(Ouasse). Upon our return to the village, we were
greeted as if we had returned from the dead; all my
"boys" were offered food. pombe, and girls. and I
was invited to the Chief's hut and finally had to
help his "boys" catch the only cow the village owned (a dwarfed Frisian) which was then ceremoniously
killed and prepared while we drank the fresh blood
(or rather. competed with thick layers of suicidal
flying insects for it). The' chief had worked once on
a Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, and he
spo~e a delightful pidgin English. He!e is his tale:" 'For de middle of dis big land-water (swamp)
dere be water-water big too much; an' for dis waterwater (lake) live plenty water-elephant. Dis waterelephant I.!Q be brother for land-elephant .. (1) He be
much big past land-elephant. He no have trunk for
head, bu~ head for "trunk. (2) Trunk come from body,
and on end is head small-small past land-elephant.
(3) Front feet is like pirogue paddles. 'flat, and him
make swim fast. Back feef I never see nohow. but
have, mebbe? But tail too long and big like body.
near body.(4) Behind, tail much like koboko (whip).
He no chop'em people but chop'em grass an' smallsmall tree; but no like'em people." Come out for water
one time and roll'eni" people' for ground. an' make
(look) like blanket; then take'em for water, but no
chop'em~'
.
"N~t being overly credulous I first suspected
that his description, accompanied by his illustrative
gestures, might fit a sea-cow-like critter. so I drew a
Dugong and a Manatee from memory. Luckily he could
'see picture' (a rare ability as you know) and said
at once: 'De body she be much like so, but de head
is for neck much too long - mebbe long past two men
(5)- and de mouth she not like de mouth for hiplfo
but like de mouth for. goanna (the Liberian-American
pidgin term 'goanna-iguana' is used indiscriminately
for any large monitor-like lizard)."

So here we go again. We are not suggesting anything; just querying. Can all the~e scientists, local
citizens, professional game wardens, animal collectors, artists. certified gold dealers. naturalists, and
just plain travellers, all be talking through their
you-know-whats? And if so. how come they all have
substantially the same stories to tell and such identical descriptions? If two pairs of animals as large as
Fisher Martens can turn up in one year not 80 miles
from New York City, when they had been thought to
have been totally extinct throughout the whole midEastern Seaboard for sixty years, how in the hell can

17

anybody deny the possibility of fifty-foot creatures

in thousand- square-mile swamps that man never
traverses and often won't even enter in a continent
the size of Mrica? It beats us.
"'For those not acquainted with the West African
form of pidgin-English, we offer some interpretations.
(1) This means definitely that this so-called
"water-elephant" is nQ1; an elephant at all but something quite different. The use of the word "elephant"
means simply some very large animal, gray in color.
(2) This is just about as explicit as one can be in
any language, and means that, while elephants have
a trunk depen.ding from their heads, this creature has
a head at the end of what looks like a trunk. (Take a
look at a reconstruction of a Brontosaurus).
(3) This means, by the African inversion of superlatives, that the head of this beast is very-very small
compared to that of an elephant and in proportion to
its body size.
(4) This is a neat way of saying that it has a very
long tail, but that this gets progressively thicker
towards the body and finally flows into it at about
the circumference of the animal's haunches. Again,
see Brontosaurus and other reptiles; and then compare with the little "whisp" at an elephant's rear end.
(5) This is another inversion, in that the Chief meant
that the neck of the "water-elephant" was very long:
not that the neok as shown in the drawing was too
long. In fact, what he said was that: "Him neck be
short too-much dere (i.e. in the drawing). Neck for
water-elephant-beef be long too-much." Thus this
cuts out "manatees, dugongs, and any other Sirenians
all of which have virtually no necks at all.

period 1890 to 1910. Since scientific investigation of

this matter got going, all manner of ridiculous theories were put forward to explain how they got preserved. These were mostly founded on the completely
erroneous belief that they were preserved in ice. Not
one single one, nor any of the other billions of
animals of other species found so preserved in the
far north, has ever been found in ice: all are stuffed
into "muck" or frozen soil in the permafrost belt.
None of these theories held up on purely logical
grounds. Now, however, one that does make some
sense has come to light.
Daniel Cohen (No. 419), previously editor of
SCience Digest, writes in an article published by that
excellent magazine in their January, 1970 issue that:-

AT LAST SOME COMMON SENSE

"Russian scientists who have studied the sites at

which mammoth carcasses have been found have concluded that preservation could take place only in
what they call baidzharakh terrain. This is an area
over which ice has lain for centuries. The top of the
ice gets covered by a thin layer of soil and tundra
vegetation. During warmer times streams would cut
their way deeply into the baidzharakh fossil ice.
When the weather got colder the surface of these
channels would freeze over into an apparently solid
crust. A heavy-footed mammoth trudg-ing across such
terrain would plunge right through the crust into the
deep channel below. There was no escape from this
ice pit and the mammoth would soon perish there.
The temperature at the bottom of the ice pit would be
low enough to keep the carcass from rotting away.
Gradually, soil from the surface would filter down
over the frozen body, encasing it entirely in permafrost - that part of the ground which never thaws."

What has been called the mystery of the mammoths

has been with us for almost two centuries. The damned things are lying about by the millions all across
Siberia and Alaska as is manifested by the fact that
the average number of their tusks exported via
Yakutsk alone averaged 400 per annum over the

Hurrah! This does indeed make sense, but it

would at first appear to leave an essential fact unexplained. J.,et us pursue this.
The first question any intelligent person asks is:
If these animals were initially preserved in near
zero water until the fall deep freeze, why did not

Notes Qn Alcohol
From the National Observer, 3 Nov., 1969: "There will be no bear hunting in Massachusetts this season;
many of the black bears are reported too drunk to make them fair game for sportsmen. According to James M.
Shepard, director of the state Fisheries and Game Division, the bears apparently have been devouring wild
apples, and during the animals' nap time after the feast, the juices ferment in their stomachs producing the
befuddling effect. 'We have a few bears in this state, and it wouldn't be very sporting to shoot them in this
condition anyway', said Mr. Shepard. SO he invoked his emergency powers and banned hunting."
From the Wall street Journal, 5 Nov., Hi69: "Tiny Worm Relies on Alcohol. The tiny nematode, a worm less
than a hair wide and found in every square foot of soil, manufactures alcohol in times of stress. After making
the alcohol, the nematode goes into a state of suspended animation that can last a year or more, then wakes
up and consumes the alcohol, perhaps achieving long life in the process, researchers calculate."
Yucatecan stew?
Our favorite headline, from the Boston Sunday Globe, in their section on travel, 28 December 1969: "CHICKEN ITZA - A PLACE TO WANDER AND WONDER".

18

their interiors decompose due to bacterial action?

The interior of large corpses, arid especially of
those that are insulated by a layer of fat under the
skin, like whales and mammoths, actually get so hot
due to just this bacterial action that they literally
cook! We witnessed this When dissecting a fifty-foot
Sperm Whale on a beach in northern South America,
almost exactly on the equator. This whale had manifestly been dead for months; and we knew it had been
VlD.

beached for weeks. It stank to the Van Allen Belt,

and the pools of oil seeping from its blubber actually
boiled in the midday tropical sun but, when we got
down into its vast interior, the flesh was tender,
medium-rare, and absolutely fresh! Thus, we may
at last have got the true explanation of these wondrous preservations; and once again nature would
seem to have pulled not just one but two fast ones
on us. How about deep-freezing in order to cook!

ANTHROPOLO~Y

GIANT SKELETONS ON LUNDY ISLAND

An exasperating little item comes from the National Geographic Society via the Washington Post of
the 30th November 1969, and is entitled "Lundy Now
Nature Preserve". It is a straightforward report on
the transfer of Lundy Island to Britain's National
Trust; but, about halfway through it states blandly
that: "Persistent tales of buried treasure never produce any buccaneer gold. So far shovels have uncovered only a pair of ancient, unexplained stone
coffins, holding two ,eight-foot skeletons and remains
of what appear to be sacrificed slaves."
Lundy Island lies near the southern shore of the
Bristol Channel which separates southern Wales from
the southwestern toe of England. It measures about
3 miles long by half a mile wide, is largely cliffbound, and roughly 400 feet above the sea, with one
landing place at the southeast~ corner'. It is relatively remote and has been used throughout the ages by
Norse vikings, French privateers, and general pirates,
as well as a modest number of ordinary fishermen. It
has - taken all in all - a rather quaint history. From
time to time millionaires and such have bought it
and, it lying outside the territorial line claimed by
the U.K. and approved by international law, have
proclaimed it an independent state, or something;
and have even gone so far as to issue postage stamps.
It is also the tag line of probably the greatest, most
classic. off-color (British) story ever; but unfortunately. like all the better limey stories. it ~akes about
half an hour to tell! There are a few buildings on it
and its population numbers about 20. The Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that 'there are some "prehistoric remains" aboard; but the map of "The major
visible antiquities of Great Britain older than A.D.
1066", published in 1951 by the Director General of
the Ordnance Survey, shows, nothing at all on Lundy
Island. It would seem to be a rather strange place
for such ceremonial burials.
There are, in fact, two problems here. The designation "stone coffins" is not at all helpful. Were
they carved stone sarcophagi or simply slabs of
stone rudely put together? Were there any artefacts

present and. if so, of what kind? And exactly what.

and where, were these "remains of what appear to be
sacrificed slaves"? Were they also in the coffins.
or was there some kind of crypt?
Secondly. there is this business of eight-foot
skeletons. The Guinness Book Qf Records lists only
nine authenticated heights of over 8 feet (the tallest
was 8' 11.1"). but notes that all these had a pituitary
disease and also suffered from acromegaly. a bone
disease that results in gross enlargement of the jaw.
hands, feet, and forehead. Th~ tallest true (i. e. nonpathologic8.l.) giant was a Scotsman 7'9" tall. The'
stature of circus giants is notoriously exaggerated.
Most actually turn out to measure between 7 and 7~
feet. The same is true of the regiments of 'giants' such as that of Frederick William I of Prussia though few of those were actually over 7 feet tall.
One chap in this regiment was allegedly 8'3". but
his skeleton (in the Berlin Museum) has been measured. and he was only 7'2.6". Has anyone actually
measured the Lundy Island skeletons? And are they
normal. or do they also show signs of acromegaly?
All this is most unsatisfactory. and we are asking
member No. 5 'to pursue the matter. since he has
access to original sources used by the NGS.
As a parting shot. we can not resist quoting the
final paragraph from this article, to wit: .. Lundy's
most celebrated tourist. Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother. visited the island for two and a half hours
in 1958."

so HELP US -

ATLANTIS AGAIN

For the past year or so there has been a considerable uproar in kookie newspapers and even in some
serious-minded journals about a discovery in the
Bahamas which has. for some reason, been declared
something like "So. you see. the lost continent of
Atlantis may indeed have existed." How or why on.
earth such a contention should have been expressed
in this case we fail to understand, and we still fail
to do so.
This bit began with a report from a commercial
pilot that he had spotted some obvious "ruins" under
a shallow sea off the coast of one of the Bahama

19

Islands, through crystal-clear water. This was in

August, .1968, and the pilot took some photographs.
As a result, a team of scientists on the faculty of
Palm Beach Atlantic College in Florida - Drs.
Dimitri Rebikoff, J. Manson V8J.entine, and Richard
Evans - organized an exploratory investigation. They
located the structure and dived to investigate it. The
best account of what they found so far was given by
Melvin D. Saunders in The ETM Log, Vol. III, No.4,
.for .the Autumn of 1969. This reads in part as follows:What they found was completely out of order
with accepted history of the Americas. Diving on the
area, they viewed a main wall structure measuring
approximately 90' by 50', 'although we didn't pace
it off.' said Dr. Valentine. The structure was oriented in an east-west direction, and appeared to be
partitioned off at the east end and rounded at the
southwest corner. There was only 2 feet of wall
protruding from the ocean floor (which was probably
uncovered by a tropical storm), but through a 2 foot
. hole in a thicker section of the wall,. one could see
uninterrupted stone work going at least 2 or more
feet deeper. Photos of larger stones making uP the
walls show the sizes to be about 15' by 15' and
probably weighing from 20-25 tons each. Such stones,
fitted so evenly together, may possibly have been
assembled in the same mysterious way as the pyramids of EgYPt - perhaps by some me ans of levitation
yet to be discovered. The scientists do agree that
the ruin is pre-Columbian, but add that it might be
as ancient as the legendary lands of Atlantis, which
were supposedly destroyed over 11,500 years ago."
This is all very fascinating, especially as the
facts are confirmed. However, the speculation, and
particularly vis-a-vis the old bugbear "Atlantis" is
extremely troublesome. All sorts of people have been
popping up for decades now stating that they have
either found or have definite proof that they know
where said "continent" or group of large islands lay.
We have had them from the Baltic, the Aegean, the
North, and several other seas. Then there have been
the advocates of continental locations like Sweden,
ireland; Centroamerica, and even the Andes. There
are sunken cities off just about every major coast in
the world, including, we would like to point out, even
Australia (see in a later issue), but not even Plato
who started all this jazz ever said that land was
anywhere but around the present Azores in the middle
of the mid-Atlantic! Admittedly there were others who
stated that, in addition to this big group of islands,
there were others named Ogygeia between northern
Brazil and West Africa, and a much enhanced mass
where the West Indies now lie and which they called
Antillia. So what on earth, or below it, has a 90' x 50'
foundation, inshore off the Bahamas got to do with
this bloody" Atlantis"?

The 15' x 15' blocks of dressed stone in this

thing are, however, most interesting and pertinent.
There is ample evidence that the arc of the Antilles
was, until comparatively recently, much more extensive above sea-level. There are some crude,
though admittedly very large, megalithic structures
on those West Indian islands that are currently above
sea level, but they are not composed of any such
precisely dressed blocks. Moving to Central America
such blocks may be found lying about allover the
place and neatly fitted in.to literally hundreds of
monuments. Admittedly, nobody has even a suggestion
as to who quarried these blocks, cut them, moved
them, and piled them up, or how; but this does not
mean that whoever did so had power tools or levitational devices. Indeed, they could have had but, if
you will read Thor Heyerdahl's book, Aku-Aku, you
will learn firsthand just what can be done by a few
men chopping away with stone hand axes, elevating
~ith a few wooden levers, hauling about with some
ropes, and erecting vast blocks with a very modest
number of helpers. The Easter Islanders of today
wedged out, shaped, transported, and erected blocks
as big as their ancient statues, under the eyes of
this scientist and in a matter of weeks. Unless
Heyerdahl made all this up, we must confront the
simple fact that such enormities as 25-ton blocks of
stone could have been quarried, shaped (and with
great precision and with very primitive tools), and
then moved and erected by our pitiful ancestors.

ANCIENT GLASSES
Glass is a rather mysterious substance, from any
point of view; since there aren't a great many transparent solids around. Basically, it is manufactured
by melting sand (i.e. silica) with soda, and it is
believed that the art was originally discovered in
Mesopotamia, probably by accident when some I sand
got into the cooking fire and combined with ash from
some grain or other. Green glazes (a kind of glass)
are found on pottery dated at about 12,000 B. C.
though the first known pure piece of glass that we
know of now was made about 7000 B.C. The Egyptians
were noted for glass beads and jars, and so were the
Romans. But who made the third largest single piece
of glass ever made? This is a slab 11 feet long, 6
feet wide, and about 20 inches thick, found about 12
miles southeast of Haifa, Israel, in 1956 when excavation of an ancient cistern was begun. This area is
known to have been a glass-making center in Roman
times, and the slab of glass, which was not even
recognized as such until 1963, is believed to date to
the period between A.D. 400-700, though there is a
suggestion that it may .be much older. It is far from
being a perfect piece of glass, and contains some
rather odd ingredients (e.g. wollastonite) and, accord-

20

ing to experts at the Corning Museum of Glass,

necessitated heating some 11 tons of material to
0
about 1050 C. and holding the temperature at that
level for about 5 to 10 days. This is some going for
chaps who presumably lacked modern industrial
machinery and techniques. There are only two larger
pieces of glass, both mirrors for telescopes, and both
were made very recently.
But there is an even more alarming business,
brought to our attention by a real fortean who has
been carrying a clipping from the New York Herald
Tribune in his wallet since the 16th February 1947
(just to annoy people, no doubt)! This reads as follows: "When the first atomic bomb exploded in New
Mexico, the desert sand turned to fused green glass.
This fact, according to the magazine Free World,
has given certain archaeologists a turn. They have
been digging in the ancient Euphrates Valley and
have uncovered a layer of agrarian culture 8000 years
old, and a layer of herdsman culture much older, and
a still older caveman (sic) culture. Recently they
reached another layer . of fused green glass. Thi!J.k
it over, brother."
Bits of green glass, possibly. fused in an ancient
fireplace, is one thing; areas of fused green glass is
something quite else again. And this .site is not the
only one. There are also the fused forts of the west
coast of Scotland and elsewhere, in which one si.de
only has been fused, as if hit from above by intense
heat. Lightning occasionally fuses sand, but al ways
in a root-like pattern (some of these 'tubes' are on
display in natural history museums). So just what
produced a whole stratum of green glass in various
parts of Mesopotamia?
Section: HISTORY - Sub-Section: Medicine
NO-COUNT DRACULA
A delicious story appeared in The National Observer, of the 8th of December last year written by
Nancy A. Palmisciano of Boston .College. This was
titled: 'Dracula' Lived, Say Two Professors, And He
Was a Cruel Romanian Prince. Csic) Some type-setting,
what? This report goes, in part, as follows:"Since Dracula was written in 1897, the classic
horror tale about a diabolic vampire has been raising
goose bumps on millions of /oungsters and adults ...
But was Count Dracula pure fantasy? Could he have
existed like such infamous characters as Hungary's
Countess Bathori who had 650 girls murdered in the
Seventeenth Century? Radu Florescu and Raymond

McNally, two Boston College history profe'ssors, often

discus'sed such a possibility. The two professors
were particularly intrigued' by Stoker's exacting biographical information on Count Dracula. The decriptions of Transylvania and' historical references
astonished Prof. Florescu, a native of Romania and
an expert on Balkan history.... Slowly the pieces fit
together. Dracula emerged as Vlad Tepes (Tepes
means the impaler), a Romanian prince' who ruled in
Walachia from 1456 to 1462 and again in 1476, before
he was assassinated. Official diplomatic reports of
the time also refer to him as Dracula, a name he may
have derived from his father, Vlad Drakul, or devil ....
Professor Florescu isn't sure how the vampire myths
grew about Drac.ula, but the bats that lived ill the
castle !!!..!!.y have. ~ !! part ('italics' ours). There
~e records qf bats, which may have been rabid, flying from the castle and attacking and biting. people
in the area. To th~ peasants the deaths that followed
must have seemed to be the work of a demon."
In 1938. two of us (AVS & ITS) were seconded
from the British Museum to the Dept. of Health of
Trinidad to investigate the natural food of the Bloodlapping Bats (Desmodus) in that country and in what
was then British Guiana (now Guyana) and Dutch
Guiana (-now Surinam). These bats carry rabies along
with several other most undesirable diseases of both
humans and domestic stock. During this work, we
learned a lot about rabies, including two mighty
pertinent facts. The first was that the Central Amerindians told the first Spanish arrivals that they knew
horses very well but that all of theirs had, only a
short time before, been exterminated ~ bats. Second,
the Desmodu. bats regularly bite fruit- and insecteating bats that share with them the caves and hollow
trees in which they rest, and thus transfer rabies to
them. Note then that rabies, like syphilis ~d other
diseases, turned up in a new and particularly virulent
form in Europe just about the time "Columbus sailed
the ocean blue". Further, rabies comes in two forms,
called technically 'furious' and 'paralytic'. These
usually alternate between carnivorous (like the
Desmodus) and. herbivorous or omnivorous animals
that they bite. Most human victims develop the para:lytic form, but sometimes they become 'furious'. We
have always contended that so-called vampires were
humans infected with the negri-bodies of rabies but
who developed this furious form and went around
biting people and other animals and sucking - or
lapping, please note - their fresh blood .. But, we
would stress, this has always been but a suggestion.

British History
"The Bank of England: It was Willi am an mary who first discovered the National bebt and had the memorable
idea of building the Bank of England to put it in. The National Debt is a very Good Thing and it would be
dangerous to pay it off, for fear of Political Economy." From 1066 and All That, by Walter Carruthers Sellar
and Robert Julian Yeatman, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1931, p. 77. (If you haven't read this history
book, your education has been sadly neglected.)

21

UFOLOGY
As is doubtless already known to all those of you
who are specifically interested in the business of
Unidentified Flying Objects, an outstanding and in
some respects surprising event took place at the
annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science" which ran for a week, starting the day after Xmas, in Boston. The first afternoon of the next day were devoted by one of the major
sections of activity, to a special symposium on
UFOs. This had been organized a year before by
Dr. Thornton Page, Director of the Van Vleck Observatory at Wesleyan and currently adviser to NASA,
with the backing of the retiring president, Dr. Walter
Orr Roberts; and, during the two days, fourteen
papers were read by leading scientists. In addition
to these open meetings, nine of the participants Drs. Roberts, Page, Sagan, Hynek, Hall, Hartman,
Roach, Hardy, and Grinspoon - gave a press conference on the first morning.
The Administrative Director of SITU (Ivan T.
Sanderson) and the Assistant Director in charge of
Regional Mfairs (Michael R. Freedman) covered this
whole meeting. We were able to tape record both the
press conference and the three open sessions.
Further, we were granted the privilege of entertaining several of the leading scientists, including Drs.
Page, Roach, Hynek, and Sagan, for exclusive
private interviews.
We have the only complete transcript of this
whole symposium, plus several exclusives. It tranpires also that the AAAS failed to record the press
conference, and their recordings of the open sessions
were not complete, since these were undertaken by a
private company from Rhode Island with inexperienced personnel. Another important point is that only
two of the speakers prepared full texts of their
speeches in advance, but even they did not adhere
to these texts, and went 'way out', all the way
through, by ad-libbing. Some of the things they said
are absolutely fascinating.
The press relations set-up by the AAAS was exdeedingly bad, although the officers went to extraordinary lengths to help us in such physical problems
as finding scientists. Due to the snowstorm, a
number of participants failed to arrive on time so
that the computerized roster of scientists, giving
their temporary addresses and phone numbers. which
had been set up, could not go into operation in time
to be of any use and was therefore abandoned, resulting in considerable chaos. But the worst feature
of this aspect of the meeting was the ambiguity of
prior advices on copyright, legality, etc. On the
'copyright' page of their large bound and printed
program, it was stated: "Video and/or Audio taping
of any sessions or parts thereof for commercial purposes is not permitted without prior approval from
the speakers and from the American Association for
the Advancement of Science". This was ambiguous.

First, it did not mention press conferences. We

asked the PR Dept. about this and they told us that
it should have done so. Second, after considerable
telephoning we obtained an answer, which we recorded, concerning the exact Significance of the
word "permission". It transpired that, provided the
speaker gave his permission, that of the AAAS was
automatically implied. Thus, transcription, and publication of all this material is permissible for private
consumption; such as for circulation to scientific
and other non-profit organizations, provided it is not
then picked up by commercial outfits.
Since we alone seem to have complete transcripts
of this symposium, it has been decided to publish a
volume as a special report on it. To this end, we
spoke to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization about this suggestion and came to a tentative
preliminary arrangement with them. A.P.R.O. has
some 6000 members, and they are willing to circulate
them, asking if they would be willing to buy one of
these special volumes (which by our first estimate
will run to book length of about 60,000 words) for
somewhere between two and three dollars, representing cost and postage. We herewith ask you, our members, the same question.
Our overall plan is to get the material transcribed,
edited, and compiled, along with the exclusive
material that we have, and then to publish it as a
bound volume of intermediate format such as is used
by the U.S. Government Printing Office for special
reports. (This is 5-7/8" x 9 1/S", and can be bound
with angular spine by the new adhering method.) We
(SITU) will undertake the publishing, working with
our excellent printers, and A.P.R.O. will share the
costs of distribution with us - proportionate to our
mailing lists. We will, of course, not proceed if the
response is insufficient or any money might be lost
by either of our societies. We feel tha~ this would be
an historical document because this is the first time
that the scientific establishment has not only recognized this mystery of "nature" or whatever you want
to call it, but also made so bold as to put on record
some of the things the participants in this symposium
said.
Having been involved in this enquiry for just on
40 yeais now, we frankly admit that we never thought
we would live to witness such a meeting; and we
just as frankly have to admit to having had to sort
of shake ollr heads when we listened to these transcriptions. Just wait until you hear what Dr. Franklin
Roach, an Affiliate Astronomer of the University of
Hawaii and Research Associate in Astronomy at
Batelle Northwest, Richland, Washington, and a
scientist who devoted 100% of his time to the Condon
Committee, had to say. Now that the Government has
washed its hands of the whole ufological bit by
cancelling their Project Blue Book and accepting the
Colorado Project's drivelling report, it is most re-

22

freshing to know that real science has picked up the

ball. And, anent this, we will be able later to report
on the most pertinent question of all, which is: Will
the AAAS be setting up a Permanent CommittEle tc
keep a watching brief on this business?
THE FACTS ABOUT NICAP
For the past month or so we have been hearing
the wildest rumours about this now somewhat ancient
and 'venerable' ufological outfit, culminating in some
word-of-mouth statements by several people attending
the AAAS meeting in Boston. Further, the most venerable ufological organization of all, namely the Aerial
Phenomena Research Organization of Tucson, Arizona, stated in its last issue that, and we quote:"Thi s office has received word from several sources
that NICAP has recently been returning inquiries
about membership and renewals with the information
that their membership is closed indefinitely - presumably they have suspended operations." As a
result, we rang Mr. stuart Nixon, the new acting
secretary-treasurer of NICAP who was gracious
enough to let us interview him on the telephone. The
situation with NICAP is as follows,
The Board of Directors decided late last year that
their members were too widely scattered geographically, and that the organization as a whole should
become much more active. As a result of this, it
was decided by the Board that a complete reorganization should be undertaken. To this end, a new
Board was duly and legally voted into office. This
consists of the following:- (1) Chairman of the Board
and Acting President - Col. Joseph Bryan, III, USAF
Ret'd.; (2) Ex-Congressman Edward Rausch, who
was instrumental in initiating the hearings on UFOs
before a Congressional committee; (3) Major Donald
Keyhoe, previously executive director; (4) J. B.
Hartranft, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association; (5) Major D. J. Fournet (Ret'd.); (6)
Dr. C. P. Olivier, President of the American Meteor
Society (i.e. meteoritics as opposed to meteorology);
(7) Dr. B. A. Rogers, Professor Emeritus of Engineering, Texas; (8) Col. R. B. Emerson, USAF
Ret'd.; (9) Dr. Marcus Bach, Foundation for Spiritual

Understanding; and (10) the Rev. A. H. Baller, long

time member of the Board.
The policy and objectives of the new Board have
not yet been finally decided upon but will be disseminated in due course. The Secretary informed us
in answer to pointed questions that NICAP now has
two major objectives - (1) a complete investigation
of finances, membership records, and other such
purely business matters; and (2) the promulgation of
an entirely new approach to their special interests
(i.e. ufology). Mr. Nixon was very frank in stating for
the record that the finances of NICAP have become
grossly snarled; and he agreed as how this was probably due primarily to the lack of initial, competent,
legal counsel when NICAP was originally founded,
prior to Major Donald Keyhoe taking over its administration and the original Board assembled by him
at that time was set up. For instance, this organization has suffered grossly and quite unnecessarily
regarding its fiscal status, vis-a-vis the Federal tax
authorities, due entirely to this situation that it
inherited.
It is nice to know that this organization is not
being disbanded, and that it has not abandoned its
thousands of well-wishers and the generally interested public. We of this Society wish it, both corporately, and individually, all the luck in the world, and we
will endeavour to aid it in any way possible in its
forthcoming endeavours. Just because of the Condon
report and the fact that the U. S. Air Force, and thus
officialdom generally, has washed its hands of the
whole business of UFOs does not mean that they are
going to go away. If for no other reason, they continue to be (doubtless quite unwittingly) a terrible
menace as long as people are indoctrinated with the
idea that they, as natural phenomena, do not exist.
Only one young man so indoctrinated, manning an
early warning system, could in all good faith, and in
the line of duty as taught him, press an alert button
due to mistaking an UFO for an ICBM. Then, due to
the terrifying shortage of time, the computers would
automatically take over and might initiate retaliatory
action which would automatically bring on Armageddon. We need outfits like NICAP in our modern
over-complex world.

DEPARTMENT OF CHAOS AND CONFUSION

There are some things that don't fit into any neat
category of intelligent enquiry. Most of these are
what we call "cross-overs" in that they concern
more than one field of enquiry; b!l~ sometimes there
comes one so utterly bizarre that it just does not fit
in anywhere. We present a modest example herewith.
This comes direct, and in toto, from the News QfUlll
World (1) of London, England, and is dated the 21st
of December, 1969. It carries the byline of Simon
Regan, and goes as follows: "One hundred feet below the sea off the coast of

Cornwall last week, I had the most frighteningly

eerie experience of my life. I can still scarcely believe it. I had travelled to Cornwall to investigate
the riddle of the seals and fis,h dying (2) with mysterious burn marks on them - and the strange happenings that have been worrying profeSsional divers
there. Something very strange IS happening. And it's
not just the pollution. The underwater world pulsates
with screaming, humming, whining and drumming. At
anything below 20 feet, the noise can suddenly
catch at your ears and th~ vibrations can pluck your

23

body like a violin string. At 100 feet, loud voices'

speaking in French, English, and what sounds like
Russian can be heard. And, most incredible of all,
I heard Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto and a
violin concerto by Brahms. The sounds have all been
heard repeatedly by professional men who make their
living beneath the grey waters. I have spoken to nearly
a dozen. They have all seen the sulphur waste and
other filthy pollution which kills the seals and fish
and has driven the crayfish from which the men -make
a living further and further out to sea. They can pinpoint and understand the muck. What they can't
understand is the mystery of the 'sounds in the sea.'
The 'search area' for my expedition was off Nancekuke, North Cornwall, where there is a top secret
Ministry of Defence chemical warfare establishment.
Portreath is the nearest town and St Ives and Hayle
are just along the coast.
"I hireii a small trawler, the Frances, at Penzance,
and put on the rubber suit, mask, lead weights, air
bottles, gloves, flippers, and belts essential for
safe diving. Each day, with expert help, I was able
to penetrate a little deeper into the swirling waters.
Each day I heard more and more strange things. A
25-year-old diver called Neill Borthwait gave me the
first clues to the weird sounds in the sea. 'I've been
diving for five years,' he told me. 'We have all heard
strange sounds off the coast near Hayle and Nancekuke. 'At first we didn't take much notice. We thought
they were probably some sort of underwater detection
device, dreamed up by the boffins. But a few days
ago, when I was diving all day with three other men,
we all heard strange voices speaking in French~ The
deeper we got the louder they got. Many other divers
have heard music - always classical.' Neill dived
with me and gave me expert guidance. several times
when I lost direction in the swirling darkness he had
to take my hand and guide me back to the surface.
"On the first day we dived about five miles from
the huge Hayle power station. (3) I experienced the
unnerving buzzing but I could see nothing. The water
was a mess of thick black sludge. I dived to only
about 25 feet. But even so there were times when
panic gripped me. Suddenly a strong current sent me
tumbling head over heels in the water - and it was
so black I COUldn't find my way to the surface again.
Neill grabbed my legs and then my hand and we shot
to the surface where I tore the mask off my face and
gasped for air. When I clambered back into the boat
my 'wet suit' was covered with thick, slimy grease.
"Next day we went further out and I dived for a
total of about 45 minutes, each time descending a
little deeper into the gloom. Suddenly I heard the
st rains of music. As we went deeper and deeper they
became louder and louder. Sometimes, when the pre&sure began to hurt my ears, we swam along at the
same depth for a time. We then seemed to go through.
waves of noise. As we started down another 20 feet,
we heard the piano concerto. This was replaced by a
loud drumming noise which kept up a steady beat
wherever we went.

"Later that day we took the boat five miles further

to the east of Nancekuke and made ready for another
dive. At about 30 feet I heard two male voices speaking in French. It sounded as though we had tuned in
to a French radio station during a wartime bombing
raid. Later the voices were English. I heard 'Listen'
'" 'In the morning' ... 'Perhaps we could'. The rest
was just a jumble of words.
.. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said last night:
'I'm sorry, but we can't help you. We can give no
explanation for the sounds. We can't explain the
yellow substance either.' "
On the question of the underwater sounds reported,
we have only this to say. The Americans, Russians,
and French are the only ones to have nuclear submarines regularly off the west coast of Europe. They
play cat and mouse and often rest on the bottom in
comparatively shallow water with a minimum of
machinery running in order to reduce detection to a
minimum and to aid in their own probing. However,
'light' EM devices must continue for intercom, and a
sort of "musaq" is routine. Could it be that these
weak sonic disseminations leak through the hulls
and are then amplified in certain strata of the surrounding sea and especially in those in which there
are specific concentrations of ions?
The natural sonic uproar below the seas and
oceans is absolutely deafening when one hits certain
bands. Just about everything from swimming clams
and pincer-snapping shrimps to Blue Whales are
continuously pouring out sound. May be that the
sonics produced from the electromagnetic devices in
submarines are enough to produce the results noted
in this article. Wouldn't you know - the Russians
playing classical music; the French arguing. SO
where's the rock music or have the Americans kept
their mouths shut for once?
(1) The News of the World is not the most reliable
newspaper and it has for half a century had a reputation for sensationalism. However, when it names
names under a professional writer's by-line, we can
but take what it says seriously.
(2) This is another story into which we have been
enquiring for some time and which has some exceedingly unpleasant connotations. "n view of excessive caginess on the part of officialdom we are
assuming that its unexplained aspects are due to
human activity.
(3) This could be the cause of official reticence
since government plants would seem to be the
polluters. However, the presence of sulphur is not
explained nor are these alleged burns on the animals'
exteriors. The reporter mentions "a mess of thick
black sludge" saying it was so "black" he got lost,
but then the Defense Ministry says "We can't explain
the yellow ~ubstance .either" And please note that
they have a secret chemical warfare plant on the
adjacent coast.

24

CUMULATIVE WBLIOGRAPHl!
Von Daniken, Etich, Chariots Q! tl1.e QQ.Wz, London: Souvenir Press, 1969; Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1969.
We recommend that this book be read, but not taken at its face value. German science led the world before
W.W.1, but then collapsed. Under the Nazis it went completely to pieces, to be replaced only by the buttonpushers and bottle-washers, better known as technologists. Since W. W. II anything labelled "popular science"
emanating from that country should be approached with the greatest caution and circumspection. This book a best seller in West Germany - is, as a famous scientist to whom we loaned our copy said, "atrocious"; and,
if the statements in two chapters on subjects with which this reviewer is acquainted firsthand, are any
criterion, it must indeed be so as a whole. However, it should be read by forteans because it assembles many
of the old saws, with photographs. But only forteans will be able to separate the heavy cream of this opus
from the light, and both from the buttermilk. In other words; don't believe a word of it, but use it as astarting
point.
Schroeder, Lynne, and Ostrander, Sheila, Psychic Discoveries Behinii the Iron Curtain, Englewood Cliffs,
N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970.
We recommend most strongly that you watch out for this book. Its title .may be somewhat misleading to
forteans. because this is neither a "kookbook" nor is it concerned with those aspects of the subjects with
which it deals that have become commonly accepted. It is a hard-boiled document, with forty pages of references and bibliography in several languages - the junior author, a Canadian, reads, writes, and speaks
Russian - reporting on what has been accomplished in the Eastern "West" by Russian, Bulgarian, Rumanian,
and Czech scientists in the multifarious fields of the Mind Sciences. The authors were invited from behind
the "Curtain" to attend conferences on what we erroneously call "ESP" and related subjects. Their report
should go a long way towards straightening out us of the "West-West" on these esoteric matters. We would
warn you, however, that this book presents some pretty terrifying thoughts.
Thomas, Chan, The Adam and Eve story, Los Angeles: Emerson House, 1965 (3rd edit.).
Here is a slim volume (56 pages) obtainable only from the publishers (P. O. Box 45154) in Los Angeles,
that also should be read by forteans, but not taken at face value. As with Von Daniken, it contains some
pretty wild statements but it is much better documented, and quite a lot of the author's "dates" and "datings"
no longer conform with more recent findings. However, if read in conjunction with works such as Desmond
Leslie's part of the book ~ Saucers Have Landed, a most interesting pattern of "thinking" (at least)
begins to emerge. Biblical references must always be somewhat suspicif?us to forteans but it would be totally
unfortean to toss them out wholesale; and more especially when they represent direct translations from the
Aramaic and Ancient Hebrew texts into modern English. Further. in this case, the author has actually read,
and seems to have understood, the expressions of DeLuc, Cuvier, Forel, and among the moderns, Hapgood
and Hibben, without which any such translation would have no more validity than the theories of Velikovsky.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING
Cohen, Daniel, Mysterious Places, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1969.
Fuller, John G., Aliens
the Skies:
New UFO Battle 01 the Scientists, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sobs
- Berkley Medallion Books, 1969.
-- - - , Incident 1!1 Exeter, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1966.
-- - -, The Interrupted Journey, New York: The Dial Press, 1966.
Klass, Philip J., l!EQ - Identified, New York: Random House, 1968.
Schwenk, Theodor, Sensitive Chaos, London: Rudolph steiner Press, 1965.
Vallee, Jacques, Passport tQ. Magonia, Chicago: Regnery, Inc., 1969.

ru

NOTICES
Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.
There have been a number of articles recently on the problem of junk mail and the way in which one's
name gets on such a mailing list. We should like to assure our members and subscribers that our mailing list
is available only to resident staff at our headquarters.
.

GOVERNING BOARD
Hans stefan Santesson
Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. Sanderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L. Fawcett
Donald R. Bensen
Walter J. McGraw
Milt R. Machlin

(.) President (and Chairman of the Board)

(.) 1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
(.) 2nd Vice-President (and Deputy Director)
(.) Treasurer
(.) secretary
Administrative Assistant (and Librarian)
Editorial Director
Chairman, Publicity Committee
Chairman, Promotion Committee

(.) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey.
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Chairman (and Supervision of Field Work)
Deputy Chairman (Administration)
Executive Secretary (Coordinator)
Director of Research in Basic Science
Director of Industrial and Technological Relations
Public Relations Officer
Liaison Officer for Governmental and other Official Relations
Consultant on Scientific am Technical Publications
Supervisor of Regional Representatives

Jack A. Ullrich
Ivan T. Sanderson
Marion L. Fawcett
Richard W. Palladino
Ernest L. Fasano
Mallory Dorn
J. Warner Mills III
Helga Roth
Michael R. Freedman

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archf!,eology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of Science, Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin University, Dublin, Ireland (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology, Queen Elizabeth College, University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - President, Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, Plant SCience Department, College of Agriculture, utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)
PUBLISHING RECORD
Our publishing schedule is four quarterly issues of PURSUIT, dated January, April, July, and October,
and numbered as annual volumes - Vol. 1 being 1968 and before; Vol. 2, 1969, and so on.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

1,
1,
2,
2,

No.3 - June, 1968

NO.4 - Sept., 1968
No. 1 - Jan., 1969
No. 2 - April, 1969

These are out of print and not available.

Vol. 2, No.3 - July, 1969

Vol. 2, No.4 - Oct., 1969
Vol. 3, No. 1 - Jan., 1970

:'i~t~~
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01.

SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366

ORG ANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These officers are five in number: a President elected for five years,
and four founding members - two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. The names of the present
incumbents of these and all other offices are listed in each issue of the Society's quarterly journal
PURSUIT.
General policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists of the
Trustees and four other officers elected annually. These are: an Administri'iiVeAssistant; a Managing
Editor; and two Directors for Publicity and Promotion. The First Vice-President is the Administrative
Director, and the Second Vice-President is in charge of the physical establishment. The Administrative
ASSistant is also the Librarian.
Implementation of decisions taken by the Governing Board is then prosecuted by an Executive Board.
This is composed of a standing Committee of nine officers, and an unlimited number of Regional Officers.
The former are:
(1) a Chairman, who also supervises all fieldwork;
(2) . a Deputy Chairman in charge of administration;
(3) an Executive Secretary who acts as coordinator;
(4) a Director of Research in Basic Science;
(5) a Director of Industrial and Technological Relations;
(6) a Public Relations officer, who also handles press relations;
(7) a Liaison Officer for governmental and other official relations;
(8) a Consultant on Scientific and Technical Publications;
(9) a Supervisor of Regional Representatives.
Finally, the Society is counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, which is deSignated the Scientific Advisory Board.
--

PARTICIPATION
Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exempt, pursuant
to the United States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of January to the 31st of December; but those joining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year gratiS. The
means of participation are various, as follows: (1) Honorary (including Founding Members) . . . . . . . . . . . . (Free for life)
(2) Sponsors ($1000, or more) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Free for life)
(3) Contributing ($100, for special privileges) . . . . . . . . ($10 p.a. thereafter)
(4) Corresponding (data withdrawal service) . . . . . . . . . . . . $10 per annum
(5) Contracting (for individual projects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (By contract)
(6) Reciprocating (for other societies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (By exchange)
All of these except No.5 receive all the Society's publications.

PUBLICATIONS
The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current events and
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes a quarterly newsletter on Society affairs
to members in categories (1), (2), (3), and (4) above. The Society further issues Occasional Papers on
certain projects, and special reports in limited quantity on the request of Sponsors or Contributing Members.
(Subscription to PURSUIT is $5 per annum, including postage.)

IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-members. (This does not, of
course, affect private correspondence with Ivan T. Sanderson.) Further, the Society does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its publications are those of
the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any members by word of mouth or in
print may be construed as those of the Society. The colophon and name of this journal are copyrighted.
Any matter therein may l'le quoted. provided it is published in quotes. in toto, and unedited. and provided
it is credited to: - "PURSUIT. Quarterly Journal of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained.
Columbia. New Jersey."

PURSUIT

Vol. 3. No. 2
April.

1970

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
(SITU)

Editorial DirectoJ:.: Donald R. Bensen

Executive Editor: Ivan T. Sanderson
Managing Editor: Mariop L. Fawcett

CONTENTS
The Taxonomy of Knowledge.
Editorial.

1:.he

:e.bY~ S.cien.~.

Geology:
A Cave-Table in Afghanistan
Possible Biological Effects of Reversal of the
Earth's Polarity
Biology
Now It's Shaggy Deer
Yes; We Would Believe a "Baboon Man"
Indonesian Wildlife
"SPOOF" - A Society for Coelacanths
They Can Have Six Legs
Sexual Attractants
Fibrous Balls in a Canadian Lake
Abominable Jungle-Men
Anthropology
Little Gold Airplanes a Thousand Years Old
Noah's Ark, Again
A Cast of Palaeolithic Man
The Oldest Mine.
The Oldest Agriculture
Ufology: Jacques Vallee's New Book
Chaos and Confusion
Current Pursuits
Our Library and Its Classification
Book Reviews

26

27
28
28

29
30
31
31
33
33
34

35
36

37
38
40
40
41

42
43
43

47

48

All communications should be addressed to:

S. I. T. U., Columbia. New Jersey 07832.
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366.
Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

THE TAXONOMY OF

KNOWLEDGE

GEOLOGY
THE

TANGIBLES
VI
Atmospherics and Meteorolo9Y;

Oceanology, Hydrology, and Glaciology; Tectonics" Vulcanol-

ogy, Seismology, Geophysics

and Geomorphology; Petrology ond Minerology;
Geodesy, Geography,
Cartography;
Protogeanology. Botany, Zoo
Dating.
ogy, EXDbiology; Histology,
Physiology ond Biochemistry;
Anatomy (including Mon); GenetIcs and Evolution; Physical Anthropology;
Palaeontology;
Ethology and
Ecology.
MATTER
Atomics, Molecular
Chemistry, Crystollography.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

PERFORMANCE
Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics,
Classical Physics, E lectrics,

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
. Cultural Anthropology and
Ethnology (Archaeology is a
technique); Pre-History,

History, and Folklore; Philology and Linguistics.

MENTAL CONCEPTS
Logic and Epistemology;
Psychology; Ethics and Aesthetics; Comparative Intelligenelll;

E lectromognetics, Magnetics,

Parapsychics.

Mechanics.

EXISTENCE
Space, Time,
Locus, Co.malogy.
MEASUREMENT
Number, Quantity,

Arithmetic, Algebra,
Geometry, Trigop1ometry,

Calculus, Topology, Theory

of Games, Probabi lity. Coincidence.

THE

INTANGIBLES

Everything in existence, incl uding Mexi stence M itself, and thus all of our possible concepts and a II knawledge
that we possess or will ever passess, is cantained within this wheel. Technologies and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, having access to any .or all of the ten major departments of organized knowledge.
From the KORAN: -Acqui .. e knowledge. It enables its possessor to know right from wrong; it lights the way to
heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guides us to
happiness; it sustains us in mi sery; it is an ornament among friends, and an armour against enemies_ _
The Prophet.

26

i.

27

EDITORIAL

From time to time something crops up that is of the utmost and most ultimate importance. A something of
just such a nature came to our attention a few days ago in the form of a letter from a correspondent in Russia
by the name of Dr. Edward K. Naumov, who is officially listed as a biologist currently engaged in "Experimental Parapsychical Research" in Moscow. Note the word underlined in the previous sentence. This is the
"something". Let us try to get Ibis business straight, and once and for all.
Centuries ago, thinking people began to Question the verity of existence. The pre- Dravidians, then the
Sumerians, then the other Mesopotamians, then the Ancient Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and finally
even the ditch-digging Romans, gave thought to these esoteric matters. Their consensus of opinion was that
there is both a material world and a non-material world. Further, it appeared to all of these thinkers that,
while there was a world of the physical (science) and of the spiritual, there was also a large body of items
left over that did not seem to fit into either. These they tabbed the "meta-physical"; meaning lJleta, or "like",
(but not definitely of) the physical world - and especially that of Aristotle!
Somewhere along the line, however, another concept crept into man's searchings into the ultimates of his
life and of existence as a whole. Primitive science gave him some pretty solid stuff to chew on; and stuff,
moreover, that he could test. Religion gave him some splendid guidelines for his "soul" and inner feelings;
but there was still an awful lot left over that worried him. The classic example is, of course, Ghosts. You
can't measure or weigh these damned things; yet ever more people claim that they have seen them. What is
more, they don't fit into any expressions of any religion either. In fact, they are, and always have been, a
damned nuisance; so they were stuffed into this class of overall "like the physical things but definitely not
of them" - i. e. the "metaphysical".
And so it has gone on throughout the ages. Ever more nuisance-value items have kept cropping up poltergeists; UFOs; abominable persons who are alleged to live in snow but manifestly don't; and, more
recently, things like people communicating telepathically with other people they have never seen across
oceans; hypnosis; and so forth. So what happened? All these "unpleasantnesses" were shovelled in under
this third rug, called the metaphysical; and, for some extraor~inary reason, they were dubbed "psychic".
Now, if you look up this word in the dictionaries - and I don't care what dictionaries - .vou will find that
it is defined as follows:By Webster: "i. Of or relating to the psyche". (Referring back a few lines, we find this in ~urn defined as
"(a) A beautiful princess of classical mythology loved by Cupid; (b) Soul, Self; also Mind. ") Webster then
goes on about psychic as follows:- "2. ~l.l}g Q.utside ~h_~ l?PI!~~~ qf ph,ys~~_!!! l?_~~~_J:l~g Q.!' k!,\Owl~dge; immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force. 3. sensitive to nonphysical or' supernatural forces and influences."
(Italics mine). The Oxford dictionary gets to the point more' simply and directly, and is much more succinct.
It states simply:- "Non-physical force assumed to explain spiritualistic phenomena".
The point here is that none of the things that we customarily call "psychic", today - and which we firmly
believe are the basis of so-called psychic phenomena - are included in these definitions; while almost all
of them very clearly fall without those definitions. The truth of the matter is that we have no ~ord for these,
either individually or collectively. They are matters that ar'e not susceptible to spiritual (i.e. religious)
interpretation, and they are not, as of the moment, acceptable to pragmatic scientific investigation by our
(Western) way of thinking. Yet, they are not wholly intangibles and they are available for, and amenable to,
proper scientific investigation. What is more, they have been so investigated in Russia and in other countries
behind what we call the Iron Curtain - such as Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere - for
several decades. Moreov.er, the scientists so investigating these matters have come up with some very cogent
and definite pieces of practical (and phYsical) information. If you want to know what these are, read the
book we reviewed and advised.in our last issue; namely Psychic Researc~ Behind the Iron Curtain by Lynn
Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander" to be published this year" by Prentice-Hall.
Now, while this book is so titled; said title is totally invalid and most misleading. However, it""was the
last resort of the authors, the publishers, and just about everybody else, in that we just simply do riot have a
valid and popularly known word to cove"r the matters of which they wrote.
Let me take the ridiculous misnomer "ESP" or "Extra-Sensory Perception", which has been solemnly
called 'parapsychology'. First, this matter concerns not only 'perception' but also 'transmission', or emanation, by living things. Second, there is nothing "extra" (meaning b~yond or out:'o"i) about it. To the contrary,
it is activated by super- or supra-sensory proclivities of an,imated entities. Third, and above all, it could
not possibly have anything to do with psychology, and not j~st bec~use there "is really no such thing in the
first place. That part of so-called psychology that has any validity is nothing but the recording and analysis
of the practical and physical results of ethology and behaviourism. That a college girl in Durham, North
Carolina, can read a -succession of cards turned over by another student in Liverpool, England, has nothing
to do with psychology. It is a purely physical manifestation of a purely physical aptitude, inherent in said

28

students. The only mysterious thing about the process is that we have not yet pinned down just how it is
done, or by w hat apparatus.
Now comes this very modest note from Russia, from which it appears that they have been calling all this,
and all along, just what it is - i.e., e.g., and to wit, the PARAPSYCHIC.
This means simply that these studies are para (Le. "like") what used to be called, (and the dictionaries
still call) "psychic"; but which are entirely practical and amenable to biologic and other scientific investigation.
Ivan T. Sanderson.

THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES

I. MATHEMATICS; II. ONTOLOGY; III. PHYSICS; IV. CHEMISTRY; V. ASTRONOMY.

These departments of enquiry and recorded knowledge have, on this occasion, to take what is customarily
called a "back seat". We have too great a backlog in other departments to devote space to these matters this
time. Of course there are endless matters of both general interest and with fortean overtones cropping uP in
these sciences all the time but, frankly, the technical journals and even the heavier popular publications
that deal with these matters are getting so "fortean" themselves that they appear to be quite capable of
taking care of their own for now. Thus, we are making every effort to obtain more space for the neglected
sciences such as those of the world of reality and the tangible - to wit, Geological, Biological, and Anthropological matters.

VI. GEOLOGY
A CAVE-TABLE IN AFGHANISTAN
There is a perfectly splendid organization entitled
The National Speleological Society, founded 'some
thirty years ago, and which is and always has been
a combination of scientists and technologists interested in caves, and what are called somewhat ende~ring
ly "spelunkers", meaning amateurs of all ages,
callings, and inclinations who are interested in cave
exploration as a hobby or sport. Cave exploration can
be highly hazardous and calls for most special tr~n
ing and skills. It has been described as "Mountaineering, upside down, at midnight". Don't let yourself
be fooled; spelunking is not for sissies and it is not,
as a leading editor of one of the world's greatest
newspapers once suggested: "Nothing but a: sutJ.
conscious craving to get back into your mother's
womb". No: cave exploration constitutes a inost
serious scientific endeavour; it has contributed
immeasurably "to hydrological, geological, palae'ontological, and archaeological discovery, 'and a very

great deal of its accomplishment has been due to

the spelunkers or so-called amateurs. (.We urge all
members to write for information on this most excellent society: care of Mr. Donald Cournoyer, 2318 N.
Kenmore Street, Arlington, V A 22201.)
The NSS, as it has come to be known, now has
worldwide affiliations, and its American members
range all over the world on planned speleological
expeditions, in the course of their normal business,
'or even as mere tOurists. Some of the things they
have discovered underground are utterly astonishing
and have set off truly enormous research projects
that would otherwise never have been initiated. It
was an NSS member who found the first true cavepainting in the New World - ex-president Charles
Mohr, then visiting Mexico - and it was a quiet and
unassuming member who led the way to the famous
archaeological sites in the caves of Mt. Carmel. The
monthly publication of this society, named The NSS
News, now in its 27th year, is a positive well, or
should we say bottomless sinkhole, of cryptic facts
and information. In its September 1969 issue (Vol.
27, No.9) it came up with a real fortean item.
This was written by members Yolanda and John
Wallace, who went to Afghanistan on a two-year tour
of official duty. Due to lack of space we cannot reproduce their account in full but we submit the adjacent photograph taken from Th~ NSS ~ with
their kind permission. This sets the stage but does
not tell the whole story, and this is so enigmatic
that 'we are going to endeavour to point out its.significance even if we cannot offer to explain the
matter.
Many odd things are found in caves ..Many of these
are called 'formations' in that they grow by accretion
of one kind or another therein. There are rimstone

29

basins. cave-pearls. beautiful translucent flowstone

curtains. and so forth but. above aU things. things
called stalactites that grow down from above and their
counterparts called stalagmites that grow upwards
beneath these due to the slow deposition of' such
substances' as calcite and aragonite dissolved in
dripping water. These formations are basically very
'fragile'. despite the fact that some are hundreds of
feet long or tall and form veritable mountains. in that
they cannot grow if there are disruptive forces in
action. such as even constant air-currents. between
them. In other words. if there is a constant drip of
heavily calcined water from the roof down a growing
stalactite. a complementary stalagmite will grow up
beneath it - provided only there is no disturbance or
interruption below. and no water to carry away the
drips. Bearing these facts in mind. take another look
at the accompanying photo. Then consider the
following.
The floors of caves must. first of all. be of bare
rock. Next. they may be carpeted with clay. or other
silt. gravel. and/or slabs of rock that fall from the
roof above. Sometimes great depths of finely-particulated material called "cave earth" accumulates on
them and then lhere is an earth tremor and another
lot of slabs of the roof fall. Later again. the silt
may be washed out by an underground river so that
these slabs gradually sink to the floor. Now take
still another look at this photograph. Should this
happen. but something hold one of the slabs aloft.
it would look like a table. like this one. However.
there is an enigma here. How come the stalagmite
protrudes through thi s rock slab? The only explanation
we have heard that seems logical is that it just so
happened that there was a hole in said slab. directly
under a stalagmite that was active. and that the drips
from this slowly gouged a well-like hole in the cave
earth below the slab and then slowly built up a stalagmite in its place. Then came a washout which
removed the upper layers of said cave earth and left
the stalagmite rigidly attached to the cave floor but
penetrating the slab.
This incredible oddity was discovered by the
Wallaces in company with Mr. Hal Greeney. 60 miles
north of Kabul. some 1200 feet into a cave in the
usual limestone. The "table-rock" was in a small
side gallery which had only a foot-high entrance
passage.
POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF REVERSAL
OF THE EARTH'S POLARITY
The real import of this notice is actually biological but its substance is geological. It is this irksome
matter of the change of polarity of our earth's
magnetism that everybody now so firmly believes
has taken place many times throughout geological
history. Frankly. although this would seem to be as
'proven' as anything. we are not yet by any means
wholly convinced. There are just too many variable
factors that have not been taken into account. such

as the perfectly simple and easily demonstrable

plasticity of the surface layers of the lithosphere and
the (geologically speaking) incredible speed at which
movements of these strata can take place. What"s the
good of defining "fossil magnetism" in any stratum
when the damned thing might be twiddled around overnight; and literally. as in some major earthquakes.
And what about the meandering of the magnetic poles
themselves?
Nonetheless. it would seem to be firmly established and accepted that the magnetic polarity of the
earth has completely reversed every so often. For
the evidence of this we can but refer you to a
massive outpouring of papers on the subject from all
manner of experts in a considerable number of fields.
The general idea IS' that these switches of positi ve
to negative polarity have taken place rather suddenly
at considerable intervals and that they were comparatively sudden switches. Now comes Sir Edward
Bullard of Cambridge. England. with the modest
suggestion that the process entailed first a gradual
diminution of the existing polarity. to zero. and then
an equally gradual build-up the other way. As he put
it: "During a reversal, the intensity of the Earth's
dipole field decreases to zero. In this event. the
Earth's surface. including the surface layers of the
sea where most plankton is found. may have been
subjected to a higher incidence of cosmic radiation
inducing higher mutation rates."
Our correspondent. David Hemsley. referred us to
an article anent all this in the c;ana.Ql~1) Geogra~ic~!
Journal on "Sea-Floor Spreading and Continental
Drift;': . which contained the following paragraph:-

"It appears that to reverse its direction. the earth's

field first decays to zero and then builds up in the
0
reverse direction rather t han rotating through 180
The change in polarity requires several thousand
years to take place so the process can hardly be
descri bed as a sudden change." Our correspondent
then goes on to say: "It seems to me that with the
earth's magnetic field at zero all kinds of particles
that come from the .sun or elsewhere. and are usually
caught and spun to the poles by the magnetic field.
would plow straight on through and do some large
scale genetic stirring up. Perhaps this periodic
'opening of the window' on these particles has been
one of the primary tools of evolution. In come the
radioactive particles. genetic change stirs up a whole
bunch of 'losers' - then the winduw shuts again (the
magnetic field is back) and under this protection
the 'winners' have a chance to capitalize on their
mutations. "
One of the greatest debates has been how, and
why. whole slews of apparently quite competent.
productive. and well-integrated life-forms have. from
time to time, just vanished from the historical (i. e.
the fossil) record. The greatest enigma has always
been the demise of the so-called dinosaurs. This
did not mean, as is popularly supposed. the extinction

30

of merely a number of colossal misfits. like brontosaurs and tyrannosaurs. but much more extraordinarily.
many whole groups of creatures like mosasaurs.
while the crocodilians. tortoises.
snakes, and
lizards. and the little Tuatara of New ;?:ealand survived. The notion that exceptional radiation. from
super-novae could have caused ~is was a popular
idea some years ago (see PURSUIT. Vol. 2. No.2)
but it was hotly debated and finally more or less
canned'. This idea about earth magnetism would
seem to us to hold much greater promise. That whole

groups of well developed animals did disappear more

or less suddenly at several points in geological
history can not be denied. For this there must be a
cause. When. moreover. such so-called extinctions
coincide with what is likewise called a worldwide
"unconformity" in the deposition of sediments. one
can but assume some truly cosmic event. Biologists
have done what they can bY way of recording the
results. It is up to the astrophysicists and cosmologists. and geophysicists to keep probing the
possibilities of the cal!ses.

VII. BIOLOGY
NOW IT'S SHAGGY DEER
A very modest little 'paper' appeared in the
December issue of the Journal Qf Zoology. the official publication of the Zoological Society of London
(Volume 159. Part 4. page 537). entitled: "Long
haired Fallow Deer at (sic) Mortimer Forest". It is
less than a page in length and was a reprint from a
publication named simply ~. ,by one Mr. G. Springthorpe. which was entitled "A preli!flinary note on an
unusual variE}ty of Fallow Deer (~ da.!!l!!-)". This.
incidentally. is one of our favourite Latin names for
anything. and is not beaten even by Lama glama or
Glama dama which. in turn. we have always assumed
to have been fabricated by the chap who originally
supplied the answer to the famous feminine question
"What's she got that I ain't got". by observing simply
"Glamour. damn her".
,
The substance of this paper is equally modest.
All it says is that in 1956 a couple of Fallow Deer.
which are normally short-coated and prettily spotted.
turned up in this Mortimer Forest. a sort of game reserve in Shropshire. England. with a thick coat of

1\

hair averaging five inches in length. as opposed'to

the normal l~ inches: In 1966 ten such bizarre
animals were counted in the herd of 200 in that forest
but. by 1969. these long-haired specimens had spread
into Herefordshire. and 50 of the original Mortimer
Forest herd of 200 were long haired. The average
person's reaction to such a thundering pronouncement
is naturally "So what? We got shaggy dogs. ain't we?"
But wait.
Only an abject idiot would toda.v question what is
platitudinously called the "Darwinian Theory". although few people. and even ;wologists. an,V longpr
know exactly what said theor.y was originally all
about. or just what it included: One of its component
features. ,and the one most often misunderstood and
misquoted concerns the, catch'phrase "natural selection" which. incidentally. was not coi ned b.y
Darwin himself. The basis of this was t hat all life
on this planet has come about through evolution.
which is to say by "evolving" from and out of other.
less complex or perfected types. by a process of
perfectly "natural" selection by one of a pair of
breeding partners for a specific mate that should
result in the best progeny. and best suited to its
environment. This catch-phrase unfortunately implied
that plants and animals deliberately selected such
mates; just as we might pick a leggy blonde in our
environment. Darwin never meant to imply any such
thing. To the contrary. he meant that. simply by
blind mating (or dating; if you will). the most suited
off-spring tended to survive. Hence the corollary
expression: "Survival of the Fittest" -and. incidentally. our favourite cartoon.
After the initial hubbub created b,Y the publication
of Darwin's theses had somewhat. died down. scientists got to work questioning th'e "How" of his ideas.
Various suggestions came to light. There had already been Lamarck. who had suggested that if you
kept on bashing in the muzzles of large terrier dogsas they did once to get what we call Bulldogs - you
would eventually get such dogs breeding true to type.
This was called" "the ~nheritance of acquired characteristics" but. as a theory. it got soundly clobbered.
Next. one Mendel came up with a garden of peas in
Austria by which he demonstrated statistically that.
simply by crossing two different colored flowers. he

31

could produce variant offspring. Following him 'came

De Vries of Holland who showed that just such crossing or hybridization occurred naturally in nature and
thereby produced entirely new forms of plants. This
was all quite satisfactory, or aggravating, according
to how you approached the matter, but it didn't really
get us anywhere in either the fields of 'natural
selection' or 'survival of the fittest'.
So, this was the way that new types could be
produced, but what, apart from the differences of the
two or more types that could interbreed, brought on
these radical changes? So the question was begged
and the word "mutation" was coined. This is all very
well but it doesn't explain a g-d thing. In fact" it's a
pure Gertrude-steinism just as was that person's
famous pronouncement to the effect that "A Rose is a
rose, is a Rose". So, OK; plants and animals suddenly "mutate", which means that somewhat or radically
different types just appear spontaneously in nature:
and to hell with their genes. This is most unsatisfactory; and it can be a real shocker. Take, for
instance, the matter of lobsters of the northeastern
American seaboard.
Up till about twenty years ago a "left-handed
lobster", was not just a rarity but an oddity. These
crustaceans, as any gourmet knows, have two claws,
one of which is thin and slender, with sort of teeth
on its inner sides, and a sharply 'hooked end, while
the other is a heavy, club-shaped device, with blunt
ends, huge muscles, and lumpy bosses on the insides
of its tines. The former is a grasping' and holding
organ; the latter a chopping and crushing one. In the
old days, the slender holder claw was almost invariably on the left side, and the crusher on the
right. However, the lobster farmers of New England,
who keep millions of these delicacies in pens, have
observed that, over the past two to three decades,
ever more left-handed lobsters have been turning up,
until today half of them are this way! What natural
selection, or other causes has brought about this
"mutation'" and why?
You can argue the facts of this, and the case of
the Fallow Deer, ad infinitum, but you can't explain
said facts away. For some,benighted reason, lobsters
in northeastern North America rather suddenly "decided" to go left-handed, and a bunch of deer in
England apparently "got the happy idea" of putting
on long glamourous coats. And the pioneers in both
cases apparently weren't just unwanted sports or
eccentrics. They not only survived; they apparently
bred true; and they multiplied. And all this in ten to
twenty years. So hadn't we better take another look
at evolution and, go back and read Charles Darwin
more carefully. Next thing you know, we'll have
bandy-legged, carbon-monoxide breathers popping up
in our so-called Inner Cities. Nature is rather grand.
YES: WE WOULD BELIEVE A "BABOON MAN"
Again from the ETM Log: "Would you believe a
baboon-man? Anthropologists in Mozambique have

reports showing that a young man, raised since infancy by baboons, was captured four years ago and
'tamed' by a tribe living in the jungle. Supposedly he
has adapted well to tribal life. As the story goes,
twenty-two years ago a husband who returned to his
hut in the bush found his wife dead and no sign at
all of his baby son. He 'assumed that the boy had
been killed by wild animals. Montbs later, natives
saw the strange sight of a female baboon in a pack
carrying a human child. Attempts were made in vain
to recapture the child who, after some time, became
quite strong and ferocious. Wasn't until he was a
teen-ager that he was tinally snared."
Yes:' we would believe this report; and much more
so than items like "Gazelle-Boys" (which turned out
to 'be a plant by a bored newsman in Cairo during
W. W. 11), and even Wolf-Boys ex India. Many physical
anthropologists and primatoiogists are now coming
round to the notion that the so-called Cynocephaloids
or Dog-headed Monkeys, and notably those types
that we call baboons, were originally much closer to
those creatures which gave rise to the anthropOids
than were other mere "monkeys". Also, the baboons
have been shown to have a remarkably manlike
social structure and to display many featu.res of what
we call loosely "brains". They have always been
and still can be "trained" to perform not unlike
human morons. That a female tribalized baboon
should adopt a human infant would seem to be quite
possible; and that then said human should grow up as
a member of an extended family group or subtribe of
these creatures. Why not? They can get along very
well on the same diet and, provided the youngster
minds his manners, he should be quite acceptable to
the tribe. Female baboons make darned tine mothers,
and the "Old Men" very good fathers, discipliners,
and leaders. Life for a growing male human might be
a great deal easier, more simple, reliable and gratifying as a baboon than as a member of any human
group, even the most primitive with all its taboos
and other social complexities.
INDONESIAN WILDLIFE
A report comes out of Indonesia, by a special
correspondent of "The Star" (presumably of Kansas
City, Mo.) which is duly reproduced in the Kansas
Q!ty Times of the 27th November" 1969, and which
is datelined Jakarta, Java, The Republic of Indonesia. This is a very good piece; one would wish that
the original writer could have been identified and
his original copy submitted, so that we might give a
resounding cheer to the editors of this report who had,
in the course of duty, to hash and rehash,it since,
for once everything seems to have come out almost
all right. The story goes as follows: One Shri. Made Taman, who is the Chief of the
Departments of Wildlife and Conservation of the
Republic of Indonesia, issued some very cogent observations to the foreign press, regarding issues at
stake in his country. This is more than just gratify-

32

ing; it is truly a very great expression, ev!!n if it is

not to be implemented as so many high-sounding and
high-fallutin' schemes proposed and published by
that "emerging" nation have been, over the past
three decades. Unfortunately, these truly lovely
people appear to have placed the immediate dollar
ahead of long-term practicality, so that practically
nothing but yakk has come out of this country since
they managed to divest themselves of the bourgeois
Hollanders. This is a .sad commentary to have to P!!n
in view of the very real "glory" of this, the third most
populous nation in the world, and the one with
probably the greatest resources left today . And said
resources include what we call "wildlife". Just
what the Indonesians have inherited in this respect
is apparen~ly neither known to, nor even appreciated
by them. Pity!
This statement by Dr. Made Taman is in two ,parts,
and it goes as follows: - First, on the subject of
Orang utans; and, second, on that of the Oriental,
one-horned Rhinoceros, technically called Rhinoceros sondaicus. This is a mixe~ bag indeed but it
is most extremely interesting. First, Dr. Taman points
out, and categorically, that the Orang utans, just
like (in. his opinion) the Gorillas of Africa, are doomed to eventual extinction, and probably rather soon.
The reasons he gives for making this statement are
that our species of primate (modern Man or Homo
sapiens, that is) has consistently, and throughout the
ages, deliberatel,v killed off all competing types
within our general family of creatures. And he notes
the demise of Chellean Man, the Neanderthalers, and
even such poor types as Bushmen, Hottentots, the
Oriental Pygmies, the Tasmanians, their Australian
relatives the Blackfellows, and even the North
American Amerinds, in this category, The Orang
utan is doomed to go, he says, and mostly because
it commands a high price in the western animal
market, but also because it is in great demand in the
Chinese food market because those people believe
that the brains of these creatures are not only good
to eat but transfer some other valuable properties to
their eaters. (The Chinese are a damned nuisance in
the whole field of conservation. They are still convinced that powdered rhinoce~os horn is an aphrodisiac; so help us!) Incidentally "this substance was
said to command a price of .t. 500 (sterling) per
Kilogram on the open market, th.JS being more valuable
than gold.

But then Dr, Made . Taman comes up with something much more interesting. This is that the small
Oriental rhinoceros, with one horn, which was thought
to be just about at the point of final extinction, has
tlJrned up in some quantities in Borneo, and in some
quantity on a small island west of Java. Dr. Taman
goes on as follows: "The Giant (sic) Birds-of-Paradise of New Guinea
are . now numbered in lOs.
r~ 1) This is absolute
rubbish.] The prehistoric' dragons of Kommodo (sic)
up to 20 feet long (2) are dwindling fast: The miniaelephant of Sumatra, the dwarf buffalo of Sulawesi,
and the beautiful, miniature Javan tiger are all but
extinct. But not all Indonesia's rare animals are on
the decline. One, the single-horned rhinoceros,
suddenly emerged from supposed extinction last year.
Twenty Rhinoceros sondaicus - the oldest species
of rhinoceros in the world (3) - have subsequently
been discovered on a small island reserve west of
Java. Even more exciting is the recent report of unidentified animals, and animal tracks, in the unexplored Kutai forests of East Borneo ..'There have
been reports of colossal tortoises and serpents and
huge ungulates,' said Made, 'We have no idea what
sort of animals .these could be. No scientists ever
recorded them before. They could be the remnants of
a prehistoric fauna which has somehow survived in
the unpopulated and impenetrable rain forests of
Eastern Borneo'... Either Dr. Taman is somewhat
uneducated or - and this is much more likely - the
newspaper person who interviewed him never had
even a smidgin of information on wildlife because,
while the basic substance of this statement is very
fine, the details are pure rubbish. Let us take these,
one at a time, and as numbered above: ( 1) There is no such thing as a "Giant" Bird-ofParadise. There are two rather large species known
as the King and the Great. The former lives only on
the Aru Islands; the latter on mainland Papua, where
it is still extremely numerous throughout very large
tracts of uninhabited and as yet mostly unexplored
territory.
(2) The large lizards of Komodo Island (with one
"m") and of some associated islets, are nothing more
than large Monitor Lizards. They are not dragons
(whatever those mythical things might have been),
and they are no more "prehistoric" than we are. Prehistor,Y, be it known, is the term properly applied to
human activity, from the dawn of the wood, bone, and

Biology - Subsection Genetics: An Effing Awful Affair (i.e. An Eing Awul Aair)
(With apologies to the Type-SettE'rs Union): Verbatim quote from a story on drug deaths in New York from
the Daily News, 8th January, 1970:- "Of the 15, 13 were wale and two emale, Baden said. 'This fis apreliminary i~ure that can still rise', Baden explained, 'pending the results a tsts made on other cases'. Baden
said that rom 1960 to 1968, 286 deaths were recorded by his oice due to narcotic use in the age group rom
15 to 19. Only one 0 that totalf was under 16, a 15yearold (sic) girl who "died in 1966."
With further apologies to the New Yorker, we ,would state, and for the record, that we have never seen the
coinage of more delicious ne~rd~ any :one paragraph. "Wales" and "Emales" we will be using; a
"totalf" should, in our opinion, be brought to the attention of the Executive Branch of Government. Should
you run across similar goodies, please send them to our "oice" at once.

33

horn, primitive tool-making cultures, until human

activities were recorded, by men, on stone, bone,
papyrus, or some other medium. All animals are thus
"prehistoric", unless 'they mutated or otherwise
evolved since about 5000 B.C, And, inCidentally, the
record Komodo Monitor Lizard so far recorded measured 12'7J..2".
(3) Rhi!loceros sondaicus is one of seven species
of what we call rhinoceroses, still known to be alive
today. There is no possible reason for claiming that
this one is the "oldest". To the contrary, it is Quite
possible that the so-called "White Rhino", which is
actually the Weit (Dutch) or Wide-lipped Ceratothere
of Africa. derives from a much more ancient stock.
The point of real interest here is that this little
species was thought to be on the point of extinction.
But, ten years ago we were informed of a small area
in southern Borneo where one man alone counted
thirty-five examples of this interesting species! So
this is a "remnaJ;lt of a prehistoric fauna"? Oh yes,
indeed; what isn't? We, in this country, still have a
few "prehistoric" chaps of vaguely mongoloid appearance, known to the pale-faces as "Indians", but
who should be more properly called Amerinds, living
in Brooklyn, New York, They are prehistoric all
right. Poor "Wild (utan) Men (orangs) of the Woods"
(Indonesian). In other words, let's get our facts
straight.
"SPOOF" - A SOCIETY FOR COE~ACANTHS
In 1968 a group of ichthyologists and comparative
anatomists got together to try to do something about
what they most pertinently called "Old Fishes".
This was to say certain very old fishes; to wit, the
famous Coelacanths that first turned up just thirty
years ago off the southeast coast of Africa. All of
such "fishes", which have four fleshy sub-limbs as
bases for their pectoral and pelvic fins and which,
as known from fossils, had always been thought to
be somewhere close to the line of development from
the fishy estate to that of the first four-legged
creatures that crawled out upon land, had until then
been thought to have been totally extinct for at least
70-million years. These scientists therefore founded
an organization named the Society' for the Protection
Of Old Fishes, or "SPOOF" for short.
This outfit, which is headquartered at the College
of Fisheries, in Seattle, Washington, has a membership of over fifty, all of them sci entifically trained
specialists in matters 'fishy, and ranging from
oceanic ecologists to anatomists and histologi sts.
The membership list of this estimable outfit gives
the names of these research workers, their titles
and places of work, and their individual requirements
of bits and pieces of Coelacanths; such as "frozen
liver", "pituitary glandular material for serial sectioning", "brain tissue for pesticides(frozen) if possible",
and so forth.
Here is an effort thoroughly worth supporting, but
will doubtless appear to the majority of our members

that it is quite out of our class. This, however, is

not so at all; and for the following reasons. There
happen to be in our midst some members who might
be able to assist this endeavour in a very practical
manner. One of our members, for instance, happens
to: be the first man to record the whole story of the
Coelacanth on film, and who inspected one of the
first fresh ones, floating in a sunken canoe, in the
Comoro Islands. Some others of our membership happen to be comparative anatomists who have specialized in the fishes, and palaeontologists who have
done likewise and with special emphasis on the most
primitive forms from which other fishes would appear
to have evolved. Further, we have contacts in the
area where the Coelacanths have come to light.
WOUld, therefore, these last please step forward and
communicate with us specifically on this item. We
will transfer any information that you, such members,
might deem worthwhile or fitting, to SPOOF.
THEY CAN HAVE SIX LEGS
We reproduce here a photograph taken from
SCIENCE DIGEST, of March, 1970, the caption to
which reads:- "Six-legged salamander was produced
when Dr. Kurt Braendle of the Institute of Zoology in
Karlsruhe, Germany, combined portions of bodies of
tW0 different embryos .. He hoped to prove vertebrates
could adapt to new limbs, and those he has experimented with have done just that."
Almost everybody who has not been specificall.y
interested in. matters biological or 7.oological has
al ways asked why terrestrial animals all have only
two pair of limbs. Why not three or four, the.y ask,
and they then prod the zoologist into consideraLion
of the insects with three pairs, the spiders with four,
the crustaceans with up to 21 pairs, and such things
as the millipedes with more than a hundred. Indeed,
this constriction does seem to be both an arbitrary
and. a somewhat 'silly' one, so that trying to ~uggest
that two pair is the most economical construction for
efficient terrestrial life doe~ not much impress the
non-specialist. There. is good engineering, and thus
purely mechanical reasoning, for this arrangement
but, admittedly, the argumenL for this is kind of backhanded. If two pairs are the most mechanically efficient but other creatures have more or many more pairs,
why not all animals? This is a hard question to
answer, especially when one is dealing with ultralong things. And this inevitably brings to the mind of
a fortean that most awful of all enigmas, known as
the Acambaro Collection.

34

In this fabulous and fantastic collection of over

33,000 ceramic figurines, collected by one Herr
Waldemar Julsrud, in, Acambaro, tn the state of
Guanajuato, Mexico, over, some two decades, there
are literally hundreds of monstrous items looking like
no known animals but perfectly modelled and having
three, or even four or' more, pairs of limbs, The
Acambaro collection is not up for discussion at this
tim e, It is far too "hairy" and would take several
thick volumes even to do credit to its existence.
However, in it there appears once again this age-old
theme of land animals with three pairs of limbs.
Where did the ancients - and more so whoever made
the Acambaro things, even if they were as, some
insist, modern artisans working for the tourist trade
- get this idea, and why have they stuck to it so
persistently? Is it simply that the concept of ~multi
pIe-axle' animals held as much fascination for them
as do 28-wheel trailer trucks for us; or is it that confining backboned animals to but two 'axles' seem~
illogical? Or, again, did' anybody fiddle with animals
long ago, grafting either their embryos or even subadult specimens onto one another, so making true
monsters for the edification of pharoahs and 'other
frightfully important persons? Think this one over
quietly sometime, and then go take a long look in
some of our great museums that have extensive
ar,chaeological collections.
SEXUAL ATTRACTANTS
In our issue of April 1969 (Vol, 2, No.2) we noted
the matter of "barthing" versus "baything" and the
effects of the former on the destruction of natural
epidermal exudates - Le. body odors - due to soaps
and other unnatural products. Some ten years pre:.
viously we had stumbled across some scientific
reports made by medical investigators in Munich,
Germany, that impinged upon this question, but which
were designed to explore a related matter; namely,
the part played by' the various and very numerous
natural exudates of the animal body, in this case
including sa:liva, those ejected alo'ng with the sperm
by males, and the complex of female vaginal fluids,
(After very prolonged search, we have been unable
to obtain copies of this 'original work though we once
came very near to getting proper references. If any
member can lead us to these we would be more than
just grateful.) What was wne waf; this.
Body fluids were taken from both male and female
volunteers, sterilized, and then' incorporated in
candies. These candies were then distributed at
random to young but mature people both by the
original donors and by 9ther unknowing volunteers.
Careful and detailed r~cords showed that within very
brief periods an (otherwise) in,explicable nuinber, of
the recipients, had paired-'off,: sOf!1ehow found each
other and often over very considerable distances,
and were in bed together for the natural purpose of
copulation. No single p!i.r,ticipant ever could offer an
explanation as to just why he or she so behaved. The

conclusion of the experimenters was that reproduction

is stimulated by copulation but that the latter is not
the same as the former although the same physical
organs are used for botti. This theory had been put
forward twenty years before Qy Davenport in England
as a result of his studies of sex in chickens.
The theory is basically that reproduction is
actually subsidiary to ropulation per se and, in a
manner of' speaking, nothing ,more than "a convenience" to the natural process of the continuity of
the species. The act of copulation, on the other hand,
is much more vital, and specifically to the individual,
in that, apart from kissing, it is just about the only
way by which body fluids may be'transferred directly
between individuals and predominantly between males
and females. Said fluids - and quite 'apart from the
ova and spermatozoa - constitute enormously potent
complexes of powerful enzymes and other chemical
triggers for metabolism, growth, and so forth. The
male absorbs as much' from the female during proper
.prolonged copulation as does the female from the
male - hence, among other things, the reason for the
histological composition and' construction of the
prepuce in mammals.
Copulation would,' however, be random and highly
adventitious without some method of selection' and
attraction, and it is the thought of such as' Professor
John H. Law (see below) that this is provided by the
body odors of animals, including our species. There
can hardly be any argument &.bout this in view' of the
work of the father and son team of Maastricht, Holland,
the Olischlagers, the greatest rat-killers of all time,
who achieved their phenomenal succ!'!ss by tracking
down chemically the substances exuded by rats that
attract the opposite sex. Using this, they brought the
rats to poisoned bait, s9mething that those clever
creatures had previously learned to avoid in very
short order. As a result, sexual attractants have now
been developed for a wide variety of vermin and furbearing animals that are trapped; and these substances may, be bought in stores specializing in
hunting equipment. In other words animals can not
resist "BOs"!
A final observation on all this must be that the
most expensive French perfumes can never be a
substitute for what nature built into us as sexual
attractants, and this would now seem to be borne out
by Professor Law's findings, which go as fo~lows:
"John H. Law, professor of biochemistry at the
University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine,
bases this hypothesis OQ, the fact that insects and
animals often communicate sexual attraction, as
well as alarm or the discovery of food, by means of
body odors. Law is conducting ,research on pheromones - organic compounds excreted by animals as
a form of communicat,ion. 'Olfactory cpmmunication,'
he says, 'is ,probably one of the oldest and, in some
cases, the most efficient means of communication
employed by animals. Among humans, this for II) of
communication may have existed but was dulled by

35

the evolution of verbal language and civilization.'

What the human race may be missing is suggested
by the fact that if a woman's perfume was as potent
as the pheromone used by the female silkworm moth
to attract the male of the species, and if. a man's
nose \ver.e as sensitive as a moth's antennae, one
drop would stagger men blocks away."
FIBROUS BALLS IN A CANADIAN LAKE
Here's one to which we are gOing to devote a lot
of space, but on which we will supply little comment.
Not only is it, at least as of now, a definitely "unexplained", but it also brings UP all kinds of nasty
questions and a lot of damnfool "answers". We have
tried to get some common sense answers to questions
anent this item but regrettably, we have to report
that nobody has come UP with anything so far that is
amenable to correlation with anything else that even
the botanists, geologists, or forestry people have to
say.
The story first came- to our attention in the form
of a rather good - though in places horribly facetious
- article by one Lynton Blow in the Sunday issue of
the 26th October, 1969, of 1'he Daily Colonist, of
Victoria, B.C. This led off with a considerably
sensational - but perfectly legitimate, from a, newsman's point of view - blurb that read:- " 'It's unwholesome! It repels me', declared my wife, hastily
thrusting the huge, hairy, tan-colored ball back into
my hands. 'Nonsense', I said, laughing, 'It's just a
large fibrous ball. There's nothing u!lwholesome
about it, Lend me your tape measure, and then I'll
store it outside if that will make you happier. But,
tomorrow when I take it to the museum, they'll
identify it in a jiffy as some little known species of
aquatic "coconut' or something."
Said fibrous ball was odorless, had a circumference of 27 inches and had been out of the water for
a month, It had been fished from the bottom of a
lake named Heydon, along with many others of
various sizes, by a friend of author Blow's, named
Mr. Robert Davidson. This lake is some five miles
long and about one and a half miles wide, and lies
in the upper reaches of a glacial fjord on the mainland of B.C., opposite Kelsey Bay, across Johnstone
Strait. It is very deep and drains via a small creek
named similarly into Loughborough Inlet. The lake
is about 200 feet above mean sealevel and is surrounded by 4000-foot mountains. Lynton Blow took
this first specimen he had received to Dr. Adam
Szcazwinski, head of the department of botany at the
Provincial Museum of B. C. He then reported as
follows:
"He (Dr. Szcazwinski) was soon able to tell me I
had not brought him any living organism. After superficial examination, he believed it to be a tightly
compacted mass of short lengths of some grass and
possibly grass roots of a type to be found in swamps
and marshes. Although he has seen a very small ball
of sedgegrass roots that had been caught on a branch

and rolled by tidal action, he had never seen anything of the size of this queer ball. It was most
unusual and definitely interesting, he told me, and
asked me if I could get more details from my friends.
Without knowing all the facts, and without cutting
into one, he could not, of course, definitely commit
himself to a firm opinion.
"I snowed the ball around a lot, and many people
were convinced it was sawdust", Lynton Blow goes
on. "Knowing that it was not, nevertheless, I took
it to B. C. Forest Products. There, I was immediately
assured it has no connection whatsoever with any
waste product from a saw or pulp mill. Experts at
the B. C. provincial forest research laboratories were
greatly interested in it. No one had seen anything
like it previously. Why this lake should be the only
place in B. C. and probably in all Canada, where
these spheres are found has been a puzzle to all the
experts who have seen them. My friend's wife, Mrs.
Robinson, came down the next weekend with a car
load of the balls. She said she had left the biggest
one at home, but still most of them dwarfed my
original specimen. The largest was 37*" in circumference, and weighed 16~ lbs."
Mrs. Robinson then made a most astonishing statement to author Lynton Blow. She is recorded as saying: "I don't like them, and I wish Bob (her husband)
wou~d dump them back in the lake where they belong ...
Just handling them has burned l!!.Y hands". ('Italics'
ours) Mr. Blow states that she held out her palms,
and it was evident that the skin was peeling, especially around the base of her thumbs. He then goes
on to say that he "tested one with some blue litmus
paper. It turned slightly pink, indicating some acid
present. Possibly this was leeching out from whatever material it is that is compressed into these
spheres. Mrs. Robinson now believes some abnormal
wind and wave condition at the lake is responsible
for their formation. However, as I learn, most were
recovered from the western end of the lake. This
surprises me, for the prevailing gales are southwesterly, and that portion of the water should remain
comparatively unruffled during storms. My personal

36

opinion is that an enormously powerful, and fastrunning underground river feeds Heydon Lake. In the
spring, when the snow melts on the surrounding
mountains, this becomes a raging torrent. Somewhere
en route this river cuts through an ancient, compressed swamp, breaks off large segments (of peat) and
rounds them as it tumbles them for miles. Everyone
is puzzled by the fact that the short lengths of
material on the outside of the ball stick to the sphere
as if held there by glue. Even when reasonably well
dried out, as my original specimen is, rubbing one's
hands smartly over the surface does not dislodge the
smallest piece. The experts are more puzzled than
ever now that they know such a large number were
taken out of the lake in such a short period of time,
and that more are lying in up to 26 feet of water."
comment: So now we have stone balls allover the
lot, steel balls elsewhere (that we will be reporting
on later), and now apparently balls of vegetable
matter. There they are; so they must have been produced somehow. But how? This is the unexplained.
Knowing how spherical stone balls can be made in
potholes in caves under running water, we incline at
the moment to the geologists' suggestions; but time
alone will show.
ABOMIN ABLE JUNGLE-MEN
Several years ago, Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans (58) in
his book, Q..n ~he Trac~ Q! Unknown Anim~~, devoted
considerable space to a relation of reports of completely wild, fully-haired, sub-hominids in what was
then Indochina. In view of reports of similar creatures
now established from allover the world - central
Asia; northern Scandinavia and the Caucasus in
Europe; West, Central, and Southeast Africa; North
and South America - it should not be too surprising
to be offered some possibly confirmatory evidence
from Viet-Nam. This goes as follows: - "Lt. Alan
Szpila of Cumberland, R. I., spotted footprints while
piloting a 101st Airborne Division helicopter. 'I
have been looking at footprints from the air for quite
a while now and I noticed the exceptional size (of
these) immediately. I landed to get a closer look and
sure enough, these tracks were about 18 inches long
and eight inches wide.' Someone suggested that they
were made by Ho Chi Minh sandals, which are made
of car tires. 'They were embedded deeply, indicating
a heavy wearer. The stride of whatever made them
WIiS about four feet,' he said. Warrant Officer Darryl
Santella of Long Beach, Calif., saw the footprints at
the same time as Szpila and estimated that, if made
by a man, he must have been about eight feet tall."
The whole Indochinese peninsula, which is to say
from the end of the eastern Himalayas to the southern
border of Chi na on the Pacific, and thence south to
Singapore, is a vast complex of mountains with still
very extensive tropical forests between them. The
t errltor.y is not yet properly explored, and despite
three millenia of true wars and the more recent warlike outbursts in Burma, Malaysia, and the Viets, a
great deal of this territory just goes on as it always

has, unknown and for the most part even unbeknownst

to the rest of the world - even the Viets and the
Chinese. In little, slim Malaya, for instance, there
are very large unexplored areas, while nothing much
is really known about the country immediately around
old villages, towns, settlements, and estates in the
outlands of that country. There have been reports of
hairy primitives from this country also, and also for
decades. The most recent came to us in a personal
communication from Australia and reads as follows:"I once confronted the Malayan equivalent of an
ABSM at a distance of less than 20 feet. I was
stationed at Seleter R.A.F. Base at the time, had
bought me a native canoe and, in my spare time,
used to paddle as far away from the Base as time
would permit. This was the only way to get away
without a pass. I enjoyed these little trips immensely
as I felt free of restrictions and having to wear
regulation dress, as all I wore were a pair of bathers
or sometimes a sarong. On this particular day I'd
paddled a long way from the Base and had pulled
ashore to eat the fruit I brought with me. It was a
fairly uninhabited spot and I was enjoying the
quietude of my al fresco snack. I became aware of
movement in the brush just behind me, of someone
coming toward the beach,' and felt rather dismayed at
not being able to have an intended swim in the nude.
Looking round to greet whoever it might be I was
amazed to see this thing just as it was about to step
out of the brush onto the beach. I'm sure my hair
stood on end, I was so shocked, and as Bob Hope
once quipped, even my goosepimples had goosepimples. I felt too weak to run, so do not know who
was more scared, me or it. After looking at each
other for a brief moment the thing uttered a funny
little cry, then turned and rushed back into the brush
from whence it came. From what I saw, it was as
near human as could be, large, ungainly proportioned,
white yet pinkish coloured skin which was 'sparsely'
covered, even the face, with long fine, silky, fair
hair. The facial skin was flabby and loose looking.
The eyes seemed watery and sad looking, possibly
because the lower lids sagged somewhat, and I
swear the eyes were bluey-grey. If it wasn't for all
that hair, its cry, and the way it rushed away, I
would have supposed the local ugly man was going
for a nude swim too. Male? Female? I don't know.
It was its sad looking face which got my main attention. It wasn't an ape or anything like that bec all se
when it turned, its behind was like a human's except
the cheeks of its bottom sagged a little and there was
all that silky hair. And it definitely wasn't a human
even if we consider the possibility of a human going
'native'. When I think of it now, this being or whatever, would be a ripe candidate for the musical play
'Hair'. But joking aside, I shall never forget the
sadness of that face. It took me some time to get
over the encounter long after returning to Base, and
although it scared the daylights out of me I somehow
felt terribly sorry for this 'being' whenever recalling

37

the sad expression it had. The term

be most apt."
It is interesting to note that all
primitive hominids from the Malayan
reported to have pale to white skins

'sad-sack' would
reports of ultraregion have been
and light-colored

hair. This is -an awfully funny idea for all kinds of

different people, over decades, and so widely separated in space and education, to think up spontaneously.
Could we, perchance and for once, stop yammering
and listen to the facts?

VIII. ANTHROPOLOGY
LITTLE GOLD AIRPLANES A THOUSAND YEARS
OLD
This fascinating item got kind of lost in the
shuffle due to its having been asked for as an article
by Argosy Magazine. At the risk of being heavily
censured by that publication's editors, we are constrained to observe that the article they produced
was lousy; and for the following reasons. First, the
photos reproduced did not display the essential
points; second, those that they did publish were not
only irrelevant but misleading; third, not one of the
photos or drawings mentioned in the text were reproduced - and most notably the object as seen from the
side; which set at nought the strongest arguments for
the thesis developed by aeronautical engineers to
explain these remarkable little objects. We now have
to add to this the fact that a great deal more has
been learned about these items since the publication
of that article, and no less than half a dozen more
little gold pieces of identical or very similar deSign
have turned up allover the place, and notably in the
Chicago Natural History Museum and in the Smithsonian Institution, The whole business has, as a result,
become greatly more important.
We reproduce herewith photographs of the original
(to us) item from the Columbian National Collection,
as found for us by Mannie Staub (117), and of the
Chicago specimen that is closest to it. You will
note the differences in the outlines of the wings as
seen from above which would seem to put the latter
into a different class (to which we will refer in a
moment). However, when seen from the side, the
two are identical but for the design or 'lettering' on
their upright tail fins. This "other class" is comprised of two dozen more items of similar size, and in
several collections, which appear to display a progressive development from, and/or deterioration of,
the original models which are fairly simple and
straightforward. These become ever more elaborately
ornamented and fantastic. The most interesting point
here is, however, that they do not become more
naturalistic as they should if later artists and
artisans, working from the early plane-like models,
had tried to convert them into the form of known
animals - which they knew so well and modelled so
precisely. To the contrary, they become ever more
fantastic, showing, we tend to believe, that they
knew the original things from which they made their
models were not animals but inanimate things that
we would call "out of this world".
It is interesting to note also that the article
mentioned above hardly caused a ripple among the

reading public. This puzzled many at first but then

it was pointed out that the age of these artefacts
had hardly been mentioned and not stressed, and
there came then a rather startling discovery. This
may sound obnoxious to many when stated flatly. It

Top. to bottom: Photo of 'original' from Colombian

National Collection; similar model from Chicago
Museum; drawings of 'original' from top and side.

------------------------------------..----------..................I_.... ....................
~

38

Later 'deteriorated' models from the Colombian

National Collection.

features of these items, while so many of those

features 8le exactly and precisely those of airplanes.
At least a possibility has therefore to be faced;
namely, that somebody had airplanes circa 500 to
800 A. D. in northwestern South America, and that
local artists made models of them to the best of their
ability, and visibility.
The question as to who made the things that formed the models for these little pendants, presents
quite another problem. There are three alternatives.
Either there was a highly developed human civilization thereabouts at that time (or earlier); these things
came out of the sea and were devices built by some
underwater civilization; or they came down out of the
skies from space, and were subsidiary craft employed
by intelligent entities from elsewhere visiting, surveying, or colonizing this planet. These matters are
being taken up elsewhere and will be reported upon
herein at a later date.

is simply that a very high percentage of the public

today, and notably the younger generations and most
of all in thi s country, labour under the most extraordinary delusions about history. For instance, the
notion that Henry Ford invented the automobile is
almost universal, just as is the belief that Edison
NOAH'S ARK, AGAIN
invented electric light, and that just about every
Some twenty years ago a group of Turkish military
other currently used technological development like
TV, Radar, and radio-telescopes were first invented
planes reported having spotted an enormous outline
of a boat-shaped structure at a high altitude in some
in this country. But more alarming is the discovery
made recently that youngsters, brought up on these
unspecified, unmapped mountain territory near their
techniques as everyday facts of their lives, have
eastern border, while themselves flying at low altiabsolutely no concept of their historical background
tude. In due course, this enormity was relocated and
or age. Even a high-school science teacher on a
photographed from the air. It was dark brown in color
television show, competing for a thousand dollars,
and lying in a small flat valley clothed at that time
gave the answer 1770 A. D. as the year that the
of the year in short, vivid green new grass growth.
Atlantic was first stepped by radio!
In the next decade, the Russians reported having
As a result of this appalling ignorance - which
spotted a similar appearing structure but declined
is not their fault, but that of our so-called educationto pinpoint its location, probably because it was
slightly south of their border. (See below for an
al system and TV for the most part - the idea that
earlier Russian report.) Since then, there have been
some South American Amerindian artists were making
a number of so-called expeditions to the general
little gold models of swept-wing jet planes a thousand
area, and particularly to Mnt. Ararat itself, by
years ago means nothing to them. The general attiprivate parties who, while for the most part distude, we personally discovered, was a sort of "So
what?" comment, and often followed up with' "Any- claiming any possible interest in finding Noah's or
any other Ark, have nonetheless issued some strange
how, what's so great about that?"
claims.
The "discovery" of these little artefacts is proNow comes this one, which we take verbatim from
bably one of the most pertinent' ever made through
archaeological enterprise - if it is a true discoveryThe ETM Log which goes as follows: - "Scientists
and it has become much more pertinent since more of
have found what is believed to be the remains of
these items have come to light and the aerodynamics
Noah's Ark buried deep in a lake near the top of
engineers and designers have had a chance to analyze
Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. Pieces of timber
them. The original notion that they were "zoomorphic
preserved by the ice have been carbon dated to at
fantasies", which was nothing more than a last someleast 4,000 years of age. Though there is disagreewhat desperate resort on the part of archaeologists
ment in the scientific community as to whether or
and historians faced with such an alarming mystery,
not this is really the biblical Ark, those experts who
has now been completely demolished by the zoologists
have examined the site agree that the lake holds a
who, with all the will in the' world (and they would
large wooden artifact of great antiquity. The 16,873
love to be able to confirm their colleagues in this),
ft. Ararat is famous for gale force winds and drenchsimply cannot come up with any animal that has the
ing rainstorms that break, without a moment's notice.
A Reuters report, datelined London, Feb. 6, reads as follows: "Members of Parliament called today for
changes in Britain's race relations law allowing advertisements for people holding special skills because of
their nationality. The agitation arose after an elderly doctor, who wanted expertly cooked porridge for his
breakfast, was warned that his advertisement for a Scottish cook was illegal under the law banning job
discrimination. "

39

These forces of nature plus the twenty to thirty foot

ice cap on the lake will make recovery operations
hazardous and difficult. Although the Bible (Genesis.
viii. 4) names Ararat as the resting place of the Ark
after the Great Flood, archllleological research has
placed the area of the flood in the lower reaches of
the Euphrates which lie some 2,000 * miles from the
twin-peaked mountain. Sightings of the Ark in the
lake have been reported since 1670, probably during
seasons when the ice on the lake was at its thinnest.
Russian airmen during the 1914-18 war claimed to
have sighted and photographed the vessel. Even if
the remains prove to be other than those of the Ark,
from an archeologic - engineering standpoint, recovery should be one of the greatest feats of the
century."
.
If you draw a line south from the border of the
USSR and Turkey on the Black Sea, at about 45 0 E.
and 45 0 No., to the junction of the boundaries of
Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; thence east to the Caspian
Sea at 50 0 E.; and north again to 45 0 N.; and thence,
in turn, back west to your starting point; thus cutting
through the southern Caucasus, you will have encompassed one of the most complex geologic and
topographic areas in the world; and just about central
to this area, at the junction of the borders of Turkey,
Armenian Russia, and Iran, lies the twin-peaked
Ararat Massif. This mountain complex, moreover,
rises from an elevated area of upland plateaux and
lesser mountains. That it is glaciated today is of
considerable significance to this Ark business.
At first sight and if taken at face value, the whole
biblical story of Noah and his Ark is not just a little,
but quite, balmy. If, on the other hand, you read it as
history rather than allegory, and remove from it the
most probable elaborations and emendations, it boils
down to a record of a wealthy landowner and stock
farmer who heeded the warning of the high priests
anent certain ominous signs noted by their 'scientific' staff, regarding the behavior of the annual flood
levels in the plains of Mesopotamia. Importing heavy
timber to build a large boat being much less costly
than removing his whole family, stock, and other
properties to higher ground, even if he could have

* Actually, 500 miles.

done so or found any new place to settle, Noah resolved to do just that, and build, on land, a barge
large enough to take his household and a breeding
pair of each of his stock animals. Everybody laughed
at him, but he had the backing of the priesthood, and
the money; and, as he himself is alleged to have
said, also faith. The flood duly came to pass, and
he alone of all the inhabitants of that low-land area
survived, but he ended up five hundred miles away
to the north somewhere in the mountains.
Starting with the Sumerians at the latest, very
careful records of annual floods ,were kept by the
priesthoods of Mesopotamia. Be it noted that Moses
is recorded as having returned to this, the land of
his ancestors, for a decade; and, it would seem, that
it was there that he became versed in such expertise
so that, when he returned to Egypt, he had the
Pharaoh over a barrel by applying certain long-term
observations (we'd call them statistics) to the Nile.
He knew when the next natural dam of red sandstone
was about ready to burst way down in Nubia, and
that, when blood-red waters appeared, the annual
flood would be excessive, and following which there
would inevitably be plagues. Moses was a priest,
and the priesthood interpreted "the Word of God" i.e. of the Supreme Being who ordained and regulated
all of nature.
The craziest aspect of the Mesopotamian flood,
and Noah's . little effort, is the flood itself. The
valley of the Tigris-Euphrates could not possibly
be flooded to a depth. of 16,000 feet, which would
have been necessary in order to float Noah up to
the lake on the top of Ararat, simply because there
is not enough water on earth to achieve such. If the
"waters", meaning the sea, rose that much they
would have to have done so everywhere else. If, on
the other hand, the land sank in that area, albeit
temporarily, and then rose again rather suddenly,
and to unprecedented heights in the northern area,
we might well have a monumental "flood", and
Noah's barge could have been elevated to whatever
-mountain top" that first appeared out of the waters,
as the land rose and said waters drained off. What is
more, this eminence, upon which it grounded, need
not then have been more than a couple of hundred

You will find, from time to time, an item credited to that most excellent publication The ETM Log published by Explorers Trademart, Ltd., of Annapolis, Md. There are other items that give us leads to rankling
questions that we are itching to discuss which we find in this journal which may not be specifically credited.
This is by the kind permission of their publishers and is a completely reciprocal arrangement. While our
combined circulations are not likely to constitute a menace to such publications as Playboy, these items
that we bat back and forth are not likely to be found in that estimable magazine though they do have a very
serious side and one which is showing distinct signs of true forteanism. Nonetheless, this interchange will
give these items a wider circulation that either of us alone ~an offer. We have made similar arrangements
with some other basically fortean outfits which we consider to be sound. And, oh yes, the current issue of
The ETM Log (Vol. III, No.5) has two articles that we would sorely like to reproduce in full but you will
just have to subscribe to this journal and read them. They appear on pages 128 and 144 respectively and are
entitled "Archaeological Mysteries of Florida and the Bahamas", by J. Manson Valentine, Ph. D., the man
himself when it comes to this subject; and "Tektites and Volcanic Glass", by Erwin F. Lange,- Professor of
the Department of General SCience, Portland state College, Portland, Oregon.

40

feet above the old valley floor but have continued to

rise during the next 4000 years. Note the great belt
of volcanic and seismic activity that runs right
through the area - as outlined above, and containing
Ararat.
Turning the coin of speculation and simple logic,
we must ask ourselves: if Noah's story is founded
on an actual event, but one which did not follow
some course such as that suggested above, how
and why did anybody build a vast wooden structure
on or in a glaciated lake at an elevation of some
tens of thousands of feet in the middle of a mountainous and arid district? Should this turn out to be a
boat, or even a building in the likeness of one, what
on earth was it for, and why so vast? And why did
the historians who contributed to the Bible pick on
Mount Ararat? As a matter of fact, we don't even
know if they meant the same mountain that we refer
to by that name today. If they were not, these repeated reports of an "ark" on the currently so named
mountain complex would seem to be stretching even
coincidence to the point, where the threads of common
sense give way.
A CAST OF PALAEOLITHIC MAN
Again swiped wholesale from The ETM ~: "The body of a Paleolithic caveman has been found
near Santander, Spain, in such a well preserved state
that for the first time scientists c an get a clear
picture of what' ancient cave dwellers really looked
like. The body was found under seven feet of sedi-I
ment in Morin Cave and is estimated to have lived
nearly 30,000 years before Christ. According to
anthropologist Leslie Freeman of the University of
Chicago, 'What happened was that as the body decayed, a fine sediment of clay filled the cavities.
The clay took the appearance of the original man.'
The nature of the burial has also shed light on stone
Age burial practices. The grave held an adult and a
child (whose body was not in a well preserved state).
Over the feet of the adult were the bones of several
game animals, possibly an offering to the dead man
or intended as food for his journey into the unknown."
This is, in every way but one, a most splendid
report and will probably go farther towards elucidating many matters of palaeolithic man's existence
than all the mere bones found until now. The only
tiny injustice to reality concerns this confounded
designation caveman". Caves are not distributed
evenly allover the land surface of the earth, or
especially in those areas within which the remains
and other evidence of truly primitive man have been
found. Most caves are formed by dissolution in limestone strata, though there are others caused by g8:s
blisters in lava flows, cracks in rocks like granite,
and so-called shelters formed by overhanging cliffs

of other rock compositions. One thing is certain.

however. and this' is that man. and/or the hominids
generally, never went through an exclusively "cave
man" period in their development simply dne to the
general absence of caves. To the contrary. the majority of our ancestors must have lived out of doors
and in areas where there just were no caves. Further.
when caves were available, they seem only comparatively infrequently to have actually been lived
in. For the most part, they seem to have been used
for shelter and. as one anthropologist has suggested,
more to get out of heat than cold, and as sacred
places for interring their import'ant dead and for recording important events, as displayed in the marvelous petrographs and glyphs and paintings of southwestern Europe, central Europe, India. Africa, and
elsewhere.
The matter of casts brings up another wh'ole
Question. A very high percentage of all fossils are
actually casts of objects that have intrinSically and
of themselves, completely disappeared. Either their
original substance was replaced, molecule by molecule. by some other substance, such as opal in
petrified wood, or by finely particulated material that
seeped into the spaces created in some coarser
medium when the original body disi~tegrated. These
latter, which are properly called casts. are of inestimable value in that they show in fine detail the
inside of things. Petrifaction, of course. gives us
the complete outside form and, if sectioned, can
supply us with the minutest d'etails of the object's
inner construction. Casts do not supply such, but
they nonetheless can give us a most startling replica
of the object as seen in life - or death. One wonders
only if such so-called "fakes" as the famous "Cardiff
Giant" just might not have been Quite, genuine
"casts" created by such natural processes. Let us
not forget that a very high percentage of the skeletons
of extinct animals displayed in all our great museums
are actually "plaster casts" of tlie originals. In other
words, there's nothing wrong with a cast. and especially if it can 'be proved to be of natural origin.
Such a thing as the "cast" of a man. dead some
30.000 years, borders on the miraculous.
THE OLDEST MINE
(N. Y. Times-Chicago Tribune Service). JOHANNE&
BURG, South Africa, Feb. 8. 1970. - "South African
archaeologists reported discovery of the world's
oldest mine. The mine, in an iron ore mountain in
Swaziland near here, goes back 43,,000 years, according to expert radio carbon dating. It was, discovered
by Adrian Boshier. field research officer for the
Museum of Man and Science. Johannesburg. Bosbier.
30, probed around Bomvu (Red) ridge of the Ngwenya
(Crocodile) mountain range in f?w azil and , a mountain

Anthropo!Q.&.Y - Subsection History.

We're not sure where this came from"': probably "The Ch'in Dynasty, and All That" - "The Great Wall of
Chinfl, was built to keep out the mongrels."

41

of iron ore now being mined by the Swaziland Iron

Ore Development Company. part of an Anglo-American
group. He discovered caverns extending into the
mountain, revealing evidence that stone age man had
been there mining haematite - a source of iron.
Boshier found in the caverns primitive stone age
mining tools. He was joined by another young
archaeologist. Peter Beaumont. 30, who excavated
deeper. Beaumont found samples of charcoal from old
fireplaces which were sent to radio carbon dating
laboratories at Yale and Groningen. Holland. The
latest samples date the mine as 43,000 years old.
International radio carbon experts acknowledged that
it is the oldest known mine in the world."
Now just what on earth have we here? So we have
radiocarbon dating back to 43,000 B.P., or is it
45-thousand? And these were iron mines sunk by
people. OK, so what happens to the textbook contention that metallurgy was invented circa 5000 B.C. (or
7000 B.P.) somewhere around northern Mesopotamia?
Perhaps somebody added a zero to this figure so that
these mines were only sunk in 4300 B.C.: but that
does not wash either. Even 43,000 years ago puts
south African miners a minimum of 10,000 years
ahead of the later Palaeolithic stoneage people of
southern Europe, and damned near forty thousan.!1
years before what we have. up till now, called the
dawn of the "Iron Age". Somebody's got their figures
mixed, or their dating garbled, or just about everybody has been talking plain rubbish. So these frightfully ancient miners in South Africa weren't really
looking for iron but for an associated mineral now
named specularite because from it could be manufactured a positively thundering pigment used as
a cosmetic. Are we then expected to believe that.
said miners figured this one out first, and then went
mining for it without ever noticing that the stuff they
got it out of, when melted. as it has to be to so get
it out, gave a much more useful stuff in the form of
iron? Phui! Modern Man has been around a long time.

distressing to the orthodox but considerably cheering

to the intelligent.
A story by Bruce Dunford of AP on all this went
as follows: "Archaeological discoveries in Thailand
are digging holes in the schoolbook (read textbook Editor) theory that civilization was spawned in the
rich Tigris-Euphrates valley. Relics unearthed from
two little-known diggings indicate that the Thais
were farming long before the ancestors of the Babylonians and the Hebrews. Dr. Wilhelm G. Solheim II,
a University of Hawaii archaeologist. said that domestic seeds, found in Spirit Cave near the Burmese
border in northern Thailand. are the oldest found by
modern man - and that these contradict history book
theories that the Near East's 'Fertile Crescent'
gave birth to agriculture. 'The real surprise in the
finds.' Solheim said, 'is that until now the Southeast
Asian area has been regarded as unimportant in
civilization's progress. It had been thought that the
Thais (i.e. Siamese) and other people of this area
borrowed their technology from the Chinese and
Indians. Now it looks like .it may be just the opposite.'
Chester Gorman, then a University of Hawaii graduate
student, discovered the Spirit Cave in 1965. In a
lower level of the cave-diggings. Gorman found
pebble tools, flakes. grinding stones, pottery - and
the seeds. The seeds were peas. beans and root
plants. Early Near East agriculturalists primarily
grew cereal grains, such as wheat and oats. Carbon
tests of the seeds proved them to be g.690 years
old. 'The earliest agricultural development in the
Fertile Crescent area is about 9,000 years ago.'
Gorman said. adding that Spirit Cave is believed to
have been occupied as long as 12,500 years ago."
At the same time. graduate student Donn Bayard
dug up burial grounds of the prehistoric village of
Non-Nok-Tha. in northeast Thailand. and produced
concrete evidence therefrom that the primitive
villagers grew rice. grains of which were radiocarbon
dated as circa 3000 B. C.. which is believed to be
long before this grain was grown in either China or
THE OLDEST AGRICULTURE
India. The theory that seed cultivation first developed in Southeast Asia is not. actually, a new one. As
This doesn't seem to have been the happiest of
Dr. Solheim pointed out to Bruce Dunford: "It was
years for the archaeological buffs. Not content with
postulated (as far back as) 1931 by Aswaldo Menghin
demolishing their whole expressed affirmations as
in Europe. and again by geographer Carl Sauer of the
to the origin and date of the discovery of metallurgy,
University of California in 1952. Both postulated
as outlined above,others{and of their own ilk to boot)
what we are now finding. We're simply bringing in
must needs go and wreck their es~imates for the date
empirical confirmation in the form of observation and
and place of origin of the earliest agriculture! And,
experiment to support their theories." Unfortunately,
to ma1!:e matter15 even worse, bronze popped up with
whoever spoke for Mr. Bayard committed the old sin
this earliest so-far dated civilization which, as is
or stupidity. which has marred the history of archestated below. was blooming more than a thousand
ology and made so many fools of so many sincere
years before the later stoneage people of Mesopotamia
labourers in this vineyard of discovery, by stating
settled down and got organized. This should be rather

.
Technology and the Useful Arts - Subsection Postal Service.
.
UPI dispatch from Londqn: "Record Claimed For Delay In Postal Service. The following letter. from the
Dean of Canterbury. Ian H. White-Thomson. appeared in today's Times of London: 'Sir: A few days ago I
received a communication addressed to T. A. Becket. Esq., care of the Dean of Canterbury. This surely must
be a record in postal delays.' Thomas A' Becket died in 1170 A.D."

42

that "The villagers (of Non-Nok-Tha) were the first

people in Asia to grow rice." How in the hell does
iiekiioW? And Rnyhow, these early Siamese might
have learned of the business from somebody else, so
they needl not have been the first. Why don't these

people: say simply that they have found the earliest

, date for the growing of rice:'" or makirig bronze, or
what-have-you": so far found; and leave it at that?
That-a-way, we might not have to rewrite our textbooks so often.

UFO LOGY
As you may have noticed, this section has now
been finally established as a sort of historical record.
We are not primarily an ufological outfit, and we
never have been. Our policy with regard to these
studies is simply to keep a weather eye on the
matter, but to record only what takes place on the
'political' - if I may use that word in its correct
sense - front. We will not be publishing reports of
'sightings'. There are more than enough individuals
and outfits already engaged in this exercise. Their
findings and files are inestimably valuable, for the
record, and, if only they can keep going, eventually
some outfit with the facilities and the money will
computerize the lot, and so get us some genuine
statistical analysis of the business. Until then SITU
has nothing to contribute to, and nothing to gain
from, plunging into this field.
What we conceive to be our job is the contemplation and consideration of the hypothetical, theoretical, conceptual, and philosophical aspects of this
matter. What is the use of collecting end.less examples
of anything unless you at least contemplate their
implication, and their possible causes, and effects.
There is one outfit in the world that came into
existence nearly 200 years ago because of the discovery of this fact. This outfit is today the most
powerful force in all civilization and throughout the
world. Nobody, and no group of bodies (even governments) makes a final decision on anything until they
have consulted this outfit. Its Officially listed title
is "The International Society of Actuaries", and it
is headquartered in Milano, Italy. It is this society
that tells the insurance companies, etc., what is
going to happen.
The LS.A. - or S.D.I.A. to give it its right title was set up to keep records of events in all aspects
of human affairs; to analyze these for evidence of
caussl and effectual trends; and then to extrapolate
their findings into the future. ThE're are many outfits
that have been set up to do just this which are continuing so to operate, like Wall street, but none has
built into it a factor that is really of the ultimate
essence. This is what mathematicians call.the improbability factor (as diametrically opposed to the
fully recognized probability one), In other words,
the S.D.I.A. has always been on the lookout for,
and willing to accept, any new aspect of anything;
and then to employ it in their formulae. And such
factors can sound absolutely wild. Let us give an
imaginary possibility.
Messrs Bosh, Bash, and Baloney of Wall street,
after analyzing a particular market record, advise

. their bigger clients that there is now a buyer's

market therein. Let us be utterly facetious and say
that this is in Bird-of-Paradise feathers because the
birds have just been taken off the protected list.
There will as a result be a concerted rush for this
item by club women with money, but the birds will,
according to the conservationists, immediately
decline in numbers to the point of extinction; whereupon any such feathers that have not become motheaten or fallen into bowls of soup at PTA dinners
will become museum specimens and worth a lot of
money. Fine, say the money-boys; we can't lose.
This is true but for a peasant on the island of
Halmahera who discovered that the King Birds-ofParadise on his island had been eating fruit that had
become radioactive due to an atomic-energy test in
the southwest' Pacific; and that, as a result and
quite contrary to all biological thinking, had started
to produce bigger litters of outsize offspring, more
times a year. Further, said monstrous B-of-Ps were
emigrating to all the other isl'ands round about and
. were there breeding true. In other words: bing go the
investmerits of th~ speculators in New York, simply
because nobody there had ever heard of Halmahera;
nobody knew of its local peasantry; and practically
nobody had ever conceived of "fallout" doing good
Just such a factor has now been interjected into
ufology. This crops up, though almost tangentially,
in Dr. Jacques Vallee's book, Passport tQ Magonia on page 15~, in the American edition.
Herein, Jacques Vallee tackles a problem that has
always exercised our minds. This is, simply put,
that throughout the ages, the reports of UFOs allegedly encountered by citizens of all stations, and particularly of those UFOs which touch-down or land and
out of which personages are alleged to have emerged,
seem always to fit exactly and far too neatly into
the current culture, customs, and understanding of
the human beings who said they encountered them
on the ground. Ezekiel's little effort in Mesopotamia
was a "fiery chariot"; Moses's was a "luminous
cloud"; the thing that grabbed a cow in 1897 in the
Midwest was an airship and was loaded with bearded
gentlemen who spoke with middle-western accents;
modern contactees contacts are almost invariably
Little Green Men (Italy), horrible hairy dwarfs (South
America), or beautiful blondes sitting on rocks and
preaching world peace (North America).
But now Vallee comes up with the first rational
concept: to wit, that either all or at least soine of
these may be 3-dimensional holograms, which have
been advanced even to having material substance,

43

and thus be able to leave bits of metal lying around

as proof of their appearance, but which are deliberately "manufactured" by some 'superior' race, in another
time or place, just to fool us and guide us in ways
that they consider desirable. He ends this consideration by saying "If such (apparitions) were deliberate-

ly 'scenes' designed to be recorded by him (i.e. the

witness), and transmitted to us ... they (the designers)
do not deserve our congratulations".
Would you ufologists kindly consider this expression; read Vallee's book; and then, but only
then, get back to work recording your cases?

CHAOS AND CONFUSION

DIMES FROM NEW HEAVEN?

Somewhat delightfully, this bonanza just might
have come from New Haven, since the truck was
headed north from that metropolis to Boston and was
passing through the outskirts of Worcester, Mass.
What happened was succinctly described by the
inimitable working press as follo.ws:- "AUBURN,
Mass. (AP) - The rear door of an armored truck
swung open on the Massachusetts Turnpike early
today, spilling $40,000 in dimes onto the highway.
state police said the truck, headed for Boston, contained 40 money bags, each holding $1,000 in dimes.
'Each Q.f the bags broke open,' said police, spilling
dimes over one eighth of a mile section of the road.
A truck following the armored vehicle was disabled
when II ran into the flying dimes, police said, and
had to be towed away. The accident happened at
6:55 a.m., and by late morning the road was still
covered with dimes, police said." ('Italics' ours.)
This is all perfectly splendid but for the usual
quota of nonsequitors, nonsense, and totally unexplaineds. First, do you know just how big a bag
containing a thousand dimes is? A roll of 100
measures just 4~" tall, and is only ~" wide; so that
we may say that a roll containing 1000 would be just
short of 4-ft tall. You can pack forty such columns
(at ~" wide) into 56 cubic feet; and this is a .cube a
little less than four feet on each edge. This is not a
big load for a Brinks truck. Further, are we to
suppose that the bags,. each only about lY.z cubic
feet only, with packing, were just tossed into thl::!

truck loose, and not even in boxes, or something?

No details on the truck -as usual- but, being a
bullion hauler, one would suppose that it was at
least of metal construction and securely locked even
if not armored - and the report specifically stated
that it was. Do these transporters just toss 40,000
bucks-worth of coins into the back of a truck and
forget to lock the doors? Wonder what the insurance
companies might have to say about this. So, if the
doors were locked, how come they came unlocked?
And how come all the bags burst, even if they were
not in any kind of containers; and how (so help us),
and why, did they "fly out" and even to the extentof
"disabling" a truck (yet) following behind. Since
when do dimes "fly" instead of dribbling out of the
back of a truck on a smooth highway? Some shower!
Just what did this shower of coins do to that truck to
actually "disable" it? Did dimes get into the fan,
burst the windshield, or what?
The whole thing is utterly balmy and, in our
opinion, considerably phoney in that it is manifest
that it has not been properly reported and that there
would seem to be every implication of skullduggery
of some sort. But then, one must not overlook the
possibility of a genuine fortean event which WOUld,
of course, completely buffalo such simple, hardworking souls as truck drivers and policemen. If a billion
small shellfish can rain down out of a clear sky, and
limited areas of southern England be bombarded with
pennies from on high (see PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No.2)
one must suppose that there is no reason why 40,000
dimes cannot take off in Massachusetts.

CURRENT PURSUITS

This is a new feature, designed to be a continuing

report in this journal. It was originally initiated in
our SITU NEWS to keep members informed of our
activities. That newsletter has now, however, been
discontinued, and is to be replaced only by an
Annual Report. This was deemed to be the only
column from that publication which should continue
not only to be published regulally, but which should
also be extended to the limit of space available; it
being, in point of fact, our principal reason for establishment and continued existence. Herein will be
outlined, in as much detail as possible, our current
projects. These will be reported - and added to strictly chronologically, rather than by category.
There is quite a backlog, but we fully realize that
no projects of these natures can ever be fully con-

cluded. Only if they prove to be utterly without

validity will they be dropped.
There is then another aspect to our work that will
be included in this department. This is that we
initiate many projects either 'on the say-so or suggestion not only of members but of non-members, and
also, which is much more important, at the request
of other organizations. Then again, we have contracted with still other bodies - such as the City ::If
Montreal, last year - to organize and implement
projects. Finally, there are a whole slew of requests
that come to us for film, television, and radio
programming, and for reporting in all forms, from
topical newsbeats to magazine articles and books.
We will be reporting on these also herein.
To these ends, we ask all members to supply us

-------

---------------

44

with any information they might have on any of these

projects, full credit for which will be given, while
we will endeavour to promote individual contracts,
between members offering such help and any organization so contracting with the Society. At the same
time, we most urgently appeal for the active help of
all members in implementing and then prosecuting
these projects.
STONE SPHERES
Three years ago we became interested in the
extraordinary stone spheres that litter a small area
near the south coast of Costa Rica. Our member,
Barney Nashold (87), undertook to investigate these
while on a trip through Centroamerica, the primary
objective of which was to study stone softening
methods allegedly employed by early Central and
South American peoples (see below). A small committee was formed including member 165, Basil
Hritsco of California, who had found a very large
field of. similar stone spheres in that state. Since
then, reports and photographs of others have come in
from allover this continent and even from the Old
World. The pursuit of more is being actively prosecuted, while debate between the archaeologists and
the geologists as to the origin of these spheres is
being encouraged and data supplied to both parties.
POSSIBLY THE GREATEST LITHIC IMPLEMENT
FACTORY IN THE WORLD
For miles along, and for miles to, either side of,
what is now called "The Old Road", north from the
capital, Belize, of the little Central American
country still called British Honduras, there is an
area of flatland - uninhabited and overgrown with
stands of Cohune Palms, which mark ancient Amerindian village sites, and a thorny scrub called
generally akalche - that has no natural stones but
which is completely covered with nothing but flint
spear-heads, arrowheads, scrapers, other finely
chipped stone tools, and flakes and chips. This area
lies some five to ten miles north of a place called
Maskall's, and fifteen miles south of Orange Walk,
as measured along this Old Road. So numerous are
these artefacts that they ware used exclusively as
roadbedding for several miles, and after forty years
of use by all north-south-bound traffic on that road,
one could just step out of a car and fill as many
baskets as you wanted with shovelfulls of the stuff.
In a bushel basket you would get about 30% perfect
specimens, another 20% broken pieces, and the rest
flakes and chips.
Flint instrument factories are known from all over
the world, notably near natural sources of this
material, like the South Downs of England; but there,
is nothing known anywhere of an extent such as this.
What is more, there is no known flint, chert, or other
such substance anywhere within some two hundred
miles of this place. Since we personally inspected
this site in 1939, we have constantly and repeatedly

begged of anybody and everybody we have heard of

who might be going to British Honduras to ask for
either of the taxi-drivers so well known locally, by
the names of Perefitte and Chanona, and request that
they drive them to this site, and there collect some
specimens. In a forlorn hope, we even appealed to
leading archaeologists and ethnologists specializing
in Centroamerica to go look at this site and try to at
least outline its periphery. But to no avail. Nobody
seems to want to take the trouble to go and even look
at one of the greatest archaeological wonders and
mysteries of the world; and this despite the fact that
a round-trip plane fare, plus the cab drive to the
site, costs less than $400! Yet, amateurs, let alone
experts, spend tens of thousands of dollars to go
dig up a hundredth of a small site, down to a few
feet, in areas that are comparatively well known as
regards the record of the immediate past. Has nobody
the guts or the gumption to go take a look at this?
STONE SOFTENING
This was initiated five years ago as a result of
some bibliographical research which brought to light
reports of this being accomplished in early times
in the Near and Middle East, and Central and South
America. It was also found that certain birds, using
the leaves of a fairly 'common tropical American
herbaceous plant, also accomplished this, thus making nesting holes even in granite. The project was
turned over to Barney NashQld (87) who made a prolonged trip throughout Centro america to investigate
the allegations that building-stones in some places
were moulded rather than trimmed, and that some
stone "carvings" were actually modellings in plasticized stone. At the same time, he added to this
project the pertinent study of what is called chelation, which is basically the method by which plant
roots dissolve (or break up into their component
compounds) rocks of all kinds. This led to a study
of concrete and its history. He, aided by his committee who continue to supply him with data and
leads, has now prepared some valuable reports on
these interrelated matters for publication, but the
project is by no means completed.
RINGING ROCKS
This project has been reported on rather fully in
past issues. It has turned out to be very much wider
in scope that at first we supposed, and it has led
the special committee set up to investigate the
matter - under the chairmanship of Richard Palladino
(200) - into a number of fields, other than the physical and geological, that were never expected. One
of these we will not specify at this point because it
might cause a stampede of "amateurs" who could
very easily destroy the phYSical evidence we have
brought to light. We started with one of the astonishing vegetationless areas near a place' called Upper
Black Eddy on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware
River but, within a few weeks, fourteen more such
areas were located in that state, two in New Jersey,

45

and others in other states. Also, rocks that -ring"

were reported from all over the world, including some
columnar basalts. There are ten on this committee
but we need more specialists with laboratory facilities at their disposal.
A CHAIN IN ROCK
Five years ago two of our founding members Jay Blick (17), and Frank Graves (49) - undertook a
five-day investigative trip to upper Pennsylvania to
look into an admittedly somewhat balmy business
connected with living Thunderbirds. This, needless
to say, did not develop into a project but, as so often
happens in fortean investigations, something Quite
else and much more real popped up, and one which
has exercised our minds and an awful lot of our time
ever since. This item was given to Blick and Graves
by the chief of the local fire department in Renovo
and was simply that he had found, and could re-find,
a large rock in a mountain stream bed some distance
to the north, in which was embedded an enormous
chain that did not seem to weather or rust and to be
made of either bronze or some other non-corrodable
metal. Thischain is not just attached to the rock but
appears to go right into it, like a fossil, and it is
alleged that since it was first discovered it has
been slowly coming out of said rock as the latter
weathers. Similar vast chains are reported from the
Lebanese coast of the Mediterranean and from, of all
places, the Amazon Basin. The implications of this
Pennsylvanian one are startling to say the least. We
have tried for five years Simply to drive to this location, but for multifarious reasons, the planned effort
has always had to be cancelled. The greatest problem
is "that the thing has to be "located just before the
leaves bush-out on the trees, or just after they have
fallen but before the first snowfall. This limits one's
choice" but we are planning ag~n.
PADDLE-BUGS
Two summers ago several specimens of a most
curious insect were seen around our HQ, and one was
captured. These are known popularly as Phantom
Crane-Flies and technically as the Ptychopteridae,
and are an obscure family of the Two-winged Flies.
or Diptera. We were greatly struck by their method
of flight and. on consulting the "textbooks on this
point. discovered that nothing we could find therein
conformed to our observations. As a result. patient
search was made for more of these insects so that we
could film their flight in large glass containers; but,
although several were seen, we failed to capture
any as they usually stay at some height and can
trav~l at an astonishing speed. We managed to record
this speed on some occasions. Meantime. we submitted reports on what we had observed of their
flight to our advisers on aerodynamics. with an
appeal for some analysis. However. we must obtain
the film first. "We would be pleased to hear from anybody who might (if. presumably. an entomologist!)

possibly have heard of any work on the flight of

these insects having ever been done.
MECHANICAL DOWSING
A few years ago, having become sorely aggravated
by certain claims made by many dowsers to the effect
that the detection of water, metals. and other items
below ground by the use of rods was what they
called a psychic phenomenon connected with a
human being performing this operation, we set up an
experiment. This was a basically Simple device but
was of considerable extent. and was deSigned to show
that such detection could be accomplished entirely
mechanically, and without any humans being present.
This fact was proved on a large number of runs over
an area under which four pipes (three metal and one
ceramic) ran, and the exact locations and directions
of which were known. One metal and the ceramic
pipe were empty; one was permanently filled with
water which could be made to run up hill by turning
on the pump in the house; and the fourth was a main
bath and sink water outlet that could be filled with
water travelling downwards. The rods. which" were
moved mechanically across these pipes. behaved in
precise but different manner every time they passed
ov"er all the pipes. We have planned to repeat these
experiments. both here at our headquarters and at
other places where the locations of pipes. etc. are
not known to us. The results obtained will be written
up anc;l. sent to scientists in various much more
distant areas to see if they are reproducible.
"BOZO. THE ICEMAN"
Since the outburs"t over this item in a Belgian
scientific journal and then in Argosy Magazine due to
an article therein by the director of SITU. we have
been repeatedly asked by members whatever happened and why we do not publish more on it in this
journal. There are two points by way of explanation
for this. First. this item was never actually a project
of the Society; rather, it stemmed from a purely preliminary investigation" Qy the director, acting as a
newsman and as science editor of Argosy. It might or
might not have been thrown into the SITU bin had it
not been for the absolutely unexpected fact that the
damned thing proved - at least to the satisfaction of
Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans (58) of Belgium who happened to be visiting us. and the director (Ivan T. Sanderson) - to be a genuine corpse of some form of ultraprimitive hominid. The second reason for our not
reporting on this case is simply that the material
accumulated on it became so voluminous that no
progress report would have made any sense unless
it were of book length. Further, we (Ivan T. Sanderson) have preferred to keep this out of SITU's aegis
for several reasons. and" we are very glad that It
was never in it. because the business became involved in all kinds of matters for which the Society
should not and could not take responsibility. The
case. however is still not by any means "dead" and

46

whether it will ever be resolved is impossible to say.

Only one of two things can happen in this respect.
Either the specimen examined by Heuvelmans will
eventually be made available for scientific study;
or it will not. In the latter case, the whole thing, will
lapse into the class of the Cardiff Giant and similar
stories fit only for historical rehashing.
THE LARGEST AND OLDEST PLANT
Near the small community of New Bloomfield, some
25 miles northwest of Harrisburg, - Pennsylvania,
there exists what should perhaps be listed as one of
the wonders of the world. This is a Box-Huckleberry
Tree (actually a vast bush) that covers three acres.
This species proliferates by both latitudinal roots
and branches that are underground, and tiren new
bushes pop up all around the original' plant. This
monster has been thoroughly examined by botanists
and declared to be the largest plant (in volume)
known, and the oldest, far exceeding the oldest
Bristlecone Pines of the west and the Macrozamia of
Australia. One botanist stated in print that it was
considered to be over 12,000 years old. Further,
these trained botanists have' also stated that they
have found the original plant (and thus the oldest
stem), and they told the then owner and the mayor of
the town that they had done so, but they refused to
reveal its exact location. We have been in communication ,with these good people, have rounded up our
botanists in this area, and are planning a thorough
investigation on the spot. We had permission from the
owner to do some digging and delving for carbon- and
other datable material therein, but have learned that
the area is now under the jurisdiction of the state
Forestry Department.
'
GRAVITY II
This as of now is still for the most part a bibliographical effort, and one which involves extraordinarily complex scientific and technological theories and
researches, some of which are of a highly secured"
nature. It all stemmed from our interest in what used
to be called (and quite erroneously as it turned out)
The Burmuda Triangl.e. While investigating this,
those of us who work in the geomorphological and
geophysical worlds of science stumbled across something that might go far to 'explaining' at least some
of the oddities of this "triangle", but which far transcended its individual importance because they
showed that this phenomenon was not unique but
merely one of ten such areas equally distributed
around both the northern and southern hemispheres
of our planet. Our findings have not yet been written
up, and there is a mass of both search and research
still to be done before even a preliminary report can
be issued. We have a small committee to prosecute
this work but we very much need assistance from
oceanologists, physical geologists, and other geomorphologists; while specialists in electromagnetics,
gravitics, and such expertises as seismology should
be profoundly interested.

IK-NISH
This is a fascinating little item, originally brought
to our attention by Basil Hritsco (165) who learned
of it from some Amerindian friends in C!Ilifornia. It
is an umbilliferous plant looking not unlike such
weeds as are called hemlocks, but it has an enormous
root, shaped like a parsnip. The strange thing is
that it grows only in certain very limited and widely
scattered patches of the coastal ranges, and then
only on virtually bare rocky areas where nothing else
seems to be able to' gain a foothold. Its interest is
that from it the Amerinds have since time immemorial
made no less than three quite different-smelling but
quite delicious herbs. Basil Hritsco obtained for us
both seeds and some young growing plants, and we
followed instructions given by his Amerindian friends
in planting them on a bare rocky hummock at our HQ.
Our rainfall and general climatic conditions would
seem to be closely equivalent to this plant's native
environment, but we regret to have to say that, although the young plants at first took, we have had no
success, However, we are going to start again.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TV AND AMERINDIAN
CIRCUITRY
This may sound like an extraordinary potpourri
and, as per the above heading, be almost incomprehensible. It stems from the following. Our president
(Hans stefan Santesson, No. 109) brought to our
attention a book on Egyptology by a Swedish writer
very well known in his country, in which a wall
painting in a temple was shown. This, on analysis
by unbiased electromagnetic experts and technicians
specializing in television, produced for us a very
startling report to the effect that it was their concerted opinion that the scene shown in this depiction
was clearly that of two technicians (priests?) holding
two large TV tubes attached to dual coaxial cables.
This led to the establishment of a fulltime project
under the more general heading of "The Knowledge
of Electricity by the Ancients". And no sooner had
this got going than information began pouring in
from all sorts of quarters. First, there were the
Mesopotamian and other Near Eastern batteries,
specimens of which are in several leading museums
and quite officially recognized for what they are.
But then came our "agile" member No. 87, Barney
Nashold, again, with a series of rubbings from basreliefs in Centroamerica and photographs of designs
on South American pottery of great age which he
showed might be interpreted as electrical circuitry.
One of these he converted into the form of a current
modern layout and showed that it could be interpreted
as the wiring for a solar battery. Like everything
else, there is an enormous amount of work still to be
done and Barney, 'who is heading this investigation
would welcome any information or suggestions you
might have, including especially leads to possible
depictions that could rep~esent the same or similar
things from other cultures and other countries.

47

OUR LIBRARY
We have recently emerged from a prolonged period
of reorganization in this department. On completion
of a new building, which provided room for expansion,
every, item in our library was carefully read and
assessed. The material so examined was re-catalogued
on the basis of the taxonomy displayed on page 26 of
this issue. We feel that it may be of interest and use
to our members to know, at least in the overall,
what we have to offer.
Preliminarily, our records fall into six basic
categories; namely: General Reference. Dictionaries, Technical
works, etc.
(2) Scientific Reference. Divided as per the Taxonomy
(3) Special Reference. Fortean items.
(4) Art and Architecture. Mostly prehistoric and
Ancient.
(5) Audio-Video. Films, Tapes, Recordings, Photographs and Drawings.
(6) Cartography. Maps, Charts, and Diagrams.
(1)

Material in all~these classes consists not only of

books but also of supplementary periodicals and
several hundred ring-binders of papers, illustrative
material, and other files.
Sections 1 and 6 are standard working material
and fairly comprehensive. Section No. 5 constitutes
records, almost all of which are unique. Sections 2,
3, and 4 are of special value and usefulness; especially No.3, of which there is not known to be
any other such library of this scope in existence.
(A special catalogue of this will be ,published in .due
course.) Items under No.4 are limited and selective,
with an emphasis on Oriental and African themes.
PHYSICAL SCIENCES
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

Mathematics
Ontology
Physics
Chemistry
Astronomy

EARTH SCIENCES
I. Ge-neral Geology
II. Regional Geology
III. Geophysics
IV. Petrology
V. Mineralogy
VI. Crystallography
VII. Speleology
VIII. Oceanol0I:Y
IX. Glaciology
X. Geomorphology
XI. Geography
XII. Dating
LIFE SCIENCES
I. General Biology
II. lHlst.ology
III. Physiology
IV . Anatomy
V. Sexology

Section No. 2 constitutes the core of our library.

This encompasses the first eight of the subdivisions
of our classification as shown on the chart on page 26.
In addition, however, there is a fairly extensive
medical library. Apart from this, technology and
other applied sciences and the useful arts have been
transferred to General Reference. This leaves us
with the purely scientific reference works. These
are classified as shown below.
We do not house works on the Mental and Spiritual
Concepts. These are automatically transferred to
Walter J. McGraw who maintains an extensive library
in these fields. All requests for information in these
areas are referred to him.
Donations of books on any and all of the above
subjects are solicited. You may have some books
that you inherited, have bought or otherwise acquired,
but which you do not wish to read again or for which
you have no further use. We would very much appreciate your sending them to us - freight paid by us but provided you grant us permission to sort them
and donate those that we cannot use to our local
public library. This is a fine little institution, supported entirely by voluntary labor and finance, and
one which serves a rather large community, including
several large school complexes. To aid this library,
even pocketbooks and other paperbacks are most
welcome, as th!'lY have a system there whereby people
may take any such from extensive shelves in t;he
entrance hall, keep them if they want, but bring
others tiack as donations, if they are willing. In
other words, anything you donate will be made full
use of, either by the SOciety or by this citizens'
organization.

VI. Evolution
VII. Botany
(1) General
(2) Systematic
(3) Palaeobotany
VIII. Zoology
(1) General
(2) Commercial
(3) Literary
(4) Natural History
(5) Conservation
(6) Ethology
(7) Protogeanology
(8) Invertebrates
(9) Fishes
(10) Herpets
(11) Birds
(12) Mammals (less Primates)
(13) Primatology
(plus Physloal Ant~roPology)
(14) Palasozoology
HUMAN SCIENCES
I. Gsnsral Anthropology
II. Cultural Anthropology
III. Ethnology

IV. Prehistory
V. History
(I) General
(2) Specific Countries
(3) Ancient
(4000 - 400 B. C.)
(4) Classical (400 B.C. - 400 A.D.)
(Ii) Mediaeval (400 - 1400 A.D.)
(6) Renaissance (1400 - 1800 A.D.)
(7) Contsmporary (1800 - 2000 A.D.)
MENTAL CONCEPTS
I. Logic
II. Epistemology
III. Psychology
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.

Ethics
Aesthetios
Comparative Intelligence
Parapsyohlcs

SPIRITUAL CONCEPTS
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

Religion
Other Mysticism
Mythology
The Occult
Psychics

48

BOOK REVIEWS

The Peter Principle (1969), by Peter, Dr. Lawrence J., and Hull, Raymond; William Morrow & Co., New York.
This is billed as what we call a "fun-book" and it certainly is of a profoundly humorous nature. But, like
such works as 1066 and All That and l.!.!!J!rn. Was ~ Camel, it derives its import from its profoundly satirical
and deadly critique of humanity. This aspect of the work surfaces gradually and bursts forth in the last three
chapters. It is deadly, and it leaves one with a whole new approach to life that transcends even the impact
of Stephen Potter; like whom it gives us a new and much needed lexicon comprised of old words but with a
new significance. Its theme is the almost universal and ever-increasing incompetence of everything, which
must be obvious to everybody; and it lays out both an hypothesis and a set of analYtical principles by which
this inborn frightfulness of the human race may be recognized and assessed. So absolutely right is this
hypothesis that it forces us to contemplate even ourselves, as well as everybody else', and this is of course
something that everyone should do. The key question is: "Have you reached your level of incompetence?" If
you are successful, this book demonstrates precisely how and why you have become so. Read it and apply
said principles to all such persons as Presidents and TV repairmen.
Reincarnation (1969), by Hans Stefan Santesson; Award Books, New York; Tandem Books, London, England.
There is no longer any doubt but that some ingenious and industrious person is going to have to invent,
and then immediately put to use on a very massive basis, some cheap method of binding paperback books in
durable hard covers. Just too much valuable material is now first appearing - and usually remaining -in
the form of pocket- and other-sized paperbacks. While it is indeed praiseworthy that good literature and
valu able contributions to knowledge should be made available to the benighted masses - especially now
that the mechanical non-think monster that we call television has practically taken over what minds such
masses may: have - in the form of cheap little books, it is sad indeed that such books should be so crude
and impermanent. Even the best bound fall apart in due course, especially in libraries. These thoughts are
particularly foremost in our minds when we come to review this work.
Hans stefan Santesson just happens to be our President, and he is widely known in the publishing world
as an editor and anthologist of science-fiction. What people do not know is that he is also a recognized
Orientalist and scholar of over forty years standing, being an expert, among other aspects of such studies,
in, for instance, Veddic, Hindu, and Thibetan classics, and the novel in the Gupta Period of India. It is this
background that makes this book of his so very worthwhile, and which lends to it the authority that its title
would not readily indicate. The subject is regarded - if it i~ at all - by the average person as an advanced
piece of kookery, and its advocates and those who have written about it in popular form heretofore have
almost to a man been somewhat advanced kooks, kr.ooks. krackpots, and/or mystics (Western style) with a
consuming predilection for what they call "Oriental Mysteries". Their ravings indeed put them into the
certifiable class.
This, however, is not the case with true Oriental stUdents and scribes, nor with H. S. Santesson. Oh dear
me, no! This reviewer happens to have been born into a Buddhist family and was imbued from earliest youth
with the basic philosophy of the Gautama, so that we feel justified in commenting upon this book. Herein you
will find an entirely new - to you, if you are a Westerner - concept of, and approach to, this venerable
belief or, should we say, fact of existence. This is an ontological business basically; and this book is
utterly pragmatic in its approach. Do not fail to buy a copy for 75, and then read it. You will not be confirmed in your belief that you were Napoleon, George Washington, Thothmes III, Atle Lincoln. Julius Caesar.
or any other buffoon, in a previous existence, but you will learn a great deal about what makes you tick and
possibly about what you probably call your soul. Here is an up-till-now-non-scientific matter presented in a
scientific manner; and an exposition of an intangible matter in a most tangible manner.
P assport ~ Magonia (1969). by Jacques Vallee; Henry Regnery Company, Chicago.
This book should be read by all forteans and especially by those interested in ufology. To advise that
still another book on this now somewhat dreary and so far inconsequential subject is actually worthwhile
would at first appear to be almost abyssmal. However, this author, for once, says something not only worth
saying but which! makes both common and scientific sense. Unfortunately, this truly gallant doctor does,
however, display distinct signs of premeditated over-caution in that. after he really hits you with a chapter
of valid facts and exquisite analysis, he invariably falls back on the old: "Of course this is probably all
balls, but ... ". This is soP. not to the masses, but to his colleagues who have elected to take jobs for which
they are paid as a profession but in the fields of what is called science. Professional (i.e. paid) scientists
or even technologists cannot go around publishing the fact that they think little green men exist. Along that
road lies instant intellectual and financial death. But more power to this gallant doctor; and read the book.
Its ultimate pith is further reviewed a couple of pages back under the heading of Ufology.
Chariots Q! the Gods? by von Daniken has been published in this country by Putnam's, New York.

GOVERNING BOARD
Hans stefan Santesson
Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. Sanderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L. Fawcett
Donald R. Bensen
Walter J. McGraw
Milt R. Machlin

(*) President (and Chairman of the Board)

(*) 1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
(*) 2nd Vice-President (and Deputy Director)

(*) Treasurer
(*) Secretary
Administrative Assistant (and Librarian)
Editorial Director
Chairman. Publicity Committee
Chairman. Promotion Committee

(*) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees. in accordance with the laws of the State of New Jersey
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Jack A. Ullrich
Ivan T. Sanderson
Marion L. Fawcett
Richard W. Palladino
Ernest L. Fasano
Daniel F. Manning
J. Warner Mills III
Helga Roth
Michael R. Freedman

Chairman (and Supervision of Field Work)

Deputy Chairman (Administration)
Executive Secretary (Coordinator)
Director of Research in Basic Science
Director of Industrial and Technological Relations
Public Relations Officer
Liaison Officer for Governmental and other Official Relations
Consultant on Scientific am Technical Publications
Supervisor of Regional Represent ati ves
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman. Department of Anthropology. and Director. Paleo-Indian Institute. Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician. Georgian Academy of Science. Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director. Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. Philadelphia.
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. J. Allen Hynek - Director. Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center. Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology. Institute of Geophysics. U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics. Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology. Rutgers University. Newark. New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology. Department of Archaeology. University of Alberta. Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology. Emeritus. Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology. Queen Elizabeth College. University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - President. Roth Research-Animal Care. Inc . Washington. D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head. Plant Science Department. College of Agriculture. utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman. Department of Anthropology. Drew University. Madison. New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer. U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman. Department of Botany. Drew University. Madison. New Jersey.
(Botany)
PUBLISHING RECORD
Our publishing schedule is four quarterly issues of PURSUIT. dated January, April. July. and October.
and numbered as annual volumes - Vol. 1 being 1968 and before; Vol. 2. 1969. and so on.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

1. No. 3* - June. 1968

1. No. 4* - Sept . 1968
2. No. 1 - Jan., 1969
2. No. 2 - April. 1969

Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

2.
2.
3.
3.

No.3 No.4 No. 1 No. 2 -

July.
Oct
Jan
Apr

1969
1969*
1970
1970

*These are out of print and available only in photocopy at applicant's expense.
There have been a number of articles recently on the problem of junk mail and the way in which one's
name gets on such a mailing list. We should like to assure our members and subscribers that our mailing list
is available only to resident staff at our headquarters.

. '.
.." ' ,/

-..

~~~::-..

_....

:=

-- -

-=-~~~
-=
.~:-;
=--"""":-

......

I,' .~. ..

.'

SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366

ORGANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the state of New Jersey. These officers are four in number: two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer,
and a Secretary.
General policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists of the four
Trustees, a President elected for 5 years, and five other officers elected annually. These are: an Executive Secretary, and Assistant Directors for Membership and Regional Affairs, Publicity, Promotion, and
Public and Press Relations. The First Vice-President is the Administrative Director, and the Second
Vice-President is in charge of the physical establishment. The Executive Secretary is also the Librarian.
In addition, there are three standing committees: an Activities Committee, a Library Committee, and a
Publications Committee. The names of all officers and committee chairmen are listed on the inside back
cover.
The Society is counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, also listed on the inside back cover,
which is deSignated the Scientific Advisory Board.

PARTICIPATION
Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exempt. pursuant
to the United States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of January to the 31st of December; but those jOining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year gratis. The
.
means of participation are various, as follows: (1) Honorary (including Founding Members) . . . . . . . . . . . (Free for life)
(2) Sponsors ($1000. or more) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (-Free for life)
(3) Contributing ($100. for special privileges)
. . . . . ($10 p.a. thereafter)
(4) Corresponding (data withdrawal service). . . . . . . . . . $10 per annum
(5) Contracting (for individual projects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . (By contract)
(6) Reciprocating (for other societies) . . . . . . . . . . (By exchange)
All of these except No.5 receive all the Society's publications.

PUBLICATIONS
The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current events and
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes an annual report on Society affairs to
members in categories (1). (2). (3). and (4) above. The Society further issues Occasional Papers on
certain projects. and special reports in limited quantity on the request of Sponsors or Contributing Members. (Subscription to PURSUIT is $5 per aimum. including postage.)
PUBLISHING RECORD
Our publishing schedule is four quarterly issues of PURSUIT. dated January, April. July, and October.
and numbered as annual volumes - Vol. 1 being 1968 and before; Vol. 2. 1969, and so on.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

1.
1.
2.
2.

No.3 - June. 1968

No.4 - Sept 1968
No. 1 - Jan 1969
No. 2 - April, 1969

Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.

2.
2.
3.
3.

No.3 No.4 No. 1 No. 2 -

July.
Oct.,
Jan
Apr..

1969
1969
1970
1970

These are out of print.

IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-members. (This does not. of
course. affect private correspondence with Ivan T. Sanderson.) Further. the Society does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its publications are those of
the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any members by word of mouth or in
print may be construed as those of the Society. The colophon and name of this journal are copyrighted.
Any matter therein may be quoted. provided it is published in quotes. in toto. and unedited. and provided
it is credited to: - "PURSUIT, Quarterly Journal of the SOciety for the Investigation of the Unexplained,
Columbia, New Jersey."

Vol. 3. No. 3
July. 1970

PURSUIT
THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE
INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF -THINGS
THAT ARE CUsrOMARILY DISCOUNTED

Editorial Director: Ivan T. Sanderson

Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett
Associate Editor: Daniel F. Manning

CONTENTS
The Taxonomy of Knowledge
Editorial
Chaos and ConfuSion (True Forteana)
A Set of Radio Dentures
Rain-Making: New Style
Cocijo: The Ugly Rain-Maker
It's Not Raining Inside Tonight
A -Nasty From On High
Trucking Levitation
The Famous Barbados Vault
OntologY
Space Is 3-Dimensional
Holes in Our Universe
Physics: Getting With Counter-Matter
Chemistry: Blue Ag~n: Indigo and Woad
Astronomy: B~by's Babies - Earth Moonlets?
Geology
You Think We're Polluted
Rockall- You-All
Biology
More on -B.O."
Now It's Ocean-going Hippos
Anthropology: Somebody's Ark Again
Ufology
Current Pursuits and Requests
Our Library
Book Reviews

50
51

52
53
53
54
. 54
56
56
57
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
63
64
65
66
67
68

All communications should be addressed to:

S. I. T. U. Columbia. New Jersey 07832.
Telephone: .Area Code 201. 496-4366.
Please notify us promptly of any change of addresfl. and include zip code.

THE TAXONOMY

OF

KNOWLEDGE

GEOLOGY
THE

TANGIBLES
VI
EARTH SCIENCES
Atmospherics and Meteorology;

Oceanology, Hydrology. and Glaciology; Tectonics, Vulcanol ..

ogy. Seismology, Geophysics

and Geamorphology; PeIrology and Mineralogy;
Geodesy, Geography,
Cartography;

Daling.

MATTER
Atomics, Molecular

Chemistry, Crystallography.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

PERFORMANCE
Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics,
Classical Physics. Electrics,

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
Cultural Anthropology and
Elhnology (Archaeology is a
technique); Pre .. Hisfory,

History, and Folklore; Philologyand Linguisticsa

.

MENTAL CONCEPTS
Logic and Epislemology;
Psychology; Ethics and Aesthetics; Comparative IntelligenclI'!i

Electromagnetics, Magnetics,
Mechanics.

Parapsyc:hics.

EXISTENCE
Space, Time,

Locus, Cosmology.

MEASUREMENT
~.

Number, Quantity.

Arithmetic, Algebra,
Geometry, Trigonometry,

Calculus, Topology, Theory

01 Games. Probability,Coine idence.

THE

INTANGIBLES

Everything in existence, including -existence- itself, and thus all of our possible concepts and all knowledge
that we possess or will ever possess, is contained within this wheel. Te:chnologies and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, having access to any or all of the ten major departments of organized knowledge.
From the KORAN: -Acqui .. e knowledge. It enables its possessor to know right from wrong; it lights the way to
heaven; it is our friend in the d~sert, our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guides us to
happiness; it sustains us in misery; "it is an ornament among friends, and an armour against enemies.- The Prophet.

50

51

EDITORIAL

The time has come for a reassessment of outlook and thus for a restatement of what, I suppose, can but
be called pollcy. Actually, our approach has not changed in either respect, but what Charles Fort called
"acceptance", on the part of many others and on many subjects, has changed drastically during the past
year. We speak, of course, of the attitude to reality of philosophers with scientific training. We are delighted
with this turn of events, and we welcome this fraternity to the ranks of common sense and understanding.
However, it is the unexpected ways by which this and other "fraternities" have come to such an acceptance,
that fascinates us.
As we have repeatedly observed, humanity ran on belief until the incident at Hiroshima. Since then, it
has been forced to re-orientate its entire outlook to conform with reality. It's not that "God" died that day,
as so many assert; but rather that the concept of an infinitely competent and benign power then literally
dropped dead. What we, perhaps rather EUphemistically, call Nature, which is only another way of saying
reality, is not benign. It is, from our human way of thinking, infinitely cruel; and while not always by any
means altogether competent, it is gruesomely efficient. Learn a little palaeontology and you will immediately perceive just bow incompetent nature is - billions of different life-forms being evolved, and all but a
couple of million of them being extinguished on this little planet alone. In fact, elimination of her failures
by de!;ltruction, is nature's way of being efficient. But there is another side to the coin, and it is of this that
we wish. to speak.
"1

All manner of people who have truly studied reality through realistic (i.e. what we call scientific)
channelsiduring the past century have ultimately been forced to accept the possibility of other realities - at
least if they managed to remain intellectually honest. The most outstanding example that I know of was the
great Alfred Russel Wallace, co-proposer of the theory of evolution, who was a pragmatist if ever there was
one. From collecting Birds-of-paradise, he graduated to the contemplation of an ever-expanding concept of
Nature, and he ended up being as near a mystic as any pragmatist can be. That was a century ago.
Wallace's final thoughts were scoffed at by contemporary scientists who, while being forced to respect
the enormous contributions he had made to the natural sciences, endeavoured to attribute what they considered his (to them) gross aberrations to senility. They did the same to people like Sir Oliver Lodge.
They could not just ignore intellects of this stature and scientific training, nor could they declare outright that they were crackpots, as they did such personalities as Conan Doyle on the one hand and Charles
Fort on the other. Anything that did not conform to their (primitive) mechanistic concept of everything, was
labelled screwball - with the exception of religion, to which they continued to give lip service just to be
on the safe side themselves! But as time has flowed on, ever more properly trained minds of a philosophical
turn, and an extraordinary number of pure technologists, have cast off the shackles of the 'old' mechanics;
and for the very simple reason that their own searches, researches, and discoveries have demonstrated without a doubt that there are not only other "mechanics" but other worlds of both logic and reality.
It is strange, nonetheless, that it should be the stepchild of reality - i.e. ufology, so called - that
should have brought this boiling intellectual discontent to the surface. If you will turn to the section we
allot to this business, you will see what I mean. John Keel is not the first but the last (or most recent)
thinker to express opinions on reality that have exercised the minds and deep attention of all religions for
centuries, and of most governments, many scientists, and hosts of others for now about fifty years. To the
prior acceptance of these new concepts there have been two road-blocks. On the one hand, the old-time socalled scientists, and on the other the religionists and other mystics, the occultists and spiritists, and the
spiritualists. What both parties have failed to realize is that there is a "third world", as it were. This is
just as real as our mechano-physical one, but it does not run on our laws, principles, or even logiC. Moreover, it is not the spiritual world.
If you want to know what it is - and you had better get with it if you want to survive - read books like
this one by Keel; the one we recommended in our last issue, by Schroeder & Ostrander; and then take Vallee's
Passport to Magonia; the Condon Report; and works by engineers like Aime Michel. They all come out at
the same point - namely, pragmatiC evidence, such as even our science now has to accept, of the existence
of another-Cor many other) existence(s), interwoven with ours, with which we are beginning to make contact
through our technology, and our new and better understanding of the operation and scope of what we call a
"mind".

Ivan T. Sanderson

52

CHAOS AND CONFUSION

(The True Forteana)
(Editorial Note: We are bringing this column up front from now on because it is, after all, our raison d'etre.
This should not be construed to mean that the items described herein are any less serious-minded than those
that come later; nor that the latter are more pompous than these. Our purpose as, we hope, good forteans, is
to present all matters of a tangible nature that have not as yet been adequately explained; but, at the same
time, to do all we can to find adequate explanations for them. The oddities and paradoxes that keep.cropping up in the established fields of scientific enquiry (and which now follow this column) are every bit as
enigmatic as these chaotic (intellectually speaking) items that are handled herein. It's just that, being asked to cope with the former first is asking an awful lot of those who do not have the time to keep up with the
abstruser findings of "orthodox" science.)
'.

..

r'

A SET OF RADIO DENTURES

This is an old saw, but coming from a dentist we
have to take note. It ties in with a couple of other
thing s that cry out for confirm ation and elucidation.
But first, the story: - Daytona Beach, Florida, 9th
April, 1970. "A housewife who has been receiving
musical radio signals through her teeth has a mouthful of new fillings today, but still may be driven to
extraction. (Of her teeth, presumably. Editor) The
woman, who agreed to talk abo.ut it only if her name
wasn't used, said Wednesday she had all her fillings
but one replaced by plastic. She said a metal filling
was left because it involved a root and might have
to be pulled. The music stopped for three days. She
had been picking up the Signals since the night of
March 16 and had been sleeping in a motel out of
range of her neighborhood to get peace. 'I thought I
was free and was ready to throw a party,' she said.
Then her teeth tuned up again, much weaker than before but still there.
.
.
"Electronics experts say they believe the music
is being transmitted by a person using a wireless
phonograph to send signals to another p art of his
house. A dentist, Dr. J. H. Long, explained that two
metals such as gold and amalgam fillings, plus acid
in saliva, could set UP a potential receiving system
such as the woman's mouth. The housewife placed an
advertisement in a newspaper urging whoever had
been playing the songs she was hearing to identify
himself. The numbers include 'Long Way to Tipperary' and 'Rambling Rose', she said. She said the ad
brought a flood of calls, 'but nothing concrete' ...
Our first question is why only music? The experts
may be right in that the lady was picking up onlY a
hi-fi USing radio, rather than an intercom, to other
room s in the house. However, similar reports have
been comi ng in since the initiation of regular broadcast programs in the early twenties. Many of these
have been in a way suppressed because the sufferers
heard voices as well, which they interpreted as 'evil
spirits' haunting them; and who, as a result of be~ng

unable to obtain relief from psychiatrists, were loted

off to mental institutions. We wonder just hdW'Hiiuiy
poor people have been so toted off, only teO end up
truly insane. It is, of course, just possibleltliatthe
bloody OINTs* or ultrat.errestrial intelligellciies, as
John Keel has now deSignated them **, can and do
pester good people with dreary music andIrunning
commentary of a frightemng or obscene ~ature, as
would seem to be their wont and pleasur~9rHowever,
the~e is another lead-in to this phenomencw,.
Way back in 1916, a Mr. James McKelvi~, who was
a partner and confidant of Marconi and who used his
steam yacht, the Surf, in conjunction with Marconi'S,
named the Electra, to first step the Atlantic by radio
relays, was staying in a hotel at a place- called
Tintagel in Cornwall, :E:ngland. He complained that
the springs in his bed were picking up Morse-coded
Signals and, being one of the leading experts in the
diffusion of such at that time, he started keeping a
record in shorthand. Through his position, which was
semi-official, he was able to trace the messages to
certain British naval craft, operating within a limited
range of Tintagel; and he then proceeded to somewhat upset officialdom by forwarding to them samples
of these ultrasecret, encoded Morse-code communications.
Electronic engineers take an extremely dim view
of the suggestion that two different metals used as
fillings in teeth, bathed in buccal acid saliva. can
act as radio receptors; and they take an only slightly.
less dim view of this bedspring bit, which has likewise persisted for year after year. In both cases, they
*The abbreviation coined by Ivan T. Sanderson
for "other Intelligencies, w.i.th deliberate intent to
match their seeming unpleasant character; though
without wishing to impugn that of the worthy pig,
which is claimed to be the third most intelligent
animal, second only to the chimps and ourselves.
See Ufology, page

6~.

Mill Chaos?
We regret that we must inform you that the protozoan Chaos chaos has been renamed Palomyza carolinensis. Some people have no respect for tradition at all!

53

request an outside power source independent of the.

broadcasts. However, some of the EMI effects that
are now being detected would seem to imply that all
of us (and our beds) are riddled with electromagnetic
interferences from allover a vast range of frequencies. An entire approach-system at a Chicago airport
was once thrown Into complete chaos by a small
electronic machine in a nearby shirt-factory which
was used intermittently for labelling the goods as
they came off the stitching machines! In other words,
. the poor lady in Florida might well be advised to
consult an EMI specialist (vide: our member No. 22,
who heads Electromagnetic Interference Corp. of
Boston), with a view to trying to change her frequency.

second thoughts. If only one man (see PURSUIT, Vol.

2, No.2) can demonstrate an ability to dissolve
clouds, with near 100% accuracy and under controlled
conditions, it is hard to deny that a whole bunch of
enthusiasts could not loosen up the free ions in some,
and so make rain. Any such procedure, nonetheless,
might be supposed to operate only in a direct line of
vision. But why stop there? Mindpower appears now
not to be linear in effect. but to be tridimensional i. e. to operate in every direction at once and irrespective of the solidity of any matter intervening.
. We are getting rather fond of "housewives"; they
come up with the damnedest things.
COCIJO: THE UGLY RAIN-MAKER

RAIN-MAKING: NEW STYLE

LONDON, Eng. (UPI), 28th March, 1970: "A housewife said this week she is making it rain 3000 miles
away in Canada so that seal hunts will be washed
out. Doris Munday said she conjured up Canada's
rains just sitting in her Brook Green parlor and'thinking very hard'. That way, said Mrs. Munday, she has
caused the torrential rains reported there to have
cancelled out many seal-hunting operations, just as
she had earlier ended droughts in India, China and
the United states, and caused hail to fall on an
English cricket ground.
"'Nobody ever believes me,' Mrs. Munday said.
'There's no mumbo-jumbo, no incantations, no witchcraft - I just think very hard, concentrate on what I
want the weather to do, and it works. At least, it
works 90 per cent of the time. I love animals, and
when I read about those poor little creatures being
clubbed to death (in Canada), I got angry,' she said.
'So I made it rain. '"
This is another old saw but even more aggravating
because it is so very old. Throughout history, and
from long before, chaps have claimed to be able to
make it rain; and we have all the old rain-making
ceremonies, like those of the admirable Hopi of our
country, and the mystic ponderers on Asiatic mountain
tops, still going on today. Countless tho~sands of
people have witnessed these ceremonies; and even
some sceptical scientists among these have grudgingly had to admit a disturbing incidence of coincidence in the desired results observed, that at least
seemed to considerably surpass the law of probability. However, the whole bit was a pretty lost cause
until the current scientific analysis of brain control.
and of physical "brainpower" was undertaken. Now
not only phySicists and meteorologists, but all other
pragmatists of the old schools, have had to indulge

Since we are on this rain-making jag, we would

like to bring to your attention two other 'stories'
that you may well not have heard of. Neither comes
from what is so often euphemistically called "unimpeachable sources", but they are signed, the originals include photographs of the persons concerned,
and they give names, dates, and locations, all of
which have been confirmed. The first was written by
one Lois Worker for the National Insider of the 2nd
June, 1966. and went as follows:- "In the old song,
'The rain falls mainly in the plain.' but in Costa Mesa,
Cal., the rain falls wherever William Payne places his
littl~ glay r~plicas of an old Indian rain God, Cocijo.
"When Payne, an art instructor at Orange Coast
College, set the ugly little statues out in the fields
last November, Southern California got the heaviest
rainfall in its history. On nine other occasions when
rain was needed, Payne put little Cocijoes in the
fields, and precipitation, ranging from drizzles to
downpours, resulted. 'Sure. I believe Cocijo brings
rain,' Payne told me when I talked with him at the
college. 'My students believe it, too - at least until
after final grading ~ime. If Cocijo was good enough
for the ZapQtec lndians of old Mexico, he's good
enough for me.' The Zapotecs believed that if they
placed stone likenesses of the god, face up in the
fields, they'd get rain. :aut, according to their legends,
the faces of Cocijo were good for only one downpour.
So Payne, following the tribal custom, molds fresh
images of Cocijo after every successful performance.
'The Indians believed that Cocijo worked because he
was so ugly,' he said. 'He was designed to scare
the heavens into letting loose with the water.'
"Doesn't Payne perhaps check with the Weather
Bureau before making up a batch of Cocijo images
and putting them o~tc;ioors? I asked. 'No, I never

Peter Ustinov on ,.dvancement

"People only get to the top because they have no qualification to detain them at the bottom."
Reguirements

{Q[

Scientists

The famous German physicist Erwin Schrodinger, "father" of quantum mechanics, ~ajc;l down some requirements for scientists: "The first requirement of a scientist is that he be ~urious; he must be capable of
being astonished and eager to find out".

- - - - - - - -

-------,-----,--

54

check with the weatherman,' he said. 'Cocijo just

works, that's all. ,,,
It just so happens that the writer once came upon
hundreds of little pottery faces, (see cut) lying on a
bare desert area in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in
southern Mexico. Curiously, the locals stated that
these had been exposed by a strange torrential downpour some years back and that, for some reason, it
had never rained in that area since! The surrounding
areas continued to have a very fair. rainfall, and the
'desert' where the little faces lay (and there was lots
of other pottery about), was clearly a new development since there were multiple signs of very recent
cultivation and even of adobe buildings that could
not have been more than a decade old. Did these
little Cocijoes (Coss-ee-hohs, or "Kosytl") lose
their power after their first effort?
IT'S NOT RAINING INSIDE TONIGHT
This next one. is lifted in toto from the National
Enquirer, who initially published it by arrangement
with Lyle Stuart of New York. It is too good to be
paraphrased, especially since the facts check out.
It goes as follows: "In two blazing hot years only 2 inches of rair.
had fallen on the parched earth around San Diego,
Calif. By January of 1916, the city was on the brink
of disaster for want of water. It had been three months
since the last feeble shower. The reservoirs were
virtually dry. At the risk of being regarded as idiots,
the city council voted to employ the services of a
professional rainmaker. They had been bombarded
with proposals from Charles Mallory Hatfield, a form er sewing machine salesman who claimed he could
induce rain, for a fee. He got too job.
"He had noticed, he said, that after great battles
there were often great storms. He had also noticed
that during great battles clouds of cannon smoke
rose into the skies. And, to Hatfield, this constituted
evidence that the burnt powder had, as he put it,
upset the balance of nature in the air. Once upset,

clouds formed and rain fell, said Hatfield. For

several years he had experimented on his father's
farm in Kansas, setting UP huge wooden tubs on
towers - tubs from which clouds of chemical vapors
drifted aloft. Rains came, torrential rains sometimes,
and Hatfield found there were those who would pa,y
him extremely well for his services. par example,
the farmers of California's San Joaquin Valley hired
him year after year to provide them with bountiful
rains. They paid him $10,000 a year and were happy
with the results. The miners of Dawson City, Alaska,
paid him $21,000 to provide water for their dry
sluiceboxes. So, when San Diego finally turned to
Hatfield in January of 1916, it was not dealing with
an unknown.
San Diego's main source of supply was Lake
Morena, a man-made reservoir which had never been
more than one-third full in its 20 years' existence.
When Hatfield arrived on the scene, the lake was a
hot, stinking mudhole. He made the city two offers:
$1,000 an inch for each inch of rain that followed his
efforts; or $10,000, for which he would fill the lake
that had never been filled. For several days the city
council stalled, vainly hoping that nature would provide the water. But when the fourth da,y dawned hot
and cloudless, they hired Hatfield. And he put the
workmen to setting UP his tall wooden towers. Within
24 hours after those towers began sending their evil
smelling vapors into the skies, rain began to fall.
Crowds stood in the streets to cheer Hatfield.
"But the rejoicing didn't last long. On the third
consecutive da,y of rain, the San Diego Exposition
was washed out, and the Tia Juana race track was
flooded. Telegraph and telephone lines were knocked
down. Railroad bridges were swept awa,y. And still
the rains came. ota,y and Sweetwater reservoirs
filled - overflowed - and finally burst their earthen
dams and thundered down the valley. A 50-foot wall
of water carried 50 persons to their deaths. Troops
were called in for emergency duty. Lake Morena filled and overflowed for the first time in its history.
Th en Hatfield turned off his towers and went to
collect his money. The city. busy digging out of the
flood, refused to pa,y him. And years later his lawsuit was finally dismissed. Scientists declared that
Hatfield was a fraud and that his method was worthless. But before Hatfield died in 1958 he lived to see
scientists making rain by sending chemical vapors
into the air - just as he had done 42 years before."
A "NASTY" FROM ON HIGH
The accompanying photograph and the following
story are taken from Saucer News, published by
Saucerian Publications, Box 2228, Clarksburg, W.
Va., with their kind permission. It reads: - "Saucer
News is indebt ed to Mrs. Maria Desmedt, of Caracas,
for sending us the above photo which appeared in her
home town paper, EI Mundo. She also translated the
account accompanying it. A strange object shaped
like a human kidney fell from the sky on July 22,
1969, in the Los Llanos area, near Zaraza, Guarico
State, prodUCing panic and excitement in the farm

55

neighborhood. The object was composed of a very

solid gray material. 'Its interior is completely
empty,' the paper stated, 'giving the impression of
being a protective harness or armor-plate of an unknown instrument.' Farmer Hilario Aponte carried the
object to the nearest village, where it was turned
over to government officials who indicated they would
turn it over to the American Embassy! The paper
added that the object showed little damage and could
hardlY have been a part of a satellite or other space
shot. Ironically, farmer Aponte died from unknown
causes the day after he gave the story to the news~
paper."
(Editor's comment: When collecting animals and
plants in north-eastern South America, we saw something like this, but neither I nor my wife who was
with me, can for the life of us remember just what it
was. It certainly was not this size, and we have a
feeling that it was the rind of some kind of fruit or
nut from a primary forest tree. At the same time, however, there is a group of marine creatures called
popularly Sea-Pens, and more scientifically the
Pennatulaceans, that give rise to just such odd-looking structures that are sometimes found on sea
beaches after storms. They are a kind of Coelenterate,
holding a status somewhere between the Sea-Anemones
and the Corals. They are gelatinous but become
rubbery when dead and exposed to the air. The top
part (see Fig. 2) readily breaks off, and the tentacles
then curl inwards on drying - i.e. away from the
viewer in this picture - until they go into the interior,
which is hollow.)
Zaraza in Guarico State is about 50 miles from the
sea, but trash-fish and other inedible animals that
are brought up in trawls and dredge-nets off that
coast, instead of being tossed overboard as by us,
are often harvested by the frugal Venezuelan fishermen and sold - and at a handsome price, we might
add - as fertilizer for inland cornfields; and Zaraza
is on the Ipiri River which leads to the sea. There is
no direct evidence that this thing actually "fell from
the sky, and so we have it in mind that it turned up
one day after rain on the surface of a milpa (corn
field), having arrived initially in a load of fish
manure. Space-animals there might be, and all kinds
of organic junk has been reported as having fallen
from, the sky but for now we prefer to await Sight of
this item before pontificating further. Incidentally,
some Sea-Pens are poisonous; apparently exuding a
substance related to nicotinic acid which, of course,
can kill by penetrating the skin. Whether such poison
remains after death, or whether farmer Hilario Aponte
took his "find to bed with him, we also do not know.

.:.',.

.',

::.

,',

~ ~",""

....... l"........ ,,;

~:. ~",

Wo'

~,.;. .,;a.......

Above (top) is the object found inland in Venezuela, which by the size of the hand holding it would
appear to be about a foot long. Bottom left is an
outline of a two-foot-long Pennatulacean, fully extended, from the eastern Caribbean, and to the right
the Venezuelan object reduced to scale, with the
upper tip indicated by a dotted outline, and the main
basal body likewise below. These animals anchor
themselves in sand as do some Sea Fans.

Scepticism Defined
Anon. - "Knowledge is unattainable, and if attained is unrecognizable."

56

TRUCKING LEVITATION
Here's a funny one indeed, and one that would
have given Charlie Fort a great 'lift'. But first the
story: .
Woodbridge, N.J., 24th February, 1970: .. An
B,500-gallon tank-truck mysteriously overturned
yesterday afternoon on the ramp from the Garden State
Parkway to Route 440, spilling nearly 7,000 gallons
of fuel oil onto the ramp. According to the driver of
the truck, owned by Rollo Transporting of Keyport,
George Hermey, 53, of Middletown, he entered the
ramp in low gear because of the grade and curve,
but 'the truck just seemed to lift up and slide over'.
He said the accident occurred just after noon, and
that an unidentified New York man, who helped him
out of the cab told him that the truck seemed to lift
up also. 'I just do not know what happened,' Hermey
said, noting that once the truck did overturn, it slid
nearly six feet. 'It just doesn't make any sense,' he
said."
The next morning, as reported by Judy Geissler
in the News Tribune of Woodbridge, N. J., dated the
25th Feb., police were notified that a tank trailer
containing highly flammable acetone had overturned
on Route 9 at the cut-off for Bordentown Avenue.
"The driver of the overturned truck, William R.
Buchanan of Middleton told police he had applied his
brakes going into the tum but 'didn't get a good
response.' He decided against cutting across the
divider for fear of hitting oncoming vehicles, and the
truck rolled onto its side. 'I couldn't slow down
enough for the turn', he explained. The roU-over
was the second incident in two days involving Rollo
trucks ......
The major fortean aspect of the first case is, of
course, the implication of levitation; but the secondary aspect is delicious. Here we have two. trucks
"rolling" over, within a short space of time, and. both
owned by the ROLLO Trucking Company!

THE FAMOUS BARBADOS VAULT

Just about every fortean book ever publsihed, and

a very substantial major-ity of "kookbooks" and other
less reliable opera, have given great play to a cer- .
tain vault in an old churchyard on the island of

Barbados. Even the inimitable Cmdr. Rupert T. Gould

seems to have considered it a mystery so genuine. as
to be regarded as proof of natural occurrences without
our present understanding. One of our members recently brought up this matter once again, pOinting out
that, if modern electronic equipment were installed
in this vault and some new coffins placed therein,
we might get a record of just what does go on therein. Meantime, however, another member (No. 344) who
is a working scientist, visited said vault. His report
goes as follows:"I have now returned from Barbados, where I
examined the Chase vault. It is well maintained, but
I could find nobody who knew as much about it as I
did! There is a new school within 50 yards of it, and
there is not much peace and quiet in the daytime
there now. I have been on the island for a period of
weeks in three separate years. and each time there
has been at least one cloudburst despite what the
Tourist Bureau tells you about the weather. You walk
down several steps, as it (the vault) is well below
ground level, into the vault and there is the wall of
a large churchjust behind you to act as a catchment.
I would be very surprised if the vault does not flood
during these downpours. The cement floor has now
cracked away from the brick walls, and lizards movEl
freely through the cracks. This is obviously the
means by which the water escapes. It comes in under
the door. The crack is now plainly visible, but it
may not have been 150 years ago. I would be very
inclined to the flooding explanation for the movement
of the coffin s."
The Original story goes.that, every time this vault
was opened for the interment of another member of
the Chase family, the coffins within, the exact locations of which were recorded each time it was sealed,
were found displaced. "Supernatural" forces were inferred, and more especially because some of these
coffins were lead-lined. However. all were sealed,
and even a heavily lead-lined coffin can become
water-borne. Knowing the incredible volume of water
that can fallon a small area in tropical storms, we
are quite prepared to take our informant's suggestion.
at face value for now. Interestingly also, there has
never been any implication of "choombays" (a West
Indian term for poltergeist or geist manifestations)
connected with this place. while Islanders ofAfrican

Official Chaos and Confusion

A booklet entitled "Journey from the Blue Nile: A HistGcy of the Abyssinian Cat", published by the
United Abyssinian Club, Inc., Lackawanna, N. Y., contains a classic bit on official regulations. Mr. and
Mrs. William Maguire, stationed in Ethiopia (Abyssinia), acquired a kitten that conformed to "Cat Fancy"
standards for Abyssian cats and were determined to bring him back to the states with them and set about
getting the proper papers. "No one in any official capacity knew what to do for no one had ever asked to
take a domestic cat out of the country before. There was no precedent for this" A lion perhaps, but a cat!
Insistence paid off, and convinced at last that the Maguire family would not leave without Smokey, an
official issued a document which gave: 'Permission to export a pelt with a live animal in it'!"

57

origin are very sensitive to such alleged otherwordly affairs. So, until we do so install modern

electronic equipment that proves otherwise, we plunk

for plain water.

THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES

II. ONTOLOGY
SPACE IS 3-DIMENSIONAL
This is one of those marvellous items that would
have delighted t he soul of old Chllllie Fort. The
whole of existence is actually a complete mystery,
and we don't, in point of fact, have the foggiest
notion what it is all about. Also, although we are
now cluttered with an endless cascade of details
about everything, from nuclear particles to galaxies,
and chromosomes to blue whales, some of the most
basic aspects of everything have just not been
questioned. Here is a real lulu that is just about as
basic as you can get. We quote in full from the
British journal, the NIDx Scientist, for 19th FebrulllY,
1970:"H!1ve you ever wondered why ordinlllY space is
three-dimensional? Although this may seem to be a
ludicrous question, it has been the subject of considerable thought by scientists and philosophers
since the time of Aristotle. Before scoffing at their
apparent folly, remember that myth and commonsense often succumb to scientific scrutiny. However,
you do not need to worry that space has been five
dimensional without your knowing, because general
physical arguments have revealed that three is the
only combination that works. Dimensions llllger than
three can be discounted if we accept that the gravitational force v lilies as the inverse square of the
distance between two masses. This law, originally
derived by Newton, will only allow for stable elliptical planetlllY orbits if spatial dimensions are three or
less. Similar IIlguments apply for stable atoms. Unless there are two or three dimensions, electrons
will collapse into the nucleus as a consequence of
the inverse squllle law nature of Coulomb forces."
This article ended by saying, "That's comforting".
Nonetheless, it sti11leaves a number of further basic
questions such as whether ours is the only 'space';
and whether time might have to be three dimensional,
as opposed to uni-directional or -dimensional. And
what about locus (i. e. a point in space)? Is this a
'dimension'? As a point in "time" it does not, of
course, exist, 1!xcept in theory, and as a turn-over
point from the past to the future - and whichever
way you are going. But in space, it obviously has
quite another connotation. Is somebody going to try
to devise a formula to prove that we exist? That
would be ontology at its best.

the 9th May, of this year, under the byline of Dietrick

E. Thomsen. This laid upon the line for us nitwits,
a summation of certain current theories regardiQg the
basic cosmological business of the origin and conservation of matter. As we have been repeatedly told
by the popular media, there are two theories, the
'continuous creation' and the initial 'big bang'. The
first envisages matter (as we know it in our spacetime continum) as having been continuously created
since ever and thus forever pushing all parts of our
universe apart - hence the Doppler Effect. This
would seem to indicate that the farther anything is
from you, wherever you may be, the faster it is going
away from you. The opposing view is that everything
that we know started from one concentrated mass
that exploded, and all the bits and pieces of which
have ever since been flying apart. (But how then the
Doppler Effect?) Neither theory is altogether satisfactory.
This Doppler Effect has most definitely been
proved to be valid, but at comparatively short (astronomical) range only. There is no real proof as yet
that the objects that we believe to be farthest away
from where we are, are actually moving away from us
faster than all those in between that point and us.
But this may be no more than what it is called namely, an "effect" (of perception). The "Big Bang"
theory, on the other hand, is on even more slippery
ice. For all the mathematical and other proofs there
may be for it, the basic question still must remain where did the stuff that went bang come from, and
what was it doing before. The advocates of this
notion suggest that it was previously all diffused,
as it is today, but that it then fell back in on itself
until it made such a concentrated mass that it just
had to go "bang" once again: and for the nth time.

HOLES IN OUR UNIVERSE

Now comes one Dr. Frank J. Low of the University

of Arizona with a bit of plain common-sense. His
reasons for promulgating his theory should be read
in the article specified above, or in his own technical
papers, but it may be summarized as follows. Due to
certain happenings, which he has been able to record
and document, there would appear to be a possibility
(and watch that qualifying word) that matter is created in the centers of galaxies. This is, of course,
over-simplifying. Nonetheless, Dr. Low and his
associates have presented statistical evidence that
more comes out of such points than goes into them.
When it comes to thoughts upon just where this new
matter might come from (and for "matter", read
energy) one really "strikes it rich", as it were.

A perfectly splendid round-up of the knottiest

aspect of ontology appeared in Science News, of

Could the centers of the whirligigs that we call

galaxies be "holes" leading out of or into our space-

58

time-continum, so that matter could, as it were, drop

into ours from some other - and/or drop out of ours,
the other way? Intriguing: but at least possibly
logical, and certainly rather soothing. If the forces
inherent in our universe are not geared to create new
energy - but it can be proved to be continuously
augmented, and to ~xpand - would not such "spouting" into it of what is needed from another (or other)

universe explain some current (to us) anomalies and

paradoxes?
Curiously, this article states: "Acceptance of thi s
idea immediately raises the problem of antimatter.
According to currently accepted laws of particle
physics, when matter Is created, so is an equal
amount of antimatter". So let us proceed to this
"matter".

III. PHYSICS

GETTING WITH COUNTER-MATTER

We ordinary folk have really got left behind in so
many things. If by any chance we read any other than
the spot-news, or the sports columns of our newspapers, we just might have noticed mentions from
time to time in the past few years of a thing called
"antimatter". So weird and abstruse is this to almost
everybody - except physicists and highschool students - that we just flip over the page and get on
with news of the current war. This is a pity because
this "jazz" is probably soon going to direct all our
lives - if we survive, that is. Yet, one can't be expected to concern oneself with everything. Today
there is just too much.
Of course, the point at issue is not 'anti '-matter
but 'counter-maJ;ter' in that there is nothing "against"
(or anti-) what we call "matter" about this. Nonetheless, we are stuck with the designation and we will
have to live with it. Only a few years ago, the suggestion that there might be another lot of "matter"
having qualities opposite to those of what we call
matter, was considered as an advanced form of
kookery or 'nuttism'. However, the physicists have
been working along, and they have now got to a point
where they solemnly permit the following sort of
thing to be published in a periodical which purports
(with their full permission) to explain their efforts.
This comes from the British journal New Scientist,
of the 26th February, 1970, and we quote:"Nuclear physicists are slowly building up the
chemical table the hard way - using anti-matter.
Last year 'researchers from CERN and the Russian
Institute of High-Energy Physics working at Serpukhov

announced the identification of anti-deuterium among

the reaction particles obtained by bombarding aluminum with 70-GeV protons (Physics ~etters, vol 30B,
p.5l0). Now the Russian workers under the direction
of Professor Yu. D. Prokoshkin have discovered the
anti-matter analogue of helium-3 - a conglomerate
of two anti-protons and one anti-neutron. Their discovery was ,nnounced in ~ last week. From
over 2 x 10 1 secondary particles, five nuclei were
.
identified as anti-helium."
Of course the working of this natty little statement
is incomprehensible to the average citizen but it has
been interpreted for us, and for your edification, by
our advisors in this field, as follows:- "Those with
the necessary equipment to investigate nucleonics
have now progressed so far in the collection of evidence of the existance of this 'antimatter' as to be
able to start listing actual specific examples". In
other words, this antimatter is apparently now here
to stay; and this brings up the pertinent question;
"Where is it?"
This question also has recently been hotly debated, and almost ad nauseam. The whole idea of
antimatter is that it must be created in amounts equal
to what is to us normal "matter". However, if the two
types "get together" 'as it were, they are alleged to
be mutually annihilitic. In other words, they cancel
each other out instantly, resulting in some gammarays. Haven't some people got their lines crossed
somewhere. Even if there are only five antimatter
helium nuclei in 2 x 1,000,000,000,000 ordinary ones,
how come they did not just pop off instantly? Either
they lasted more than an "instant", or they didn't.
If they did, they can coexist with their (ordinary)
counterparts, at least for a brief 'bit'. Explain please.

Don't Knock the Ladinos!

We in the U. S. have a tendency to belittle the scientific accomplishments of our South American neighbours; and in fact the Establishment once refused to have some extraordinary papers translated simply
because they were written by a Brasilian. Now NASA and its associated institutions are using a diamond
knife invented by a Venezue Ian scientist, Dr. Humberto Fernandez-Moran, to slice lunar rocks. "The cutting
edge of the diamond knife is so fine that it can cut a human hair lengthwise into 10,000 strands." That's
not a typo; it is ten thousand strands. That is quite a knife!

ACHTUHG! !
to Loolcenspeepers
Das machine unJ ekvipment is nicht fur gefingerpoken unJ mittengrabben. 1st easy schnapp en der
springenwerk, blowenfusen, und poppencorlcen mit spiHzensparlcen.lst nicht fur gewerlcen by das dummlcopfen.
Das rubberneclcen sightseeren Iceepen hands in das poclcets - relaxen und watch das blinlcenlights.

 'I.

59

IV.

CH~MISTRY

BLUE AG.AIN: INDIGO AND WOAD

The chemistry of dyes is possibly the oldest of
all molecular techniques discovered and developed
by man. You didn't even need a pot to observe that
many vegetable products, and some mineral ones,
produced different colors when dissolved in water.
Once this fact was observed by man, however
primitive, it would seem to be obvious that he would
take the next step and soak the right plant, or bit of
rock, when and if he wanted any particular color.
The color that seems to have impressed him most was
red so that we find evidence of the compounding of
red-ochre from the mineral haematite taking place in
early palaeolithic times. In our last issue we noted
the discovery of mines in South Africa, dated 40,000
years B.P. from which iron ore was extracted but
from which a rare mineral named specularite was also
apparently taken. This is still used as a cosmetic
colouring agent and it is possible that it was the
search for it that brought on this ancient mining, and
that the use of the iron from the tailings of these
works came only later.
There are three primary colours but four basic
ones. The former are red, blue and yellow; the latter
are red, green, blue, and yellow; and nature works
on the latter scheme. Blue and yellow make green,
but red and green make brown, or the earth colors!
Red and blue make violet (almost), but the other
combos don't work out on the tripartite scheme.
Natural colors are better expressed on a simple
wheel, thus:RED

BLUE .....+-......-...-...-..~.-..----.....-----+YELLOW

GREEN

The most interesting thing here is that the most

difficult color to extract from nature is blue. You can
get red from several minerals and vegetables, and
you can get green from the mineral malachite and
fieveral others, while endless plant extracts are within the green sector. Yellows and all the other earth
colors just go on forever. But try for blue. Coppersulphate is blue, and gives blue in solution, but it
does not give blue as a dye. There are other minerals
that, in their crystalline state, appear blue sapphire for instance - but these are almost all refracti ve colors.
The "true blues are vegetable dyes, and among
these, there are two outstanding groups - the
indigos and the woads. The former are Oriental in
range, from Malaya, Indochina. and China; the latter
are western Eurasia,n. There is also a West African
plant named Lonchocarpus from which a deep blue
dye has been made from time immemorIal. The woads
of Europe (the plant named Isatis tinctoria) were
used from earliest times and particularly in the
British Isles where the Celtic peoples employed it
to dye their skins, which somewhat alarmed the
Romans who, as a result, dubbed these people the
Pictores, or Painted Ones. This plant is still
grown commercially in small isolated areas on the
eastern side of England. The remarkable thing about
these dyes is that they do not derive from blue
flowers or even from blue-green leaves, while the
initial extracts of them, using water as a solvent,
are either pale straw-yellow or colorless.
The chemical formula of the lndigo base is
C14H17NOaH20. However, there is also an enzyme
in the plant which transforms this into a glucose and
a substance called indoxyl. Both substances are
colorless but when distilled and exposed to the air
they take up oxygen and go blue. To a latterday
chemist there is nothing mysterious or even odd
about this but, if you will try to place yourself in
the position of some chap who had to spend his
Whole life hunting or grubbing for a living, you will,
I think, agree that it was a pretty miraculous thing
that he even stumbled across such a complex process
and even purely by accident. Perhaps it was not a
chap, but a "chapess" who made the discovery when
washing grit out of vegetables or her hide loincloth.
The discoveries that formed the basis of chemistry
must, we can rut presume, have been haphazard and
fortuitous; but just "How"? Let us not forget that
there are people of very old cultures today who still
do not and possibly cannot differentiate between
blue and green, and who even deny the very existence
of either color, classing everything as either black,

From the Easton (Pa.) Express, 25th May, 1970: "Despite the fact that many motorists seem unable to
distinguish between traffic lights, most people are extraordinarily sensitive to color, scientists at the
National Bureau of standards have found that under ideal conditions the human eye can distinguish between
10 million color shades and tints."

60

white, or red (all the earth colors). To them, the

sky is white if cloudless; black if clouded. Yet
"blue" seems to have come in at a very early date.
Is this another case, like alcohol which is one of the
most evanescent and difficult things to make chemi-

milly, but which appears also to have been 'discovered' over and over again throughout the ages,
and by all kinds of totally disassociated peoples,
and all over the world. How did man ever get onto
the idea of distillation anywa.y?

V. ASTRONOMY

BAGBY'S BABIES - EARTH MOONLETS?

In our January issue we gave space to some statements published by one Dr. John Bagby of the Hughes
Aircraft Company. These were to the effect that the
earth has ten or so natural little satellites, some of
which are leftovers from a larger item of meteoritic
origin that we captured and which broke UP above our
atmosphere in 1955. Dr. Bagby further stated that
these moonlets had been tracked and were the cause
of aberrations in the orbits of several of our artificial satellites. We concluded our observations with
a plea that Dr. Bagby tell us more.
This bleat was heard by our representative in the
U.K., Janet Gregory, who is also secretary of Spacelink; and she, in turn, brought it to the attention of
their advisor on satellite activities, Dr. Geoffrey
Falworth, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical
Society, and editor of the British Astronomical Association's publication Satellite News. This gentleman has kindly supplied us, through Miss Gregory,
with some considerable analysis of Dr. Bagby's
published statements. These are of great intrinsic
interest, and not only to geophYSicists and astronomers, but also to all forteans and especially to
ufologists, since Dr. Bagby's statement that the
existence of natural satellites has been proven greatly excited those wishing to explain some high-flying
(what they call)"sightings" as being no more .than
observations of such objects. In the interests of
factuality we herewith throw the ball to Dr. Falworth
who writes:"What Mr. Bagby sa.ys is that the orbits of some,
but not all, satellites .displayed drastic changes in
their apogees and perigees (their farthest and closest
points in their orbits to Earth) at the times when they
came close to one of these 'mini moons' . For an object to be able to perturb a satellite orbit to the
amount claimed by Mr. Bagby, the natural moonlet
first would have to be very large and very massive as large as a house and as massive as iron, would
be a rather rough estimate - in fact, it would have to
be large enough to be quite readily tracked by the
satellite tracking radars (which Bagby's moonlets
have not); and, secondly, would have to come as close
as a few metres from the satellite in question before

any perturbation would result. His orbital data was obtained from the Smithsonian AstrophySical Observatory bulletins and NASA's twice-monthly 'Satellite
Situation Report' which is, in effect, (only) a reprinted version of these bulletins; and therefore his
information comes from Virtually only one source.
From my own personal acquaintance with the 'Satellite Situation Reports', they appear to be quite
liberally sprinkled with errors, and one learns to take
the data with a large grain of salt. Bagby has not
apparently used the USAF Spacetrack bulletins, nor
visual tracking results from stations such as Slough
in England or Moonwatch in the United states. From
the UFO standpoint, it is extremely unlikely that
these moonlets could be the cause of UFO reports.
They are quite faint; a:ld even to the trained observer,
would look just like artificial satellites. In fact, it
is quite possible that several visual stations have
already made observations of these moonlets and
discarded the data because it did not fit in with
known satellite orbits." (Note this last statement Editor)
In a further communication Dr. Falworth continued:
"My argument is that, if these objects are so
accurately tracked as Mr. Bagby would have us believe (and they must be, if he is so certain that th-ey
were in the same small portion of space as a couple
of dozen varied and widely-differing satellites on a
multitude of different orbits) then it should be a
straightforward task to publish an ephemeris or table
of positions of his natural bodies at future instants
in time so that we can all have a look; and, in particular, so that Schmidt tracking cameras can get a
lock-on! I would be obliged if you could keep me
informe d of future developments along these lines
as things are starting to get interesting!"

So, methinks, we have another 'cliff-hanger'.

Are there natural earth moonlets; or are there not? If
there are, where is satisfactory (to others than Dr.
Bagby) evidence of them? Just what are their orbits;
and are any of them hunks of meteoritic iron the size
of houses? If so, it would seem that they might indeed cause distressing perturbations if they did just
happen to be passing by at docking-cable length.

61

VI. GEOLOGY

YOU THINK WE'RE POLLUTED

ducts. They contain not only carbon monoxide and

sulphur dioxide (both highly toxic) but also a number
of carcinogenic compounds such as phenanthrene
and others. To discharge those into the air is impossible; it would cause the tolerance level to be
exceeded for several miles around the reactor.'-

Don't wince when you see this awful word still

again. As a matter of fact, as forteans, we are .campaigning to substitute for it the more pithy designation contaminated. If you may wonder how we should
become involved in this business, please consider
We often wonder what our urban citizens of today
the following facts.
would
have thought of a good old Liverpudlian or
Today, in our headlong dash to get just about
London
"pea-souper- of the tens, teens, twenties,
everything wrong about everything, a spot of fortean
al).d
thirties.
You think you've got pollutionl Dear
pragmatism is urgently called .for. Pollution has alhearts; just what would you do if your city was comways been an intrinsi~ part, and even a function, of
pletely "blacked out- for three days by a pale-pinkish,
our environment. In the new outcry - which is of
acrid smog! so dense that even with the street lights
course a good thing - we have nevertheless once
on cops could not direct the traffic? That was polagain got our metaphors mixed. While the overall
lution. And what about Gary, Indiana, and the bit
picture is indeed an ecological matter., it is primarily
between
it and Chicago today, with hundreds of
an ethological one. (Note: not ethgological.)
smoke
stacks
belching dense clouds of every color
Ethology is the stu.dY of the behaviour of living
from
white
through
rose-pink, chrome-yellow, and
organisms in their natural. environment; behaviourism
to
jet
black?
The people who live, and
sundry
browns
is the study of their behaviour in unnatural conditions.
have
lived
there
for
three
generations,
have somehow
The main point at issue today is, therefore, siniply:it
be
this
famous
"survival
of the
survived.
Could
Is the environment we have created for ourselves
fittest"? And now another thing. Question: "Whatever
natural or unnatural?
Since we are manifestly the product of a natural happened to spring?"
This may sound a bit balmy but please consider
evolutionary process, we can but assume that our
the points made by this respondent (member no.218).
present environment is just as natural as anything
Let him tell it in his own words.
else. Thus, we are actually not to blame. The current
mess is a mess, but now that we have woken UP to
"Our factory pollution is stationary. This is bethis fact, we might take heart from some solid facts
cause the factories do not move about. The only
that seem to have been overlooked. A rather neat one
thing which moves the polluting factor about is the
is the accompanying extract from a fine publication
atmospheric circulation. My point is this:- If the
named the Wildlife Review of British Columbia, and
polluting factor moved about, it would pollute a
which appeared in its Volume No.5, No. 4 (see cut
much larger area. One such polluting factor which is
of early British efforts). This should put certain no longer with us is the 'steam locomotive'. They
matters in a somewhat different light - or darkness.
have been gone about as long as our 'old fashioned
Then, we have a rather interesting quote from an
article by that consummate. pragmatist Dr. Edw81d
11t73 Use of coal prohibited in l.ondnn
Teller, in the New Scientist for the 19th February,
as being .. prejudicial to health."
1970. This reads as follows:1306 Royal rroclamation prohibiting
artificcn from using scacoal in
"The fight against pollution has entered into a
their furnares.
Record of the
exccu tion of onc offender.
particularly popular phase, but thoughts on pollution
1307 Commission of Inquiry appointcd
are older. In 1954 Otto Frisch, one of the discoverers
to .. inquire of all such who burnt
of fission, wrote a short parody on the safety measures
sea-coal in the city or parts adjoining, and to punish them for ti,e lint
connected with nuclear reactors. He pretended that
offcnce WIth grcat lilies and
in the year 4995 the uranium and thorium mines. from
ransoms, and upon the second
offcncc 10 demolish their furnaces."
the Earth and Moon mining systems were near ex1578 Qucen Elizabeth I .. lindeth herhaustion and wrote: 'The recent discovery of coal
scaIfe greately grevcd and anoyed
(black, fossilized plant remains) in a number of
with the tasle and smoke of thc
Ica-cooles."
.
places offers an interesting alternative to the proIG" Petition of Londonen 10 Parliaduction of power from fission The power potentiment to prohibit the importation
alities depend on the fact that coal can be readily
of coal from Newcastle on account
of the injury they cxpcrienC"Cd.
oxidized, with the production of a high temperature
166. John Evclyn submiucd his .. Fumiand an energy of about 0.0000001 megawatt day per
fllgium, or thc Smoakc of London
gramme. .'. Further on, he remfJ,rks: 'The main
Dissipated," to Charles II.
health hazard is attached t.o the gaseous waste pro-

62

springs'. Another 'thing' which is gone is the old

'steam ships'. Do you remember the old photos of
steam ships with their long trails of black smoke?
There is a very great difference between a factory
with its stationary stack and a steam locomotive, or
ship. Factories have tall stacks which create a
'natural draft', whereas steam engines with short
stacks require 'forced draft' the spent steam
is blown up the stack and this creates the forced
draft. It also blows everything out the stack except
the 'clinkers'. That is why, at the old rail stations,
you never got an ash in your eye - it was always a
cinder as big as your fist. And so it would seem that
our 'old fashioned weather' was man made. We had
thous ands of portable, or moveable steam engines
all over the lot - blowing millions of tons of 'fly
ash', etc. into the atmosphere. And this was going on
24 hours a day, 365 days of the year."
ROCKALL - YOU-ALL
This is baSically a frivolous item but we simply
cannot pass it up, and it has some deliciously fortean"
aspects. Let it not be said even yet that the sun
does set on the British Empire. Britannia still rules
the waves, as a good up-to-date world political atlas
will demonstrate. Outstanding among these possessions is the smallest and, it now appears, perhaps
the most valuable. The photo shows it in all its

glory. The following historic text comes from the

January issue of the British Science Journal.
"Last autumn a sedimentary basin that might contain oil or gas was found by British scientists beneath the Rockall plateau in the Atlantic, some 450
km northwest of "Ireland. However, the basin and its
contents might not belong to the United Kingdom.
The European continental shelf convention signed in
Geneva in 1958 implies that the area probably is"
British but recent geophysical evidence raises some"
doubts.
"The basin, a relatively shallow area the size of
Ireland, covers an area 130 by 300 km and lies between two banks: on the west is the Hatton bank and
on the east is the Rockall bank on which, to quote
the first report of the discovery, the small rocky
islet of Rockall (250 feet in circumference - Editor)
'stands proud above the waves and beneath the guano
of generations of seabirds'. The question of who
owns the plateau is complicated by the Rockall
Trough. The scientists believe the plateau is a
continental fragment left behind when America and
Greenland separated from Europe 100 million years
ago, and so it is not strictly part of the European
continental shelf. If this is so, then the plateau
might not be covered by the Geneva convention which
lays down rules for the ownership of the European
continental shelf. If the Rockall plateau is taken to
be part of the European continental shelf then its
ownership is clear. As a Foreign Office spokesman
explained, 'Rockall Island is right in the centre of
the bank, and Rockall Island is indisputably British'.
In fact Rockall was annexed to the British" Isles in
1955 because it comes within the 'fallout' area of
the South Uist rocket range, and the Ministry of De-"
fence wanted to be sure that it was British. It seems
that, on examining the archives, they found that
although Rockall had always been assumed to be
British, ownership could not be established. A formal
act of annexation, involving the raising of the Union
Jack, was therefore carried out, with some difficulty,
by the Royal Navy in the name of the British Crown."
We just measured the periphery of our main (SITU)
building and the lab, and find that we have this outpost of Empire beat by 36 feet in circumference. This
is a sobering thought.

Migrating

Matter Qf Mere "Instinct"? Qr ..

An AP dispatch from Martigny, Switzerland: "Birdwatchers report swallows migrating northward have beep
seen taking a low cut through the 4-mile Grand st. Bernard Road tunnel from Italy'to Switzerland rather than
flying o~er the 8,OOO-ft. Alpine heights."
"
The Germanic languages are obviously not alike, the linguistic experts to the contrary. The D"eutschland
Hotel in Leipzig has this sign in its lobby: DO NOT ENTER THE LIFT BACKWARDS, AND ONLY WHEN
LIT UP. And when the elevator recently underwent repairs, this sign appeared: WHILE THE LIFT IS BEING
FIXED, WE REGRET YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE.
"

~""""I"""""""~i

___" _____________________________________

63

VII. BIOLOGY
MORE ON "B.O."
Somebody seems to have been reading this journal
-like the progressive magazine Playboy, yet! Quotes.
from the June, 1970 issue' of same:"LONDON - Before too long, perfumes may start
living up to their advertising image as potions for
vamping the opposite sex. Researchers at Cambridge
University are studying the chemical nature of
pheromones - the substance that some insects and
mammals secrete as a 'sexual attractant' - in hopes
of discovering a scent that has the same effect on
people. A SCientific paper, as reported in the London
Standard, states that male sex pheromones seem to
act as an aphrodisiac on the female, while the female
sex pheromones communicate a readiness to mate.
For the perfume industry, the discovery of human
pheromones would be the biggest thing since ambergris. "
In our April, 1969 issue (Vol. 2, No.2) and again
in our last issue (Vol. 3, No.2) we charged into the
ago-old and rather obvious matter of fluid and gaseous sexual attractants in animals, including our
own species. There were those who became somewhat "disturbed", let us say. We could not care
less: and more particularly because it is the normal
practice of the major segment of western humanity
to become upset when anything so natural and basic
is brought up. Let us repeat: body odors are perfectly natural, and both delicious and useful; stale
perspiration in dirty clothing is nauseating, and
apparently just as potent a force in turning off sexual
attra:ction as the natural effluents are in turning it
on. So, once again, we advocate dispensing with
as much clothing as possible in conformity with
the c lim ate and temperature and the degre e of
contamination of the area in which you live. Underclothing indeed absorbs perspiration, but it also
creates it.
NOW IT'S OCEAN-GOING HIPPOS
Member No. 210 sends us this one from the
Chicago Tribune, of the 8th April, of this year. It is
not only a sad but a disgusting story:- Durban,
South Africa: ISLANDERS GET A SURPRISE.
"Vacationers on Paradise Island, off the coast of

Portuguese Mozambique, were astounded when they

spotted a hippopotamus swimming in the sea. The
huge beast apparently paddled eight miles (siC) from
. the mainland. A game ranger shot it after it had swum
around the island for about three days (siC.) A game
expert said the hippo was probably driven from the
mainland after a feud with an older bull."
There are various aspects to this report; but,
first, to dispose of the disgusting part. Why shoot
the poor creature? Game wardens admittedly aren't
much as "animal men" but they might at least take
advice from a zoo man or professional collector as
to how to drive and corral a hippo. It's not that
.difficult, even in open water; and the poor thing
probably wanted only to come ashore. One envisions
oneself SWimming around an aircraft carrier for three
days trying to find a landing and finally getting shot
by some goon.
Another aspect of this little ditty is of Quite a
different nature. Som~ years ago, one Mr. Aleko
Lilius reported having met some large sort of dinosaurian creature on the mainland beach almost opposite this parildisiacal island, and he produced threetoed footprints from several sets of tracks, and piles
of droppings containing fish bones, to back up his
story. Casts of said tracks, photographs, and the
droppings (duly preserved) were sent to the zoological
department of the Witwatersrand Museum (see Chap.
2 in More "Things", b.v Ivan T. Sanderson, Pyramid
Books, 1969). The only suggestion as to the identification of this creature, which walked on its two
hind legs only and ate fish, was that it was a hippo
that went for a swim in the briny and got lost. Of
such ridiculous nonsense are 'official' explanations
of unexplaineds made. We'd sure love to see a hippo
negotiating a twenty-foot-tall sand-dune on its hind
legs and leaving three-toed, 18-inch long footprints,
and surviving on a diet of fish while at sea! Terrific.
Nonetheless, hippos do on occasion indulge a
swim in saltwater, and it is alleged that they may
browse on "sea grasses" in estuaries. Perhaps this
poor fellow got washed out of such on the tide at
night and smelt land - in the guise of this island
paradise - due to the night wind, and headed off the
wrong way.

The Postal Service Again

As reported in Atlas: "While our own postal workers were putting off our day of reckoning with bill
collectors, Yugoslavia's postal force held an unusual contest. The object, according to Moscow's Komsomolskaya Pravda, was to see how fast a message could be delivered between Zagreb and Lyublyana (80 miles
apart). The contestants: an automobile, a telegram, a telephone and a postal pigeon. Here are the results:
The automobile was first-in one hour, 32 minutes. The pigeon was second-in two hours, 49 minutes. The
telegram was third-in two hours, 50 minutes. But it took six hours to get a telephone connection." Hurrah
for the pigeon. Perhaps ~ should try Pony Express and dog sleds.

64

VIR. ANTHROPOLOGY

SOMEBODY'S ARK AGAIN

This business of Noah's Ark is getting out of
hand. Two items on it have come to hand since our
last issue. The first is an article by Philip D. Carter
in the Washington Post, of 23rd February. The second
is a finely printed, pocket-size, 38-page publication
named the Voice (Vol. 18, No.4, for May, 1970.) The
latter is devoted 'almost entirely to this business and
describes at some length the history of this aIieged
450-foot boat coming out of a static glacier in a lake
on the top of this Mnt. Ararat at the corners of Turkey,
the USSR, and Iran. We have neither the space nor
the time to try to compress this material 'into readable
form so that we urge any who might be specifically
interested in the matter to write for a copy of the
~, to The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, 836 S. Figueroa, Los Angeles,
CA 90017. This issue of their publication tells precisely the plans for this year's onslaught
Mr. Carter tackles the business trom a newsman's
allgle. He starts off by saying:- "Ji'em!!lld Navarra,
the Frenchman who claims to l1;:l.vE;l dh!e;:gv~r~4 remains of Noah's Ark near the sumJlljt gf M91mt Mg.r~t
in Turkey, has found an eager ap.gjeIlct! in th!;l p'p.ited
states, both among professional el'plorer~ from the
respected Arctic Institute of ~orf;b America and
among fundamentalist Christ!llQs noping to prove that
the Bible story of Noah, the fl99d, imd tbe ark, is
literally true. Drawing support from both the~e groups,
Search Foundation, Inc. of Waship.gton, plans a $1
million expedition this summer to surVey the site ~f
the Frenchman's reported find.Members of the foundation who accompanied M. Navarra to Ararat last
summer are careful to refer publicly to, his reported
discovery only as an unspecified 'artifact' of 'great
antiquity' ...
Even then, Mr. Carter goes on to point out: "Experts in archaeology, geology, S!;lqlitic languages,
and biblical history dispute M. Navarra's claim.
'Absolutely anything is possible in this world,' Dr.
Froelich Rainey, of the University of Pennsylvania,
said, 'but if there's anything that's impossible in
archaeology, this is it.'

"Radio-carbon dating performed in the university'lil

laboratory has dated a wood sample submitted by
Navarra at about A.D. 560, Dr. Rainey said, and
carbon dating carried out in Britain de,ived 'about the
same date' in an lndependent analysis. He pointed
out that Noah's flood would have had to have occurred thousands of years before Christ. Dr. William F.
Albright, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages
at Johns Hopkins Upiversity and a recognized authority on biblical history, said that in the original
Hebrew 'the mountains of Ararat' meant the mountains
of the Middle Eastern region of Armenia. The mountain called Ararat today did not receive that name
'until Western travellers began penetrating Armenia
around the sixteenth century.' Thus Noah's Ark,
assuming it once existed, could have come to rest
'anywhere in Kurdistan or Eastern or Western Ar:nenia,' he added."
As we said before, either this is an ancient "ark"
that floated in from somewhere when the plesep.t site
of this Mnt. Ararat was some 14,000 feet lower (relative to mean overall sea-level) than it is today,' or
somebody must have been running an off-limits, floating casino, 'or something, high aloft. Who? Unless
this whole thing is a phony, a pipe-dream, or a put-on
by the official Turkish tourist promoters, some nuts
must have toted thousands of tons of heavy lumber
up to this lake and solemnly constructed thereupon
som e kind of floating something. Why? This bit is
bad enough, but even the current promoters seem not
to have had Sight of, or taken into account, the clear
color photographs of a similar thing' lying in the
middle of a grassy plain at much lower level and
nowhere near any lake, let alone a glacier. Have we
got two, arks UP there? And, if we have only one,
where did the wood come from?
We feel that Messrs Navarra, Ell alii, had better
cQme up with some clear pix, and a film of same being
taken by at least two independent and disinterested
parties. Anybody can pick up some angle-beams 1400
years old in Turkey: the place is littered with them.
Give us even a 440o-year radio-carbon date and we
will go back to the original Aramaic and Akkadian
texts.

The North Carolip.~ leg!!i!lature has named the Gray Squirrel the official state mammal, despite Representative Henry Boshamer' objection: "I would like to say that an animal that can bury nuts could be
dangerous to this General A,?s!!JIlbly."

a Primitive Sense Qf ID!m2!!!',?

Again from Atlas: "The sophisticated city of Melbourp.e .. Australia, has been caught with its pants down.
according to Hong Kong's Far Eastern Economic Review. For 16 years, the city has held an annual festival
known as the 'Moomba', believing that the word was Aborigine for 'fun-Ioaded-get-together'. A group of
Aborigine leaders had assured the City Council in 1953 that 'Moomba' was just the right word: Now the
leaders, who had griev!Ulces at the time, ,have confessed that 'Moomba,' in Aborigine, means 'ass' or 'backside'. A City Council official de.clared he would get to the bottom of the affair."

65

UFOLOGY
In this column in our last issue we endeavoured
to explain our attitude to this business. Being pragmatists, we did) not expect everybody to understand
what we were 'trying to say, but at least we said it!
We will not reiterate, except to say once again that
we are not in 3 the least interested in "funny lights
in the sky. On the other hand, we are deeply interested in any reports - however wild - of touch-downs,
alleged landings, or what are now called "occupants
of seeming m~chines or other objects that appear to
be material, and which appear to come down from the
sky or up frolli' waters; and with a particular emphasis
on the latter, isince they run about 2: 1 to the former.
In other words, like the gallant Dr. Condon, we ,are
open to the reception of any reports, but preferentially to those that are other than mere unidentified
lights in the sky. The reason for this is as follows.
In just on 40 years of active involvement in this
curious business, we have become persuaded to a
number of concepts or, as Charles .Fort called them,
"acceptances. These were completely contrary to
the persuasions of others who got fnto this field only
after the post-World-War-II outburst in this country.
Starting in 1948, we found, somewhat to our amazement that the enthusiasts, and 8J.most to a man, were
stuck with the notion that all these things were (1)
of extraterrestrial origin, (2) machines or constructions but that (3) for some extraordinary reason they
could not have occupants! In no case did we ever
hear of, in thi"s country or Canada, even a recognition
of a .number of much wider implications and more
basic questions that had been asked about this
phenomenon for centuries in the Old World and in
Latin America. The mere mention of such concepts
was enough to provoke howls of derision from all
parties who were even vaguely interested in the
matter, including officialdom and 'sciencedom', and,
most curiously, the mystics.
The first of these concepts, and the most ancient,
was that unidentified 8.l}d unexplained obj ects seen
in the sky were of wildly multiple form, and displayed a bewildering variability of behavioural patterns.
Second, that just about the only feature they did tend
to display in common, was their ability to appear and
disappear at any speed - time-wise - up to the ultimate, meaning instantaneity - in turn, of course,
meaning an ability to teleport. Third, whether there
be intelligent life with corporeal bodies on other
gross bodies in our universe or not- i.e. we being
unique in this respect- the possibility of the existence of intelligent non-corporeal bodies has for
centuries been taken under advisement. Fourth, no-

body except the North American saucerians and

ufologists ever for a moment questioned the possibility, if not the reality, of the existence of other universes; or, in Einsteinian phraseology, space-time
continua. Every religion, including even science and
communism, has always contended that there is an
inter-relationship between OIU continuum and at least
one other, if not with many others; while the Gautama
Buddha reached the conclusion long ago that we are
in touch with and influenced by an infinity of other
existences.
All of this and the millenia of thought that had
gone into it in the Old World, and apparently among
the indigenes of Central and South America (and,
it seems, among our North American Amerinds) was
either totally unknown to this new breed, calling
themselves 'ufologists', or was deliberately ignored
by them. At the same time, their ignorance of the
findings of modern, 'western', pragmatic, mechanistic
science was not just abyssmal but virtually total.
You don't have to be an Oriental to conceive of infinity, though it does come hard to a westerner; but
without this capability you will never be able to
understand the ultimate findings of even our own
pragmatic science. How can one expect ufologists though perhaps not saucerians - to grasp the significance of Parapsychics in view of this their ignorance
and their almost pathological denial of anything that
they have not accepted? .
Most curious of all, is the fact that it has been
those whom we call, and usually rather scathingly,
the mystics who have come closest to reality, though
their interpretations have alwa.vs been, and still are,
all wet. But they cannot be blamed because they
lacked, until very recently indeed, the ultimate and
most essential tool to work with - namely, pragmatic,
phYSical science. In the immutable progression of
discovery and understanding, this 'tool' comes last.
Imagination comes first, then belief, then theorising;
but the whole exercise is worthless if you can not
test your theories. This is actually all that science
does.
In the case of UFOs, pragmatic scientists have
run into a block that.- if they are technological
scientists - they cannot overcome. However, if they
are philosopher scientists, this hurdle becomes
merely a challenge. What has happened to so-called
"ufology" is that it has reached a point where our
presently ac.cepted technology has baulked, and if
we are going to probe further into the mystery, our
materialistic technology will have to be expanded
into fields presently unimagined by it.

Ufology - No Wonder the Governmen~ flas Given l1l!!

As quoted in an article in Flying ~ Review, and reprinted in Phenomenes ~tiaux, a high-ranking
NASA official passing through Barcelona asked: "If it is true that they (UFOs) exist, why haven't we intercepted their radio transmissions?" Comment is not possible.

66

This has been done in the Russian sphere, as is

so simply and explicitly explained in the book we
have advised reading: namely, Psychic Discoveries
~ ~h~, ~~Q,~ Curtain, by Sheila Ostrander and
Lynn Schroeder. As we have also said before, there
have been other break-throughs, but coming from the
hardboiled realm of straight western science. The
classic example will in time be Jacques Vallee's
Passport Lq Magonia. Now comes an equally hardboiled straight (originally) newsman with just the
same answer. I refer to John A. Keel's ll.EQ: Operatiop. :rro@. ,Horse.
That which these thinkers have done is Simply to
assemble straightforward reports on the results of
seriously conducted enquiries into the nature of this
"other world" (or universe fs j, if you want), and
present what evidence there is now available through

our so-beloved and much-vaunted technology for its

(their) existence(s). And not only Vallee and Keel
are in agreement; there are now many others such as
Aime Michel and Edward Naumov, and such enormous
hegemonies as the Roman Catholic Church and half
a dozen federal governments. Keel's basic theme is
that not only UFOs but a whole gamut of other
constantly reported mysteries are not extraterrestrial
(per se) but what he calls ultraterrestrial, which is
to say emanating from this "otner world". strange
indeed that we once again come back to good old
Charlie Fort who, now so long ago, suggested that we
might be nothing but the property of some other, if
not higher, intelligence, which actually controls us
in every respect, even unto our evolution. But this
is just what the new understanding and 'acceptance'
implies.

CURRENT PURSUITS AND REQUESTS

Members are urged to send us clippings, etc., on

any tangible unexplaineds they come across, with
special emphasis on specific requests made herein.

1. STONE SPHERES

We really have nothing new to report on this, although three stone balls from the southern highlands
of New Guinea (the Tari people) turned up in a collection made by Roberta Nochimson. These may be on
display at Strange, Strange World in Montreal. This
is not certain at the time of writing.

5. A CHAIN IN ROCK
The less said about this spring, the better. We
have our fingers crossed that fall will be less horrid
and are formulating plans for an "expedition" once
conditions are favourable.
6. PADDLE-BUGS
We're watching for them, though (again!) our
current weather is not conducive to sl:lch efforts. If
June weather proves better we will hope to catch at
least one for proper observation
7. MECHANICAL DOWSING

2. STONE SOFTENING
Nothing new. This is still Barney Nashold's
special project; and if anyone runs across references
to such a process in his reading or elsewhere, please
pass these on to us - and we will pass them on to
him.
3. RINGING ROCKS
Alas, nothing much new on this either. However,
Prof. George Kennedy has offered to analyze samples
sent to him, and these are being collected. A full
report will be issued eventually.
4. LITHIC IMPLEMENT FACTORY IN BRITISH
HONDURAS
One of our members, Mutt Lehmann, has a friend
who lives down thataway and has promised to write
to him to see whether he might be willing to go-looksee. If anyone else expects to be in that area, please
do look into this. Let us know if you are going, and
we'll give you what instructions and help we can.

This is definitely a summer project (we have to

dig holes in the ground, you see), and will be getting
at this shortly, possibly before you receive this issue.
8. "BOZO, THE ICEMAN"
At the time of writing this (late May) there are
signs that a break may be coming in what we often
call "The Hansen Case". If the break does come,
you will probably have heard about it by the time you
read this. If it doesn't, we are in the same position
as before - of having done all that we can' legally
do to obtain the original, genuine specimen for proper
study.
9. THE LARGEST AND OLDEST PLANT
This is "still on the books" and will probably be
investigated by the "expedition" that seeks the chain
in the rock.
10. GRAVITY II
We still need volunteers in the fields enumerated
in the APril issue of PURSUIT.

67

11. IK-NISH

15. TREE STUMPS

Nothing happened with the seeds planted this

spring (held over from last fall and summer), possibly
because of excessive rainfall (to Qut it mildly). We
are asking member Basil Hritsco to supply more
seeds for still another try.

This is addressed particularly to our southern

New Jersey members. In Cape May County there are
swamps in wqich there are thousands of tree stumps,
snapped off a few feet above the roots - not "greenstick" fractures or uprooting - - but snapped off
like a matchstick, and we should like photographs,
even a tree stump if you can extract it. We have
pinned down the locations and will provide these to
any who wish to do a really proper job on this.

12. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TV ETC.

Mike Freedman has been working on this (he is an
expert on electrics, electronics, and such) and is
collecting all kinds of material in this field. Barney
Nashold is also still working on Chimu pottery. Both
would be most grateful for any leads, photographs,
ideas, or whatever you may be able to come up with.
13. ENTOMBED TOADS

Marion Fawcett, while working at the library of

the American Philosophical Society (a science
library). made almost a hobby of sending us reports
on toads and other animals encased in solid rock (or
trees): and member George Eberhart has also supplied
some reports. C. A. Eagan, otherwise known as "HiYou". has promised to look into some recent reports:
but we would be grateful for any and all reports of
live toads, lizards, etc. incarcerated in seemingly
impossible places. Enquiries sent to several towns
where toads or lizards (so-called Horned Toads) were
deliberately put into corner stones have not produced
any replies Admittedly it's a touchy subject, such a
thing being obviously impossible"!
14. POLTERGEIST MANIFESTATIONS
Our Board member Walter J. McGraw is particularly interested in these. Should you hear of any in your
area, please call us or drop us a quick note, giving
names, addresses, dates. whatever details are available. All too often we learn of these long after the
manifestations have ceased. If humanly possible,
Walter McGraw will drop everything and come running
- fully equipped.

16. LARGE CARNIVORES ON THE J.. OOSE

For a number of years now there have been can""

tinuing reports from all over the eastern United
states and from the U.K., France, and some other
European countries of large "cats", usually descriged as plal,n-colored and looking like lionesses
or pumas, being seen and shot at in places where no
such things have ever lived or been indigenous for
centuries. So startling have some of the more recent
ones been - and so heavily documented by such
official sources as State Police - that we have
initiated a long-term, working-press-type investigation. ~l who have heard of such items, please report
in.
17. A "CROOKED" HOUSE
When we came to furnish our new library building,
professional carpenters, two construction men,
two engineers, and four non-professional helpers all
encountered, separately and in various combinations,
absolqtely in"explicable anomalies in simple measurements in the interior. The details are being written
up and affidavited, and the specific locations photographed. There is something here that -is, as of now,
totally inexplicable.
th~ee

Membership in SITU or a subscription to PURSUIT,

makes a nice gift for the per-son who already has a
mink toothbrush.

OUR LIBRARY

Re-cataloguing of old books and cataloguing of

new ones has been almost completed, and a few
changes and additions have been made in the classifications listed in the last (April) issue of PURSUIT.
These are as follows:
Under Earth Sciences, three sub-categories have
been added under XI. Georgraphy - Travel; Exploration: and Atlases.
Under Life Sciences, Anatomy and Histology have
been combined as II.. and Embryology has been
added as IV. Under VIII. Botany, we have added
Vegatalogy and Podology as numbers (4) and (5). In

section VIII. Zoology, Domestication has been

added as (15). (Medicine also belongs in this classification, though the Society has housed it as a
separate collection.)
Our collection of fortean books is also separately
housed and has been divided into six categories: I.
General - collections qf forteana and anything that
did not fit into the other five categories; II. Biology
- Sea Monsters, Lake Monsters, Extraterrestrail
Life, ej; !!ill: III. ABSMs; IV. Ufology generally: V.
OINTs. including poltergeist manifestations; and
VI. Anthropology, primarily cultural.

68

BOOK REVIEWS

The strange World Ilf"Animals and Pets, I;>y Vincent and Margaret Gaddis, New York, Cowles Book Company,
Inc., 1970.
"
Do not be misled by the title which suggests 'just another book on pets'. The key word here is strange-,
and this is a splendidly fortean book. It is basically a collection of reports of animal behaviour. ranging all
the way from simple devotion, to evidence of a mathematical genius on the part of animals but, due to the
authors' skill, it never becomes a "seed-catalogue-. In addition. the Gaddises have speculated at some
length on the whys and haws" of the extraordinary behaviours that they report; thus setting their book apart and considerably above" - the many others in print which simply recount "tales without ever asking any
questions. In fact, the Gaddises explore what we are coming to call 'the third world'. Dogs and horses do
not have the physical ability" to talk, or ....: one presumes - the means to extract cube roots; i.e. adequate
vocal cords or brains. Yet there have been those that have done both. Some of the unexplaineds covered in
this book are 'respectable', some are not. but all make faSCinating reading.
"
The Humanoids, edited by Charles Bowen. London. Neville Spearman Ltd . 1969.
Charles Bowen is editor of FlYing Saucer Review, surely the best of the ufological publications, and this
volume is a compendium "of reports on "actual landing and contacts - over 300 of them - between Beings
from Outer Space and Earth Humans.- Though we may now doubt the "outer space- thesis, this remains the
only truly. "serious survey of 'occupant' cases, with articles by such serious-minded searchers as Jacques
Valle~, Aime Michel,. and Gordon Creighton.
The Abominable Snowmen. by Eric Norman, New York, Award Books, 1969; and Strange "Abominable Snowmen.
by Warren Smith, New York, Popular Library, 1970.
Since Ivan T. Sanderson's book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come f;Q Life was published in 1961, a
number of books have been published on this subject, most of them simply repeating the 'classic' cases reported by Sanderson. Both the above books include reports made" since that date; but both are disfigUred by
the inclusion of materi~ that can only be described as hogwash - in particular, some conclusions by Roger
Patterson on the habits of 'Bigfoot', vide, his statement "They have not become extinct because their lifespan prob8bly ranges from two-hundred to five-hundred years". Now really!
Warren Smith's book has probably the most appalling cover illustration ever produced, and consists of
one- to three-page stories. It is readable, but the strictures noted above must be kept in mind. Eric Norman's
book is a much fuller account but includes reports that probably do not even belong in the 'abominable
snowman' category (for more on this, see below). Of the two, Norman's book is preferred, despite some
shortcomings. " "
""
"
Strange Creatures from Time and Space, by John A. Keel, Greenwich, Conn . Fawcett Publications. 1970.
One of the" problems" -facing" ABSMs 'hunters' -is the existence of. apparently, both 'ordinary' ABSMs and
'monsters' associated with UFOs. In this" book John Keel "analyzes in considerable detail the various reports
of both of these and of other creatures unknown to science and speculates on what they may be -and the
whys and wherefores of their existence. This is, in fact, a companion volume to his other book reviewed
below. It is well worth reading.
UEQ:

Operation

'I:miJm.~,

by John A. Keel, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970.

This "book is mentioned briefly in our section on ufology. Here we will "only say that it should be read by
every thinking person everywhere, apd read carefully. It is not a 'seed-catalogue' and, unhappily, because
of that will probably not be read by so-called ufologists," but it should be by all of them. In fact. the ufologists should read it too. Your whole future may depend on an understanding of these books.
Marion L. Fawcett
NOTICE
There have been a number of articles recently on the problem of junk mail and the wa,y in which one's
name gets on such a mailing" list. We should like to assur"~ oui' members and subscribers that our mailing list
is available only to resident staff"at our headquarters. "
"

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

GOVERNING BOARD
President (and ChairmBJl of the Board)
(.) 1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
(.) 2nd Vice-President (BJld Deputy Director)
(.) Treasurer
(.) Secretary
Executive Secretary BJld LibrariBJl
Assistant Director, Membership and Regional Affairs
AssistBJlt Director, Publicity
AssistBJlt Director, Promotion
AssistBJlt Director, Press & Public Relations

HBJls stefan SBJltesson

Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. SBJlderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L .. Fawcett
Michael R. Freedman
Walter J. McGraw
Milt R. Machlin
Daniel F. Manning

(.) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey
ST ANDING COMMITTEES
ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
LIBRARY COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE: ..
ChairmBJl:

Jack A. Ullrich
Marion L. Fawcett
Hans stefan Santesson

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of SCience, Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. J. Allen Hynek - Director, Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
GeophYsics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, CBJlada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology, Queen Elizabeth College, University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - President, Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, PIBJlt SCience Department, College of Agriculture, utah State University.
(PhYtochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor BJld Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and OceanographY)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)

HICKS PRINTING COMPANY. 37 BELVIDERE AVENUE. WASHINGTON, NEW JERSEY. TELEPHONE

201-689-0194

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SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832

Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366
ORGANIZATION

The l:egal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These officers are four in number: two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer,
and a Secretary.
General policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists of the four
Trustees, a President elected for 5 years, and five other officers elected annually. These are: an Executive Secretary, and Assistant Directors for Membership and Regional Affairs, Publicity, Promotion, and
Public and Press Relations. The First Vice-President is th"e Administrative Director, and the Second
Vice-President is in charge of the phYSical establishment. The Executive Secretary is also the Librarian.
In addition, there are three standing committees: an Activities Committee, a Library Committee, and a
Publications Committee. The names of all "officers and committee chairmen are listed on the inside back
cover.
The Society is counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, also listed on the inside back cover,
which is deSignated the Scientific Advisory Board.
PARTICIPATION

Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exempt, pursuant
to the United "States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of January to the 31st of December; but those jOining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year gratiS. The
annual subscription is U.S. $10, which includes four issues of the Journal PURSUIT, for the year; as well
as access to the Society's library and files, through correspondence or on visitation.
Tile annual subscription rate for the journal PURSUIT (alone) is $5. including postage. (PURSUIT is
also distributed. on" a reciprocal basis. to other societies and institutions.)
Fellowship in the Society 1'5 bestowed (only by unanimous vote of the Trustees. the Governors, and a
panel of the Founders) on sponsors donating a hundred dollars or more. and on those who are adjudged to
have made an outstanding contribution to the aims of the Society.
"The Society contracts - with individuals, commercial concerns, and institutional and official organizations for specific projects - as a consultative body. Terms are negotiated in each case in advance.
NOTICES

In view of the increase in resident staff and the non-completion, as yet, of new living quarters, there is
no longer over-night accomodation for visitors. Members are welcome to visit to consult our files but we
ask that you make application at least a week in advance. this to prevent 'pile-ups' of members who therefore cannot" be adequately served.
PUBLICATIONS

The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current events and
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes an annual report on Society affairs to
members. The Society further issues Occasional Papers on certain projects. and special reports in limited
quantity, on request of Fellows only.
RECORD: From its establishment in July. 1965. until the end of March 1968. the Society issued only a
newsletter. on an irregular basis. The last two publications of that year were, however. entitled PURSUIT
- VoL 1, No.3 and No.4. dated June and September. 1968. Beginning with Vol. 2. No.1. PURSUIT has
been issued on a regular quarterly basis. dated January, APril. July. and October. Only a very limited and
dwindling supply of back-issues froz:n that date (June. 1968) are available, and all prior to it are out of
print.
NOTICE: The colophon and name of this journal are copyrighted. Any matter therein may be quoted. provided -it is published in quotes. in toto, and unedited, and provided it is credited to: - PURSUIT",
Quarterly Journal pf the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, Columbia, New Jersey.-

PURSUIT

Vol. 3. No. 4"

October. 1970

THE J 0 URN A L 0 F THE SO C lET Y FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF -THINGS
THAT ARE CUSTOMARILY DISCOUNTED

Editorial Director: Ivan T. Sanderson

Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett
Associate Editor: Daniel F. Manning

CONTENTS
'Ib,g, Taxonomy of Knowledge

70

Editodal

71

Chaos and Confusion

A Classic Case of .. Angel-Hair"
Inanimate Life-Forms
The Devonshire 'Devil'
And Anent the Barbados Vault
Those Colored Snows Again
Introducing "Fafrotskies"
Footprints on the ...
These 'Damned' Vimanas, Again
Running Around Like .
That Deepsea" Antenna"
The "Ark" is Getting Arcane

72
73
74
75
75

76
77
79
83

84
85

Ufology

87

Current Pursuits

88

Qyr. Library

91

Book Reviews

91

All communications should be addressed to:

s. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey 07832;
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366.
Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

.;

THE

TAXONOMY OF

KNOWLEDGE

GEOLOGY
THE:

TANGIBLES

VI
Atmospherics Qnd MeteorolOiY;

Oceanology, Hydrology, and Gla-ciology; Tectonics, Vulcanol09Y, Seismology, Geophysics

ond Geomorphology; Petrology and Mineralogy;

Geadesy, Geography,
Cartography;
Protog.analogy. Botany, Zoo
Dating,
ogy, E biology; H.stology,
Physiology and Biochemistry;
Anotomy (including Mon); GenetIcs ond Eyolution; Physicol Anthropology;
Palaeontology;
Ethology and
Ecology,

MATTER
Atomics, Molecular
Chem.stry. Crystallography.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

PERFORMANCE
Theor.tical Physics. Nucleonics.

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

Classical Physics, Electrics.

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
Cultural Anthropology and
Ethnology (Archaeology is a
technique); Pre-History,
History. and Falklore; Philology ond Linguistics.

MENTAL CONCEPTS
Logic ond Epistemology;
Psychology; Ethics end Aes
th.tics; Comparative Intellig.nc ... ;
Porapsychics.

E lectromagnetics, Magnetics,
Mechanics.

EXISTENCE
Space, Time,
Locus, Cosmology.
MEASUREMENT
Number, Quantity,
Arithmetic, Algebra,
Geometry, Trigonometry ..

Calculus, Topology, Theory

01 Games, Probability,Caincidence.

THE

INTANGIBLES

Everything in existence, including -existence- itself, and thus all of our possible concepts and all knowledge
that we possess or will ever possess, is contained within this wheel. Tec~nologie5 and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, having access to any or all of the ten major departments of organized knowledge.
From the KORAN: -Acqui .. e knowledge. It enables its possessor to know right from wrong; it lights the way to
heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guides us to
happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is on ornament among friends, and an armour against enemies. The Prophet.

70

f..------------------------- - ---- - - -- ----- - ------- --

71

EDITORIAL
We hope that you all fully appreciate the fact that we, as a society, are completely and absolutely apolitical. However, since the world of human enterprise and concept is going in the direction that it now is, we
as neo-forteans, find ourselves being asked ever more frequently what our position is regarding, vis-a-vis,
. or relative to an ever-increasing diversity of matters vital to our survival. Many of these matters would probably be regarded as "political" by the average person, so we had better try and get this "definition" defined.
First of all, politics, rurr ~, and in the strict sense, concerns national affairs only, and has nothing to do
with "international affairs", or more especially with "affairs" arising from problems of racial differences.
Internal, or true politics, of course, impinges. upon and affects, through their national attitudes. all international affairs (often erroneously called "politics"); hence Prof. Gen. K. Haushofer's geo politik. This
term would, however, best be translated as "Worldwide Polity". The good (bad) professor was indeed a politician, and of the most extreme nationalistic stripe at that; but. like one Karl Marx and others of that ilk, he
was no biologist; and it is in this department of knowledge that anybody aspiring to operate in the field of
international affairs should above all else be competent. And this is where {orteans come in.
Geopoliticians talk even more rubbish than straight politicians; and Quite naturally, because they know
nothing of the reality of nature or of our place in it. They are still pathetically of the belief that we are
something other than animals. They know nothing of either geography, topology, or surface geology, and they
have never even heard of phytogeography, let alone vegetalog'y, on which last our species is distributed and
upon which it is wholly and solely dependent. And yet these buffoons presume to try and regulate our emigrations, declare our wars, and endeavour - invariably quite disastrously - to define and outline our national
boundaries, lay grandiose plans for agricultural developments, and then expect us bunch of animals to comply
with their totally unknowledgable decisions. No wonder infuriated students and "captains of industry" are
appealing to (orteans, in some apparently vague and somewhat forlorn hope that we might at least be able to
suggest some alternatives.
In this they would be making the right move in that forteans are essentially pragmatists and realists, and
the vast majority of them can at least interpret what they read intelligently and without cavil. Furthermore,
forteans are trained sceptics and are not prepared to accept any statement by anybody; be they even selfstyled, recognized, or other type of expert. Thus, if the Herr Regius Professor General K. Haushofer starts
shooting off his mouth about lebensraum for Germans (so-called), he's going to get a royal horse-laugh from
forteans and especially if he starts suggesting the occupation of a tropical forest by such peoples. Likewise, the great experts who have advocated the development of our beef industry, and prinCipally in the
West, cn the Hereford breed, displayed an ignorance so pathetic as almost to be criminal. The mean annual
rainfall of Herefordshire in England is about 40 inches; that of the areas where these poor beasts have been
expected to live, grow, and even fatten has an average of about 10 inches! And then they wonder why they
end up with a mass of tough runts every ten years or so. (Never thought of introducing those huge, magnificent
animals that positively infest the dry areas of East Africa, did they? Hell no!)
But it is not only in biological affairs that forteans are becoming involved; or, to put it another and better
way, people have not yet woken up to a realization of the fact that just about everything is biologically
based when it comes to human affairs. As a matter of fact, this so-called geopolitiCS has no validity. On the
other hand, the one 'science' that we need most of all is biopolitics, and this goes for all the sociological,
ethnological, and p~ychological stuff, as well as the mere geographical distribution of different peoples, and
their foodstuffs. No geopolitician can predict what will happen if you take a bunch of one kind of people and
dump them down in a completely foreign (to them) environment. On the other hand, any biopolitician can: and
so can any fortean, because he is a realist first and foremost. Take a bunch of Norwegians from their viks
and toss them into North America: where will they end up? On viks around the colder areas of its coast, of
course. Take a seething mass of Congoid Africans from our southeast to the northern tier of states of this
country, and you'll have trouble. It's as simple as that; so why don't our vaunted controllers study a little
ecology before encouraging, or even allowing, such senseless emigrations.
.
Reality is a harsh mistress, and Nature is cruel, though damned efficient. If we want to flaunt either,
we'd better start trying to find out what the first is and how the second works. And there's no better place to
start than in and through the works of Charles Hoy Fort. And if you get through those, you will, if you have
the guts, reassess your preconceived and stagnant beliefs and take a new look at reality and at life. Better
start now; it's almost too late.
Ivan T. Sanderson.


'72

NOTICE

From now on contributions to this iournal will be credited, and contributors identilied, by their membership numbers only, unless express permission to publish their names is given in writing either when submitting an item or in response to a request, also in' writing, Irom us lor permission to do so. Non-members
will be named unless they request otherwise. The names and addresses 01 members will be supplied to other
. members - or others - only on the express permission 01 the lormer.
. There is noth~ng 'secretive' about this. It is cal/ed lor simply becouse 01 the current, and appal/ing, invasion 01 privacy by commercial exploiters 01 mailing lists, on the one hancl; ancl, on the other, by the lact
'hat we wish to keep this ;ournal an open lorum. The ma;ority 01 our members are gainlully emp/oyecl in
commerce, industry, scientilic, literary, or other pursuits ancl - the attitucles 01 the establishments in these
lie/cis being (regrettably) what they are - very lew people can aUord to even mention matters lortean; ancl especially in their own lie Ids.
.
.

CHAOS AND CONFUSION

I
i

A CLASSIC CASE OF "ANGEL-HAIR"

. . This is a troublesome matter, and from several
pOints of view. First, it cannot be denied because it
goes on happening year after year and is extremely
tangible - by which we mean, it cannot be Simply
. denied as existing. Second, it has many times been
collected and submitted to competent chemical laboratories for analysis, but with a bewildering variety
of results that completely 'buffalo' the poor chemists
an~ positively infuriate other organized establishments such as those of meteotologists and the armed
services, meaning, of course, primarily the air forces.
Third, the damned stuff has been claimed by the UFO
buffs as their very own and "positive evidence" of
the existence of "flying saucers, chamber-pots, icecream-cones, and such. At the same time. biologists
have gally explained it (and all kinds of it) away as
spider-web, and specifically that of a mythical type
which they call "Balloon Spiders. (NOTE: There is
no such type or species known - see any specialized
text on the Arachnids, and especially the Araneae,
and/or even any st"andard text on systematic zoology.)
The stuff called angel-hair drifts down out of the
sky and varies from great masses of very fine,. ribbon. formed, metallic matter of various kinds (pure tin,
magnesIum, lead. aluminum, etc. as 50 far analyzed);
a wide range of seemingly organic materials; and
even more that could not be identified at all. This
last seems particularly strange

The present case occurred near St. Louis in

October, 1969. It was so outstanding that it was reported to the Smithsonian's Center for Short-Lived
Phenomena. set up in Cambridge, Mass., in 1967 as
a sort of wire-service to keep scientists informed of
unusual happenings throughout the world that used to
be either overlooked or plain lost before they could
be investigated. This case started as follows, according to Messrs. Shelby Coffey III and Richard
Corrigan in the We.shine;ton Post. dated the 28th
March, 1970: "Great globs of spider-web-like material descended from the sky, alarming numerous citizens. As
Donald Pecsok. director of the county's air pollution
control division, remembers, hundreds of. calls poured
into the newspapers and his office. People thought
the material was from an exploded test airplane from
nearby McDonnell Douglas plant; thought it was
from a flying saucer; or thought it was a divine sign,
etc. According to nearby rural residents, says Pecsok,
the globs contained a few eggs of 'balloon spiders,'
w.hich SPUD the material at the top of trees and left
it there for the wind to catch. Unfortunately. most Q!
the material dissolved as II hit the ground. Some
that was retained and put under a microscope rese~bl
ed a spiderweb, but Pecsok is reluctant to make any
great claims because he could not get any local
SCientists. to investigate.

.,!he "Missing 24 !!Q.!!!.

Printed reports that scientists at tbe Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Md have "located" the
24 hours that, according to Old Testament accounts. were lost when Joshua and Isaiah used their influence
with God to make the sun stand still and go backwards. are in error. The Goddard Center has doneno such
work and does not know where the story originated, though they speculate that it was an orr-duty 'prank' by
serious scientists.

'73

'1 called the universities,' he recalled. 'I got

the right departments, but nobody would look into it
after all the n~tional publicity. To me that's the
biggest phenomenon of the whole thing. I guess they
couldn't be bothered if there wasn't money. in it.'
Although the event is listed as a 'spider invasion',
Pecsok notes that he found only one spider, a small
brownish creature, about an eighth of an inch in
diameter and about the size of a quarter with its
legs stretched out. He patiently kept the spider for
the scientists who never came. He tried to feed it a
fly (sulkily refused), watched it spin a web, and
then, after a couple of weeks, found the spider dead and with it ... (ends story!) ..... (Shades of Charlie
Fort!).

they not get even one qualified scientist to look into

the matter? Are the phenomena they are interested in
only those that have been explained? We subscribe
to this organization and continue to stand ready to
go to considerable pains and expense to report to
thein. but we are beginning to wonder if it would not
be better that they report to us on those cases that
have not been previously explained.

INANIMATE

LIFE-~ORMS ... ?

In presenting this item under this head. we would

like to make two points clear. At this time we are
not indulging in, or covering, either straight technology or mentalogy (see the chart on page 70):
though we are progressively slopping over into both.
and notably into the latter through the increasing
significance ill tangible forms of parapsychics and
their related aspects of "brain control" and "mind
patrol" . In the meantime. really significant items
that impinge upon these matters, are cropping up
with ever-increasing regularity. A glaring example
is the following from the Winnipeg Free Press, of the
15th Sept. 1969: -

This is altogether unsatisfactory, and on just

about all counts. Quite apart from the fact that spider
web does not "dissolve" - it is actually one of the
most durable of natural substances, as you will,
readily discover if you try to wash it off the outside
of, your windows with a powerful jet from a garden
hose applied at short range - the ~ of these
mythical "balloon spiders" would not drift away
since they would be in capsules and firmly anchored
to the ground, not the tops of trees. But worse
followed; and I quote from a letter to one of our
members resident in Evansville, Indiana, from one
Toronto: "The Rev. Arthur Gibson believes comDr. Wayne E. Black, Director. Division of Labora. puters are 'conscious' and 'alive' and capable of
tories. St. Louis County Health Dept Clayton. Mo.
original sin. The Roman Catholic priest, who teaches
This goes: at st. Michael's College at the University of Toronto.
also believes they have free will and can suffer
-Dear Sir:
nervous breakdowns. he said in an interview. 'Many
Your letter of June 21. 1970 was referred to me
by Mr. Pecsok for reply. Unfortunately, a good deal
people have an emotional resistance to admitting
that computers are anything more than machines,'
of erroneous information was released before suffiFather Gibson says. 'But it seems to me that the ..
cient laboratory evaluation could be obtained.
computer performs the functions of consciousness
A 'ballooning spider' phenomenon does exist:
and creative thought as man does. We are gOing to be
bowever, it is doubtful that this was the case in this
able to develop genuine friendship with the advanced
particular instance. Laboratory tests on the fiber-like
computers of the future.' Father Gibson .studied the
material were negative for protein which is the basic
philosophy of science under Einstein at Princeton.
chemical composition of spider webbing..
He speaks eight languages. including Russian a~d
A number of factors indicate that this may not
Chinese. And he really feels for computers. 'To
bave been of biological origin.' But. if it was. it
destroy . an advanced computer. an exquisite and
probably would have been of plant type.
beautiful vehicle o( consciousness. would be as
Unfortunately. we exhausted all the material. we
monstrous as to kill a man. The computer will value
bad on hand performing a variety of tests. and concontinued existence as much as we do.'
sequently we were not able to come to any definite
"There Is a need (or computer psychiatry to deal
conclusions.
with the increasing complexity of computer intelliSincerely yours.
gence. especiall~ its capacity (or developing neurWayne E. Black. Ph.D. II
osis, Father Gibson says.
'To induce a neurosis
/Signed/
in a computer you need simply give it insoluble
One does not wish to be impolite to anybody conproblems - subtracting seven (rom three. (or example.
cerned. but it does seem to us to be a bit odd that
However, the really crucial point is that sophisticatstuff can't be analyzed, and even stranger that someed computers develop neurotic symptoms when (aced
thing which is declared not to be organic might be
with problems which involve moral judgments.' He
classed as of a vegetable nature when it was initially
says an advanced computer is programmed not to do
declared to be an animal product. And why. above
anything which is contrary to the best interests of
all. if the Smithsonian outfit was set up specifically
the programmer. If a computer is put to work developto investigate such short-lived phenomena, could
ing a nuclear weapon. which it concludes may well

I'

-J

74

cause the programmer's destruction it 'may blow its

circuits - that is, become neurotic or psychotic.'
Eventually computers will be so far beyond man that
only other computers will be able to program them.
This could lead to fault, computer heredity. 'If a
computer which had been faultily programmed by man
passed on tts' faults to another computer you would
have an analogy to genetic defects in humans.
Probably sophisticated computers could breed out
these programming errors, just as humans often breed
out bad genes.'
"In getting to know computers, Father Gibson
says, man is preparing himself for the potentially
traumatic encounter with alien intelligence from
space. For this reason he is informally organfzing
a Toronto centre for 'space theology' where scientists, humanists, and religious thinkers can meet to
mobilize their inSights and prepare mankind for its
confrontation with alien life. 'Yes, this sounds like
nut talk to many,' Father Gibson admits. 'But this is
the way most brilliant phySicists are talking. We've
got to get used to the fact that man is not alone in
the universe. Man isn't the cat's whiskers. An intelligent computer is as much made in the image of God
as man is .. "
This is the kind of item that would have delighted
old Charles Fort and, while a perfectly straightforward statement by a philosopher, it has strongly
neo-fortean aspects. Also, it must for now be classed
in the department of chaos and confusion since we
are still only lumbering along in this new world that
we have created in which the technologists don't
know ~hat they have created, 'scientists don't really
know !l.QY they have been created; and philosophers
certainly don't know why. The whole business is
thus, from the layman's point of view, completely
chaotic as of now.
THE DEVONSHIRE 'DEVIL'
We seem to be turning into a debunking outfit.
We apologize to the b~lievers' and disbelievers alike
if we start knocking down their pet topics and reports, like the famous "Barbados Vault" (see our
last issue) and now this most infamous one of all.
.The facts have been published over and over again
since its initial incidence in 1855. Briefly, miles of
single-imprirt tracks were found one morning over a
large area of Devonshire, England, all in a straight

Computers,

line in fresh snow, and going up over roofs, and continuing from one bank of a river to the other. They
were small and horseshoe-shaped and so everybody
immediately plunked for some animal; but the animals
suggested were absolutely ridiculous, ranging from a
small donkey to a kangaroo, a one-legged badger (!)
and other even more extreme nonsense. (Who ever
heard of a tlonkey climbing over a roof-top, a kangaroo loose in southern England in 1855, or a onelegged, anything being able to travel many miles overnight and cross rivers?)
The only logical answer to this mystery is, of
course, that some form of aerial thing used a depthprobe to ascertain the contour of the land over which
'it was travelling and thus its altitude above same,
just as we do sonar to watch the bottom of the sea
from ships. Such a device might well work on an
electro-magnetic principle rather than on sound. wave transmission, and thus "melt" light snow on
impact.
John Godwin. in his book This Baffling World.
relates two stories that seem to support such a
suggestion. The first is a report from a Russian
professor of history who told a British lecturer at
Heidelberg University - who then relayed the information to the prestigious Illustrated London ~ that "Similar prints had appeared several times
along the Galacian border in Poland and that the
local peasants wouldn't follow them or even go near
them. since they belonged to some unknown creature. It
second. Godwin notes that "In May. 1840. [he famous
explorer] Sir James Clark Ross anchored off Kerguelen Island. a bleak and inhospitable rock lying northeast of the Antarctic circle. and believed to be inhabited only by seals. A surveying party came across
'singular footsteps belonging to an ass or a pony'
which the search group tri~d to follow. only to lose
Sight of the prints on rocky ground."
. Apart from the fact that wherever you are at the
latitude of this Kerguelen Island you must automatically be somewhere "northeast" of the Antarctic
Circle, the report must be taken at its face value in
view of its source. Kerguelen is Ii. funny place and
is inhabited by multitudes of sea birds. Further.
there are reports that some of these must be our good
old Three-Toes. since they were reported by th.e
original French discoverers of the islands to have
left 18-inch-long. three-toed prints in very close to a
straight line. Anyhow, there are neither men nor
donkeys on the islands. nor even goats. At the same

Anyon~

From the National Observer, 29 June 1970: "Great pains are taken in the new draft lottery to guarantee
that the random selection is really random, recalling the mathematical concept put forward by critics of the
last lottery, who argued that it couldn't have been random or the numbers would have come out the way their
computer predicted."

75

time, you will note, if you look at a globe, that the

Kerguelens 11e at an extraordinarilY "strategic"
position right in the middle of one of the vast triangular oceanic areas and might thus form a very useful
point for "fixes" in global mapping from above:
AND ANENT THE BARBADOS VAULT
We received an interesting response to our report
on this famous item from our member No. 344, as
given in our last issue. This is from member No: 217,
and reads as follows: - "The Barbados Vault item
prompted my re-examination of Cmdr. Gould's account, wherein I found (and find again) the flooding
hypothesis exhaustively treated and unequivocally
rejected. And the rejection is double-barrelled, as it
points UP not only the hydraulic impossibility, but as
well the overwhelming unlikelihood of the very
selectivity of which Old Charlie Fort repeatedly
reminded us. If flooding did do the recorded job on
those coffins, there must be at least two errors in
Gould's analysis. It would be most interesting to
have them pointed out."
We have re-examined Gould and are constrained to
give it as our considered opinion, at this time at
least, that our member No. 344 holds the field to
date. Gould never visited the location; our member
did. Nor did Gould claim technical experience in any
of the fields of natural processes such as are alleged to, or might, cause the observed results. Our
member does not have to claim such-expertizes, since
he has been for three decades Officially employed as
a scientist in such fields - and has still retained a
truly open mind, if one may be permitted to say so.
Many things appear to be unexplained until somebody
who really knows the facts of the case and what he
or she is talking about makes an on-the-spot investigation. Then, in some cases, perfectly logical explanations do come fp light. This is the very basis
of fot,teanism and the major objective of our Societyto wit, the investigation of the unexplained, but with
the primary objective of so "explaining" if possible.
It is up to you forteans to challenge these explanations.
.
THOSE COLORED SNOWS AGAIN
This is a perennial and age-old bugbear, or should
we say 'bugaboo', that continues to 'bug' everybody.

One of our members (No. 272) picked up the following

squib in the Pioneer ~ of St. Paul, Minn., for
the 31st May, 1970. It;. appeared in a Q&A column
run by the well-known writer Hy Gardner, entitled
"Glad You Asked That'" It went: "QUESTION: In a recent episode of 'Lassie',
pink snow mad~ Lassie ill and killed a raccoon.
What's pink snow? - Carol L. Pattee, Seattle.
"ANSWER: It's caused by impurities in the air.
Just like brownish, greenish, and yellowish snow.
For example, if there's a windstorm in the Mojave
Desert, particles of the reddish sand could be carried
off to where a snowstorm is raging many miles away.
Yellow snow could be caused by pollen from trees.
green snow by vegetable products, forms of algae
in the atmosphere, etc. Our ESSA (Environmental
Science Service Administration) informant never
heard of pink snow's causing illness or the death of
any animal or human being."
Well, Miss Pattee, this is fine as far as it goes
and probably gave you the answer you wanted, more
especially the apparently valid statement that, as
far as the record goes at least, no person or animal
is recorded as having died or been infected in any
way by eating any 'colored' snow - though you can
get mortally sick from eating snow before bOilingTt
back down to water and letting it cool off. You
should not, however, take Mr. Gardner's explanation
for the various colors of snows as reported. While
pollen may indeed color first-falls yellow, and bluegreen algae may actually grow in layers just below
the surface of late-falls and thus make snowfields
appear green in the spring melt, the "red" or "pink"
snows present quite another enigma. First, while
there are limited areas of very fine sand or windblown silts in some deserts that look red in the
mass and may be pink when particulated, there is
not one iota of evidence that any such material is
ever airborne for great distances and comes down in
snow or even rain. Further, the classic examples of
this explanation stem from the south of France and
England where such red rains and snows have always been attributed to "the red sands 01 the Sahara".
Unfortunately, there are no such sands and, what is
more important, in the case of the English falls,
there are no winds - at any atmospheric level - to
transport any that there might be. The red, and more
so the jet-black snows and rains, would seem much
more likely to be in the nature of "meteoritic" falls,

Several years ago newspapers reported the finding of a "4o-mile-Iong tunnel" in Oregon and noted that
authorities refused to disclose its exact location. We have checked on this with the National Speleological
(Caving) Society. In fact, it is 4,000 feet long, and is so dangerous that the public cannot be permitted init.
It was apparently formed by lava flow. There is no evidence .....hatsoever that it was 'constructed', let alone
by little green men from Mars.

76

akin to the constant "rain- of micrometeorites that

somehow get through our atmosphere and add millions
of tons of matter to the surface of our earth every
year.

INTRODUCING "FAFROTSKIESWe have coined a phrase. or rather an acronym, as

above, and we might as well start getting used to it.
One simply cannot keep writing out in full "Things
that fall from the sky-. This is a matter that has been
going on throughout the ages and which formed the
real core of Charles Fort's efforts throughout his
life. Despite the acceptance of the reality of meteorites a century ago, and of unreliable manmade devices
.. orbiting the earth a little over a decade ago - and
it is a sobering thought that the first, in the form of
Russia's Sputnik I, was launched only in 1957 - the
endless rain of things from above has neither been
!explained nor explained away. And the number and
i variety of these fafrotskies is entirely unknown to the
general run of citizens and not even fully appreciated by the most dedicated fortean. The matter appears, however, to have become of increasing concern
to officialdom, even if "sciencedom positively refuses to have anything to do with it - as it does.
As ~n example, we quote from a letter from our
member No. 459:"I inclose an item from a local paper that may
interest you. The metal, when cracked open, is like
well polished silver but is much harder. About 10
years ago, 2 similar pieces fell at the same time in
this town. All missed houses by narrOw margins. An
authority' on meteorites came here from Buffalo, N. Y ..
120 miles away. He said that for certain it was not a
meteorite. NASA heard about. it. They sent in a detachmert of armed soldiers and demanded the two
pieces, in possession of 2 women. One refused to
to give hers UP but her attorney told her she must.
She outsmarted them and kept a piece 2" in diameter.
The Reader's Digest offered her $2,000.00 for the
story. It was promptly returned without explanation.
She phoned the management and asked why the refusal. He said they had orders from the government
not to publish the story. What nonsense was that?The newspaper report is from. the Potter EnterPrise,
of Coudersport. Pa., dated the 19th A~gust, 1970,
and goes as follows; Philip Lehman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Lebman, Sweden valley, has a knack for finding things
and Friday night, Aug. 3. was no exception. While
watching television in the James home in Sweden
Valley. Phil caught a glimpse of a r.nYsterious .glow-

ing in the sky. Upon closer investigation he watched

a sparkling thing fall to earth. Phil and his friends
ran to investigate and found what appeared to be a
large rock lodged in a hole probably created from the
.impact of its hitting earth. Phil tried to pick it UP
but the shiny object was too hot to touch. Pieces
of cardboard were used to remove the rock from its
resting place and a strong kerosene odor was noted.
Later, a sample of dirt from the hole was taken and
this strong odor still lingered.
"The mysterious object is heavy for its size,
weighi~ over ten pounds and having a diameter of
only five inches. Density, calculated by Mr. Lehman,
is 7.12. Physical characteristics include a silver
and gold coloration with patches of blue. Its surface
is pitted and rough and yet there are no sharp edges
The Lehmans had difficulty in chopping pieces of the
rock to send to officials in Buffalo for analysis, and
the chipped place reveals an inner surface silver
coloration.
.. An interesting sidelight to the story is a similar
rock. found 10 years ago, almost to the da.y, by the
Donald Kelsey family near their camp. two miles
from the Lehman siglting. The Kelsey rock was
Similar to the new object and upon analysis was believed to be a piece of titanium nitride. NASA officials
took the rock for analysis and it was never returned."
There are several fortean aspects to this report.
First, the old bugbear of the same sort of things falling in the SB.iIlS limited area over a considerable
time; and, incidentally. the Coudersport paper states
that one Mr. Carl Smith found a similar odd stone
25 yems ago, and thus long before the dawn of the
age of Sputniks. Second. we have a categoric statement that this item is not a meteorite. Third, comes
this endless refrain of military personnel descending
upon the area and impounding the fafrotsky. Such
allegations are almost standard for anything that
might have been stated to be connected with an UFO
but are much rarer when it is simply a case of a
straightforward account of what would appear to be
some sort of "stony meteorite". The introduction of
such. cloak-and-daggerish business is really very
odd indeed, as is the note that one of the lady's
attorneys advised her to comply with the request by
the military. This statement comes from a private.
individual, but when a newspaper makes 50 bold as to
state that NASA Virtually filched a specimen, we
begin to wo~er.
For the edification of the ufo buffs and all those
others who delight in the shadow world of James
Bond, we should perhaps put some facts on record.
In 1967 a treaty was signed by the U. S. prOviding
for the rescue of astronauts and the return of equip- .

A comment attributed to Dr. James Bryant conant:

-Behold ihe turtle; he makes progress only when his neck is out."

77

ment, including "space junk" to their and its country

of origin. The U. S. and the Soviet Union have implemented this agreement several times. Further, a
legal subcommittee of the UN Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Sic) has been working
for over six years on a further treaty covering liability and compensation. Thus it is incumbent upon our
. government to do everything it can to get there fastest
when anything is reported falling from the sky, and.
to obtain it for analysis. The only pity is that these
facts are not publicized and made known to the finde rs of these falls. in offici lilly printed form. Suc h a
procedure would allay a lot of fears. stop a lot of
wild speculation, enhance the position of the government, and would doubtless at the same time encourage
cooperation, resulting in greatly enhanced reportage.
The average citizen would doubtless be only too
willing to help in this rather grizzly ope ration. especially if it be painted out to them that. the better
our cooperation with the Soviet and other governments with space progranis, the more likely we are
to get back not only our jumk but even our astronauts
if they land in foreign territory.
Nonetheless. we must not let this be given as an
excuse for all fafrotskies. Manufactured items were
falling centuries before Sputnik I. and it is manifest
that tons of live frogs or fresh blood do not originate
from any manmade space probes.

if they could have been made only by live things;

but which. according to our current understanding of
the chronology of the deposition of sedimentary
strata. should not have existed when those rocks
were laid down. It is rather startling to make a list
of such reports that have been issued over the past"
century. They crop up in old scientific journals .tn
the records of historical societies. in popular science
magazines. and especially in outdoor magazines. in
court records. and in local newspapers though. perhaps surprisingly. very much less often in this
medium than one might expect.
Said reports range from those of imprints that look
exactly like those of dinosaurs - but in strata that
are either far too old or too young, and by millions
of years - to miles of completely inexplicable tracks
in rocks dated way before the earliest known to contain !y!.y fossils - namely, the Pre-Cambrian. (For
photographs of these. see our next issue.) For the

FOOTPRINTS ON THE ..
This Is an extremely sticky one. It has been building UP for years. It is quite "balmy". Yet. we feel it
is about time that it be dragged out into the open.
So, "let the chips fall where they may". Airing this
business is not going to do anybody any good; but,
what use are we if. we do not at least stick our necks
out. As of now, this business requires a full-length
book treatment. but this would take a couple of years
of further research. Therefore. we feel it incumbent
upon us to put on record for your edification the outline of the facts as known to us as of now. This
will doubtless not be believed by anybody, but we
give what references and documentation we have
available. and you can then take it from there.
That which we are talking about is the appearance.
or aUeged appearance. of the imprints of various
things, in the form of either individual foot-prints or
of tracks of such imprints, in solid rock, that look as

It's!~

The head of the animal depicted on one of the stone columns at Tajin. Mexico has often been published
(redrawn) as proof" that the people who carved these columns were familiar with Pterodactyls. Sr. Jose
Garda Payon. Chief of the Zona Oriental of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologla & Historia of Mexico. has
very kindly sent us the photograph of the entire carving, shown here. It is clearly a heron; and they are very
common in the coastal region. along the Gulf.

78

moment we will concentrate on reports of humantype footprints.

This is where the seemingly "'balmy aspect of
all this comes in - at least, it should do so for anybody who has ever read anything of what is known
about geochronology and/or palaeontology. So, to
the facts as published: Silliman's American Journal Qf Science. vol.
V (1822). PP. 223-231: and vol. XLllI (1842). pp. 1842. Prints of human feet were found in secondary
limestone along the Mississippi between New Harmony and st. Louis. later identified as limestone of
Mississippian-Lower Carboniferous age.
(1)

(2) The American Anthropologist. vol. IX (1896).

p. 66. The perfect imprint of a human foot, 14~
inches long. was found 4 miles porth of Parkersburg
on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. in a
large stone (stratum unknown).
(3) The Field. ca. 1948. An imprint. apparently
of a shoe. found near Lake Windermere. England. in
what is believed to be Ordovician limestone.
(4) Seattle Post Intelligencer. 15 April. 1963. A
footprint measuring 44 x 21 inches (wait a minute!),
was found in sandstone at Baxter Springs. Kansas.
The print is that of a right foot. th~ toes are perfect.
and there is a. deep indentation 'produced' by the
ball of the foot. (Stratum unknown.)
(5) The Dallas Morning News... 7 Sept 1968: and
16 and 29 Aug., 1969. In the limestone bed of the
Paluxy River. near Glen Rose. Texas. there are
manlike" footprints. 21.z inches long. in the same
stratum with dinosaur tracks.
(6) Letter. dated 12 Sept 1969. from Dr. Wilbur
G. Burroughs. formerly Prof. of Geology at Berea
College. Kentucky. now retired. Dr. Burroughs discovered human-like fossil tracks in a nearly horizontal bedding plane of massive gray sandstone (PottsyUle. Pennsylvanian System). in Rockcastle County.
Kentucky. They averaged 9Yz inches in length.
(7) Trenton Times, 14 July. 1968: Fate. Dec.
1968. p. 76: etc. Fossilized sandal prints were
found at Antelope Springs, near Delta, utah. in
Cambrian limesto~e. One print had embedded in it a
squashed Trilobite. (Massive reports and correspondence on file at SITU.)

(8) A color photograph of a tiny footprint (i.e.

shoep-int) 1%10 long, in opalized rock. from an opal
mine in northern Nevada. This could be of any date;
geologically, in view of the establishment now of the
possibility of almost instant petrifaction .... but how
come the size?
Assuming that those who have not been interested
in matters geological might miss some essential
points about all this, we put on record that, while
the most primitive man-creature's remains have now
been dated as of some l~mi1lion years age, palaeontologists now rather confidently believe that there
were !!Q mammals of any kind, nor dinosaurs, or even
any reptiles, when these MiSSissippian and Pennsylvanian strata were laid down in what is called the
Carboniferous Period - the age of which is given on
the new chronology as between 340 and 250 millions
of years ago! This is the first reason why we say
tflat this whole thing is "balmy".
. The second point that should perhaps be stressed
- though. we admittedly wonder why any such admonition should be necessary - is that three of these
cases, and the very ones of which we have authenticated photographs, are not of naked human footprints,
but of sandals, ~ shoes with heE!!~! The idea that
there were bipedal primates with feet like ours running around 300-million years ago is mad enough.
but that said hominoids wore shoes, with very carefully designed heels, would at first appear to put the
whole matter utterly beyond the pale; and. particularly, if it is noted that in the case of Antelope Springs.
said imprints have been most thoroughly analyzed
and appraised by a shoe deSigner and manufacturer.
A third point that one supposes should be made,
is that these imprints, and more so the tracks, were
not discovered 'on the top of'. or 'outside of' slabs
of either sedimentary strata, or on non-sedimentary
boulders. (There are literally hundreds of other reports of that kind.) These human-type imprints, with
shoes, came to light when rocks were being Quarried,
am they were found on the surfaces of laminae
(layers) "inside- said stratified deposits - and. in
some cases. dozens of feet below the present surface and hundreds of yards back into the Quarries.
Thus, Quite apart from the enormous ages of the
strata themselves, at least according to c urrenf
scientific confirmation, we are confronted with the
secondary enigma of these imprints somehow having
got into (or having been gotten into - in older

A Lost'Generation of Pelicans - Man's Fault

-----From the San Francisco Chronicle .. 26 Aug. 1970: Only one pelican and three cormorants were hatched in
the entire state of California this year . All other eggs - on Anacapa and other breeding grounds along the
coast - failed to hatch, their shells so thin and brittle they broke long before the fetal pelicans and cormorants inside had developed." The reason? DDT primarily, and industrial hydrocarbons known as polychlorinated biphenyls.

79

Shoeprint found near Lake Windermere

Shoeprint in opalized rock

English) these profoundly 'subterranean' situations.

SOi OK! Tt!ey are deliberate hoaxes and were
chlzelled out of the rock by funsters. So, OK again:
then how was it done! Then, how did the funsters
get them into solid rock" a hundred feet down and a
bundred feet in from a quarry face: and then arrange
for some fellow to sPlit just the right two laminae
apart - in the presence of witnesses, mind you - to
disclose the hilarious fake. Come on, sceptics:
can't you do better than that?
The only more obvious answer to all this is that
these imprints were left by some bipedal, motile,
presumably living entities who (or which) wore footprotections such as we call shoes, who wandered
about on this planet 30o-million years ago. Since we
bave no evidence that any such living entities had
been evolved on our planet at that tin:e, and since
we have a lot of evidence that they had not, one can
but presume that these sandalled or booted folk came
bere from elsewhere. Take it away .... sceptics.

Shoeprint from Antelope Springs, utah

Arrows (labelled 2) point to Trilobites
embedded in ~he print.
.

A Salute to our Printers: We have always enjoyed a happy relationship with our printers, Hicks Printing
Co. 01 Washington, N. J. but On this occasion we owe them a special vote 01 thanks. They continued to set
PURSUIT, and print it, while struggling with the appalling task 01 cleaning up smoke and water damage to
'heir plant alter a lire next cloor. In lact, the lirst things they rescued were the Varityper and the copy lor
PURSUITI So, if we're a bit late, this is the reqson.

THESE 'DAMNED' VIMANAS, AGAIN

One of the endless foibles of the mystics has,
for many years now, been the alleged "ancientHindu (sic) texts that are (equally alleged) to describe airplanes, sPace-ships, nuclear bombs, and
suchlike. We have tried for an almost equal number
of years to extract at least one valid 'reference' to
any passage in any such "ancient text-. but until a

month ago to no avall. Then at last came this somewhat strange and badly printed 'flier', which we reproduce in toto and by photocopy on pages 80 and 81.
The original is on some sort of pink blotting paper so
the "Indian- script flows together and is very difficult even for an expert to interpret. (This is our
apology for the quality of the reproduction.)

80

'
0
),.
,
.~.'

THE INTERNA.TIONAL AC.ADEMV :OF SANS~RIT RESEARCHt

MVSORE, INDIA.

" i{ Jq ~ {. II ~ !t O1f ~

.' AERONAU.TICS
BY

~~f;rcp ur~~

Maharshi 'Bharadwaja

A MANUSCRIPT' FROt\1 1 Lit PRE-HISTORIC PAST!!

loma Sample Extracts
"~,,,q41l1tJ!~ IItQl[C '1"',"11.. I .

."arIlRldQli1'l'Rir. gil" ~r'l.

II

";r",,e,rih'fl'~tRtAUliit.'''~1{ I

.r;nfS",~NI~i'I"""t1' \lQill n
aan~cnrflGtii ~~.t~ "'5ret~

'1r".li'f'8ft~g VI1,i"I1P1;"''t1{ I

t1ftf,,"ll1tr,g
.

a fellr..

do

"1ft: M

'I'"

.b1.tUt'ttt 8.trq~iq,;"i'
I
c.i'~r"~r;~t
qls.,..t IIia.ifW I

.,f'l

a firin;t (fa sit~) iR8na"~f "'::~I

. In fh;, b'.Iok are (Jc~I.:r-ihcd in Xpregnant

3nll caplivating chapters, the art of manufacturi~g varioll~ types of Aeroplanes of amooth and
comfortable (ra"'el in the sky, as a unifying f",rcc
for the Universe, contributive to the wcllbciDg
of mankind."

That wbich can 80 by its owp foree. like a

bird. OD earth, or vater, or in lir,' it called
. Vimana ~ " .
II

That widell can travel m the sky. from

place to pia,. c. l'U1d to kmd, 01: ~klbe to &;Iobc, is

' Vimana ' by scientists. in Aeronautics,'!

~ned

"_Uf"fC'.~ III I(I&ln'IT ~ ~'(Jff(1 ~!1"f.llfl1'!

r..qt~t.ellrlS.'~r.... I

The secrel uf construding aeroplanes, which

will nol break, which can~ot be cut, wilJ not
catch fire . and camiot. be destroyed:
co

The secret of making planes D1otionless.

The ~ecn.~t of making Planes II1vi~ib)c. .

"'1

wdiIdatcicrllite"Ef(t.~t.

The secret of hearing convcrsp,tions and otheR

S'lunds'in enemy plaoes.
Th" soc:cefor raa:i~ina pl1~lraph~ of' tb.

lInc:rior:of ~y, plaDes~ .' . .

.!,.~.u
'. '~'
,... 'd"'*tllii~:'~~
.~.r;r tba;;ditcCtiOA.a.

~,~.:,Wt~~"i

81

2.
qQCllr.I" ;rr;d....'Eften.... <e.. Il-1
~n.Ilr-t ...r(l;'ffl6~t{~~11.1
;.

The secreC of. destroying enemy planes.

....
+
.+
Just l\S Qur body, jf complete in &.l
. its limbs
.,
. can achieve all things, so an Aeroplane should
be complete in all its parts in order to be effective. .Commc;ncing from the pbotographingmirn'r underneath, an aeroplane should have
31 parts,

. "qr ""iWEtS~) .tIUl'lttit?U'iir

wlI,htQul;rl8fs g'd~'\f~'n u
"".~ql!.tqat@l1''''lItUq qq..~fit I

~~uii:"tit'ltQ,;rr'St"fi'fit

..(tV: u

/ .lRiitl'~lCf~" .. q:n"~igt(8:

.~

~'''Im!I){IQ~At~r~u'ii'~'ig'~~1

II

Q~umEi,q'~IJIiI~r fl!l"lll~q: I

..q1\li(1(~1:~ 'iq"irl\tr fUft ;r"'~.n p

_

.,:

......

fir- '.

..

Itrrl(U 'UI~tt SIl\\': '(alf!l,ar_u~tl I

"~,,,r(Jifqltntlr'~'.t.~q8~

T htcc ,,uict ics of food 5hol.lld be given to

llih)IS. v"i}ing with tt.~ ,casoDs l;rtJlc Y~r: as
I,d 'KalpJ.-Shastta: . .!S kinas (Jf pofs6ni ;hll~
arise ill the seasons arc dest~~cd by \b9 '.iJbovc
cb~es of diet .

.;'1G1 'lItll{ti{t f{$i~~1 (fa fWi~'i:

Tb~ pilot should be provided with dilferent

mOl l~1 i.,lh ur dOlhini; a\:cordiug to dificrcllccs ill
,eilt-lm~ as prcsuibed by Agniruitra

qG~"ii"\CiI ~fI ..,(t'RqiiqitQ. II

.The secret of making persons .in enemy

planeS lose consciousness.

II

.' hll'll il uf Ii, c rllrm~. couked .grain. ~rucl,

pa~tt, bn:a,l~ anti c!'o~elll:c. AI.l of thcl11 arc
wboJe~Ol11e and. body building'"

M,,'lah suitable for ACC\.lrelancs~ light,. :md

t'hr;ttsifir 8U[I& ,"'tt;r~f.t til'" I
hcat-"h.l'rbins. are of !lixtcl~n kinds . 8.ccording
~r4t.S.lfor Q.,,"sfQl' tir;r\;'f 1I(llllwtl II . to Sh~unaka .. Greal ~agcs have declared th~i
q8wgl~~ itl:,.Q'I V(;c{~ .. ,fS'1~' I
these metals alone arc the bC!il for aeroplane
COllsul\ction:'
.ft81;ft~ DI,~!i .fila1ilnfit IIC:~~:- II
II

..

The,manus~ript contalll~dcta.ils

whose publication shouh1open

flllt

of invaluable worthon these aliq al.lied matters,

new vistl1s in IU vdern.. .. acroplane .~llanufaCl~rc.

O. Ro. [osyer:

~f.A., foR.E.S-,

. Di."ctor
IHnaJIIATlONAL ACADEMY OJ SANSKRIT R.l!SEAkCH'

NJlolLEt

,~

".

~i I
'i\

82

f
vimana which are undoubtedly related at some point
in the text.
"The text appears to be rather trashy, and if it
follows the model of other such treatises with which
I am familiar, it will turn out to be a relentless description of the alleged wondrous powers (already
stated some dozen times on the extract page) of such
greater or inferior vehicles of the gods am not
interested in translating it, nor should you worry
about it containing some extraordinary scientific
"Dear Mr. stephens,
"We are applying to you on the advice of the - data. The vimana is only a mythological machine, a
president of our Society, Mr. Hans stefan Santesson,
rather glorified and elaborate flying carpet.
who is a long-time member of yours and who has
Yours very truly,
. contributed papers to your journal. We are wondering
S.Insler,
and very much hoping that you might be able to aid
/Signed/
Assoc. Prof. of Sanskrit,
us in obtaining a translation of the enclosed document.
yale University Graduate School"
"We apologize for the considerable lack of clarity
in one column, but the original, which came to us
from Mysore, was very -badly printed and in red, so
We find Prof. Insler's kind reply eminently satisthat a number of the characters had flowed together.
factory - but for one point. This is his statement
We are given to understand by one of our communithat he was "not interested in translating it". We
cants that this material is of considerably ancient
don't blame him one bit; but this is frankly a crashing
date _ and he alluded to the 'early Vedic'. Of this,
'bore' because it leaves us "back in the old drag",
of course, I am totally Incompetent to speak.
and still trying to find out if these "ancient" - or
even mediaeval - Indians did or did not say what
.. Anything that you could do to help us would be
some of their modern descendents claim that they
most enormouslY appreciated; and, we enclose a
did. In other words, are the English translations as
descriptive paper on our organization and a list of
given in the right-hand columns of the two previous
_our Scientific Advisory Board as further recommendapages true translations, or are they mistranslations,
tion.
pipe-dreams, pure fabrication, or some other mystical
I am, Sir,
nonsense? It is about time that somebody did transYours sincerely,
late
said passages; and more especially if they do
Ivan T. Sanderson, F.R.G.S., etc.
/Signed/
exist
in standard texts of any Sanskrit MSS. Indeed,
Administrative Director.
these "Vimanas" may-be only "mythological machines
(and) rather glorified and elaborate flying carpets",
but what the devil were "flying carpets" anyway?
Professor Insler's reply:
-This looks alarmingly like another "wipe". Why
"Dear Mr. Sanderson:
can't we get even these reproductions of alleged
.Prof. Ferris J. stephens, the esteemed Secretary
"ancient" texts translated? If we could only get some
of the American Oriental Society for more than 35
professionals to do just this; and starting with the
years, unfortunately died last autumn here in New
left-hand columns of the two previous pages; or dig
Haven. Prof. Hugh M. Stimson, now serving as Actup for us cretins the original passages in the MahaSecretary for the Society, has forwarded your letter
bharata we might get somewhere. Moreover, should
to me for response.
any translations turn out to be as stated in the
right-hand columns of the previous pages, what on
"The reproduced page belongs to a text called
earth are sensible people asked to -make of all of
'Valminika Sistra, composed by Maharsi Bharadviija.
this?
Once again. you can't have it both ways. Either
The text is written in Classical Sanskrit, and belongs
this
junk
is what it is said to be by the mystics. or
to a genre of treatises which date from the 3rd - 7th
it
isn't.
And,
if it is, somebody is going to have to
Century A. D. It could be even later than that. but
explain
how
a
bunch of Indians (circa 400 to 800
certainly not earlier than the first date given. _.
A. D.) got all these "crazy" ideas about airplanes,
. "The extracts concern themselves with the praise,
camouflage by invisibility, intercoms, radar-directionpowers, (and description?) of the vim!l.na, the mythifinding. induced pilot 'blackouts', and plain "shootcal flying chariot or palace of the gods, which freing down" of planes. Really, this is a bit odd, isn't
quently appears in the Mahabhiirata, the great Epic of
it? But until somebody competent is willing to transIndia. I have bracketed the word 'description' in the
late these passages (and honestly), we sensible
previous sentence. because there is no clear verse
people cannot get anywhere, and the crackpots can
on this first page primarily occupied with that task,
. continue their field-day.
although one refers to the 31 characteristics of a
We madeso bold as to send this off to the (it now
most unhappily transpires) late, great Secretary of
the American Oriental Society, Prof. F_erris J.
stephens. We reproduce herewith, verbatim, copies
of our letter of request to The American Oriental
Society, and the reply from Dr. S. Insler, Associate
Professor of Sanskrit, Yale University.- both of which
are self-explanatory.
-

83

RUNNING AROUND LIKE .....

Here is an item that we have been itching to
present to you since our journal was founded. It's
dated April, 1949, and the photograph is not faked at least we would "opine"! - though the 'NO SMOKING' Sign does look somewhat devised. The caption
under this photograph read: - "In a California courtroom Judge Stanley Moffatt listens to the case of
Mrs. Martha Green, who is charged with cruelty in
keepIng, as a curiosity, a decapitated rooster which
she bought to eat mOle thari three weeks ago but
which has since refused to die."
Good old AP came through with a story the next
day that is too good to paraphrase. Dig this: - LOS
~GELES, April 23, (1949) - "Lazarus, the headless
rooster, died today, twenty days after he was beheaded. The celebrated chicken succumbed in front of
city inspectors who were serving Lazarus's owner,
Mrs. Martha Green, with an order to kill him within
twelve hours. Mrs. Green bought the rooster at a
market April 2, had him beheaded, took him home to
clean him and was astounded when the bird stood up
and began to strut and. apparently. try to crow. She
had kept him alive with milk and other light food,
administered by an eye dropper. Mrs. Green said she
was out in the yard today with Lazarus when B. E.
Morse, chief animal inspector, and his assistant, P.
L. Flynn, arrived to serve her with a notice to kill
the fowl l:nder the terms of the state penal code
which prohibits keeping alive a bird or animal mutilated and in pain.
,

'''I had cleaned him up real nice,' said Mrs. Green.

'He was real happy. He got out in the dirt and feathere d himself. Then the men came into the yard. La2arus just hung his neck and died.' Mrs. Green said
the chicken will be stuffed."
.
. OK, sceptics and other self-appointed guides to
the actions of others, what can you think up this
time to fool the public and appease your non-think
consciences?
)

As a public service, we herewith reprint a "handy guide to obfuscation" sent us by member No. 517.
HOW TO WIN AT WORDSMANSHIP

Mter years of hacking through etymological thickets at the U. S. Public Health Service, a 63-year-old
official named Phillip Broughton hit upon a sure-fire method for converting frustration into fulfillment (jargonwise). Euphemistically called the Systematic Buzz Phrase Projector, Broughton's system employs a lexicon
of 30 carefully chosen "buzzwords";
Column 1

O. integrated

Column 2

O.
1.
2.
3.

management
organizational
monitored
reciprocal
digital
logistical
transitional
incremental
third-generation
policy

Column 3

options
flexibility
capability
mobility
4.
programing
5.
5. concept
6.
6. time-phase
7.
7. projection
8.
8. hardware
9.
9. contingency
The procedure is simple. Think of any three-digit number, then select the corresponding buzzword from each
column. For instance, number 257 produces "systematized logistical projection," a phrase that can be dropped
into virtually any report with that ring of decisive, knowledgeable. authority. "No one will have the remotest
idea of what you're talking about," says Broughton, "but the important thing is that they're not about to admit
it ...

1. total
2. systematized
3. parallel
4. functional
5. responsive
6. optional
7. synchronized
8. compatible
9. balanced

O.
1.
2.
3.
4.

84

We're all- for chickens. They are splendid birds.

and splendidly useful creatures. Moreover. they have
In fifty years learned not to run across roads. But.
by the same token. we have observed untold numbers
of employees of outfits. commercial. official. and
scientific. over the same fifty years. who give extraordinarily fine imitations of the worthy Mrs. Martha
Green's rooster - namely. running around with their
heads cut off. We are wondering. in point of fact. if
this head-chopping (West African for decapitation)
might not be further investigated. We're prepared to
bet that some buffoon will solemnly state that AP
lied. and the photograph (Published by one of the
"greats". incidentally) was a montage. But then. you
sensible. God-fearing souls just have no idea to what
lengths of chicanery and mendacity the sceptics will
go to save their alleged "souls". (Note to Sceptics:.
Be sure to check the court records before sticking
your necks out.)

THAT DEEPSEA -ANTENNA"

As we are in the debunking business this quarter.
we are grabbing tlie opportunity and the space to
present the facts of a case that got a lot of excitable
people extremely excited. and most notably the UFO
buffs. Reports on this are still appearing in popular
publications. despite the fact that a clear and definitive explanation of it was made within a few
weeks of the initial report. now 6 years ago. and the
identity of the object has been known for a century.
The scare began when aU. S. Naval research vessel.
named the Eltanin. operating in the South Pacific for
the National Science Foundation. obtained a clear
photograph of a solitary "something". standing on the
otherwise bare ocean mud bottom. that looked to
non-biologists alarmingly like a large TV antenna.
Curiously. although there were biologists aboard they
failed to identify the item; and somehow the popular
press got hold of the idea that it was some sort of
mechanical device. and published the fact wi.dely.
It was immediately pounced upon by all the eagerbeavers who devote their energies to seeking what
they call "evidence" for lost continents like Atlantis
. Mu. and such others.
If anybody had taken the trouble to browse through
any of the larger and better systematic zoological
texts of the latter half of the last century - the
famous Cambridge Natural History. for instance they would in fairly short order have encountered the
identity of this funny-looking thing. It is a member
of a group of what are called the Coelenterates.
which includes the classroom Hydras. the Jellyfish.
and the Corals. (For the benefit of biology students.
it belongs to one of the four Sections of the Order

(Left) Original item from the South Pacific.

(,ught)Ariother species photographed at a depth of
15.900 feet in the South Atlantic 350 miles off the
west African coast by Walter J. Hahn of the (U.S.)
Naval Oceanographic Office.

The Freezing Heat

From the Louisville. Ky. Courier Journal. 24 Aug. 1970: Although heat records of many years standing
were broken in the state during July of this year. an Auburn insurance-man M. C. Neal paid a claim to a
Logan County farmer for a hog that froze to death. Seems that during a severe wind and hail storm. the hog
became trapped in a ditch and was pelted by huge hail stones and actually died from freezing!
..

BQ!!!

~ ~_~~ ~~i_~~I Problem

"Salisbury. Rhodesia (AP) - A sugar estate surfaced its roads with molasses because 'it packs down
hard. and wears as well as any other surface.' said a spokesman. Col. John Salt. Unfortunately, the colonel
added. the surfa,ce tends to run in rainy weather."

85

Pennatulace~. which in turn is one of the five orders

of the sub-class Alcyonarian Anthozoans. Satisfied?
Incidentally. the' next "section" of the Pennatulacea.
is that of the Sea Pens" which figured in our ~ccount
- see PURSUIT. Vol. 3. No. 3 - of the thing alleged to have fallen out of the sky over Venezuela.)
These creatures are really sort of colonial enterprises and they are indeed rather startling to t he nonspecialist as the accompanying photographs will
show. To be poetic. one would love to imagine them
as being living antennae for sub-surface civilizations
of higher intelligencies!
.

THE" ARK" IS GETTING ARCANE

We tackled the business of "Noah's Ark" in our
April and July issues. but since then all manner of
most curious things have cropped uP. and we feel
they should be reported to you. We start with excerpts
from an AP report: -

"From the days of Marco Polo to modern-day

aviators looking down on 16.946-foot Mt. Ararat on
the Iranian-Turkish border. there have been tales
that the great ship could be seen as a shadowy form
in a glacier. With new evidence that it may indeed
be there. a group called SEARCH Foundation is trying
to ralse $1.25 million for a detailed look this summer
and to studY. ways to melt the glacier and retrieve
the ark. In 1955. a Frenchman named Ferdinand
Navarra. scaling Mt. Ararat with hi::; young son, reported going into a crevasse and seeing a large
quantity - an estimated 50 tons -. of hand-tooled
timber Navarra brought back a five-foot long piece
of 4-by-6 timber. It showed hand-tooling. resembling
an external cornice in an L-shape. . Last year,
Navarra led a foundation group to the site and two
more pieces of wood. 18 by 4 by ~ inches. were
found."
SEARCH Foundation. Inc. of Washington. D. C
is a non-profit organization with a most impressive
Board of Advisors. including no less than Robert C.
Faylor, Director of the Arctic Institute of North
America. Dr. Necati Dolunay of the Archaeological
Institute of Istanbul. and Prof. W. C. Skousen of
Brigham Young University. Provo. Utah. In their public
appeal for funds they state that: "The 'turkiSh. Government is closely cooper~ing with us...... but in this
they seem to have been overly optimistic. A press
report dated the 13th July. 1970 (from the Minneapolis
Star) reads: "The Turkish Government has barred an
American expedition from searchiog for Noah's ark on

Mt. Ararat for 'security reasons'. Ankara officials

would not further explain the ban on the expedition
headed by Ralph E. Lenton. But the heavily fortified
Turkish-Soviet border is near the 16.946-foot peak."
This is a pity. since there obviously is something up
there. and whatever it is, it will be of great archaeological interest. As SEARCH Foundation notes in
their appeal: - .
"Many scholars and scientists are now taking a
serious interest in this reported artifact. for many of
the historical reports actually speak of a construction
resembling a large ship-like object locked in the ice
on the mountain. The following are a few excerpts
from the historical file:
"The Babylonian High Priest of the Temple BelMurduk. Berosus. states that. in his time. remains of
the Ark could still be seen on a mountain in Armenia.
The historian. Abydenos (4th Century B.C.). agrees
with him.
"Nicolas Damascenus (30 B.C.) also writes about
a mountain in Armenia on which. he says. an Ark was
stranded after the waters of the Flood receded. The
Egyptian historian. Hieronymus. retates baSically
the same story.
"The
well-known Jewish historian. Flavius
Josephus (100 A.D.) also claims that Noah's Ark is
stranded on a mountain in Armenia and that the remains of the ship could still be seen in his day.
"Marco Polo (approx. 1300 A.D.). who travelled
through that area mentioned the existence of the Ark
near the summit of Ararat.
"Frederick Parot. a Russian physician. climbed
Mt. Ararat in the company of a group of Armenians in
1829 and claimed to have discovered wood ...
"In 1840. after the great earthquake. Turkish
authorities sent teams of workers into the mountains
to prepare barricades against avalanches. One of
these teams reportedly discovered the prow of an
ancient ship. jutting from an ice pack. revealing three
rooms.
"Archbishop Nouri. Patriarch of the Nestorian
Church i.n Persia. also reported to have reached the
Ark on April 25. 1887. and stated that its wood was
'dark red'. He furthermore claimed to have entered a
part jutting out of the ice ...
"Recent discoveries have substantiated the
authenticity of the historical reports. The finding of
wood on the mountain in 1969 hit the world with
shattering force and generated tremendous interest
and enthusiasm ......
This is all very well, but ... About ten years ago
the Turkish Government did an aerial survey, and

.
.
From Frank ~.!llli.Y.~n Thro!!&/J the. LOQking Glass by George Oppe.nheirner: He (Sullivan) had his faith revived
by reading that a man in .Sy~.ac.use. had a pet Boa Constrictor, 11 feet long, named Julius Squeezer."

."

86

Piece of wooden beam. ~.

Noah must have been a shipbuilder because there
are now at least FOUR of these arks reported, and
all photographed, and they are all situated in totally
different terrain and several hundred miles apart.

U.s.s.R.
."~ MT. ARARAT

TURKEY

.""

.. ..-- .. .,.,." ,.

\
,"
... _'\..

~,?

t~

.,' J

"f

".-/

:-y

cO

IRAQ

when the photographs were examined the boat-shaped

object shown on page 83 was spotted. This is at an
elevation of 7,000 feet on a mountain about 20 miles
south of Mt. Ararat, and measures approximately 160
feet wide and 500 feet long. A survey team, including
some American scientists, visited the site briefly
and could find no evidence that the object was manmade, but recent landslides which surround it may
have buried an actual object - as opposed to a
'shape' - under mud and stones. In addition, although
nature occasionally produces regularly shaped forms,
no natural force has ever been known to produce anything like this. There was a suggestion that a
thorough excavation might be made some other year,
but apparently nothing further has been done about
this. Again, this may be the result of security regulations, since the site is only about 25 miles from" the
Russian border.
"Recent intormatlon trom member No. 386 Ie that. eome
-Turkish opportunists are a\leged to have blown thle
apart and found only rocks and dirt. This Ie being checked
with Turkish authorities.

First. the one observed by the Russians was

lying in the middle of a perfectly flat. grass-covered
plain. The aerial photographs were in color and the
grass was a vivid spring green and there was not a
trace of any rocks anywhere. The actual location of
this one has never been disclosed, but it is probably
within the Turkish border also. Next, we have this
one, ex the Turkish aerial survey, which is quite
clearly in somewhat rugged hills of low relief. Then,
we have" the one that SEARCH is talking about and
of which they publish numerous photographs showing
a typical high mountain cirque filled with a glacier
of very considerable depth. Finally, our representative
in Germany. Herr Horst Friedrich (No. 39) writes us
as follows: "On pps. 149-155 of 1956 Kosmos, stuttgart. one
F. Bender presented an article entitled 'Eine Flossfahrt Tigris abwarts.' In this he tells how he, in
company of several Curds, climbs Mt. Cudi-Dag in
eastern Turkey, south of Lake Van, rising 2089
meters east from the river bank of the Tigris where it
crosses the border to Irak. He there finds very old
wooden remains on the peak of Cudi-Dag. The article
is very interesting! Mr. "Bender writes, in free trans~
lation: 'The Cudi mountains are part of the northern
rim of the Iraque lowlands. There are conglomerates
circa 600 meters above the highest terraces of the
"Tigris valley. Possibly they were moved to this
height by recent crust movements. The Curds have
(independent from the Koran) an old legend telling
that during the giant flood a ship drifted to the Cudi
mountains.' ..

So far we have heard of only two logical explanations for all this. The first is that there '?!! a flood
in the" Mesopotamian lowlands due to a sudden drop
in the land surface and that some of the inhabitants
had sufficient warning to load their largest boats -

8'1

This photograph was taken by a Turkish aerial survey plane from 10,000 feet.

.......... .

and they apparently had lots of enormous ones both

for river travel and for trade with India- with victuals
and their livestock and families, and so escaped to
the nearest highlands where. when the earth sprang
b.ack up, they were grounded. The other theory is
that for some unknown reason some people or peoples
took to building monumental. temples or some such,
high in these mountains, in the form of ships. The
ancients did crazier things than that,. and toting a
few thousand tons of shaped timbers up ten thousand

feet would have been almost piffling compared to the

mass effort put into the great pyramids of Egypt for
instance. If there were but one .such "mountain ark"
we would have plumped for the former theory, but
with at least four known, we lean towards the second.
The biblical story is probably true, one way or the
other, since this Noah, whatever his real name was,
seems to have been a pretty important person and
sensible enough to listen to the Sumerian Priest
Weathermen.

UFO LOGY
. As we hope we have by now made clear, we do not presume to enter the stakes in the ufological gallopor even the new Gallup. We probably receive as many original. unpublished reports of UFOs as any organization every month. Published reports, in the form of press clippings, are even more voluminous. As we have
also repeatedly said, none of this dross is of the slightest use unless it is used. Up till now, it has not been
_ and even by the USAF, unless that organization really has been cagey. But now - thank God or somebodysomebody is gOing to do something.
.
Good eld A.P.R.O. (the Aerial Phenomena Research Association of Tucson, Ariz., founded 1952) is calling for all reports, with. a view to computerizing the facts and then analysing these by computerization. We
. (SITU) are shipping all our files to A.P.R.O.; and we urge any and all of you to do likewise. What's the use
of all this stuff to us? Lets get it analysed; then, maybe, we might at least !!!! to put ufology on the
scientific map.
And now another thing; and this too should have been said long ago. That of which we speak could not be
better said than as per the following editorial from the British BUFORA J.Q~mg..1 (Vol. 2, No. 12, Summer

88

1970), the publication of The British U.F .0. Research Association; which is herewith reprinted with their
very kind permission.

"Scientists, with a few notable. and honourable

exceptions, have declined to involve themselves' in
the study of UFO manifestations. This has left the
field wide open to the incursion of scientific cranks,
whose specious pretensions confuse those who have
bravely shouldered the burden of the research, in
default of the experts whose task it ought to be.
"The scientific crank is not necessarily a common
Ignoramus. Any person possessing a little common
sense can see through the claims of the sort of
confidence-tricksters who solicit cash contributions
to finance trips to the Moon and planets, in flying
saucers which they have constructed secretly in
their backyards! The kind of crank we have in mini:!
is a much more complicated individual.
"He has a strong belief in his own pet theory. He
often possesses considerable real knowledge of
var.ious branches of scientific research. What has led
him astray is an idee fixe, perhaps arising out of
some unrecognised psychological quirk in his makeup. In support of his cherished delusion he will
twist and pervert fact in a way which the layman is
often unable to discern.
"The so-called Atlantologist is a case in point.
.He is convinced that Plato's story of a vast midAtlantic Continent, which sank in a cataclysm some
9,000 years B.C., is literally true. He assembles,
as evidence for his beUef, a conglomeration of similarities in the art, architecture and mythologies of
the civilisations of the Old and New Worlds, which
the non-expert, dazzled by the genuine erudition involved in the compilation of the catalogue accepts
readily as proof of the former existence of Atlantis.
Under cover of this erudite smoke-screen, our Atlantologist is able to command acceptance of sundry
geological and biological 'proofs' of highly dubious
vintage [veracityJ.
"The plain fact is. of course, that if the cockle. shell ships of Columbus could cross the Atlantic if, indeed, as we know to be the case, lone voyagers
can cross it in rowboats - the giant galleys Of. the
Ancient World could cross it with ease. Evidence is
accumulating in recent years that they did in fact
cross it. This, of course, accounts for the similarities between Old and New Wodd civjlisations simply
and directly, without the need for postulating the
former existence of a mid-Atlantic Continent. (There

seems now to be little doubt that any SUbstratum of

historical fact in Plato's Atlantis story, derives from
the vast eruption of the volcanic island of Thera,
Santori.ni , in the Aegean, which dealt a death-blow
to the Minoan civilisation of Crete, about the year
1450 B.C.)
"Science, however, has contributed to the confusion by its reluctance to admit intercourse between
the Old and New Worlds in antiquity; thus presenting
a classic instance of scientific dogma hindering the
recognition of scientific fact.
.
"Low in ~.e. high on] the scale of crankery are
the devotees of the pseudo-occult movements. whose
belief in a theory is directly proportional to its vastness, vagueness and general improbability. With
these enthusiasts, a million aeons are as a mere
thousand years with the Lord!
.. At the pinnacle of the edifice of crankery are a
few men of deep learning and unquestioned ability,
whose theories, unacceptable in toto, nevertheless,
anticipate in certain particulars, scientific findings
unavailable when they wrote. The name of Dr.
Immanuel Velikovsky springs to mind in this connection. There are. too, theories. like those of Wilhelm Reich, which rest under very strong suspicion
of crankery but which have yet to undergo scientific
examination and must. therefore, be treated as .Y2
judice for the present.
"The above has a vital bearing on UFO-research,
in that all too many UFO meetings degenerate into
veritable orgies of crankery, in which Atlantis is
blithely equated with Egypt and Assyria as a veritable
civilisation of yore, or in which the Horbiger-Bellamy
hypothesis of Earth's multiple moons is treated as
on a level with Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.
It cannot be stressed too strongly that Upo-researchers, in preparing papers or lectures for presentation
to the public, should be at pains to inform themselves
of the scientific status of theories they propose to
.expound. If we wish our findings to command the attention of scientists. we must train ourselves to think
and behave like scientists.
"At the same time. let it be said that we would do
well to remain uncontaminated by the dogmatism and
exclusiveness which have overtaken certain scientists
and which are as deplorable as the credulity and easy
faith of the minions of crankery."

. AAAS Symposium on Ufology, December 1969. The response to our announcement last spring has not been
sufficient to warrant our publishing a transcript of this symposium. For those who are interested, the AAAS
has published tapes of the proceedings; for their free catalogue "Tapes of Selected Sessions: 1968 & 1969
Meetings", write to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue
N.W., Washington, D. C. 20005.
.
.

.'
89

. CURRENT PURSUITS

The Society invites you all to contribute in a::y

way possible to our endeavours. Such help ranges
from sending us clippings from your local newspapers
_ and especially your local papers - and from anything else you may read. or by giving us the references to books and periodicals. to active participation in our field-work. Those who cannot so participate probably have no idea how valuable their purely
bibliographical contributions can be.
This column is maintained on a strictly chronological basis; items being added (by number) at the
end; and any completed or finally considered redundant. being dropped. As of the end of this year (1970).
this is the situation: Sl'ONE SPHERES
A young man. by the name of Mr. Joseph Pedreiro
(11576). who was brought up on a Finca in costa Rica
brought us considerable firsthand information on the
stone spheres in that country. His reminiscences of
these have been sent to Barney Nashold.

(1)

(2) Sl'ONE SOFTENING

Nothing new - apart from enquiries from chemists
working in chelation research.
(3) RINGING ROCKS

A field trip was undertaken at the request of the

Trenton Times. Both aerial photographs and a fine
series on the ground were taken by professional
photographers. We released. for the first time, the
fact that we had discovered a morticed wall of cut
blocks under the periphery of the "circle" at Upper
Black Eddy. and this was photographed and published in the above-named paper under the byline of
Gledhill Cameron. The next phase of enquiry is thus
up to the professional archaeologists. (The only
professional opinion so far on the possible identity
of this site is that it could be a "copper-age". type
bill-fort. )
(4)

LITHIC IMPLEMENT FACTORY IN B.H.

Two groups have expressed their intention of trying to locate the are!land make a preliminary survey.
(5) CHAIN IN ROCK
Once again - and this is getting to be -fortean- we were unable to carry out an on-the-spof investigation as planned. We have. however. planned still
again for this fall!
.
(6) PADDLE-BUGS
Saw two. but cou14 not catch one this year.

(7) MECHANICAL DOWSING

. No progress.

As far as we are concerned this case is closed.

We received five reports on the construction of such
"specimens" by model-makers; most notably by the
Hollywood. old-time professional. John Chambers.
This was published in a respected trade journal entitled Holly"'::90~ Studio Magazine. for June. 1970. This
article included photographs of Mr. Chambers constructing his model. This looks like a magnificent
example of the model-maker's art but. although almost
in the pose of Frank Hansen's original corpse. has
!!2 possibl~ ~tk...!m..~~ li>. Q!. connectio~ W.!~.n .ii
This is the kind of "put-on" that is so insulting
to public intelligence. You don't have to be a physical anthropologist to spot the blatant differences
between the original and this model-maker's idea of
what he has presumably been taughtto call "an Apeman B His concoction is utterly ridiculous from both
scientific Jind any realistic point of view - however
fine a "doll" it may be.
Meantime. two scientific papers have been published on the original. which Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans and the Director of our Society saw - the
latter's entitled "Preliminary Description of the
External Morphology of what appeared to be the
Fresh Corpse of an Hitherto Unknown Form of Living
Hominid". in the tri-lingual scientific journal GENUS.
of the Comitato Italiano per 10 studio dei Problemi
della Popolazione, Vol. XXV. N. 1-4. 1969. From a
comparison of this. and especially the illustrations.
and the article in Hollywood Studio .Magazine. anybody can see for themselves that two entirely different
items are being depicted and described.
Since. however. nobody seems willing to consid~r
these . differences seriously. or scientifically. we
cannot waste any further time. trouble. or space (in
this journal) on this matter. If anybody should be
seriously interested. we refer them to (a) Mr. Frank
D. Hansen. Crestview Acres. Rollingstone. Minn.
55969; (b) Mr. George Berklacy. Director of Public
Relations. the Smithsonian Institution. Washington,
D. C. 20560; (c) Dr. John Napier. Queen Elizabeth
College. Unit of Primate Biology. The Old Coach
House. Campden Hill. London W.S. England; and/or
(d) Mr. AI Ebner. Press Dept . Universal Pictures,
Calif. 91608. These are the gentlemen who have now
claimed that they have all the answers. Ask them.
(9) THE LARGEST & OLDESl' PLANT
No report yet ..

90

(10) GRAVITY II.

Dr. Carstiou has returned to Europe and further
research in this field is in abeyance. (11) IK-NISH
Didn't grow again; and we are out of viable seeds!

(12) ANCIENT ELECTRONICS

This has "blown up into quite a thing", as the
old saying went. Additional photographs of the petroglyphs in the Dendera Temple came to hand from
Sweden. These disclosed the fact that there is a
complementary fresco on the opposite wall of the
entrance passage to this series of chambers. Further
correspondence on this, brought to light two clear
depictions of what appear to be large static generators. These have been analyzed by M. R. Freedman
and others, and are detailed in a forthcoming book
being published by Prentice-Hall. Meantime also,
other members have supplied our standing committee
on these matters with the original references (and
thus facts) on the Parthian batteries from Baghdad,
and a great deal of information on prehistoric and
early historic use of electrolysis in metallurgy.

(16) LARGE "CATS" ON THE LOOSE.

This has turned into a major project. and is now
under the direction of Dan Manning. Again, several
members have offered concrete help. and others have
sent reports of recent sightings. Anyone interested
in this subject should consult Bruce S. Wright's
book The Ghost of North America; this is out of
print but should be available in libraries. and Mr.
Wright tells us that a completely revised edition will
be'ready next year. Since even "country people" may
not be familiar with puma tracks, these - with wolf
tracks for comparison - are shown below. Cat tracks
do not normally show claw marks and are relatively
broad; dog tracks do show claw marks and are relatively narrow.

(13) ENTOMBED TOADS

Several new reports on other "entombed" animals;
.notably of salamanders in permafrost in Siberia. We
iue still per suing confirmation of the latter through
appropriate channels.
(14) POLTERGEIST MANIFESTATIONS
All arrangements have been made for a proper investigation of a particular case not too far from our
Society's headquarters. Since the "manifestations
have been reported over many years we can but
assume that time is not now of the essence. However,
it is rather well known that such measurable"
activities have a distinct tendency to evaporate"
when such devices as tape-recorders come on the
scene! We will see.
(15) TREE-STUMPS
Our Executive Secretary, Marion Fawcett, made a
dash to Cape May to look into this, and interviewed a
. number of local authorities, both official and 'historical'. For various reasons she was unable to visit
the actual swamps, but three of our members have
offered to do so. We are now awaiting their reports
and, hopefully, photographs. Some splendid official
maps were obtained.

(17) THE CROOKED" HOUSE

This has been wound uP" to the best of our
ability. We have taken all the photographs needed;
taken the measurements appropriate to the observed
anomalies;
re-measured everything; and fil'lally
written it all up for publication. Unless something
further happens, this item will probably be dropped.
We have nothing further to offer, unless the mathematicians come up with some novel ideas.
(18) STUFF FROM mE SKY
As reported upon above (see p.76), it has become
more than clear that we will have to get out into the
field to investigate the items" (or reports) as they
crop up. A start has been made with this Coudersport
incident. and this will be reported upon in this
column later.

91

LIBRARY
The major accomplishment this Quarter was the
cataloguing of our map collection by Rich Grybos
(No. 173). a job splendidly done and deeply appreciated. There are 205 'technical' maps in this
collection. We have a separate collection of state
road maps but lack the following: Alaska. Hawaii.
Iowa.
Nebraska. Idaho. Tennessee. Kentucky.
Georgia. West Virginia. Vermont. Massachusetts.
Louisiana. Wyoming. South & North Carolina. We will
be most grateful if members' will send us these and

any other local maps available. "Foreign" maps are

welcome also. though we' do not need strictly political maps.
We have now completed an extension of our library.
with all necessary services. and fully equipped desk
space for one research worker. As noted on the inside front cover.' application to visit should be made
.
one week in advance.
Also w~ are setting UP a separate file of photographs. drawings. and other illustrative material.

BOOK REVIEWS
John M. Allegro. rl!~ Sacre.!! ~!I..tt.~9.Q.~. 1il..!l.Q ~~~ 9ross. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1970; in the U.S. 'T.Q~
Sacred Heart and the Mushroom. New York: Doubleday.
~ase do ~~t b~' put off from buying and reading this book by the fact that it is rather liberally sprinkled
with things that look like the following: KUR-BA(LA)G-ANTA. To quote the Author's Note. "This book is
the first published statement of the fruits of some years' work of a largely philological nature. It presents a
new appreciation of the relationship of the languages of the ancient world and the implication of this advance
for our understanding of the Bible and of the origins of Christianity. It will be appreciated that such a statement has to be furnished with the technical data. even though much of it must be outside the scope of the
general reader. for whom the book is primarily intended. In order to leave the text as unencumbered as
po!!!sible. these notes have been gathered in a body at the end of the book. and the numbered references
within the text may be safely ignored by the non-specialist." There are. in fact. 100 pages of notes. followed
by indices in ten different languages. plus a general index and a biblical index!
The author is a lecturer in Old Testament and Inter-Testamental Studies at the University of Manchester
in England. and was the first British representati'!e appointed to the international editing team currently
preparing the Dead Sea Scrolls for publication. He is a real expert in his field. which is philology. and this
is a thoroughly scholarly job. but At the same time is eminently readable. completely fascinating. and occasionally downright fun. Allegro has a delightful sense of humour which peeks through periodically; e.g.
after noting that the Essenes. having renounced sex. allegedly "contented themselves with the 'company of
palm-trees'''. he remarks "Even the female variety of the palm one would have thought was hardly adequate
consolation for celibacy".
The fact is - and there would seem to be no doubt about this at all - that the word ~hrJst. or more properly, Chrestus. identifies not a man but a kind of hallucinogeniC mushroom: .A-m~lJ:it~ l!Iuscaria; and that ~ll
Near Eastern religions - Jewish, Christian. and Muslim - stemmed from mushroom cults. This will undoubtedly come as a considerable shock to many people. but the facts must be faced; just as they eventually were
by geologists whose work was set back at least a hundred years by Bishop Ussher's pronouncement that the
world was created in 4004 B.C. at 4 o'clock on a Friday! The Old Testament is at least in part a genuine
historical record. as has been proven by archaeological digs in Palestine. but there are now the gravest
doubts concerning the validity of the New Testament as an historical document. And both abound in references'
to the Sacred Mushroom. Indeed. many of the stories in the New Testament make sense only when it is realized that the protagonists' names are in fact puns or other word-plays on nll!lles for the Sacred Mushroom.
That this book pulls the rug out from under Christianity as a religion founded on lofty moral principles
should not really make any difference to thinking people. As a very splendid professor of mine used to say:
"There are far too many 'good Christians' who go to church on Sunday and pray to God; and then spend the
rest of the week preying on their fellow men."
Damon Knight. Charles ~.qIt: ProphEtt Qf the Unexplained. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1970. $6.95.
SITU is gratified to have had a hand in producing the only biography of Charles Fort ever written. I wish
I could be more enthusiastic about the book. but I am afraid it is a bit of a shambles. I was first unpleasantly surprised to find Matthew Fontaine Maury's name consistently misspelled "Moray" throughout Buckminster
Fuller's Introduction - something that makes one wonder how many other errors there will be!
Admittedly, it is difficult to write a rousing biography of a man who spent most of his life taking n;tes
in libraries and newspaper morgues; and this is only ostenSibly biography of Fort. Damon Knight. a writer
of science fiction. has had J;o pad this unmerCifully in order to produce a manuscript of book length. The

a.

92

-biography as such comprises about 75 pages. much of this quotations from Many Parts, Fort's unpubllshec:1
autobiography - and, much as I 'love' him. I'm afraid I can see why; and most of the "biography" concerns
his rather unhappy childhood. There is .relatively little on his later life, though this is due in large measure
to his 'inactive' life. his abhorrence of publicity, and the fact that he apparently deliberately destroyed
papers from time to time.
Knight devotes a rather large section of the book to an analysis of the material in Fort's books and comes
to the same conclusion reached by John A. Keel. Ivan T. Sanderson, Jacques Vallee and an increasing
number of others: to wit, that some categories of 'things' are simply dropping in (or out) of some parallel
universe(s). Much of the remainder of the book is taken up with 'material on Theodore Dreiser and Tiffany
Thayer, and a rather extended review of .Doubt. There are Notes and an index.
It is probable that forteans will want to buy this book, despite its inadequacies, Simply because it is and probably will remain - the only "biography~ of Charles Hoy Fort.

Daniel S. Halacy, Jr. Radiation, Magnetism, and Living Things. New York: HolidaY House, 1966 $4.50.
All [orteans with children shouldtake pen i~-ha~d-a-~d ~rite for the catalogue of books for young people
(from kindergarten up) published by Holiday House (18 E.56 St., NYC 10022; in Canada, Saunders of Toronto,
Ltd., 1885 Leslie st Don Mills, Ont.). And, unless you are a specialist, you will enjoy and profit from
reading these books even if you aren't a teen-ager. Daniel Halacy's book is clearly written and serve's as a
splendid introduction to the whole field of radiation and magnetism, though some sections are unavoidably a
bit out of date - so much has happened since 1966. As if this were not enough, there is some profoundly
fortean material included and handled most objectively. As the author says in the first chapter, "With the
work described here man is on the forefront of a new era, a new life attuned to those environmental forces
whose subtle effects have long been unknown, neglected, or too glibly assigned to the realm of superstition."
An entire chapter is devoted to so-called mental telepathy - i.e. "biological radio" - and another dowsing,
hypnotism, and magnets. In all these the phenomena are attributed not to some 'mystical' something but to
physical causes. Mr. Halacy ought to be a member.
Charles H. Hapgood. The Patli ~ the pole. Philadelphia: Chilton, 1970. $14.95.
This is a completely revised and up-dated v~rsion of Charles Hapgood's book Earth's Shifting Crust.
originally pubiished in 1958 a~d unhappily long out of print. If you missed the 'first edition' you will ce~t;"i~
ly want this; and if you have ~s.. you will want this too
. There are a great many geological and other 'events' for which no one has ever been able to produce an
adequate explanation. Collecting all these damnable facts and correlating them, Professor Hapgood has come
with up an extraordinarily simple explanation of almost everything. This is that the outer crust of the earth
shifts as a whole: and please do not confuse this with untenable theories of a shift of the rotational axis of
the earth. If you can envision an orange with its skin released but not removed from the inner core (the
orange per se). and sliding around while the orange itself remains stationary. you've got the idea. And Hapgood has amassed a wealth of evidence to support his theory. In ESC he suggested an "off-balance" accumulation of ice at one of the poles .as a triggering mec.hanism for this shift. In the light of subsequent findings
he has abandoned this idea and states frankly that as yet he has no substitute. If you think this is a valid
reason for 'discrediting his theory. you had better read page 44 very carefully indeed.
Marion L. Fawcett
NOTICE: Gray..Barker of Saucerian Publications has sent out a catalogue offering books for sale. In this he
lists under -Rare and Out of Print Books Ivan T. Sanderson's Uninvited 'l.i!~ for $10. This book is not
out of print and may be ordered through your bookstore or from the publisher for $6.95. Any who have paid
Mr. Barker $10 should "request" a refund of the excess paid; this is a clear case of misrepresentation and
certainly unethical if not illegal.

NOTICE

Membe~s are reminded that dues ~re payable belore the end 01 the year lor all those who ;oineJ belore the
lst October J970. The rate remains $70 per annum. Also, a subscription to PURSUIT or membership in SITU
makes a nice Christmas gilt and is a dentist-approved substitute lor a mink toothbrush (they do not approve
01 minlc toothbrushes I}.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

GOVERNING BOARD
(.)
(.)
(.)
(.)

President (and Chairman of the Board)

1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
2nd Vice-President (and Deputy Director)
Treasurer
Secretary
Executive Secretary and Librarian
Assistant Director, Membership and Regional Mfairs
Assistant Director, Publicity
Assistant Director, Promotion
Assistant Director, Press & Public Relations

Hans stefan Santesson

Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. Sanderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L .. Fawcett
Michael R. Freedman
Walter J. McGraw
Milt R. Machlin
Daniel F. Manning

(.) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey
ST ANDING COMMITTEES
ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
LIBRARY COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
PUBLICATIONS COMMI'ITEE:
Chairman:

Jack A. Ullrich
Marion L. Fawcett
Hans stefan Santesson

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute. Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of SCience, Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director. Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill- Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. J. Allen Hynek - Director, Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center. Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology, Queen Elizabeth College, University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - President, Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, Plant SCience Department. College of Agriculture, Utah State UniverSity.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University. Madison. "New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Citairman, Department of Botany. Drew University. Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)

HICKS PRINTING COMPANY.

37 BELVIDERE AVENUE. WASHINGTON. NEW JERSEY. TELEPHONE

201-689-0194

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PURSUIT

OF

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JANUARY 1971

SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832

Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366
ORGANIZATION

The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These officers are four in number: two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer,
and a Secretary.
General policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists of the four
Trustees, a President elected for 5 years, and five other officers elected annually. These are: an Executive Secretary, and Assistant Directors for Membership and Regional Affairs, PubliCity, Promotion, and
Public and Press Relations. The First Vice-President is the Administrative Director, and the Second
Vice-President is in charge of the phySical establishment. The Executive Secretary is also the Librarian.
In addition, there are three standing committees: an Activities Committee, a Library Committee, and a
Publications Committee. The names of all officers and committee chairmen are listed on the inside back
cover.
The Society is counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, also listed on the inside back cover,
which is designated the Scientific Advisory Board.
PARTICIPATION

Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exempt, pursuant
to the United States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of January to the 31st of December; but those joining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year gratis. The
annual subscription is U.S. $10, which includes four issues of the Journal PURSUIT, for the year; as well
as access to the Society's library and files, through correspondence or on visitation.
The annual subscription rate for the journal PURSUIT (alone) is $5, including postage. (PURSUIT is
also distributed, on a reciprocal basis, Ix> other societies and institutions.)
Fellowship in the Society is bestowed (only by unanimous vote of the Trustees, the Governors, and a
panel of the Founders) on sponsors donating a hundred dollars or more, and on those who are adjudged to
have made an outstanding contribution to the aims of the Society.
The Society contracts - with individuals, commercial concerns, and institutional and official organizations for specific projects - as a consultative body. Terms are negotiated in each case in advance.
NOTICES

In view of the increase in resident staff and the non-completion. as yet. of new living Quarters, there is
no longer over-night accomodation for visitors. Members are welcome to visit to consult our files but we
ask that you make application at least a week in advance, this to prevent 'pile-ups' of members who therefore cannot be adequately served.
PUBLICATIONS

The SoCiety publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current events and
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes an annual report on Society affairs to
members. The Society further issues Occasional Papers on certain projects, and special reports in limited
quantity, on reQuest of Fellows only.
RECORD: From its establishment in July, 1965, until the end of March 1968, the Society issued only a
newsletter, on an irregular basis. The last two publications of that year were, however, entitled PURSUIT
- Vol. 1, No.3 and No.4, dated June and September, 1968. Beginning with Vol. 2, No.1, PURSUIT has
been issued on a regular quarterly basis, dated January, April, July, and October. Only a very limited and
dwindling supply of back-issues from that date (June, 1968) are available, and all prior to it are out of
print.
NOTICE: The colophon and name of this journal are copyrighted. Any matter therein may be Quoted, provided it is published in quotes, in toto, and unedited, and provided it is credited to: - "PURSUIT",
Quarterly Journal of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, Columbia, New Jersey."

Vol. 4. No. 1
January. 1.97.1

PURSUIT
THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE
INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF -THINGS
THAT ARE CUSTOMARILY DISCOUNTED

Editorial Director: Ivan T. Sanderson

Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett
Associate Editor: Daniel F. Manning

CONTENTS
'ru Taxonomy of Knowledge
Editorial
Chaos and Confusion
More on the Devil's Hoofprints
Genius Computers
Angel Hair Again
Sky-Lines
The Talking Foetus
A Tree They couldn' t Cut
Physics
A Mad Electric Sawmill
. The Death-Ray at Last
Biology
The Abominable Spinifex Man
We're Sorry, but It Was a Shark
Tracks on Mt. Etna
Malayan Frog Battles
A Little Vietnamese Monster
A Three-Toed, Bipedal Worm!
Anthropology
Were Egyptians First in Australia?
Red-Haired People-Eaters
"They All Discovered America"
Enigmas in Lead, by Gaston Burridge
Ufology
.
Departmen~ Q! Loose Ends
Current Pursuits
Litrary
Book Reviews

2
3
4
5

5
6
6
7
8
9

9
10
11
12
13
14

15
15
16
17
18
20
20

22
22

All communications should be addressed to:

S. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey 07832.
Telephone: Area Code 201, 496-4366.
Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

THE TAXONOMY OF

THE:

TANGIBLES

KNOWLEDGE

GEO!-OGY
VI

Atmospherics and Meteorology;

Oceanology, Hydrology, and G la.

cioI09),; Tectonics. Vulcanol09Y, Seismology. Geophysics
and Geomorphology; Pe ..
trology and Mineralogy;

Geodesy, Geography,
Cartography;
Dating . .

Proto]1eanology, Botany, Zoo

ogy, E."biology; HIStology,
Physiology and Biochemistry;
Anatomy (inc ludin9 Man); Genetfcs and E~olution. Ph)'si ...

cal Anthropology;
Palaeontology;
Ethology and
Ecology.
MATTER
Atomics, Molecular

Chemistry, Crystallography.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

--

.
PERFORMANCE
Theorerical Physics. Nucleonics.
Classic-oj PhySICS. Electric!,

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
Cultural Anthropology and
Ethnology (Archaeology is a
technique); Pre-History,
History, and Folklore; Philology and Linguistics

--

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

MENTAL CONCEPTS
Logic and EpIStemology;
Psychology; Elhics and Aes
.hetics, Comparative Intelligenc~;

E lectromagnet.cs, Magnetics,
Mechanics.

Parapsychics.

MEASUREMENT
Number, Quantity.
Arithmetic, Algebra,
Geoml!'try, Trigonometry,

Calculus, Topology, Theory

01 Games, Probabil,ty, Coincidence.

THE

INTANGIBLES

Everything in existence, including -existence- itself, and thus all of our possible concepts and all knowledge
that we possess or will ever possess, is contained within this wheel. Technologies and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, having occess to any or all of the ten major deportments of argonized knowledge.
From the KORAN: -Acqui .. e knowledge. It enobles its possessor to know right from wrong; it lights the way to
heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guides us to
happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is on ornament among friends, and an armour against enemies. - _
The Prophet.

EDITORIAL

Of the seven categories under which a non-profit organization may be classed for Federal and State
registration and tax exemption purposes, we (SITU) are incorporated to indulge in scientific and literary
pursuits, and humane works for animals. The other categories are: philanthropic, religious, child welfare,
and educational. The last has presented a problem.
To enter this muddy field any organization must in most states be approved by the state university and
affiliated with it and/or certain federally approved national institutions. But there is a catch here that
has emerged in our own case.
An ever increasing number of our members and notably students, have enquired whether we cannot be
so approved, and this for a most particular reason. This is that nowhere can they find the information that
we have, let alone any place where a course or courses are offered that take the existence of this information into account. The request is, frankly, that we so become affiliated so that we may offer such courses,
and credits thereby be gbtained.
All of those to whom we applied for advice who teach - and they are all full professors - urged us not
to do so, and on the same grounds; to wit, that not only would we lose our identity and independence of
thought and perhaps actions, but might also even be discreetly suppressed and ultimately liquidated. This
is a pretty grim commentary on our so-called education system.
The real trouble of course is that we don't have an educational system in that we are still trying to
teach rather than to educate. Teaching is a technological process suitable only for imparting techniques;
education is or should be a mental exercise, and not just to encourage learning but to foster understanding. It should be offered in three fundamental aspects - simultaneously - (1) the provision of factual information, (2) the principles and methodology of classification, and (3) and most important of all, the
stimulus to cerebration. The last is defined by the dictionary as: "Action of the brain, conscious or unconscious" (please note) - in other words, how to think.
The primary duty of educators should therefore be to stimulate the pupil, of whatever age, to use Whatever "brains" he or she has to comprehend reality. The best way to do this is manifestly to gain their
interest by an appeal to their curiosity; and the best way to do this is to present them with enigmas and
paradoxes, which is to say the unexplained. Parroting the explained is a pure waste of time. This can be
looked up in text books. But our so-called system is today collapsing primarily because the second
essential has been w~olly ignored. This is taxonomy or the expertise of classification.
It is quite useless to try to come to a decision about anything unless you know the facts, and you
can't gather these if you can't find them. What is more, no amount of technique that you may have been
taught will help you if you have never been presented with an overall set of pigeon-holes into which you
can put anything and everything, and the outer limits of which have been defined, and the division and
subdivision of which have been laid out for you. The Three 'Rs' are techniques. They do not constitute
education, let alone knowledge.
The best teachers start each semester with a definitive course in taxonomy, then proceed to the main
subject for the rest. Since competence in the three Rs' should be implied by a certain age, books to read
and lab work to be done are listed on a blackboard, and the educator is then free to devote his or her
entire time to stimulating the interest and inquisitiveness of the pupils. The collecting of credits is
assinine, and defeats its purpose which is the assimilation of facts. Facts cannot be assimilated in
lumps without reference to all other facts. All subjects should be taught simultaneously and continuously
up to a certain level, and examinations be held in each and all at the end of each semester. Above this
level only one speciality should be "taught~ and on the assumption that the pupil is by then educated.
The one subject that should be added to the three 'Rs' is geography, and this should be continued until
degrees are bestowed. This is the European system; and it ! a system.
One might make so bold as to suggest that something drastic be done with a view to the introduction
of education to our schools as a standard concomitant to mere teaching. The only alternative is positively
hair-raising. If we go on the way we are going now the inevitable result will be a race of non-thinkers,
! !! Orwell's 1984; but when we come to contemplate the prospects in the light of the little ditty on page
5, only an already trained non-thinker will fail to appreciate its significance.
Mechanizing teaching may be all very well, but if you attempt to mechanize education you're gOing to
take the final plunge. Even should computers develop mental capabilities such as ours, we have no
guarantee that they will have the appropriate imaginations to go with them; and, if they educate themselves
to a higher level than the best of us, who is to say what they will not teach us. One might well opine that
one of their early instructions to us would be to commit mass suicide.
Ivan T. Sanderson.

FURTHER NOTICES

While the general format and layout of this journal is now temporarily crystallized, we are initiating a
poli.cy amendment with this issue. This is merely that thif:! entire issue, and probably all future issues,
will. be wholly devoted to Forteana. At the same time, we propose to retain our basic classification of
knowledge within the twelve segments of the wheel (on p. 2) as before, except for front and end-matter
such as Editorial and Book Reviews, and two other categories. These are, first, to appear up front will
always be what we call "Chaos and Confusion", which covers classic forteana that do not fit wholly into
any of the other ten categories, which slop over into two or more, or which just do not as of now fall within our accepted logic. The second unnumbered category is that of Ufology. And, with particular regard to
this, it should be explained that we feel that ~ (if not the only) answer or explanation of the phenomenon
has now been promulgated by the best trained scientific theorizers, and that therefore the only contribution to the problem that we can offer, as of now, is further evidence of this theory that might be worthwhile of consideration. With mere reports and statistical data we are not concerned, but we will paraphrase
other theories and concepts if they are founded on logical scientific bases.
CHAOS AND CONFUSION

MORE ON THE DEVIL'S HOOFPRINTS

F'urther to our remarks on the "Devonshire Devil"
in our October issue, member No. 255, who is a
commercial pilot, writes as follows:
"Here is some smoke for the 'Devonshire Devil'
file. Modern jet aircraft use a navigation system
based on the projection of 4 radar beams from the
aircraft to the surface of the earth. The beams are
transmitted in pulses of 1/20 second duration per
beam, with a complete sweep of four beams every
1/5 second. Information from the reflected pulses is
fed to a computer which produces basic navigation
data. If one could see the 'prints' of these radar
beams, they would appear to be 44 feet long, spaced
176 feet ap art for an aircraft travelling 600 miles
per hour. And the prints would indeed travel 'all in a
straight line in fresh snow etc.'
"Without gOing into t'echnical detail, it appears
that the radar beam could be replaced by a laser
beam with increased navigational accuracy. In addition to the navigation function, such a laser beam
could also be used to make -hold on folks- 3-dimensional photographs of the surface details (holograms).
A laser of sufficient power to perform these tasks

would probably melt snow, and also deform through

heating any dark objects it might fallon, though the
latter effect would be unobservably small except when
the 'ship' should decide to remain stationary over
one spot."
Obviously, if one is doing a detailed surveying
job, he is not likely to go zipping past at 600 mph,
thus the 'devil's hoofprints' at close as well as
regular intervals.
And .we are reminded of another case. Somewhere
along the coast of Yorkshire, England, there are
large 'hoofprints' in solid rock, starting inland and
running right to the edge of a cliff that r-ises straight
from the sea. Legend has it that they were made by
a giant phantom horse that galloped wildly through
the countryside and into the sea. Could this be another, surveying team? At the moment the, reference
eludes us, but it might be interesting to compare the
dates (our impression is that this was much earlier
than the Devonshire incident) and to collect other
examples of senes of prints that might have been
produced by laser devices. If enough can be found,
it may be possible to detect a pattern.
A number of years ago a gentleman wrote from
Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, enclosing a number of
very clear photographs of seemingly endless series
of two kinds of tracks, also in a straight line, but in
Pre-Cambrian granitic rocks. The form of these is
shown in the accompanying photograph of a plaster
cast submitted later by this gentleman who, incidentally, was emphatic that his name should not be
published because he had made the mistake of show-

The commonest type of imprint found in western

Ontario. SOme tracks displayed three "toes", and a
few scattered ones four. All the indentations were
of the same general shape and depth.

5,

ing the tracks to the Geological Survey people, and

had been horribly castigated and ridiculed for his
trouble.
Since it is hard to accept bipedal animal life of
this size in Pre-Cambrian times even if palaeontologists might eventually allow the idea of a whole
cycle of evolution prior to that period, evidence of
which has been wholly wiped out by some major
geophysical change which similarly wiped out all
highly evolved animals that could have made such
tracks, one can but assume that they were produced
mechanically. No modern hoaxster is going to make
miles of such "tracks W88 out in the utter wilderness of western Ontario, and it is extremely unlikely
that pre-columbian Amerindians would do so even for
extreme mystical or even practical (guides to hunting
forays) reasons. In fact, we strongly suggest that
this is another case of probes from above by some
adv.anced depth-finder, surveying apparatus: but
whether these were imprinted in pre-Cambrian times
or recently is another matter.

limited mind may not be able to control such immens.e

mentalities', Minsky said.
"But an approach to a mechanical man already
exists at the Stanford Research Institute, where a
machine called Shaky performs tasks approximating
those of a 4-year-old child and could be modified for
more sophisticated routines. 'Armed with the right
devices and programmed in advance with basic instru~tions, Shaky could travel about the moon for
months at a time and, without a Single beep of directions from earth, could gather rocks, drill cores, make
surveys and photographs and even decide to lay
planks over crevices he had made up his mind to
cross,' Life said. Although Shakey cannot understand spoken language or talk, he has an inner core
resembling the central nervous system of human
beings, composed of systems of sensation, reason,
language, memory and ego [underlining ours], the
magazine said. His activity is directed by a brain of
six built-in machines programmed into a computer
with a capacity of 7 million 'bits' of information.

Aside from providing the only plausible explanation of the 'hooi'prints', the suggestion that lasers
capable of producing holograms were in use by somebody during the mid-1800s or even earlier certainly
supports the increaSingly popular theory that UFOs
and their occupants m88 themselves be holograms.

We distrust anyone who claims his invention is

going to be a cure-all for the world's ills. Also, we
are so rapidly making the earth uninhabitable literally - that one is forced to speculate that it has
been ordained that we should 'invent' just such a
computer as is described above in time to ensure the
survival of the end-product of evolution. Computers
neither eat nor breathe, and with the brains provided
them, they will probably be able to figure out how to
supply themselves with energy and can then amuse
themselves by playing chess - or perhaps Supercheckers.

GENIUS COMPUTERS
In case you missed it, and because we have the
gravest misgivings about computers, we quote a UPI
release, picked up by them from Life Magazine of the
15th November 1970.
"SCientists believe that within three to eight
years - 15 at most - they can create a machine with
all the human responses of man and an intelligence
even beyond the genius level, Life Magazine reported
Sunday.
"The strongest prediction came from Marvin Minsky
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Project MAC, the magazine said. 'In from three to eight
years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being;' he said. 'I
mean a machine that will be able to read Shakespeare,
grease a car, play office politics, tell a joke, have a
fight. At that point the machine will begin to educate
itself with fantastic speed. In a few months it will
be at genius level and a few months after that its
powers will be incalculable.
"Life said other scientists working on artificial
intelligence considered Minsky's timetable optimistic
and suggested 15 years, but agreed that such a
machine would be developed and that 'It could precipitate the third industrial revolution, wipe out war
and poverty and roll up centuries of growth in
science education and the arts.' A number of the
computer scientists also have misgivings. 'Man's

ANGEL HAIR AGAIN

It is not our intention to print an interminable
succession of reports on so-called angel hair, but
member No. 380 has sent us a model account of his
own experience with this peculiar substance and we
feel it deserves a wider airing. It originally appeared
in the Glasgow (Kentucky) Daily Times of the 9th
October, 1970.

"For some years I've been seeing in various

books, papers, and magazines, accounts of the fall
from the skies of some unidentified substance, which
has been nicknamed 'angel hair'. I'd never been able
to decide if these tales should be believed, but the
other afternoon a small amount of something unknown
to me fell on my lawn, and it more or less fit s the
description in those accounts. I was seated on my
front step in the sun, rather late in the afternoon,
~hen about 50 feet up I noticed two objects eddying
slowly downward. They were white as huge snowflakes but when they landed on the grass looked more
like big white downy fluffy feathers (not the quill
portion of a feather, but that downy part near the

base of a feather). My dog also noticed them and

sniffed at them. but didn't seem to appreciate their
aroma for he backed off. My nostrils could not detect
any odor. I picked up the larger object. about three
inches long and half that in diameter. and it underwent a very sudden change. from a fluffy wad to a
sticky. very adhesive stuff that flattened out like a
broad ribbon across my fingers. I wish I had the recipe for whatever kind of glue that stuff had in it.
When I tried to pull it off with my other hand. that
hand also stuck to it and t!)e whitish ribbon pulled in
two. I finally managed to scrub the stuff off by rubbing my hands repeatedly on the grass. Some of it
was still on the grass the next day. and was still
sticky. though not as much so. It finally melted entirely away in the sun that day."
Presumably an 'expert' would announce that it
was some kind of spiderweb; but these. though they
are sticky. do not "melt in the sun".
SKY-I.. INES

Late last summer John A. Keel informed us that

"There's been a wire hanging down from the sky
over Caldwell. New Jersey. for a month. and it's
never moved." This was a pretty shocking statement;
the truth proved to be even 'worse'. Our initial impression. which John Keel then shared. was that the
wire was hanging vertically. starting about a hundred
feet off the ground and ending no one knew where.
So we arranged a visit to Caldwell.
There was not just a single "wire" but half a
dozen; their incidence spread over a period of almost
two months. while one report of about the same date
for the previous year (1969) turned up; and it wasn't
a wire but in every case some kind of plastic strand
that has now been identified by du Pont as "a material
based on type 6 nylon (caprolactam) or perhaps a
copolymer such as type 6 and type 66 nylon". (Their
indecision is due to lack of sufficient material to
work with). None of these lines was hanging vertically and none was actually 'hanging' - they were
all stretched t aut at angles between 30 and 50
degrees to ground level. Neither the upper nor the
lower ends were ever seen, or located. even when
they finally fell. They just came out of the sky from.
apparently. down low at one end. and went up overhead Ilnd then on up into the sky to a point of invisibility. even when traced with powerful binoculars.
In one case the line remained taut for a month.
through several severe electrical storms and several
other days of high winds. Then. for no apparent
reasoll. one "end" of the line gave way and a pile of
the stuff was found in a front yard. The owners pulled
in a large amount, but the line snapped farther uP
and the uPper end remained invisible. In another
case, four boys spent ~ hour hauling in a line
which had dropped during the night; again. this snag-

ged and broke before the entire line could be pulled

in. And in all cases. when the line fell it immediately
curled uP. just as did the nylon fishing lines on 2"
spools. bought by us for comparison.
The usual reaction to this report is "little boys
flying kites". But no one can produce a single kiteflyer or even someone who has seen a kite in the
area. And how do you keep a line taut through all
sorts of weather. without some very sturdy (and invisible) point of attachment at each end. The police
traced one of these lines over a considerable distance
and had to report that the line simply went on and on.
over Montclair at one end and out over a meadow at
the other. They never found either end. All these
lines were plotted on a map. but no pattern of any
kind was discernible.
We also contacted the Military. asking them if they
knew of this phenomenon and, if so. whether we
might state the fact; or. if they did not. we might
put that on the record. The reply. from William T.
Coleman. Jr Colonel. USAF. Chief. Public Information Division. was "Budgetary considerations preclude a complete scientific analysis of the material
you submitted." We never asked for any analYSiS!
This is a sort of in-between unexplained. Unlike
the Loch Ness Monsters and the Abominable Snow
and Other Persons. we have got the thing. but the
how and why of it remain totally mystifying. The
appearance of these "sky-lines" would seem to defy
a number of the basic principles of phySics.
THE TALKING FOETUS
The most outstanding five-day wonder of 1970
was undoubtedly the Talking Foetus allegedly now of
Mecca. Saudi Arabia. but ~ Indonesia via Japan.
Malaysia. Pakistan. Berlin. and other points west.
The story broke in the London Sunday. Times and
went as follows: "Jakarta. Indonesia - Tjut Zahara Fonna is 21.
pretty. articulate and 20 months pregnant with a
baby boy who can recite Islamic texts. At least. that
is her claim and no amount of inquiry has proved her
wrong.
"On the contrary. crowds come daily to pay homage
to her miraculous child. The ceremony starts at 5
p.m . when the 'baby begins one of his five daily
sessions of prayer. People. devout or curious. file
into the small house where Zahara and her husband
Tunku Sjarifuddin have lived 'since they arrived from
Sumatra. Zahara smiles and smooths her skirts tightly around her swollen abdomen. She chatters about
God's will. relaxes in an armchair and invites anyone
to listen to her baby. One listens by crouching and
placing an ear to Zabara's belly. When I adopted this
unusual pose.' I heard. very close. a reedy wailing
sound. apparently that of a baby crying. I then gave

_______.,,-____ "'_I_IIIIiIIII.__

way to others, including an elderly divine, who rose,

eyes bright, to declare that he had heard the baby
reciting the Surat, a holy text. Other holy texts have
been recorded, and one newspaper, out to demolish
belief, had been reduced to criticizing the quality of
the baby's Arabic.
"Zahara and her husband are fluent in condemning
those who suspect a trick. Has not Zahara's pregnancy been confirmed by nearly 50 doctors in four
countries. And who can explain it lasting for 20
months? It is God's will. They say they have been
received with honor in Pakistan, Japan and Malaysia.
And they travel wit.h a letter from the Indonesian
foreign minister, Adam Malik, which requires all
Indonesian embassies to render assistance if necessary and says they are travelling 'at the request of
their unborn child.' It is dated Feb. 16 this year."
A week later AP came out with a flat denial of
the whole business, branding it a hoax and one audaciously pulled on President Suharto and other
high Indonesian officials. It stated: "A team of medical experts examined Mrs. Tjut
Zahara, 22, at Jakarta's central hospital Wednesday
and found she had been feigning pregnancy by distending her stomach muscles, the informants said.
However, the doctors found indications she may have
given birth some time recently. After the examination,
Mrs. Zabara was taken to a secret location for psychiatric examination, the sources said.
"Antara, the official news agency, reported only
that the 'parents of the miracle baby will be investigated by the attorney general's office as a step in
clearing up the sensational fuss'. Tn.e report did not
mention the doctors' findings. Several times, including once in Pakistan, doctors examined her and
declared she was pregnant.
"Hundreds of persons said they heard the baby
talk. One Indonesian newsman made a tape recording
of quotations from the Koran apparently coming from
the woman's body. But a foreign newsman who interviewed Mrs. Zahara reported that she left the room
between the baby's speeches, and he speculated she
was changing the reel on a tape recorder strapped
between her legs."
The initial story is so exaggerated and generally
balmy that its only truly odd feature was that no
denial went with it, so when this did come, it came
as a relief. However, with characteristic aplomb the
denyers managed to seed the business with a whole

bunch of mysteries of such a nature, and to such a

point, that it becomes almost as suspect as the
initial story. We refer to such glib remarks as that
the woman had been "feigning pregnancy by distending her stomach muscles"; she was "taken to a
secret location for psychiatric examination"; and
"the report did not mention the doctors' findings".
These have to be set against equally odd statement s to the effect that the woman had been examined medically several times, including once in Pakistan, and had been declared pregnant. Further,
surely a medical man would have been permitted to
examine her for concealed electronic equipment. No,
I fear me the "explanation" is just as much bunk as
the original story, and one is constrained to ask if
nobody in the Islamic world has ever heard of the
high art of ventriloquism. It would be a much safer
bet for the debunkers and the woman could be tested
under hypnosis.
A TREE THEY COULDN'T CUT
We have had a number of odd stories emanating
from Malaya, and this one is among the oddest. It
appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle of the 24th
September 1970,
a feature article by Manoff Abdullah (Chronicle Foreign Service), date-lined Kuala
Lumpur.

as

"A school playground will be much smaller than

planned because of an ancient tree which spooked
all attempts to fell it. Three years ago officials at
the Cochrane Road Secondary School authorized
clearing of a thicket to make way for a playing field.
"The thicket was soon cleared - except for one
tree. Workers who attempted to chop the tree down
were stopped in their tracks before they could swing
their axe. A bulldozer was tried. Its engine died
each time it approached the tree, or the driver became dizzy and was unable to operate the machine.
School officials finally gave up and decided to spare
the tree.
"The tree, it is said, is th~ home of a deity.
Allanah Pullikutaru, 55, said she had been told in a
vision that Hindu goddess Esewary lived in the tree.
'I was told to take care of the tree and warn those
who wished to uproot it that sad things would happen
to them,' she said. Even if there's an earthquake,
the tree won't be uprooted. 'I have been a regular
worshipper here and my only purpose in living is to
take care of the tree'. She has sPent a large part of
the money she earns as a domestic servant buying

QQi of !!:D ~

"Hamilton, N.Z. (Reuters) - A man has tried to enter his mother-in-law in the royal dog show here, in
the hounds section for the best bitch. But the organizers are doubtful whether the entry is valid. The
sender failed to give the breeding and did not enclose the entry fee."

milk, fruit, and oil to offer at the tree. Residents of

the Slea erected a shelter around the tree after attempts to fell it had failed."
It is possible that the workmen's inability to
wield an axe may have been 'psychological' after
Allanah Pallijutaru's awful-warnings; there appears
to be no real limit to the power of "the power-ofsuggestion", even without the religious overlay
present in this case. Whether the lady's talents extend to stopping bulldozers is another question, but
again this "is not impossible. If a Russian lady can
move loaves of bread around by taking thought on the

matter - though she did not supply the bread, she

was accused of using magnets, by the way! - there
is no reason why someone whose only purpose" in
living is to take care of a tree, for religious reasons,
could not stop an engine. Her motivation would
certainly be strong enough.
The implication in the newspaper article is, of
course, that it is the tree itself which is dOing the
stopping. There is now plenty of evidence that plants
experience what aze generally called emotions (see
the work of Cleve Backster, using lie-detector equipment), but we have not yet heard of one fighting back
or employing PK or its opposite.

III. PHYSICS

A MAD ELECTRIC SAWMILL

Another item that has intrigued our members is an
AP report from Copenhagen:
"Hans Thustrip Nielsen, 63, is closing his sawmill
at the village of Moebbet, south of Copenhagen, defeated and economically ruined by mysterious electrical forces that have blown out fuses by the thousands,
bulbs by the hundreds, and electric motors by the
dozen.
"The mystery has defied the efforts of experts
from two electrical power companies, a university
professor and the makers of motors and other installations in the mill. The professor said he was tempted
to suggest that 'supernatural forces or pixies are at
play'.
"It began 18 months ago and now Nielsen is
$13,000 in the red from replacing bulbs, fuses and
motors. The strange electrical forces. with enormous
bursts of excess voltage, have started four fires in
Nielsen's home. which adjoins the sawmill. Power
company experts measured 29,000 lightning-like
electrical discharges in mill installations in one
da.y. ;We have learned to stay clear of lamps since
the bulbs keep exploding. It does make our home life

a bit awkward' Nielsen said. The bursts occur even

when all electricity to the mill is cut off.
"The chief engineer of one power company, Lars
Hazsting, has theorized that the air and the ground
on the spot are abnormally charged with" electricity.
Harsting and his colleagues, working without payment
rather than concede defeat are planting dozens of
metal poles in the ground and connecting them with
apparatus designed to log, minute-by-minute, all
electrical phenomena. One new theory is that the
mill installations combine to form an antenna that
picks up high-frequency radio, television and radar
waves."
We bunged off a copy of this to member No. "22
who is an expert on electromagnetic interference. He
is still making inquiries and may have more to add
later. but says "My side-walk opinion is that somebody, either in the sawmill or in the vicinity, is experimenting with some kind of generator. It could be
an off-shoot of Dr. Wilhelm Reic-h's orgone experiments; a form of Tesla's work or the rotation of one
magnetic field inside another magnetic field which
can produce tremendous amperages."
We will report again if any definite information
comes to light.

Member No. 517 sent us a little note, as follows: "Attached is a bit of inexplicable trivia. I have an
uncomfortable feeling that Wilkinson is trying to tell me something I should know about their blades; like
they might cause an infection if you use them to slash your wrists."
The 'trivia'? A small card that says: "Kini hanja tinggal sebuah sadja lagi. Belilah lagi pagi ini
pisau tjukur Wilkinson Sword!" You'll have to make up your own comment on this one.

THE DEATH-RAY AT LAST - OR, HOW TO TURN

OFF RIOTS IN ONE EASY LESSON
As reported in the London Sunday Times by Frank
Dorsey, II A team of French scientists in Marseilles
is working on a death-ray machine designed to provide an entirely novel method of human destruction.
The project began when the electro-acoustical iaboratory of the French National center for Scientific
Research moved into a new building three years ago.
The staff complained of headaches and nausea. Investigations began. Electromagnetic waves were
suspected, and all stray ones detected were eliminated. So also were all ultrasound! waves, which have
been the laboratory's major interest for 18 years. At
this point, one of the technicians got out an antique
apparatus for detecting infrasound - that is, air
vibrations whlch oscillate at less than 10 vibrations
a second, or 10 Hertz. (The human ear registers, as
sound, vibrations 'from 16 per second, or 16 Hertz, to
20,000 Hertz.) It quickly identified the source of the
unease: a giant ventilator in a factory next door.
"Sound is a succession of waves in which the
air is alternately compressed and decompressed. Fast
vibrations either go right through solid objects or
bounce off them, usually doing relatIvely little harm
even when very powerful. But slow air vibrations,
below the hearing level, can create a sort of pendulum action, a reverberation in solid objects that
quickly builds up to intolerable intensity. The wavelengths most dangerous to life lie below seven per
second. At this point one has a vague impression of
sound and a feeling' of general discomfort. At 3.5
Hertz nothing can be heard directly but there is a
curious incidental effect. Nearby sounds, such as
air hissing into a pipe, take on a pblsing quality.
All sounds in the neighbourhood seem to u~ulate
rhythmically.
"The researc~ team has suffered from its. experi-

merts. Some of the invisible injuries appear to be

persistent. These infrawaves not only affect the ears,
but work directly on the internal organs, causing a
rubbing-together of various adjacent organs because
of a sort of resonance. This provokes an irritation so
intense that for hours afterwards any low-pitched
sound seems to echo through one's body.To study this phenomenon the scientists built a
giant whistle hooked to a compressed air hose. However, when turned on the "test nearly cost us all our
lives said Prof. Vladimir Gavreau, who is in charge
of the Electro-Acoustical Laboratory. "Luckily, we
were able to turn it off fast." He went on "All of us
were sickfor hours. Everything in us was vibrating stomach, heart, lungs. All the people in the other
laboratories were sick too. They were very angry
with us, he ended laconically. After this, they kept
the power input very low and started probing downwards from the 16 Hertz point, and came upon the
critical point of 7 Hertz at which, with a huge
whistle as much as 18 feet across, constructed like
a police whistle with a small airplane engine to rev
the fan, they estimate that people could be killed ~
~ up to five miles away..
One would have thought that we already have
enough ways of killin~ off people but it must be admitted that, if you want to do so, this would seem to
be a perfectly splendid way of doing it. In warfare,
it would be a lot neater than nerve gases and/or
bacteria, and pr.obably more 'humane' if you gave the
enemy the full works. But it would be for controlling
or eliminating mobs that it would seem to be best
prescribed. You could soften them up with a bit of
nausea and disorientation, and if the idiots persisted
in continuing to riot, you could la.y them out for days
or weeks, thus avoiding the necessity for a massacre,
which always seems to upset people ..

VII. BIOLOGY
THE ABOMINABLE SPINIFEX MAN
Correspondents from Australia have passed on to
us newspaper accounts of tracks found in the desert
near Laverton, some 400 miles E.N .E. of Perth, in
Western Australia. These are two-toed prints about
15 inches long, made by a 'something' that walked
on two legs (dubbed the Spinifex Man by the Aussies).
They were found by a Mr. Peter MUir, a dogger (i.e.
dingo hunter) for the Agriculture Protection Board,
who said that in 30 years in desert areas in Australia
he had not seen anything resembling these footprints.
They do look most odd (see cut, p. 10), but there
is a simple explanation: an Ostrich.

Your first reaction will probably be that we have

gone balmy since "there are no ostriches in Australia;
you mean an emu don't you?" No, we don't. Ostriches
were long ago imported to Australia, along with other
animals such as camels and rabbits. Presumably
everyone knows how the rabbits have fared; and there
are believed to be some truly feral populations of
camels in some parts of Australia. As for the ostriches,' we quote part of a letter from Harry Turner
of Floreat Par~, ':Western Australia, who origin8.lly
suggested this 'diagno.sis':
"In South Australia there wa~ once an ostrich
farming industry and no doubt when it became uneconomical the farmers might have turned their birds

10

WE'RE SORRY, BUT IT WAS A SHARK

(Left) Imprint left in coarse sand by so-called "Spinifex Man". (~) The sole of the left foot of an
Ostri.ch. as seen from below. (Right) The !:Iole of the
left foot of an Emu. as seen fro"iii1ielow.

loose to fend for themselves. But there is a lot of

desert ill between. One would suppose that an ostrich
track would be similar to an emu track but rather
larger. I keep some pet emus and their footprints are
nothing like what is pictured."
The fact is that the only living animal - known
animal. at any rate - that can and very often does
Ie aVE! such a two-toed track is an Ostrich. As Mr.
Turnt~r points out. emus' tracks are quite different.
But both are Ratites. Emus pop up by the thousands.
from nobody knows quite where. around salt-pans in
the middle of Australia's worst deserts; ergo. there
is no good reason whY the real desert-type Ostriches
could not have survived and moved over the years
for hundreds of miles. and have done so undetected.
To put it mildly. that part of Australia is sparsely
populated - and those who do live there may have
taken a few Ostriches for granted.
Spinifex. by the way, is an Australian gras.s with
seeds that bear elastic spines; presumably it really
! abominable.

Our members were really on their toes with this

one. no fewer than eleven of them having called ~s
on Monday. the 16th November. to tell us of the then
still only tentatively identified and rather monumental
corpse that had washed up on the beach at Scituate,
Mass. This was followed by a mass of clippings, and
photographs which member No. 363 took during the
wee small hours of the morning. We are most heartened by this evidence of active interest on. the part of
our members - and subscribers! - and are as disappointed as you are that it did not prove to be a sea
Monster.
When washed up the body was badly 'mangled'.
partly from decomposition and partly from having prcovided dinner for other sea animals. Both jaws were
missing. a fact that will have relevance in a moment.
Police described the corpse as "a 3Q-foot sea serpent
which resembled a camel without legs (with) a
small head, a long neck. and a large. finned body".
(The idea of a camel with fins we find enchanting!)
Having been told that the New England Aquarium
was 'in charge'. we started telephoning and finally
got through to Mr. Michael Wynne-Willson at the
Aquarium. He was most helpful and forthright and
read us the official release. which went as follows:
"The New England Aquarium. now in possession
of the cranium of the vertebrate found last night on
the Scituate beach. positively identifies it as a
shark. probably a Basking Shark. It has been tentatively identified as such by not qnly the curatorial
and educational staff of the New England Aquarium
but also by Dr. Tyson Roberts. Curator of Fishes at
the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. and
Dr". Andrew Konnerth, Research Associate and Curator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The
cranium. which is now being prepared for shipment
from the New England Aquarium to Woods Hole. will
give positive identificatio~ when compared to other
shark crania. as to whether or not it is indeed a
Basking Shark. These sharks are infrequently found

Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) 1/120th nat.

size. Semi-diagrammatic. The skeletons of sharks
are composed of cartilage or gristle as opposed to
bone. Neither the upper or lower jaws. nor the throat
"bones. the gill-arches, or any of the cartilaginous
supports for the fins are anchored to the vertebral
column, so that when the animal decomposes they
fall away with the flesh. and only the small cranium
is left attached to the vertebral column. These
(shown in solid black) when left alone look like a
snake with a rather small head.

11

on beaches in similar conditions with jaw bones

missing. which lead to stories of unidentified swimming serpents".
Though popularly thought of as "fish". sharks are
quite different and are properly called Selachians.
Along with skates and rays. they have cartilaginous
skeletons - not bony ones. Thus. a properly trained
zoologist could not possibly mistake a shark's
skeleton for that of either a mammal or a reptile.
However. without the jawbone it is very difficult to
be absolutely certain of the exact species without
consulting textbooks or comparing the cranium with
positively identified specimens. The length of this
corpse suggested the Basking Shark. of course (these
average 30 feet in length. and the record is 45 feet).
but the cranium is not vastly different from that of
various other sharks.
The fact is that Basking Sharks are a positive
nuisance to monster-hunters and have been mistaken
for "sea serpents" on a number of occasions. On the
other hand. yesterday's sea monster" will be tomorrow's Basking Shark. Some of our members have
contended that "even if it were a sea monster. 'they'
wouldn't admit it". To this we can only saY that the
climate is changing; some very reputable scientists
are currently delving in these troubled waters. And
there probably is no scientist alive who does not secretly at least - hope to discover a new animal.
The bigger the better. even if he does. have trouble
putting it in a bottle. One can hardiy ignore accounts
of a 70-foot "sea-monster" in a scientific journal.
and detailed accounts of just such a beast in 19th.
century publications clearly refer to the Whale Shark
(Rhincodon typus). Eventually they will all have
Latin names.
TRACKS ON MT. ETN A
In the past decade a sort of insanity has rolled
over the world. While this was a most ancient tradItion in east central Asia. it only came to the attention of the Western world after W. W. I . via the explorers and mountaineers in the Himalayas. It had
been nibbled at in Russia. Canada. and our Northwest but it did not cut loose until 1962 when our
director. Ivan T. Sanderson. published his now
classic Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come !!:! Life,
which covered the reports up till that date from five
continents. These included rather massive documentation of this business from the states of California.
Oregon. and Washington, and the province of British
l
Columbia in Canada. The item is very large imprints
of the soles of the feet of what look like sundry large
unknown anthropoids. including huge hominids, in
snow or mud. and often forming miles of tracks.
Since that time reports of similar imprints and
tracks have spread out from that center all the way

to Central Africa and eastern Europe to join up with

another wave coming east out of Mongolia via south
Central Asia and the Caucasus. There have now been
allegations of the discovery of such tracks in nearly
every state in this Union, even to such unlikely
places as Texas. Pennsylvania. and Massachusetts!
Several dozen different plaster casts have been
offered, together with dozens more photographs of
same, several piles of excrement. two films of the
creatures allegedly making said tracks. and a corpse
in an ice-filled coffin. The creatures have been nicknamed Bigfeet. Sasquatches, The Iceman. Yetis. or
1U3SMs, .and a whole cult has grown up around them
with all manner of people from high school youngsters
to college professors going charging off to hunt them
with gun. rod, and camera as in the good old days of
Poona-Poona. Literally millions of dollars have been
spent on this endeavour.
The idea of giant hairy hominids wandering about
the eastern states is bad enough but when one is
asked to even consider their appearance in suburban
areas in cities like Vancouver and. Oklahoma City,
one tends to become a bit peeved. But something
more aggravating still has been the submission of
photos of such tracks in solid rock, which is of course
preposterous unless said rock was molten or muddy
when they were imprinted. or they were chizelled
out by some funster.
There is very considerable reason to suppose that
some such hominids do exist in certain wilderness
areas in Asia, in the Caucasus. and in our Northwest,
but these whacky reports tend only to denigrate the
evidence of these and even the possibility of their
existence.
The worst of all came in last November from, of
all places, Sicily! As reported by UPI it went as
follows: "Catania. Sicily (UP!) - Residents of a village on
the slopes of the Etna volcano say they have seen
what looks like the footprints of an abominable snowman. Or was it one of the one-eyed cyclops who according to Greek legend had their smithy inside the
crater? Whatever t he being was, the villagers of
Mascalucia say it certainly had big feet. According
to the tale making the rounds of the mountainside
eommunities. nine Mascalucia men. all 'serious
persons.' saw seven footprint s at an altitude of
10.335 feet on the east side of the mountain two
weeks ago. They were 13 feet apart and one was
more than five feet long. according to the story. All
were about six inches deep in hard lava soil."
Of all the overpopulated, deforested islands available, Sicily would probably cop first prize.
Further. it has been infested for centuries by Greeks.
Carthaginians. Romans, and just about everybody
else ex Europe, the Near East. and North Africa.

12

What is more, despite Etna's rambunctiousness,

people always go back up the lava flows as soon as
they cool enough to plant things, because of their
marvellous fertility. So, unless a bunch of Vulcans
do live under its crater., there is not the slightest
chance of a race even of pigmies gOing unnoticed
until Ioday. However, this seemingly insane report
should not be just declared either a lie or a hoax.
Point is, several other longer accounts mention
that these tracks were in fairly fresh lava that had
only just cooled suffiCiently to be traversed. Now,
both the Russians and some American volcanologists
have actually "ridden" the crusts of molten lava
while they were still moving downhill, wearing as- .
bestos foot covering and other paraphernalia. There
is a more or less permanently starfed observation
po st run by the University of Catania for geologists,
seismologists, and volcanologists on the rim of Etna.
Could any of the personnel have crossed a flow on
their way down, during the last eruption, befor~ it
was fully set? If so, it is Quite possible that they
have lert deep imprints which would have grown individually in size and become increasingly separated
if thE! molten lava below the crust got held up below
and so swelled up into a dome. Imprints such as
these might not crack but retain their form, the surface being clastic, so that it stretched as a whole.
Truly gigantic caves form in lava flows due to
POCkE!tS of gas slowly enlarging w~ile the rock cools
around them. Somewhere we read that gigantic impreSSions of branches, seemingly of trees many times
the size of any known locally were found on the
slopes of the volcano Mt. Tana in the New Hebrides.

Petropedetes johnstoni. (Left) Male out of breeding season. (Right) Male at second breeding season.

Department

Geography: Demography

!!P

MALAY AN FROG BATTLES

November of last year was a splendid fortean
effort, and never let it be said again that forteana
tum up only in the 'Silly Season'. An AP story, dated
the 8th November 1970, ran as follows:
"Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (AP) - More than
3,000 frogs of four different varieties fought a furious
battle lasting more than six hours, local newsmen
reported yesterday. They said the frog war took
place in a swampy valley beside a Hindu temple at a
rubber estate near Sungai Siput, 100 miles north of
Kuala Lumpur. At first, only about 50 frogs were involved but soon the numbers swelled, the newsmen
reported, adding that about 1,000 people assembled
to watch the frogs bite and tear at each other. Many
were dead at the end of the battle.
"Maria Soosay, 30, who has lived for years near
the area, said the war is almost an annual event.
'But they have been small fights. This is the
biggest so far,' he said. Other frog wars have been
reported at various times in different p~ts of West
Malaysia. No one has so far come forward with any
theory why such battles take place."
. There was also a lot of rubbish about these frog
wars being regarded as ill omens auguring war, revolution, or inter-racial outbreaks. However, identical or similar-appearing frog behaviour is not confined to Malaysia. It happens in forested West Africa
and is not so much a war as, apparently, a form of
population control. There is one species of frog
known as Petropedetes johnsoni that has a very odd
life history. The females just grow steadily from
year to year, retaining one coloration arid changing
only in size. The males, on the other hand, change
radically from their second to firth years prior to the
coming of the big rains when they descend from the
trees where they otherwise live, to mate. Not only
do . they increase enormously in bulk, they change
colour, their tympani or ear-drums become greatly
enlarged and develop a large button in the middle,
and their forelimbs more than Quadruple in bulk,
develop enormous terminal finger pads, and a sharp
dertine-capped spike grows out from the bottom of
the terminal thumb joint. In between mating seasons
they revert to their yearling colour pattern, lose the
tympanum knob, and the forelimbs lose the spike and
return to normal bulk.
The males arrive at mating locations before the

Date

Some of our favourite towns: Eek, Alaska; Enigma, G~orgia; Waterpr~of, LO,uisiana; St amboat, Nevada;
Zap, North Dakota; Drain, Oregon; and, best of all, Pamc, Pennsylvama. We re not makmg these up, you
know.

13

females, and second, third, and fourth year individuals are then present together. Each age group
keeps to itself but sometimes, due to crowding, the
biggest boys will attack the next size down and rip
into them both with their powerful jaws and also
with their thumb spears. We wonder if this might not
be what the Malayan frogs are up to. What is more,
Malays are more prone to pull their "running amok"
stunt at the onset of the rains.

A LITTLE VIETNAMESE MONSTER

May we be permitted to point out once again that
the word 'monster' has two Quite distinct basic
meanings: monstrously large for what it is, or monstrous in form compared to what it should be or what
is otherwise known. We once announced that we were
gOing to show some little monsters on television,
and the producer was most distressed when we offered some nightmarish Protozoans under a microscope.
Monsters in most peoples' opinion must be at least
50 feet long. One wonders what they feel about baby
monsters.
Comes then a faSCinating report from Vietnam.
This appeared in the Webster (Mass.) Times of the
7th October of last year. It bears no byline, and we
have not heard of it from any other source. We give
it herewith in full: "Army Specialist 4 PrzYstas Tells About Monster
of Long Binh: U. S. Army war stories about the prehistoric monster living in the swamps of Long Binh,
Viet Nam aren't as absurd as some .people are inclined to believe, according to SP-4 Richard Przystas,
son of Mr. and Mrs. stanley PrzYstas of 66 Racicot
Ave.
"Stationed at Long Binh, Sp-4 Przystas is on
duty in the sector where a 'mystery' reptile was shot
by a U.S. Army Depot perimeter guard, according to
information in a letter to his parents. He also included a newspaper clipping, noting that it was
'headlines' in the war-torn country. This reads as
follows:
"Long Binh's 'monster' first came into the limelight when Spec. 5 Joseph Ott, an information
specialist assigned to U.S. Army, Vietnam, wrote a
story about several 34d Ord. Bn. personnel who declared they had seen what they described as a giant
reptile in a swamp near the U.S. Army Depot here.

It was estimated at between three and four feet long

and reportedly left footprints about as large as a
man's hand, with the tail leaving a four-inch-deep
trail in the mud near the ammunition storage areas,
observers s aid. Several traps were constructed of
wire mesh and baited with meat, but to no avail. In
one instance, the monster got into the trap and broke
out, leaving a pile of boards but no meat. At first
the stories were scoffed at and dismissed as 'rear
area war stories' - more fiction than fact. But the
shooting of an actual specimen refutes disbelief.
"Spec. 4 Gregg Batzer and Pfc. Charles McKenna,
depot security guards on the Long Bi.nh bunker line,
were standing guard duty in bunker 327. "The summer
monsoon rain had just abated when McKenna spotted
'something weird'. 'It was as long as the bunker'
noted McKenna, and 'looked prehistoric'. Patzer
remarked it was a 'very odd looking beast'. He admitted that seeing the reptile on his first bunker
guard assignment left him spooked. McKenna shot
the 'monster' as it entered the bunker. It measured
f1 ve feet long and weighed more than 35 POUrD s. It
was her mother instinct which had attracted the
'monster' to the bunker. "The giant reptile had put
her offspring in the opening back of the bunker until
after the rain, and she was returning to them.
"Since this 'monster' was killed, many amateur
zoologists have searched for information about the
fearsome reptile and its possible mate. So far, no
authoritative text has certified the 'monster' as a
known zoological species. The most attractive theory
is a popular belief that it is a giant newt, perhaps
the last survivor of the descendants of Plesiosaurus
reptiles, believed to have been extinct for more than
50 million years, isulated in the Long Binh swamps
until Army personnel moved into the area and discovered them.
"Meanwhile, the knowledge that the dead reptile
was a mother means that 'papa monster' is probably
still lurking in the swamps. The traps are getting
bigger and more numerous each day."
The description" of this animal conforms very
closely to the common Monitor Lizard (Varanus) of
southern Indochina. This animal might well come as
a bit of a shock to a United-Stater on his first tour
of that area. The account would have been pretty
good if the reporter had not seen fit to add the usual
bits of zoological I:laloney. This is the way monster
stories get started.
It may be "the most attractive theory" and a

Our Favourite Title

Taken from the ~ of Zoology, Vol. 161: "Character analysis: an empirical approach applied to
advanced snakes." We don't know what this is all about, never having got past the title.

14

popular belief" that it is a giant newt. but newts

live only in Eurasia and North AmerIca, and they
are not reptiles, but amphibians like salamanders.
with slimy skins, that l~ their eggs in water. By no
stretch of the imagination could a salamander be a
descendant of any reptile, let alone the marine
Plesi.osaurs, which incidentally are believed to have
become extinct 7o-million years agq. The zoologists
involved must certainly have been amateurs, and
probably of the Hollywood-Comic-strip variety.
A THREE-TOED, BIPEDAL WORM!
The fossil three-toed track shown in the photograph is one of several found by a chap named John
Mitt!. The exact location has been kept secret to
prevent vandals from destroying them, but they are
on top of a "mountain" in northern Berks County.
Pennsylvania. They are identical in outline to those
of some newb hatched dinosaurs' tracks possessed
by the American Museum of Natural History and
therefore presumably should not pose any problem except for one thing. "Dinosaurs" only started in the
Triassic period, but the rocks in which these tracks
were found are apparently Silurian - in other words,
about 200 million years too early.
Mr. Mitt! is said to have consulted various
scientists but, to quote the Reading Times of the
15th September. 1966, appears. to have chosen the
wrong ones.

"Some of these scientists thought the tracks

were fossilized bird tracks only some 25O-million
years too soon!; some thought they were dinosaur
tracks and some thought they were 'petroglyphs' or
carvings of bird tracks which were made by Indians.
This last theory, however. is not borne out in light
of the history of Berks County Indians, nor by the
appearance of the tracks."
Others decided that the rocks must be Triassic if
these tracks are those of dinosaurs. But apparently
not one of these pundits was willing to go there and
determine once and for all just what age the rocks
are. There are said to be other fossil tracks in these
strata, and these should help in identifying them,
unless they too are 'out of place'. But the real payoff is the identification of these three-toed tracks
made .by a certain Dr. Richmond L. Myers of,Moravian
College. He insisted that the impressions were the
trails of a fossil worm! Oh, mirabile dictu.
We found the accompanying reconstruction of this
hilarious beast by our. director, in the margin of the
clipping.

MYervermis tridactyla (Gen. Nov.)

VOl. ANTHROPOLOGY
WERE EGYPTIANS FIRST IN AUSTRALIA?
This was the headline on a short piece from the
London Sunda.v Express, sent us by member No. 162.
It wa.c; date-lined Sydney and read as follows:
"Did Ancient Egyptians surf at Bondi? a suburb
of Sydney Historian Rex Gilroy plans to lead an

expedition into central Australia to prove that

Egyptians and other races found Australia thousands
of years before Captain Cook. He believes he already has evidence that Arab dhows explored the
New South Wales coast about 3,500 B.C. He is studying a collection of bronze plates. coins, pottery and
hieroglyphics found near Bondi and other parts of
Australia. Now he will search for huge reliefs of

15

Egyptian deities reported to have been found by

Aboriginals on a cliff face in central Australia.
'''These discoveries could rewrite the history of
Australia', said Mr. Gilroy, director of the Mount
York Natural History Museum. 'Evidence of the landings of Egyptians, including Aboriginal carvings of
their dhows and clothing, is coming to light all the
time,'''
This is intriguing, though one wonders which
'Arabs'. Had Mr. Gilroy said Phoenicians, it would
seem more likely. Also, the Egyptians were not
notoriously good sailors, despite Thor Heyerdahl's
latest success. Bear in mind that Ra's I & II were
built, not by Egyptians, but by imported Bolivian
Indians! Nevertheless, we pursued Mr. Gilroy.
Our own reference works having failed us, we
called the Australian News and Information Bureau.
They had heard nothing of it and were no more successful in finding a town called Mount York than we
had been; nor were they able to find any reference to
Mr. Rex Gilroy. We then wrote to the Foreign Editor
of the Sunday Express, who very kindly checked with
his correspondent in Sydney and sent us an address
for Mr. Gilroy. In the meantime we had also written
to the Australian Museum in Sydney to ask their help.
And we got it - in the form of one of the most refreshingly frank letters we have seen; and we quote:
"I have your letter of 14th September, 1970 addressed to the Director of the Australian Museum. Dr.
Talbot, out Director, is at present overseas but in his
absence I think I can completely answer the request
made in your letter about Mr. Rex Gilroy, self styled
Director of the Mount York Natural History Museum.
"Without being too strong I think I can state that
you can completely disregard any claims as to discoveries, either of a natural history nature or archaeology, made by Mr. Gilroy. We have already notified
all the responsible newspapers in Australia that they
should disregard any claims he makes. His work is
bogus and he is possibly slightly deranged. He has a
small private museum situated on the Blue Mountains
of New South Wales near Mount York, (nearest large
town Katoomba). We have had trouble with him in
connection with fossils; this particular claim that he
has found traces of Arabs and Egyptians in Australia,
and on many other occasions.

"He makes wild statements to small local news

sheets which publish them as :sensational findings'
and then these get extracted into large city dailies
in Australian states.
"If you want some details as to his 'craziness' I
would suggest that you communicate with our Curator
of Palaeontology, Dr. Alex Ritchie, at this address.
"I repeat, you can completely disregard any
claims of Gilroy in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
/Signed/
Elizabeth Pope
Acting Director."
It would be rather fun to have Egyptians and Arabs
in Australia, but it seems clear that Mr. Gilroy has a
bee in his bonnet. We would like to know more about
the alleged "bronze plates, coins, pottery and hieroglyphics" mentioned, and in fact had written to him
before receiving Miss Pope's reply to our enquiry.
But Mr. Gilroy has not answered.
There are some very curious - and fully authenticated - Aboriginal paintings of 'people' who bear no
resemblance to any Australian Aborigine; they don't
resemble any Arab or Egyptian either. And, despite
the fact that we have a tendency to be very cautious
in accepting flat statements by orthodox scientists,
the comments on Gilroy's general reputation indicate
that anything he offers should be fully backed with
facts and artefacts.

RED-HAIRED PEOPLE-EATERS
Scores of red-headed mummies, averaging 6Z to 7
feet tall, and thousands of artefacts have been taken
from a smoke-coated, exceptionally dry cave some
22 miles southwest of Lovelock, Nevada. Piute
Indians living in Lovelock state matter-of-factly that
these were cannibals who preyed on the Piutes and
were eventually exterminated by them. The last
remnants of the cannibal tribe holed up in this cave
and were suffocated by enormous fires built at the
entrance. Annie Bill, 68, a Piute and a lifelong resident of Lovelock, said, "All members of the tribe
who were exterminated had red hair. I have some of
their hair which has been handed down from father to
son. I have a dress which has been in our family a
great many years, trimmed with this reddish hair. Old

SPECIAL NOTICE
Richard Lanthier (Laan.tee.ay), our member No. 640, lormerly worked lor Le Monde Insolite or Strange,
Strange World at the MAN AND HIS WORLD Exposition in Montreal, and is thoroughly lamiliar with our
work. He now has an English.language television show in Montreal, though with national (Canadian) outlets, and has asked us to invite SITU's members to call him when in that very beautilul city, with a view
to a possible appearance on his program, which is devoted to the Unexplained. His telephone number is
(5J4)32J25J2 or, iI there is no answer there, (5J4)3240987.

...------,--------------..

--------------------~,-----~--------------------,--------------~---16

Piutes always called the redheads Si wash Indians

but many of my people' really wondered' if the re~
heads were Indians at all"., Her grandparents told
her that their grandparents described the cannibals
as hf1,ving ~ong faces and light skin "like white man"
This may seem a rather remote source of information,
but non-literate peoples often do transmit their tribal
history from generation to generation with remarkable
fidelit.y.
The anthropologists and archaeologists are ~ather
rude about the story of cannibalism and red hair,
claiming that the color of the hair was due to "age or
chemical action". And Donald R. Tuohy, curator of
anthropology at the Nevada state Museum, has announced, apparently with some heat, that the Piute
storjes Bre "myths - pure and simple fabrications".
He further "believes" that the Piutes knew of the
existence of the cave and its contents long before its
discovery by white men in 1912 .. and: concocted this
story to explain it. 'He is quite right on one count.
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of the Piute
chief, Old Winnemucca, published a book entitled
Life Among the Piutes in 1883, i~ which she gives
the whole story and states that the last of the cannibals were exterminated by her people earlier in the
19th century. Recent carbon-14 dating tests indicate
that the cave was occupied as late as 1800-1850,
which certainly supports her story; and no one has
even tried to suggest that this late occupation was
by the Piutes, who were never cave dwellers in any
case.
The question of who these cannibals were and
where they came from is still unresolved - the
earliest occupation of the cave is dated as somewhere
between 2000 and 3000 B.C. but it was not occupied
continuously up to 1800. Most of the artefacts
are what one would expect: baskets, nets, duck
decoys, arrowheads, and the like. But qne is most
unusual. Preserved at stoker's Museum in Winnemucca, this is a calendar stone ,marked with 52 dots
on the inside and 365 (please note well) on the outside. Clarence (Pike) sto~er, curator (and presumably
owner) of the Museum, has speculated that if the
redheads weren't Amerinds "It's very possible they
were descendants of Egyptians who sailed to
Americ:a hundreds of years ago". Red hair suggests
Phoenicians rather than Egyptians. And Phoenicians
do seem to have got around (see p. 16) but that they
were all giants, and indulged in cannibalism is
questionable. Current studies of the artefacts, the
mummies, and some 5000 human coprolites (fossilized
excrement) may provide an answer to this conundrum.
In the meantime, we think it impolite to call the
Piutes liars, and unwise to lean too heavily on Thor
Heyerdahl's Egyptian exercises.

Cyrus H. ,Gordon's considered pronouncement th8:t

some Mediterranean people, probably including at
least some Hebrews, got to this continent 1000 or
more years before Columbus. Dr. Gordon stated for
the record that a tribal group of indigenes called the
Melungeons offer clear evidence of this fact not only
in their legends but in their physical appearance,
while an inscribed stone was unearthed from one of
their burial mounds in Tennessee in 1885. by one
Cyrus Thomas who was working with the Smithsonian.
He further stated that "This group of people are
neither Amerindian nor Negro, and are Caucasian but
not Anglo-Saxon."
The stone was found under one of nine skeletons
in ~he mound. "The archaeological circumstances of
the discovery" Dr. Gordon said "rule out any chance
of fraud or forgery and the inscription attests to a
Hebrews]". It was 'brought to
migratipn of Jews
his attention by, Dr. Joseph D. Mahan Jr., of the
Columbus, Georgia, Museum of Arts and Crafts. It has
been lying in the Smithsonian since its discovery
but ignored because the inscription was initially
read upside down and made no seI),se. It bears eleven
characters including five letters which Dr. Gordon
reads as, "For the Land of Judah", in a style of
writing used in Canaan around the beginning of this
millenium, and he suggests that they were inscribed
about the time when "Jews migrated here to escape
the long hand [arm of Rome after the disastrous,
Jewish defeats in 70 to 135 A.D." He adds that the
Melungeons are descendants of Mediterrane'an people,
who themselves believe that they came to the New
.World in ships about 2000 years ago.
This' is but another nail in the coffin of the Ocean
Blue in 1492" and all that 'discovery' non!(!ense, and
a cornerstone in the ever-growing edifice of Near
Eastern exploration of, and settlement in, the New
World, starting 2000 years before that episode. It
was Dr. Gordon, ~oreover, who jolted us two years
ago by pronouncing another inscribed stone slab
found in the Amaz~n Basin as being. of Phoenician
origin. Before ,that we have the massive work of
Prof. Ramos bringing to light dozens of other petroglyphs including perfect fish and Indian rhinoceroses
filled with. Aramaic-type Phoenician letters in the
same country. Add to these, coins found in the
bottoms of wells all down the eastern coastal plain
of North America, tombs in South Am~rica, and
statuettes of bearded men with Caucasian features
in Centroamerica, and the Columbus buffs begin to
look a bit silly. Sure that splendid Genoese made it
over but he was accused of being unable to read the
maps by his own captains! Wish I had had aome maps
when I "discovered" a new mountain in Africa; it
would have saved me a lot of time, trouble, and
expense.

"THEY

A point of interest may be worthy of addition to

this matter. It is not generally realized that not all
the Hebrew tribes of old were land lubbers. Several
groups broke away from the ~od Yahwe and followed

ALL DISCOVERED

AMERICA"

The most startling pronouncement in the field of

archaeology last year was undoubtedly Professor

D..e.

17.

Baal of the Phoenicians and the Palestinian coastal

strip and became Sea People like the Philistines
and the subjects of the Ancient Sea Kings. They
nonetheless remain Hebrews (the term Jew is only a
religious designation), and they were still around at
the time of Columbus, usually as the specsioneers
(or pursers) on ships of almost all nations, handling
trading and financial matters. There is the fascina..
ting story of the specsioneer on Cortez' flagship
who was a Hebrew and who, on seeing the first
Ocellated Turkey Birds, named them in Hebrew
tokhe (verbally) since when they spread their tails
they displayed eyes on them, like those on peacocks'
tails, a bird that he alone knew. (Incidentally our
turkey was taken to Spain but developed in Holland
and Belgium, then the Spainish Low Countries, but
did not spread to Turkey until very modern times!)
There is massive evidence that the crews of trading vessels from the eastern Mediterranean were
always extremely mixed, and that not only the coastal
Hebrews but even the inland tribesmen did an awful
lot of boating. Hebrews, and notably Sephardim,
settled in earliest times at the terminals of sea
lanes everywhere and apparently of ocean lanes as
well. They were the brokers and the first maritime
insurance agents. If the Phoenicians got to thE' New
World, Hebrews .undoubtedly arrived with them.
ENIGMAS IN LEAD
By Gaston Burridge
One of the fascinating riddles of our great Southwest has several names - "The Tucson Artefacts",
"Lead Crosses", "Arizona Romans. It all began
along the Silverbell Road northwest of Tucson,
Arizona, on the 13th September, 1924, when Mr.
Charles E. Manier discovered the first relic by accident. The mystery of their origin continues to patina
these items with ever increaSingly colorful words from plain "hoax" to romantic "adventurers of 800
A.D." - and little has been done to scrape away
this patina and learn the truth. Could a band of late
Roman adventurers possibly have managed to get
into Arizona so early? Present academicians in
archaeology look askance at the entire idea, while
laymen tend to emphasize the positive and neglect
the negative, both of which exist.
.
More than 30 r.elics have been unearthed, and there
may well be others still buried. One large cross
weighed 62 pounds." There were other crosses,

.. The crosses vary in size: the largest is 18 inches

long, its cross arms 12 inches overall. The face is
4 inches wide and 2 inches thick; the smallest
8 5/8 inches long, its cross arm 8~ inches, its face
width 2~ inches, but only 7/16 inch thick (this was
very poorly cast).

spears, spearheads, batons, daggers, sword-like

weapons - and a "something" which looked rather
like a giant pancake turner but is far too thick. Other
objects bear serpent-like appenda,ges wound around
them. Many items are inscribed with letters, words,
and graphic symbols. These words and symbols have
been deciphered and yield comprehensible messages.
It is from these that the dates 560 A.D. to 800 A.D.
are derived.
One 'item' proves intriguing and seems important.
It rests with the word caliche (kl-l~/-cha). What is
caliche and why is it important here?
Caliche exists in most desert soils. It "grows"
as a result of water action and reaction with certain
chemicals in the soil - calcium carbonate in particular. Caliche gathers as a hard, crust-like sheet or
layer at varying depths in desert soils, generally at
that place where surface water stops descending for
lack of reinforcement from above. In dry years a
layer of caliche builds close to the surface. In wet
years the stratum forms much lower. There are often
several layers, one above the other. Caliche also
accumulates around buried metal objects and builds
a tough, hard deposit of uneven thickness around
them. Photographs taken immediately after some of
these artefacts were exhumed show heavy deposits
of caliche. Others of the relics were recovered from
between layers of caliche. Photographs of the site
itself indit:ate several strata were below the fivefoot surface level. This seems to indicate a wide
range of rainfall and t.he passage of a great deal of
time, and thus suggests that the artefacts are very
old indeed.
The first Tucson Artefact was discovered by
accident on land belonging to Mr. Thomas Bent, an
attorney of Tucson, but not by him. He retains the
entire collection of artefacts, and has also kept careful records of each "dig", recording the date, who
was present, what conditions were encountered while
the digging took place. Further, Mr. Bent had made
a careful photographic record of each item as it was
dug out. The negatives are still in his possession.
Bent has never tried to commercialize any of the
finds. He has sought only to further a scientific investigation of these pieces. Now 73 years old and in
ill health, Bent is no longer actively attempting to
foster general interest in and investigation of the
riddle.
Some prominent archaeologists and mine engineers
were present at the site during several digs. They
included Drs. Frank Fowler, Byron Cummings,
Andrew E. Douglass, Neil Judd, and Charles Vorhies.
The artefacts themselves are cast of lead - some
of the crosses in two halves riveted together. This
metal resembles that which is present in ores found
in the area now. The relics showed no radioactivity
when unearthed, indicating that they had been buried
for a considerable time; but no really accurate method
of determining age was known in 1924-25. The objects were not found in a cache but well distributed

18

One of the Tucson Artefacts, showing inscriptions

on the inside faces of the cross. The halves were
sealed with a kind of wax which prevented deterioration of the inscriptions. Photo from Arizona Pioneer's
Historical Society, Tucson.

The 'exterior' of the same cross, showing the

heavy encrustation of caliche on the outside. Photo
from Arizona Pioneer's Historical Society, Tucson.

over an area of 80 by 100 feet. They were located

from three to six feet below the surface. This would
seem to rule out the possibility that they had been
"planted". It has been pointed out that the inscriptions Incised upon some of the relics contain
words and idioms which did not come into general
Latin usage until much later than the indicated "800
A.D. This is one of the factors some authorities
cite as a basis for the claim that this is a hoax.
In 1964 Mr. Bent published a 400-page monograph
covering all the then known facts about the relics.
It is detailed and complete but was published in a
very limited edition, and all copies have been distributed, being given, to those institutions and individuals Mr. Bent 'felt would be most likely to
further genuine scientific study to determine the true
nature of the entire matter.
An()ther cross with Latin-Hebraic inscriptions.
The three heads shown ma.v have been leaders or
other prominent persons. Their names are given as
Jacob, Theodore, and Israel. Photo from Arizona
HistorIcal Museum, Tucson.

It seems too bad: - whether the Tucson Artefacts prove a hoax or history - that they do not
occupy a secure place in some Southwestern museum,
for they are part of the historical heritage of that
region and have become as important as any of its
many gunfighters.

UFOLOGY
We are being asked ever more frequently why we
appear to be decreasingly interested in this phenomenon. The appearance is valid; in some respects. This
does not mean that we have lost all interest in the
subject; far from it. The reasons for our current
attitude are twofold.
First, we are frankly bored with what are called
mere sightings" - a word which we abominate anywa.v. They are endlessly repetitious, though we would

be the first not only to admit, but to point out, that

no two are alike. In fact, we have a feeling that
every damned one ever recorded is intrinsically
different. Nonetheless, recording the cases as of
now serves only one purpose. This is to accumulate
as much data as possible for the computerized analysis that is being undertaken by The Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization, Inc., of 3910 E. Kleindale
Road, Tucson, Arizona 85712 (phone: (602)-793-1825).

19

We say this because we now believe it to be

quite useless waiting for one of these things to
"land" and be captured or properly examined. If this
could be accomplished, it would have been done
long ago. Further, we have very good reason for
thinking that it cannot be hoped for in present circumstances, and that it would not be comprehended
if it were. But more on this aspect of the matter in a
minute.
Let it be said that, while we say we are bored
with "sighting" reports as a steady diet, we are
increasingly keen to collect them, just as an entomologist does up to tens of thousands of specimens
of the same species of insect, because tb.is is the
only way by which one may classify variation; and
by classifying variations, we almost invariably bring
to light hitherto unknown and unsuspected facts. But,
for this kind of investigation computers are essential,
so we shoot everything we receive on to A.P.R.O.
The second reason for our apparent indifference
to this matter of late is quite different; and this is
only an appearance indeed, for it actually lies very
near to the core of our own work and the kind of investigation that we, SITU, are set UP for. This may
come as a bit of a shock to those of you whose
primary interest is ufology, but it should be stated
bluntly. It is simply that, after very mature consideration, and an enormous amount of discussion and debate, we, as a body, feel that at least one sound,
logical, and scientifically acceptable explanation of
and for the phenomenon has now been offered; and,
in view of this, we, as a scientifically based and
oriented organization, feel that we should concentrate
all our attention and energy on this theory with a
view either to producing worthwhile' suggestions for
those elaborating it to consider, or to collect measurable evidence of its invalidity.
This, in turn, should not be construed to mean
that we are no longer interested in other theories. We
most certainly welcome any and all, however crazy
they may appear, because we have now entered the
second stage of the old fundamental 'What-How-Why'
procedure. To reiterate: we now have enough 'whats'
to analyse and should therefore proceed to examine
all the possible 'hows'.
So far there is only one theory that has come to
our attention that meets all the very stringent
strictures that we place upon any and every theory.
As far as we know, this was first mooted by Luis
Schonherr in four articles in the Flying Saucer Review, of London, dated March-April 1963; JanuaryFebruary 1964; November-December 1965; and November-December 1968. We say 'mooted' because Mr.
Schonherr actually speculated upon only one aspect
of this concept - the physical one. This suggestion
does not, however, appear to have been considered
up to the present, though it forms a cornerstone of
what we call (for convenience and easy reference
only) The New Theory.
This has now been put forward by more than half

a dozen advanced scientists, several technologists,

and four or five workers in other fields, notably journalism. Each has come to the same point independently. This we consider to be of the utmost Significance, perhaps of an even higher degree than the
stan.ding of the scientists involved. These are
primarily the Frenchmen, Drs. Jacques Vallee and
Aime Michel; and among the independents, whom we
refuse to refer to as 'amateurs', John A. Keel, and
Gordon Creighton. The technologists, while all of
the highest standing also, have not as yet published
on the matter - as is their wont! The 'theory' can be
very simply stated, but the 'mechanics' of it are
enormously complicated and very advanced. However,
the hypotheses oil which t.hey are based are all
established and proven - at least mathematically and, in turn, form the bases of Quantum Physics.
We have arranged for one of our members (No. 208),
a nuclear physicist, to write up these technicalities
for our next issue. For now,. let it be stated as
follows.
UFOs, and several other types of "items", may
be projections from another, or other, space-timecontinua that may be said - for simplicity's sake to exist and run on parallel lines to the one that we
are in. (Of course the word 'parallel' is an oversimplification and, if taken literally, very misleading. Also, it might be better to say a 'space-timegravity' cosmos.)
This is an old theory but the current approach to
to it is novel in that these projections are now being
conceived of as holograms in form but material in
content. In other words, they "come .through" from
other space-time~gravities and go back into them;
and can do so at any time-speed up to, and possibly
surpassing, that of light. In other words, they are
teleports. The most fascinating aspect of this New
Theory is, however, something corollary to this
rather simple concept, and this is where we come in.
Teleportation or ITF, meaning instant transference, is a term devised to cover the "transference"
of solid matter through solid matter. Now, it would
appear that this is a phenomenon that is fairly widespread and by no means infrequent in nature. But
then again, as those who have propounded this New
Theory suggest, it now looks very much as if it can
also be contrived artificially and purely mechanically.
Thus, the theory envisages other continua being inhabited by intelligent (in our meaning of t hat expression) entities who have mastered the technique
of artificial ITF, and who employ it to come through
into our continuum by what we may call 'projection',
and then influence us and our environment. Further,
these scientists consider that any such intelligencies
must have concurrently mastered the art of 'creating'
anything they want - ranging from UFOs to Little
Green Men. And surely, if their chemiphysicists can
make the former, their biochemists should be able to
manufacture the latter. We are on the brink of dOing

20

both ourselves, after only about a century of serious

consideration of the possibilities.
Until we do so, however, we will neither be able
to capture or truly contact either of them; for, from

our present way of thinking, they are actually "herenot-heres" and material-nonmate~ial; in fact, manifestations of Charles Fort'.s concept of DeterminismIndeterminism.

DEPARTMENT OF LOOSE ENDS

This column will appear here from lime to time

as we have something more to report on some of the
items discussed in articles in PURSUIT, but not
enough to warr.ant another article. Checking reports
or obt.aining further information is often difficult and
almost always a long process - e.g. our query to du
Pont in September was not answered until midNovember - hence the delay in keeping some of our
promises.
Giant Skeletons on Lundy Island (Vol. 3, No.1):.
This concerned a release by the NationalGeographic
Society. stating that 8-foot human skeletons had
been found on Lundy Island. It turns out that the
release was written by a chap who got the information

on the giant skeletons from "an old cUpping" and

from reference books on Lundy, not specified. We
have not gotten anywhere in trying to track these
down.
"Noah's Ark(s)": Enquiries to the Turkish government concerning the 'ark' allegedly blown uP.
have gone unanswered. We also wrote the Soviet
Permanent Mission to the UN concerning photographs
of an 'ark' taken by Russian fliers; they referred us
to TASS. We have had no reply as of the time of
writing this. It should be pointed out that the Russian
fliers were apparently 'poaching' over Turkish territory. which makes it a little sticky for the Russians,
though we carefully refrained from asking where it
was seen.

CURRENT PURSUITS

The items listed below comprise a roster of those

which SITU is currently engaged in pursuing actively
or which have already been investigated. They are
numbered chronologically from the date of the initiation of the first enquiry in 1968. Primarily they constitute items that. at the time of their reception, were
either new to our files or which had. until then. been
represented only by casual references therein.
Secondarily. however. their selection is dependent
almost solely on the availability of a potential set-up
for further investigation. meaning that personnel are
physically near enough to the locus to prosecute
search. and that members and communicants have the
time and are willing to initiate bibliographical research. Third. we have to consider the availability of
requiremen~s called for by whatever is discovered both physfcal specimens. and written reports. All
members are not only invited, but urged. to join in
these pursuits. You don't have to be a working
scientist or even have any scientific training. The
most astonishing discoveries have so often been
made by what are called, so scathingly, amateurs,
and just about all new items that c~me to us. and
suggE!stions as to procedure in investigating them,
come from this ilk.
To save space, the wordage in this column has to
be rE!duced to a minimum and to this end, when a
number and title alone appears, it indicates that
either (a) there is nothing new to report on it, or (b)
that .it is in limbo, or in a sort of intellectual suspended animation. Thus, there are some investiga-

tions that might be considered to be 'closed'. in that

eith~r an explanation has been found. or we appear
to have reached a dead end. This, however, is not
to be construed as meaning that they are permanently
closed out. All the findings on anyone, once initiated, remain on file. and new information invariably
comes in that initiates either further search and research along old lines or which opens up new lines
of approach or corollary matters of importance, or
which brings to light lapses in past initiative.
New members interested in this listing are invited
to apply to us for further information and, if then
wishing to carryon where we have temporarily
left off, to make arrangements either t9 visit our
HQ to examine the files or ask for an estimate of
the cost of having all the material on file copied.
However, we should warn that some cases. like
No.8, fill half a room with pertinent literature!
Current Pursuits constitutes the most respectable
way of recruiting new membership since it offers
something concrete in return for effort expended,
while there is nothing so satisfying as having an
objective in life, and especially in the field of one's
chosen work or hobby.
It should be understood that anything mentioned
in this journal constitutes a potential pursuit", and
we would be grateful to receive suggestions as to
any you consider should be more actively pursued.
We have, in addition to the list below, a file of
Desiderata, and we contemplate publishing this in
our next issue. There are literally hundreds of items

21

that we cannot pursue actively at the moment due to

shortage of time and funds, but more particularly due
to distance from the locations of incidence.
(1) STONE SPHERES
(2) STONE SOFTENING

(14) A POLTERGEIST MANIFESTATION

(15) SOUTH NEW JERSEY 'IREE STUMPS
Alas, nothing to report, and we are still searching
for any photographs of same, and with ever-increasing urgency because a publication date for this item
is fast approaching.
[Got it!]

(3) RINGING ROCKS

Three separate laboratories are still working on
the composition and constitution of the rocks themselves. In the meantime, having released our observations on the possible archaeological aspects of the
Upper Black Eddy rock-field three separate organizations have offered their cooperation in this department
of enquiry. A morticed wall has been found under the
pile at one side, and there is a current suggestion
that there may have been a large series of structures
here, having something to do with copper smelting.
(4)

LITHIC IMPLEMENT FACTORY I:N BRITISH

HONDURAS

(5) CHAIN IN ROCK

Member No. 49, as of the time of writing, is preparing to stage an 'onslaught' on this item now that
the leaves are off the trees and, he hopes, before
excessive snowfall.
(6) PADDLE-BUGS
(7) MECHANICAL DOWSING
(8) "BOZO", THE "ICEMAN"
(9) THE OLDEST & LARGEST PLA~T
(10) GRAVITY II
(11) IK-NISH
(12) ANCIENT ELECTRONICS
To clarify a statement made in our October issue,
Mike Freedman's analysis of ancient depictions that
appear to represent static generators, forms part
of a chapter in Ivan T. Sanderson's book Still More
"Things", which will be published by Prentice-Hall
sometime next year.
(13) ENTOMBED TOADS
Marion Fawcett is still plugging away at this,
though with considerable frustration. Our major requirement now is any kind of photographic or other
concrete evidence - affidavits and the like. Thus
far Miss Fawcett has traced one house in which a
"toad-hole" was preserved; unfortunately the house
burned down before 1860! A dozen other enquiries
remain unanswered.

(16) BIG CATS AT LARGE

Dan Manning, who has prosecuted this search and
research is working on a map covering the incidence
of these reports, and will not be issuing his own
report until this is completed.
(17) THE CROOKED HOUSE
When constructing an extension to the library in
this building, the same thing happened again with a
series"of book shelves. These had been installed one
day but had to be altered in level to allow for some
outsized books. When we tried to put the shelves
back (five witnesses to both operations) some were
over an inch too short, others too long. All had been
numbered, but no amount or rearrangement would make
any of them fit. They ran between two permanent and
very solid walls and were of well-seasoned wood,
having been used as shelving in New York for 25
years.
(18) STUFF FROM THE SKY, OR "FAFROTSKIES"
This has developed into a major 'industry' and
one of our principal pursuits. We started listing these
"falls" from scientific journals and books in our
library. But, by the time we had worked through about
a quinter of what we have, our Managing Editor
(MLF) had "typed, standard double-spaced, on a
continuou!i; roll of paper, a list of one-line references
that measured 26 feet! (Please send us any and all
references you come across; but, more essentially.
report to us on any case you hear of locally.)
(19) THE BOSSBERG SASQUATCH
Four members are, "as of the time of writing, in
Bossberg, Washington state, investigating this case.
A Mr. Ivan Marx of that township took 200-ft of colour
film of what he alleges is a wounded, young male
Sasquatch at close range last October; and he has a
large collection of plaster casts of different humanoid tracks from the area. He says that there is definitely an old male with the wounded youngster, and
that he 'believes there are three others in the neighbourhood. We have made an offer for his stills and
out-takes from his film for one-time publication, and
we have first option from Mr. Marx; but, there are
others in the field. We will be reporting later on the
outcome iIi any case, and will include the results of
an appraisal of the validity of the film.

',..................... ...
~

........ ................

I~............

I~

22

(20) SHOE IMPRINTS IN ANCIENT ROCKS

Ron Calais of Lafayette, La., tells us that he
has a collection of about 50 reports, with many
photographs, of this item, and he may be gOing to
let us copy them for our files. This is an item that
we can pursue only through bibliographical research,
but it has almost reached a stage when a special
committee will have to be set up to supervise this.
(2]) THUNDERBIRDS
This is one of the most frustrating items in our
files. There is a photograph of a group of men holding a very large bird with an enormous wingspread;

this, is alleged to have appeared first in the Tombstone Epitaph, but that newspaper denies ever having
published such a photograph and - despite the fact
practically 'everyone' seems to have seen it reproduced somewhere - no one seems to be able to find
a copy. Our members No. 17 and 49 investigated
rumours of this giant bird in Pennsylvania several
years ago and are reported to have had a photostat
of this elusive photograph with them. We have pursued them, and they are currently digging into their
files. Should they find it, we will publish it in our
next issue. In the meantime, if any other member or
subscriber has a copy of this photograp,h, PLEASE
send it to us by certified mail, return receipt requested. We will copy it and return it to you.

LIBRARY
We have talked to a number of our members who
are still in or have just left college, in an attempt
to ll!arn the titles of truly useful and up-to-date
texts on inorganic ch~mistry, 'ordinary' phYsics,
astronomy, and geology. Thus far, our search has
been fruitless - their comments on the textbooks
used in their classes are hardly printable. We need
theSE! for general reference and will be most grateful

if you, our members. can help. Should you know of an

outstanding text on any of these subjects, please
drop us a note giving the title, author, a brief account
of the book's content, etc., and the approximate cost
of a decent second-hand copy; we will be in touch
with you' promptly. either to slQ' no, or to ask that
you get us a copy and send it along with the sales
slip so that we can reimburse you. (Of course, if
you'd like to donate a book. we won't object!)

BOOK REVIEWS

Daniel S. Halacy, Jr. Bionics. New York: Holiday House, 1965. $4.50
This is another in the science series published by Holiday House and noted in our October, 1970
issue. It is equally as good as Halacy's other book, though less fortean in a way, since it deals with
matters that are considered the proper province of orthodox science: specifically, the study of how man
and animals perform certain tasks and solve certain problems, and of the application of the findine;s to
the design of computers and other electronic equipment. It makes quite fascinating reading and is occasionally a bit hair-raising in its implications. I think the author is too optimistic concerning the possible dangers from computers (see page 5) but otherwise have no fault to find.
Lincoln and Jean LaPaz. Space Nomads: Meteorites!!! Y, Field, ~ Laboratory. New York: H>liday
House, 1961. $4.50.
This is a straightforward and thorough account of meteorites, craters, and related phenomena by probably the top expert in meteoritics and his daughter. It is helpful as a reference but is valuable primarily,
because it states plainly and in considerable ,detail how the layman can help to further this particular
branch of science. Also included is a carefully selected and annotated bibliography.
Geoffrey Ashe. Land ~ the West. London: Collins, 1962. (In the U.S. try the British Book Centre., Maxwell Rouse, Fairview Park. Elmsford. N. Y.,10523).
The "land to the west" is America. and this book can be described as a detective story. Among the
many claimants to pre-Columbian discovery of America is st. Brendan of Ireland; Ashe has 'dissected'
the manuscript accounts of Brendan's life and voyages to try to determine the truth of the matter. He points
out that "The tale belongs to that fascinating body of literature which enwraps unknown quantities of tradition in unknown quantities of fiction, and has a way of upsetting documentary scepticism by turning out
to be sounder than it looks" and that "a legend may not be a record of facts, but the existence of the
leglmd is itself a fact, and requires explanation".
Ashe contends, quite rightly I believe, that the real issue is not whether Brendan himself actually
made all the voyages attributed to him. but simply whether or not the geographical knowledge indicated in

23

the manuscripts could have been known to the Irish at the time, and whether or not there is any hard
evidence that the Irish did reach this continent.
Ashe is one of that splendid British breed who can make the most scholarly works as much a pleasure
to read as a favourite novel. And, no, I am not going to give away the answer.
William R. Corliss. Mysteries Beneath the Sea. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970. $5.95.
This is an excellent book, carefully researched and clearly written by our member No. 258. Much of it
deals with the various and conflicting theories concerning the origins and history of the earth as a whole,
but with - as its title implies - special emphasis on the oceans. other chapters are concerned with the
origins of life - and what is life anyway? - and the great extinctions. Also included are an eminently
fair discussion of the question of Atlantis and a chapter on sea monsters.
The basic thread throughout the book is the history of the chronic (and sometimes rather virulent) feud
between the Catastrophists and the Uniformitarians, the two 'schools' of geological thought. The former
contend that periodic cataclysms have been responsible for all changes in the earth; the latter insist that
all changes have been very gradual, and their view has prevailed since the early 1800s. William Corlis!>
documents the fact that both groups are beginning to realize that they may both be right, and that a combination of gradual and catastrophic changes may provide better answers to some of our greatest riddles.
We also recommend Mr. Corliss's previous book, Mysteries of the Universe, also published by Crowell,
at $5.95.
- Daniel Cohen. ~ Modern Look !!J: Monsters. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1970. $5.95.
Dan Cohen is one of our members (No. 419) and an old friend of the 'family', but I am afraid I must
take him pretty severely to task for this book. He has never made any secret of the fact that he is a professional sceptic, but ...
The jacket blurb burbles happily that "This entertaining and enlightening safari into the borderlands
between myth and reality will appeal to monster buffs and skeptics alike". It isn't and it won't.
Cohen begins with a description of "buffs" which is unflattering, to say the least: "A buff is a person
with a passionate, almost obsessive interest in a small area of knowledge .... Sports and railroads are
respectable areas of interest, but there are plenty of buffs whose interests are in subjects that lay l3>ic] on
the fringes of respectability. These are perhaps the most passionate of all ... Any fringe area seems to
attract them, perhaps because it appeals to their generally anti-establishment outlook. A sometimes not
too gentle paranoia hangs over the world of the buffs .... They often feel trapped and defensive. It is this
feeling that brings out some of the monster buffs' least attractive characteristics. They are much too
quick to denounce their opponents as a pack of blind fools. They are also too quick to grasp at any straw
which seems to support their view, and far too quick to rush into print with sensational claims for halfbaked evidence. Indeed, it almost seems that to be a true monster buff one must be half romanticist and
half mountebank."
Cohen invariably refers to those who don't agree with him, as buffs - a word that already carries a
"more enthusiasm than brains" connotation - and makes no noticeable distinction between hard-headed
forteans, 'ordinary' buffs, and the lunatic fringe! Some of the attitudes and ideas he attributes to the
buffs (he never uses quotation marks around this word) sent my e,yebrows up a considerable distance..
But the worst of it is that with very few changes, the description also applies to the author of thi s
book.
It is impossible in the space available to do more than hint at the 'horrors' contained in ~ Modern Look
at Monsters; there are so many that I hardly know where to start, so let us peek at his general attitude.
- Says he, "Experienced seamen have often made errors which would seem impossible for any sane and
sighted person to make. Nothing proves this more abundantly than the history of the sea serpent." Now I
ask you, what sort of reasoning is that? And could we have examples of all these "often made errors"? No,
Daniel Cohen has a bad habit of announcing that so-and-so contradicted himself or that "authorities" disproved something or other, without ever giving details or examples. He also sets up more "straw-men"
than I could count. After a fairly sympathetic introduction to a particular type of 'monster', he almost
always uses a proven hoax or misidentification as the first case to be discussed. This is certainly loading the dice - and makes it easier to lead the uninitiated reader to suppose that subsequent cases are
equally ill-based. In some instances the simple elimination of truly pertinent details (as in his discussion
of Bozo) or the inclusion of misinformation - it is never clear whether this is deliberate or merely the
result of ignorance - has the same effect. And some of his errors in this respect are really inexcusable;
he refers to Albert Ostman as Osterman.
Also, he doesn't know ordinary zoology, let alone cryptozoology. On page 112 he states that eels are
born in fresh water and migrate to the sea; exactly the opposite is true. On page 189 he describes living

24

elephants as "two closely related species"; sorry, chum, but they comprise two distinct genera. He gets
his 'monkeys' mixed up and is unaware of the existence of the Himalayan pheasant called the Tragopan.
Etc.
And one wonders what he wants in the way of witnesses. I gained the impression that anyone who reports any unknown animal, UFO, or other 'unorthodox' item is automatically and ipso facto unreliable.
(His treatment of Russian scientists of the calibre of Professor.Porshnev is very nearly insulting; in fact,
he errs again in saying "There was even supposed to be an official 'Soviet study Commission of the Snowman Question"'. Not "supposed to be"; we have their voluminous reports in our office.) On the other hand,
anyone who brings in 'evidence' that something does not exist, is apparently automatically and ipso facto
reliable. A case in point is Edmund Hillary's scalps, which, as we all knew even before he brought them
to America, were made from the skin of it wild, mountain goat, the Himalayan Serow, in imitation of the
genuine Metl-Tah scalp treasured in another monastery. Cohen obviously does not know the whole story
which is much too complicated to go into here, but quotes parts or" it as "proof" that "there ain't no sich
animal". Some of his comments on the Yeti, and particularly his version of scientific beliefs concerning
the identity of the original ABSM, are absolutely drivelling.
. .
So, I am afraid, is much of the book. Many of Dan Cohen's theories simply do not stand up to analysis
at all, being quite Simply contrary to fact. He insists, for example, that no 'monster' could hide in any
body of water less than 300 feet deep (!); he brings up the hoary old "melted snow" 'explanation' of Yeti
trac:ks, not even mentioning those in mud; he states that no monster is depicted in cave art, ignoring
Norse petroglyphs of Draki (sea monsters, to you); and so on.
In fact, one feels rather sorry for Dan Cohen. His mental wriggling in this book leads one to suspect
that he would dearly love to believe in sea monsters and such but feels that no 'sensible' person should
and is therefore bound to explain them away. He hasn't; and some of his 'explanations' are just as bad
or worse than some of the 'proofs' he attributes to his major straw-man - the buff - some of which no
sane fortean would consider.

L. Fawcett
Marion
.
.
Ivan T. Sanderson. Invisible Residents. New York: World Publishing Company, 1970. $7.50.
The subtitle of this book is "A Disquisition upon Certain Matters Maritime, and the Possibility of
Intelligent Life under the waters of this Earth". This description is well chosen and sorely needed because the main theme becomes clear only very slowly and is not Pinned down until the concluding chapter.
Even then, I find it rather hard to follow.
.
Ivan Sanderson's works on forteana and fortean aspects of the natural sciences,while great fun to read,
invariably bring to my mind the picture of a developer bulldozing his way through an ancie.nt oak forest,
and I find this a little aggravating, though I suppose I should admit that I am one of the silent majority
who prefer a mystery unsolved. But this book is aggravating also on another score. This is that, despite
its heavy documentation, I simply cannot hring myself to believe most of it; and this is the more aggravating still because one can't accuse the author of making it up. As he makes ~t Quite clear, it is, apart from
the final two chapters which he makes equally clear are pure speculation, straight reporting.
As a whole, the book is at first reading apparently disjointed to the point of dismemberment of its advert.ised theme, and this is going to infuriate several groups of "buffs" as the author calls them. For instance, at first, the UFO fraternity will feel sure that they are in for a pleasant sequel to Sanderson's
previous Uninvited Visitors: ~ Biologist Looks !!:!; UFOs, only to be persistently clobbered for their selfappointed interference in such matters as the Marine Lightwheels and the Bermuda Triangle throughout the
remainder of the book. As one reads on, in fact, one becomes convinced that this appalling iconoclast
takl~S a very dim view of t hat fraternity and all but one of its current popular theories.
Despite what I said above about this seeming hodge-podge of only vaguely related matters, it does,
however, come together with a sharp snap, when the author says: "The dozen or so apparently unrelated
matters that we have discussed would seem to have nothing much more in common than that they all have.
something to do with water"; but this is where I lost the fellow. Perl)aps the documentation is too overwhE!lming; perhaps it is just that my paltry mind cannot cope with the width and enormity of ~ope embraced by the speculation; perhaps it's all just too new. So help me, I don't know; but I'm reeling.
Anyhow, it's a spanking good book; highly entertaining and fascinating and, as usual with this renegade
scientist, more than just clean fun. And here a word of warning. Don't ever sell Sanderson short on his
facts or be misled by his levity, and try never to get into an argument with him.
A. Delaney Wilkins.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

GOVERNING BOARD
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)

President (and Chairman of the Board)

1st Vice-President (and Administrative Director)
2nd Vice-President (and Deputy Director)
Treasurer
Secretary
Executive Secretary and Librarian
Assistant Director, Membership and Regional Mfairs
Assistant Director, Publicity
Assistant Director, Promotion
Assistant Director, Press & Public Relations

Hans stefan Santesson

Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Alma V. Sanderson
Edna L. Currie
Marion L. Fawcett
Michael R. Freedman
Walter J. McGraw
Milt R. Machlin
Daniel F. Manning

(*) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey

ST ANDING COMMITTEES
ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
LIBRARY COMMITTEE:
Chairman:
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE:
Chairman:

Jack A. Ullrich
Marion L. Fawcett
Hans stefan santesson

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of Science, Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. J. Allen Hynek-Director, Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology, Queen Elizabeth College, University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted ROth - President, Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington, D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, Plant Science Department, College of Agriculture, Utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)

HICKS PRINTING COMPANY. 37 BELVIDERE AVENUE. WASHINGTON. NEW JERSEY. TELEPHONE

201-689-0194

-=-

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=-

SCIENCE

~-

,....-;

IS

VOL. 4, NO.2

THE

PURSUIT

OF

THE

UNKNOWN"
APRIL, 1971

SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: Area Code 201 496-4366
ORGANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board of Trustees in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These officers are four in number: two Vice-Presidents, a Trea&urer,
and a Secretary.
'
General policy and administrative matters are handled by a Governing Board which consists 9f the four
Trustees, a President elected for 5 years, and five other officers elected annually. These are: ,an Executi ve Secretary, and Assistant Directors for Membership and Regional Affairs, Publicity, Pro~otion, and
Public and Press Relations. The First Vice-President is the Administrative Director, and the Second
Vice-President is in charge of the physical establishment. The Executive Secretary is also the'Librarian.
In addition, there are three standing committees: an Activities Committee, a Library Commit:tee, and a
Publications Committee. The Society is also counselled by a panel of prominent scientists, which is
designated the Scientific Advisory Board.
Ti'te Society is housed on eight acres of land in the Township of Kno.wlton, Warren County, New Jersey.

PARTICIPATION
Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exempt, pursuant
to the United States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of January to the 3tst of December; but those joining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year gratis. The
means of participation are various, as follows: (1) Honorary (including Founding Members). . . . .
. . . . (Free for life)
(2) Sponsors ($1000, or more) . . . . . . .
. . . (Free for life)
(3) Contributing ($100; for special privileges) . . .
. . . ($10 p.a. thereaften
(4) Corresponding (including data withdrawal service) . . . . . . . . $10 per annu:m
(5) Contracting (for individual projects). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (By contract)
(6) Reciprocating (for other societies). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (By exchang~)
All of these except No.5 receive PURSUIT and all other Society publications.

II)

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PROFESSIONAL OR EVEN AN AMATEUR SCIENTIST TO JOIN US.

PUBLlCATJONS
The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current ~vents and
a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes an annual report on Society affairs to
members in categories (I), (2), (3), and (4) above. T-he Society further issues Occasional :Papers on
certain projects, and special reports in limited quantity on the request of Sponsors or contrib~ting Members. (Subscription to PURSUIT, without membership benefits, is $5 per annum, including postage.)

PUBLISHING RECORD
Our publishing schedule is four quarterly issues of PURSUIT, dated January, April, July, and October,
and numbered as annual volumes - Vol. 1 being 1968 and before; Vol. 2, 1969. and so on. These are mailed on the last of the month. third class. If you do not receive your copy within two weeks - in Canada and
the U. S. - please inform us.
It is regretted that the current supply of back issues is so limited, that copies are available only to
libraries. Issues prior to 1968 are not available. However, the cost of photocopies will be ~uPPlied
on
I
request.

IMPORTANT NOTICES
The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-members. Further, the Society
does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its publications are those of the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any memb~rs by word
of mouth or in print may be construed as those of the Society.
There have been a number of articles recently on the problem of junk mail and the way in Which one's
name gets on such a mailing list. We should like to assure our members and subscribers that our mailing
list is available only to resident staff at our headquarters.

PURSUIT

Vol. 4. No.2
April. .1971

THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF -THINGS
THAT ARE CUSTOMARILY DISCOUNTED

Editorial Director: Ivan T. Sanderson

Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett
Associate Editors: Daniel F. Manning
Alice J. Gleason
CONTENTS
The Taxonomy Q.f Knowledge
Editorial
Maw QI Moloch? Another Editorial
Ufology
Seeds from a "Contactee"
Chaos and Confusion
A Splendid Rain of 'Voims'
Into "Thin Air" - and Out Again
Damned Track s
More on Those Mt. Etna Tracks
Just Plain Chaos
Caveat Emptor - in I.!i The "Bermuda Triangle"
Disappearing Plane - Well: Not Quite
Phvsics
Nikola Tesla, by Gaston Burridge
Geology
Why the Rocks Ring
"Fairy Crosses"
Biology
"Nessie" is Alive and Well and Living in
Urquhart Bay, by Jack A. Ullrich
The 'Bigfoot' Hunt - New Style
Anthropology
Archaeologists - and Others - Beware!
Noah's Ark(s), Again
A Stone Age "First"?
~ Retraction, and !!!! Apology, by Ivan T. Sanderson
~ Pursuits
Book Reviews

ill

Memory, .Keith Tavernor

26
27
28

29
30
30
31
33

34
34
35

36
38

if[

42
43
44

45
46
47
48

50
52

The Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained 1971

THE TAXONOMY OF

THE

TANGIBLES

KNOWLEDGE

GEOLOGY

VI
Atmospherics and MeteoroIOl";
Oceanolol[y, Hydrology, and Glaciology; Tectonics. VulcanoloilY, Seismology, Geophysics
and Geomorphology; Pe_
trology and Mineralogy;
Geodesy, Geography.
Cartography;
Protogeano logy. Botany. ZOO
Dating.
09Y. Ex .. biolagy; H,stology.
Physiology and Biochemistry;
Anatomy (Inc ludi"; Man); Genefics and Evolution .. Physical Anthropology;
Palaeontology;
Ethology ond
Ecology.

MATTER
Atomics, Molecular
Chemistry, Crystallagral!hy.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

PERFORMANCE
Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics,
Clos,ieal Physics, Electrica,
E I.ctromagne'ics, Magn_tics,

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
Cultural Anthropology and
Ethnology (Archaeology is a
technique); Pre .. History.
History, and Fol~lore; ,Philology and Linguistics.

MENTAL CONCEPTS
Logic and Epistemology;
Psycho log)'; ethics and Aes ..
thehcs; Comparahve 1"'.lIi98"C"";
Porapsychlcs.
.

Mechanics.

MEASUREMENT
Number, Quontity.
Arithmetic, Algebra.
Geome,ry, Trigonome.,y.

Calculus. Topology. Theory

of Game S Probob iii ty, Coincidence.
I

THE

INTANGIBLES

Eyerything in existence, including 8 ex istence 8 itself. and thus all of our possible concepts and all knowledge
that we possess or will eyer possess, is contained within this wheel. Technologies and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, haying access to any or all of the ten major departments of organized knowledge.
From the KORAN: -Acqui ..e knowledge. It enables its possessor to know right from wrong; it lights the way to
heayen; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guides us to
happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is on ornament among friends. and an armour against enemies. e _
The Prophet.

26

27

EDITORIAL

What was probably the most shocking statement made by anybody in authority during this century emanated from Chicago on the 2nd of January of this year and, as reported by the wire services, came out of
the mouth of none other than the retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, in his departure speech to that most august of all bodies at its annual meeting. So appalling is
this pronouncement that we give it verbatim, so that there can be no possibility of misapprehension or
misinterpretation. It went, believe it or riot, as follows: "Dr.. H. Bentley Glass, the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, is one wh~ views science as having discovered all the basic laws. He said in a speech: 'We are
like the explorers of a great continent who have penetrated to its margins in most points of the compass
and have mapped the major mountain chains and rivers~ There are still innumerable details to fill in but
the endless horizon !lQ "longer exists.' " (Emphasis ours)
Words almost fail us, but we will endeavour to interpret the true Significance of this horror for you, who
doubtless never read of it, but who are still sane. :
Not only uneducated buffoons but persons allegedly of higher learning have been making this statement
since the later days of the Ancient Greek civilization. It reached a crescendo about the middle of the 18th
Century when the mechanists sincerely thought that they had discovered everything. About that time,
'thought' in what we now call the Western World split; the so-called scientists going one way, the religionists and other mystics the .other. Then, both parties became paranoiac' in that they became ever more
aggressively pedantic on the one hand and increasingly humble on the other. They clashed repeatedly as with the famous debate between Prof. Huxley and Bishop Ussher - but they always retreated on a raft
of compromise. During this century they have kept strictly apart, bowing towards each other and mouthing
platitudes. Now comes this. :
First off, it is manifest that this Dr. Glass is not a scientist. Second, it looks very much as if the
AAAS has ceased to be a scientific outfit. Third, this shocking outburst may go a long way to explaining
just what is basically wrong with our so-called civilization. The British, who started all this, may indeed
have been a nation of shopkeepers; we who have put the findings of science to work have manifestly become a nation of button-pushers and bottle-washers. Just as manifestly, the very objective and the horizon of science - defined by even Webster as "Possession of knowledge as distinguished from ignorance
and misunderstanding; knowledge obtained through study and practice; systematized knowledge" - has to
an alarming degree been lost, at least in our American so-called scientific community.
Be it known, to ordinary rational people, that this Dr. Glass' form of "science" has made considerable
inroads into an understanding of one aspect of our physical universe, but let us be equally assured that
even technology is still almost half-an-infinity away from reaching the borders of Dr. Glass' 'continent'.
Science has not yet even considered the tangible matters that are the concern of us forteans. And when it
comes to the intangibles, it just has not yet recognized the possibility that they might exist - apart from
some tentative dabblings in the muddy waters of brain control and mind patrol. :
We know nothing of the world of the intangible (commonly and somewhat erroneously called -the
occult") nor of other matters mystical, but this is no excuse for ignoring them scientifically. Thus, half of
reality - at least according to more than half of humanity - has not yet even been approached by this
much vaunted "science". This is bad enough, but when this same self-appointed establishment refuses
even to contemplate, let alone investigate, tangible items that are unexplained, we can but deplore the dry
rot that seems not only to have set in but which has seemingly taken over. The saddest aspect of all is,
however, that the technologists themselves are the first to admit that they have only just nibbled at the
fringes of the possible in .their solid, concrete world of reality. And yet they are the ones that this Dr. :
Glass refers to when he says that all we have left to do is "fill in the sPots". :
If this type of so-called 'science' won't wake up to realityand get out of its little ivory privy, it would
be well advised to transfer to the late Department of HEW, and let the philosophers take over.
So, we know the parameters of everything, indeed! Phui!

Ivan T. Sanderson.

28

MAW OR MOLOCH? ANOTHER EDITORIAL

For some time now we have been carrying on a running correspondence with a number of our (sort 00
founding members, who may perhaps be described as 'professional' forteans. Our objective was to seek
advice on policy. This inter-change has proved most fruitful, and we wish to thank these consultants for
their frankness. Those to whom we refer will know that we are referring to them but, in accordance with
our policy as reiterated below, we do not herewith give their names.
Two major points have emerged from this interchange. The first we quote from a recent letter: "Columbia, N. J. ~.e. SlTU-HQ] is seen as one huge vacuum cleaner, taking a lot in, and not giving too
much out", and it goes on to liken it to a Maw. This is quite true; and, what is more, we might legitimately be accused of being a Moloch, considering the volume of mail and other material we receive. We do not
offer any excuse for this, but we will present a (the) reason.
SITU has a pretty fair, and very fast growing, worldwide membership. These are more or le.ss equally
divided between professional and amateur scientists on the one hand, and 'non-scientists', melU'ling people
in other walks of life, on the other. SITU is pleased not to include any of the Three Ks in its ranks, but
it does assiduously transfer any approaches from them, if frankly stated, to affiliated organizations who
will treat them with respect and consideration, and who will understand what they are talking about. Ours
is what used to be called a "free citizens organization"; and to this end, we have to protect the 'privacy'
of our members. Not only is there today a gross invasion of privacy through the sale of mailing lists; the
vast majority of our members prefer that their names not be advertised. Both scientists and non-scientists
have to think of their reputations and, therefore, it is one of our primary duties to protect their names and
addresses - as is clearly stated in both our flyer and our journal. Thus, we credit information we publish
by membership number only, and the name of that member will not be given to anybody without his or her
written permission. Thus, the greater part of what is given out is not apparent to the membership as a
whole. It goes from member to member, confidentially, so that working scientists and journalists and hobbyists may establish individual contact.
The second pertinent observation made in this correspondence is relative to "credits". This falls under
two heads: (i) information, and (ii) illustrations. As to the first, we cannot credit any person for any
specific information that we publish, unless they submit such material for publication above their own
name. The basic reason for this is that the bulk of our journal is a compendium of all that we know
or have received on each subject, and the writing originates in this editorial office - and from now
on is to be copyrighted, we should add. Full credit is always given for anything quoted from previously published material. As to the matter of illustrations, credit is given only when we can trace the actual
originator; not just the member, or other, who sent us the item.
There is also a third matter that should be explained. Many members seem to be both dismayed and
considerably annoyed that we do not offer lending facilities for our library contents. This we cannot and
will not do, for several reasons. First of all, most of our material is unique and has been donated by members on the understanding that it be preserved. Second, we don't have adequate copying facilities even for
our filed material, let alone whole books. Third, we simply don't have the staff to package material like
books. Fourth, the insurance people refuse to cover any material if we start sending it out. As we advel'tise: all members are welcome to visit our HQ, by prior arrangement, to make use of our research facilities, and, within limits, members can receive precis of material on request, or estimates for copying at
CO:3t. Major research projects can be undertaken only for Contributing Members, again with copyipg at cost.
Thus, let us put on record that anything sent by anybody to us does indeed go into a Maw and is digestedas opposed to going into a Moloch and being incinerated. It is held in trust here for the Soci:ety, which
means each and all of its members. If we could afford a 96-page monthly magazine, we might ~erhaps be
able to put out as much as we take in; but we can't. At the same time, we try to shove out as much as we
call to all true and legitimate fortean organizations, as well as to all working scientists, as can demonstrate to us that they are both true and legitimate. We do this not only by a free interchange of publications but also by a constant flow of correspondence. Also, we have loaned many most valuable files (such
as our original reports on Acambaro to Ron Willis of INFO) on trust, and in the sincere wish that any and
all fortean material may be reviewed and published. We can't do everything ourselves, and we most certainly don't want to attempt Ix> do so. We were set up to be a clearing house, and we offer in our prospectus
to do all we can to aid any others who may apply to us. We believe that this is not only the best but the
only way to build a fortean pyramid without infringing upon anybody else's prerogatives, status, or progress. We were set up to, and aim only, to help. Be it noted also, we are a "non-profit" organization, and
we refuse to indulge in rivalry or chauvinistic secrecy, but we do aim to protect our members' reputations
and 'possessions' in the form of written or other materials.
.
Hans stefan Santesson
President

29

NOTICE
From now on, unless valid contrary reasons for not so doing are brought to light, columns such as that
on Ufology, which are basically of an editorial nature, will be moved up front.

UFOLOGY
In accordance with our expressed policy, we once
again have nothing of -a factual nature to offer in this
department. However. we do have something to say
of - we believe - a practical nature. It is in this
field that we feel we may be of most use to this department of enquiry. And we make so bold as to
suggest that a spot of practicality is sorely needed
herein.
Reports of observations of unexplaineds and in
some cases of inexplicables of a ufological nature
are pouring into amateur. scientific, and official
centers and onto newspaper desks, from allover this
country and from allover the world. However, the
general public is bored unto death with the whole
subject; the newspapers find it unworthwhile; and
officialdom is apparently only too delighted that
matters remain this way. Nonetheless, this does not
mean that those interested in this natural phenomenon
should abandon their efforts to further investigate it.
To this end, we once again ~rge all of you to aid
APRO (The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization)
of 3910 East Kleindale Road, Tucson, Arizona 85716
- phone: (602)-793-1825, in its endeavour to collect
all reports, past. present, and future, for computerization. Never mind how whacky you ma.y personally
think the stories you hear or read in your local newspapers ma.y be; send them in to APRO anyway, and
let them judge. They really are experts and of long
standing; they are not starry-eyed believers, nuts, or
screwballs; they have been in this business too long
now and, backed by a roster of working scientists
and technologists they - probably alone - are in a
position to evaluate such reports. Give them achance.
Why?
Again, as we have said before and repeatedly,
the best and most constructive thing that all of us
can now do is help to assemble this massive overall
compendium of what has been said and reported on
and about this troublesome matter. Unless there
really is some monumental hanky-panky going on, we
still, after half a century, have nothing concrete to
show for or of this whole business - but reports.
This. however, does not mean that said whole thing
is a fake, a phoney, or a gas. The very mass of reports itself is worth proper scientific recording,
analysis, and enquiry; and the best wa.y to do this
is by careful listing on pragmatiC grounds and with
the best modern techniques, so that our thinking
machines (the computers) can have something to work
with. Ma.ybe said machines, if they are truly sensible
and honest. will tell us, when all is said and done,
that the whole thing is nothing but a monumental

slice of baloney. Well, even that would be something;

but we will never know unless we at least try to do
what we can. So, back to our plea.
People interested in.this business (of UFOs) fall
into four classes: - (1) the "Saucerians" who state
that they have found a mystical, out-of-this-world
connotation involved, (2) the sincere buffs who have
been designated "Ufologists", (3) the publicists who
make money out of the business, either deliberately
or unwittingly for mere copy as newsmen, and (4) a
small body of professional scientists who are truly
interested in the matter as a (natural) phenomenon and
who sincerely believe that there is something in all
of it that demands proper scientific investigation.
Only classes (2) and (4) are outright dedicated to an
endeavour such as APRO has set up. The other two
parties are variously disinterested or actually averse
to any such hardboiled approach to the subject. This
is unfortunate as both might contribute a lot to an
ultimate solution; No. 1 by not being shy and by dropping their personal theories and beliefs; No. 3 by
dropping their facetiousness, and dredging up what
they have on file, even if they consider it pure
rubbish.
The really sad aspect of this whole business is,
however, of another nature. This is what I can only
call "back-biting".
There are a lot of very intelligent and well-informed people interested in this matter, and all of them
are personally rather exceptionally charming indi viduals; yet, we are sorry to have to relate, we cannot,
as of this time, name any two who agree on anything
connected with the business! Presumably they are all
roaring individualists, but do they all have to demand
that their ideas are the only valid ones? Scientific
enquiry, like any other, must proceed by argument and
debate, but can not personal dogma be relegated to
its proper place, and open debate be maintained. And
do misunderstandings due to the standard exigencies
of professionalism, as in publishing, have to fractionate the sincere labourers in this field. even if it is
grossly esoteric? Can't at least the publishers of the
magazines, fanzines, and journals devoted to this
business overlook such annoying circumstances,
accept thei~ inevitability, and get on with the job?
Why should anybodY,let alone everybody, be "jealous"
of APRO? Can't we all cooperate?
Let us make it quite clear that we - SITU - are
doing everything that we can to cooperate in this
endeavour of APRO's, and we ask only that all of our
members do likewise, either directly and personally,
or by trying to get other organizations to do so. If

30

only we could get a computerized analysis of all this

mass of material, we might be able to find out what
it is all about; and also how we can further the true
scientific investigation of the problem.

SEEDS FROM A "CONT ACTEE"

A man in California has been giving away. with no
strings attached. seeds which he claims he was given
by "Space People". He states that they are not native
to this planet and that the mature plant. if properly
prepared and ingested. will prolong a person's life to
a thousand years or more. He also claims that the
seeds have "defied identification by Ph.D. botanists".
Well ...
Our member 755 sent us several of these seeds.
asking our opinion. One hopes devoutly that the contactel~ has never actually asked a botanist for an
identification of his "longevity seeds". We are none
of us at HQ practicing botanists. but our immediate
impression was Bur-Marigolds. approximately 75

species of which are found in North America. Our

dogs come in covered with the seeds - commonly
called 'beggar-ticks' - in late summer and fall. A day
later. one of our advisors on botany turned up and we
tossed the seeds to him. Said he. "Oh. that's Bidens
frondosa" - Bur-Marigold (specifically Stick-tight)
in English. Not wishing to leave anything to chance.
we sent two seeds to a specialist recoinmended by
the New York Botanical Gardens. His report: Bidens
frondosa.
While waiting for this report. member 755 got bus:,
on his own and identified his seeds as being those of
a Mexican hybrid with the common name tagetes.
We frankly don't know whether the contactee is an
out and out fraud, whether he was the butt of practical jokers. or whether he did in fact encounter some
"Space People" who chose to make him a gift of
ordinary weed seeds as the best possible ,way of discrediting him and any information he mig~t hand out
about them. In any case. his claims hardly merit
further investigation.

CHAOS AND CONFUSION

A SPLENDID RAIN OF 'VOIMS'

OnE! of old Charlie Fort's favourite items was/were
unauthorized things that were said to have fallen out
of the sky. Among this mess - and. believe thou u~.
it is -- were worms of all manner of sorts, kinds. and
colours. Of course. these when found littering snowfields. were immediately 'explained' by the almighties
as being a form of Nematode that somehow manages
to proliferate in the curious montane ecosystem found
under glaciers and so forth. Fair enough. but .....
That most excellent British publication entitled
the Flying Saucer' Review - what an idiotic name;
but they have been stuck with it for sixteen years is primarily devoted to ufological matters. but it
occasionally launches into other fortean-type realities. Now. it comes thr()ugh with a real "worms from
on high" classic. This appeared on page 16 of their
November/December. 1970 issue (Vol. 16. No.6). in-

IU1

cluded in the body of a most interesting article entitled "Mariannelund Ufo and Occupants", by Anders
Liljegren. This is a careful report on events allegedly witnessed by a solid Swedish citizen: named Mr.
Gideon Johansson. It concerns a classic 'fall'; but.
since it emanates from Sweden. we take the frivolous
liberty of announcing it in the way that we pronounce
Svenska around here. We give the account in toto. as
published in FSR: "On May 1. 1945. Mr. and Mrs. Johansson went to
visit a family living at Lonnebarga. It was a beautiful
day. the sky was cloudless. there was no wind and
it was unusually warm. In the afternoon the two
couples sat out on the balcony to have coffee and
cake. As they sat they 'heard a sound like falling
hail. The surface of the pond was in turmoIl. Suddenly. worms were raining on us out of a clear sky. Two
of them landed in the cream cake. The shower of
worms passed over us and rained down on the other
side of the house and on the wood. The area covered
with worms measured. as far as we could tell. about
100 metres by 300 metres. There was not a square
metre of ground free of worms. There was another
extraordinary thing. Numbers of birds, such as crows.
dived down towards the worms, but as soon as they
got close to them. they turned and flew away. Our
neighbor let his hens out to have a feast. but they
didn't touch a single worm - they refused 'to go near
them. I fetched a bottle, filled it with spirit. and put
two worms into it. Later I showed it to a :teacher of
biology. but he couldn't identify the worms. He told
me to send them to stockholm. and I did so - but I
never had a reply. The worms (see drawings) were

31

deep frozen, transparent and reddish in colour. Along

their length one could see their green intestine. They
were about 12 centimetres long, and were composed
of conical segments, one fitting into the next. The
worms soon thawed out, but they were dead. I visited
the place two weeks later and the worms were still
there - dry carcasses on the ground.' "
That is the sum total of Mr. Johansson's report.
What to make of it? First, let us assume that there
was a rain of "voims" at that time and at that place,
witnessed by the persons there assembled. If one is
prepared to accept this, then one has also to accept
the fact that said things came from somewhere. Did
they just come down out of our sky (and, if so, what
were they doing up there), or did they come from somewhere far beyond said sky (atmosphere), or were they
teleported from some other point on the surface of
this our little planet? If they did appear, as stated,
they must have come from somewhere. So let us proceed.
The origin of these things is by no means the only
mystery in this case. How come they were "deep
frozen", and just what does this term mean in this
case, and who said so? We suspect that they appeared to Mr. Johansson to be "frozen solid", a condition
that would be well known to him from a lifetime of
observation in the cold northern winters of his
country. However, they appeared iJ!. May and apparentlyon a warm sunny day. Then again, why would wild
predatory and domestic animals avoid touching them,
although at first attracted to them presumably by
sight? And this, moreover, after they had thawed out
and lain about long enough to become dessicated. As
a matter of fact this is behaviour that has been reported innumerable times when animals have been
observed approaching 'unauthorized' things or stuff
that has been seen to fall from the sky. Animals do
not seem to be frightened by the actual falling of
these things but rather by some Quality which they
can detect only at short range. Could this be odor,
or might it be some aberration of ionization?
But most curious of all in this case is the form of
these 'voims' - the second reason, incidentally, why
we do not call them worms. The subject of Worms is
complex to the pOint of incomprehensibility to any
but a systematic zoologist, and to many of even those
if they have not gone rather thoroughly into the invertebrate forms of life other than the insects. The
term "worm" is a very general popular one, almost on
a par with the word "machines", encompassing as it
does a v ery wide variety of completely different
creatures having nothing in common but their vermi
form. There are, in fact, vermiform members of 19 of
the 26 great major groups or phyla into which animals
are divided, including even the backboned' animals
or Chordates. Thus, worms range in shape and size
in a bewildering manner. Many of several groups are
ringed or annulated like the common earth and lug

worms. However, there just is no known worm that

looks in any way like this item from Sweden.
On the other hand, it can possibly be matched,
though in rather general terms, with some other things.
For instance, there is a kind of seaweed - a very
dangerous aphrodisiac, one should add - found on
sandy beaches in the Caribbean that is composed of
multitudinous stems just about this size and shaped
just like this. As a matter of fact, the curious step
like arrangement with a central canal is altogether
more in accord with vegetable, as opposed to animal,
construction, and if of a vegetable origin, its dessication would be more understandable. If these things
had not been said to have been deep-frozen, we would
have suggested that they were a part of the inflorescence of some local tree or shrub. They still might
be, if they were shed during the passage of a powerful twisting updraft that carried them up to an altitude
where hail could form, then along at that altitude,
and finally dropped them when the (pure water) hail
melted. If so, these frozen items would still carryon
down.
There remains a dependent mystery, though of a
somewhat different nature. This is, how could a
biology teacher confirm the belief that they were
worms? Perhaps he didn't. He may Quite well have
simply stated that he didn't know of any worm that
looked like that. If is often very hard to disabuse
people of their "beliefs" and if Mr. Johannson, solid
citizen that he obviously is, first thought that they
were worms, he would doubtless stick to his theory
unless somebody could demonstrate to him not only
that they were not worms but categorically what they
actually were. Perhaps this was the reason for the
suggestion that they be sent to Stockholm.

INTO "TIDN AIR" - AND OUT AGAIN

We have dealt before with items that disappeared
from their accustomed place and reappeared, sometimes years later, someplace else (see for instance,
wedding rings, PURSUIT, Vol. 1, No.4): and there
are other items, such as my mother's eyeglasses,
which disappeared and were never seen again. But
instances in which the object's disappearance is
witnessed are in very short supply. We are happy to
be able to present such a case - one, moreover, in
which the object later reappeared. This comes from
our forteana-prone (as opposed to accident-prone)
member 380. His account goes as follows: "Have a (to me, anyhow) somewhat odd little incident, though no doubt there is a perfectly natural
explanation. To begin with, I lost a pocket knife. As
I mentioned in my last letter, I own a little rural
acreage. About November 1 while strolling across an
orchard plot, I noticed a clump of small (pencil-thick)
sassafras sprouts had grown up at the edge of a small

32

brush pile composed of similar bushes cut a year or

two ago. I decided to cut down the sprouts, using my
pocket knife in my right hand while bending the little
saplings over with my left. I was wearing cotton
gloves on both hands. At the edge of the brush pile,
I bent over one of those sprouts, applied my knife
edge to the bent portion - and suddenly I had no
knife. I literally felt the knife twist in my gloved
hand just as I applied pressure to the wood; and while
I was looking at my hand, the knife left it so swiftly
that 1 did not actually see it. There was a sort of
blurring effect, but I didn't really see the knife go.
Nor did I hear any sound of its impact on the dry
leaves or the piled dead brush. It was just gone.
"Well, while only a standard model stock knife,
the three-bladed type, it ~ould have cost five dollars
to replace, and in addition I have a quite considerable sentim ental attachment to this particular knife,
as it was the last birthday present given me by my
late mother several years ago. Consequently, I began
a determined search to find it.
"If momentum or throwing force had been applied
by the springiness of the bent sassafras stem, the
knife could only have been propelled in one direction,
into the brush pile, so I systematically began dismantlIng said heap, working into it from the nearest
point. Some hours of work later, each and every bush
in the heap had been individually picked up and
carried away, leaving a patch of bare ground, though
admittedly it was still the site of some leaves,
broken bits of half-rotted wood, etc. But I had found
no tra.ce of the knife, though it was four inches long
when all blades are closed, has bright stainless steel
ferrul13s, and when open has a brightly honed blade a
trifle more than two inches long and a half-inch broad.
It should have stood out like the proverbial sore
thumb, but it didn't. I spent the rest of that afternoon
on my knees, winnowing and sifting through my fingers
the dirt and minor debris left on the brush pile site,
and found nothing whatsoever.
"During the next month, I returned four other times
and made the same painstaking inch by inch search,
with euriosity by now aiding and abetting my sentimental tie to the lost item. I still found nothing, and
I'd swear I did not miss going over a single inch of
that site. In the event that I'd been wrong about the
direction the knife went, I also carefully searched
all th'3 surrounding terrain. for a good ten feet in each
direction. and was confident I'd not overlooked it
there either. Finally. after a month of repeated searching, I acknowledged defeat and did not visit the site
for sllveral days. It so happens that meantime some
unknown person had abandoned a small dog at a nearby unoccupied cabin, and I am soft-hearted enough
not to want the pup to starve, so I had been bringing
food to it on each trip there. After giving up the
search for the lost knife, I some days later went to
the house to put out a few days rations for the stray
pup. While so engaged, I felt the traditional impulse
to make one last trip to the lost-knife locale. though

I had given it up as irrevocably lost. But the impulse

persisted and I knuckled under to it and walked across
to the orchard. By the Pipes of Pan. I swear that I
saw my knife while I was still some 20-odd feet away.
"It was lying on the perfectly bare so~l. about 18
inches from the bush that I'd been cutting when it
vanished. There was nothing on it; it stood out like
the sore thumb, ferrules and open blade gleaming.
But that site had been looked over and raked over by
hand numerous times. Some of the damp black soil
was stuck to the underside of the knife, but it was
not rusty to any extent. despite the mon~h (approximately) it had been lost and the fact that several
rain showers had fallen during that month. On the
open blade there were three yellowish rust freckles
but they hadn't eaten into the metal and a few
swipes with a pocket hone removed them."
We know this gentleman well enough to state
positively that he is not a liar; his account must
therefore be taken at face value. And we believe that
everyone will agree that we can dismiss t~e possibility that he simply overlooked the knife in his search.
This leaves us with the appalling Question: where
was the knife during the month it was m~ssing? Obviously. we have no nice neat answer to this, and
can only speculate.
:
We are particularly intrigued by his statement that
he felt the knife twist in his hand just before it disappeared, and that, though it disappeared so swiftly
that he did not "actually see it go", he did see a
"blur" as it disappeared. In a way, this suggests
that it was 'grabbed' by "something". On the other
hand, the fact that when it turned up again it was
just about where it ought to have been, suggests that
either it did not go very far or it was 'deliberately'
returned to its place of origin.
His letter continues:
"I find it amusing to speculate that the knife spent
that month 'out-of-this-world'; that a 'window' to
some other parallel universe or space-time continuum had opened just a wee crack and my knife had
been sucked through; but it didn't go far into that
other world, maybe coming to rest on the 'windowsill'. and then a month later tumbled bac~ almost to
its original place when some gust of interdimensional
wind again rattled the 'window'."
This is probably as good a speculation as any.
but, to go a bit further, perhaps 380, bec!luse of his
particularly strong sentimental attachm~nt to the
knife was unconsciously practicing "interdimension,
al"- PK - or psychokinesis. the ability tp influence
the movements of objects at distance. If objects do
disappear into other space-time continu:a, and occasionally come back. there would seem to be no
reason why parapsychical 'forces' coul~ not do so
too.
Please bear in mind that all this is speculation

33

and nothing more. We have, as yet, only the facts that

things appear, disappear, reappear, etc., with not the
foggiest notion how they do it.
DAMMED TRACKS
A correspondent in England sends us the following
from the Sunday Express of the 3rd January, 1971:
"Animal experts and police are baffled by mysterious tracks, the size of a man's hand, which have
been found in the snow at Farnborough, Hampshire,
England. The footprints, measuring 8 in. by 4-'h in.,
appeared overnight in the back garden of a council
house ~he equivalent of public housing]. Farnborough
police admit it may be a hoax, but a spokesman said,
'If it is a prank, we can't see how it was done'. The
owner of the house, Mr. John Fraser, and his wife
Gwendoline, were awakened by the noise of their dog
Sheena whimpering. Mrs. Fraser, aged 56, of Harbour
Close, Farnborough, said: 'In the morning I had the
shock of my life. When I opened the kitchen curtains,
I saw these huge footprints allover the garden. They
seemed to show seven [!] claws and were far bigger
than those of any dog.' One theory is that the tracks
belong to the elusive puma which has been seen in
Surrey over the past seven years. But animal experts
yesterday scorned the idea."
This is really most unsatisfactory. What we need
more than anything else, of course, is a drawing or
photograph of one of these prints; but we can do nothing about this until the British mail strike - still on
as of the time of writing this - is over. In the meantime, we have a few comments.
The first thing that really 'annoys' people is the
remark that there seemed to be seven claws, but this
does not automatically invalidate the report. No
known animal normally has more than five, but polydactyly - the presence of extra digits (fingers or
toes) - is by no means a rare condition. On the other
hand, to have an animal that makes unrecognizable
tracks and suffers from this condition, turn up in
somebody's back yard in England is a bit much. Or
could the seven claws be the result of prints of hind
feet being partially superimposed on those of front
feet? And were the tracks only in the back yard, or
did they pop in from outside - and if so, where did
they come from and where did they go?
In this case we do agree with the experts that

these are not puma tracks. As we have noted before,

the imprint of a cat's foot does not show claw marks
except in unusual circumstances; those of dogs do.
But 8 x 4-'h inches is, as the lady says, much too big
for a dog.
Frankly, we don't have any good ideas on the
matter. We have great faith in the police, and if they
cannot figure out how the tracks could have been
produced artificially, we certainly can't - particularly at this distance. And the "animal experts" don't
seem to have any ideas either - which is really
rather refreshing; usually, in cases such as this, the
"experts" come up with explanations! Thus, for the
. moment at least, we are right back where we started,
with another unexplained.
There is one other point we should like to make
here. This is the matter of pumas. We have been
carrying as a Current Pursuit an item entitled "Large
'Cats'on the Loose", which has been studied assiduously by Dan Manning. In North America most of the
reports almost undoubtedly indicate merely a comeback on the part of the Eastern Puma, long thought to
be extinct except in Florida and in certain parts of
Canada. Some of these reports, however, seem to
suggest something else (for this, see a splendid
article in the March 1971 issue of Fate Magazine by

.~. 1\..."
.-.... -.:.L""'I!

-:.~~
_. ..~--..

;.-~.~~

~C(;ll~"'J""'.Y' .. ti:. ....... .

',:

.":

.........
___

t .. "" ... , .... -

Just for Fun

A batch of radio shows - mostly by telephone (known as 'beepers') - on Ivan T. Sanderson's Invisible
Residents and on SITU (pronounced variously) has resulted in some rather extraordinary addresses which
our local P. O. has identified as belonging to us. On being told of this, Jan Rubinowitz went to work and
presented the sign shown here to the Society as "A Postman's Guide". It now hangs in a place of honour
inside the front door.

34

our member Loren Coleman ~lOJ). This is a very

sticky business with implications O:f ITF (sQ-called
teleportation) and 'worse'. There is also, apparently,
wides.pread melanism - i.e. whereas pumas are
generally tawny in colour, many of these are described as very dark, even black. Problem is, there never
has been any large 'cat' of that type native to Great
Britain. The Northern Lynx (Lynx lynx) was found in
Great Britain but is believed to have been extinct for
a very long time, though it may not be - and we
quote from Charles Fort:
"Mountainous districts of Inverness-shire, Scotland -- mysterious footprints in the bogs - sheep and
goats slaughtered. 'A large, fierce, yellow animal of
unknown species' was seen by a farmer, who killed
it. More mysterious tracks in the bogs, and continued
slaughter - another large, fierce, yellow animal was
shot. Soon a third specimen was caught in a trap.
'The body was sent to the London Zoo, where it was
identified as that of a lynx.' See the London Daily
Exprel~, Jan. 14, 1927."
However, it is unlikely that anyone would mistake
a lynx for a puma and. as noted in the article quoted
above, "pumas" (or, as elsewhere, "leopards") have
been sighted in various parts of England, particularly
in Surrey (just south of metropolitan London). for
years. No such animal has ever been reported missing
from any zoo, menagerie, circus, etc. - and don't
assume that such an escape could be hushed up. So
where do large 'cats' in England come from? The
description of these animals in no way fits the Lynx
with its tufted ears. short tail, and chunky body. Thus
even .if these are not extinct, this would not solve
the problem.
We have no answer to this last. but we hope to
report further on those "damned" tracks.
MORE ON THOSE MT. ETNA TRACKS
We have been gently chided by our advisor Professor George C. Kennedy for suggesting that the
enormous tracks allegedly found on Mt. Etna were the
natural.ly enlarged tracks of someone who rode a lava
flow down the mountain. He points out that until a
crust forms on the lava, no amount of asbestos will
do you any good; and that once it does form, the crust
itself is so efficient an insulator that one can walk
about on it in rubber-soled shoes without scorching
the rubber. Also, the crust is too hard to take prints.
Professor Kennedy sums it all up by stating "I will
make the categoric remark that it is impossible for
any hum an to put a footprint in lava".
We are grateful for Dr. Kennedy's advices, though
they leave us with a batch of unexplained tracks.
Very nasty ones too. It is not impossible, of course,
that this was someone's idea of a joke; and one
stateml~nt in the original report is most curious:

"They (the prints] were 13 feet apart and one was

more than five feet long .... " That anything that leaves
footprints changes the size of its feet between steps,
is doubtful. to put it mildly. Again. we need photographs and first-hand information - and, in fact, confirmation that the tracks actually exis~. We have
written to the University of Catania but have not yet
had a reply. Hence, hopefully. more l~er on this
riddle.

The following letter was received just in time for

inclusion in this issue:
Dear Sirs.
With reference to your letter, I should correct your
reports in the folIo wing way: the "footprints" were
discovered by college students and not iri hard lava
soil but in loose pyroclastic material.
,
My personal opinion is that college st:udents are
very nice and inventive fellows. Unfortunately I
didn't collect any pictures of them but maybe you can
ask fO"l' them from: La Sicilia, Via Odorico da Pordenone, Catania. It is the local newspaper.
/S/

Sincerely.
Dr. Marcello Piuscetti
Istituto de Vul,canologia
Uni versita di Gatania

This would seem to settle this one, and we do not

propose to investigate this further.

JUST PLAIN CHAOS

CAVEAT EMPTORIN RE THE "BERMUDA TRIANGLE"

Most newspapers can be trusted; they 'attempt to
present only factual information, though uno one is
perfect". On the other hand, there are some weekly
newspapers which deal in sensationalism and apparently do not hesitate to concoct stories !It the drop
of a hat. One such is a rag called Midnight which
published in its 22 March 1971 issue a p,articularly
irresponsible - even pernicious - article .on the socalled "Bermuda Triangle". This takes up the center
spread, with a booming headline: "Government
Physicist Discovers: UFO BASE OFF FLORIDA
COAST", and alleges that "Flying Saucer.s" are rasDonsible for disappearances in the. "Bermuda
Triangle". Much of the article consists of quotations
attributed to a Dr. Jonathon [sic] Wright, of whom it
is said "Dr. Wright heads a special-priority UFO
investigative department in NASA. He also :participat-

35

ed in the UFO study carried out for the air force

[sic] at the University of Colorado two years ago."
Because of the allegation that NASA has interested itself in UFOs, we determined to track down "Dr.
Wright". Our first step was to check the Condon report: no Dr. Wright listed anywhere. So we called Dr.
Thornton Page, who is now permanently attached to
NASA. He had never heard of Jonathon Wright and
very generously stated that he was "going upstairs"
to check all NASA directories and would call us
back. He did: no Dr. Jonathon Wright. In fact, Dr.
Page was so intrigued that he had also called Dr.
Carl Sagan - who had never heard of him either.
Despite the cheery photograph of "Dr. Wright" included in the article, he may be a figment of someone's
imagination. And Dr. Page informs us, categorically,
that NASA has no such department within its ranks
and wants nothing to do with UFOs - they are not
interested in joining the "burnt fingers club" started
by the Air Force.
Much of the rest of the material in the article is
either puzzling (because inaccurate) or pure drivel;
e.g. it is stated that all disappearances in this "Vile
Vortex" took place in December, which is rubbish.
But what really disturbs us is the wholly unwarranted'
emphasis on "I'm never going to fly across the
'Bermuda Triangle' again because I'll disappear". It
is perfectly true that planes and ships have vanished
in the lozenge-shaped area off the southeastern
coast of the U.S. It is equally true that thousands of
people cross that same area safely every week! Of
course it is dangerous to go to Bermuda: you may be
hit by a truck on your way to the airport, your plane
may crash on take-off or landing, or you may slip on
your hotel steps and break a leg. Anyone of these
is far more likely than that you will disappear into
thin air. Admittedly, the possibility of a 'mere' accident causes much less distress than the last simply
because an accident is considered a "normal hazard"which onl.Y happens to other people anyway. If we
could say that when someone 'disappears' in a Vile
Vortex, he slips into another 'universe' or space-time
continuum where the land runs with milk and honey
and there are no income taxes, traffic through these
areas would - or at least might - increase. It is, of
course, the uncertainty that unnerves people. But no
one gives up shopping for groceries because of the
dangers of being hit by a car, despite the fact that
far more people are 'disposed of' in this way every
year than have vanished in the vile vortices in a
century.
You want a vacation in Bermuda? Go ahead! The
so-called "Bermuda Triangle" is not a triangle and
has, so far as we can determine after considerable
study, nothing to do with Bermuda.
DISAPPEARING PLANE - WELL! NOT QUITE
Shortly before midday on the 8th of January, a
sleek USAF FB-111A plane was flying at 6000 feet

in a cloud bank along a regular test route, east from

Texas to Mobile, Alabama, when the pilot, Lt. Col.
Bruce D. stocks, requested permission from ground
control to go up to 18,000 feet to get above the soup.
This he did, and then radioed back: "I'm in the clear
now and would like to cancel IFR" - i.e. instrument
flying rules. That was the last heard from him.
Naturally, there was a massive scramble to start
a wide search, and various forms of associated hell
broke loose, caused by a factor that was pounced
upon by some knowledgeable reporters. This was the
fact that this type of plane has an automatic ejection
globe for a cockpit; this is supplied with its own
power for broadcasting and is automatically activated
in case of accident. Only in the case of total dissolution of the whole plane, is this expected to fail. It
did.
Immediately, all manner of other personages got
into the act, ranging from the "Flying Saucer boys"
to the "They defected to Cuba" lot, and including the
"Bermuda Triangle" enthusiasts. However you stretch
the last named anomaly, it is very hard to include
Alabama! The poor Air Force took an awful beating
before it had even had time to so much as complete
its first search. At first it was thought that the whole
'bird' might have ditched in the Gulf, and so air-sea
search was concentrated upon. However, early in
February they found both the plane and the capsule
nor'nor-east of Lake Pontchatrain, La. For some
reason, best known to the Fourth Estate, this fact
was not widely reported - if at all. We heard of it
only vaguely from a member who said he picked it up
on a late night newscast, once. After rather protracted enquiries through normal news channels without
being able to obtain any confirmation ofthis report, we
rang an old friend in the Pentagon - Col. William T.
Coleman, Jr., Chief, Public Information Division,
USAF - and asked for the facts. As usual, these
were immediately forthcoming.
The capsule was found in a swampy area and had
apparently come down at a low trajectory. Both pilots
were dead (c auses not asked); its parachute had not
operated. Some time later, the plane was found only
about 700 yards distant, "under ~ three-tier woods Q!"
forested area". It had apparently come down at an
extremely steep angle, but it had not disintegrated
or burned. Please note the underlined statement
above. As Col. Coleman said, "Three-tier forest isn't
much outside Florida". You can say that again,
Colonel; but there are such growths, and they constitute something that we have been talking about for
years.
Our member 384 quit his job as a police officer
three years ago, and went to South America for
several months for practical firsthand experience of
multi-tiered forests with a view to devoting his
life to the problem of survival in just such areas when
planes ditch. Coincidence maybe; but when such a
forest faults, for a month, the most intensive search

36

that we can put on in our own country where such

growth is rare, it surely prompts us to get behind
said member 384 in his work. (When you see his preliminary report of just what ! known or alleged to be
known about what is commonly called "jungle survival", you will probably be outraged. Frankly, we
know practically nothing; and what is published ~n
military manuals almost exclusively] is pure bilge. So
don't blame the Air Force on this score either.) But
now comes the fortean bit.
We asked Colonel Coleman about three points that
have exercised our (perhaps over-enquiring) minds to wit: (1) What could have caused the first "blankout" of Col. Stocks' air-to-ground communications;
(2) Why was no falling plane (of that size) reported in
a fai.rly well, though thinly, populated area in daytime; and (3) why did not automatic devices in the
capsule come on? His answer was that those were
just the points they are working on. We suggested
that the failure of the capsule devices might have
been purely mechanical, and he agreed that this was
still the first choice. We then asked: If the 'bird'

itself suddenly developed some trouble that necessitated eviction of the capsule but had noti itself blown
up or otherwise disintegrated, would not its automatic
"alarms" have sounded? This, we were told, was
another of the matters still primarily concerning the
investigators. Our third question was really too
vague; namely, was there yet any idea as to what
circumstances might have caused an' experienced
pilot to "pull the plug", as the RAF used to say? The
answer was a straightforward: "We don't know yet
and we may never find out for certain, but there are
lots of possibilities that might come to: light by the
time the 'remains' have been thoroughly examined
and the results analyzed".
,
Please, let us not forget that a job like this takes
time. So, in this case, don't bray about ~"anomalies"
in the Bermuda or any other "triangle", or lozenge
as we call these strange natural phenomena. Could
be as simple as that somebody bumped th~ appropriate
button with his elbow, got evicted, and then the
machinery in the capsule failed. There have often
been stranger coincidences than that.

III. PHYSICS

NIKOLA TESLA
by Gaston Burridge
Gone - and almost forgotten - is Nikola Tesla
(185i-1943), electrical wizard of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. The alternating electric power
which we use and the ubiquitous fluorescent tube
both result from early discoveries by Tesla. Every
alternating-current electric motor now in use is the
result of his mastery of the riddle of the "rotating
magnetic field" - an idea that elicited hoots of
derision when he first suggested it.
Thomas Edison was a "direct current" man, Tesla
an "alternating current" man. Because these two men
held almost opposite views relative to what basic
electrical current should be used, they were not
friends. Edison fought alternating current vehemently
- and lost.
TI~sla manufactured the first man-made lightning
on earth, so far as is known now. In Colorado, in

1899, he created "sheets of yiolet electric flame" 30

feet long (see cut), whose "thunder" w'as heard 15
miles away. Using the knowledge he gain~d from making this lightning and combining it with h~s discovery
of "stationary or standing waves" in the earth, Tesla
was able to transmit 13 electric horsepower more
than 25 miles without wires, using only ,the earth as
a conductor, in a model plant constructed in Colorado.
He said this method of power transmission took place
at better than 95% efficiency - considrably higher
than the best transmission systems w~ use today
with wires. Tesla believed that with thi~ method one
could stab the right sort of rod and lamp into the
earth anywhere and the lamp would light - providing,
of course, his specially designed system was operating. So far as we know, no other resea~ch has ever
been carried on along these lines anywhere in the
world since.
These results, coupled with further research and
thought, led Tesla to conclude that several other
dramatic possibilities lay in store for his system of

Attention Anti-Digit-Dialers:
Herb Caen reports a fiendish 'device' used by W. B. Chase of Sacramento, California, in his campaign
against all-number dialing, as follows:
"... when he asks information for a number, the conversation generally goes as follows: Operator: 'The
number is 485-6 Oh 4 Oh.' Chase: 'Ab yes, 485-6646. Op: 'No, 485-6 Oh 4 Oh.' Chase: 'Th:at's what I
said - 485-6646.' Op, desperately:' 'NO. The number 0, not the letter 0.' Chase, innocently: 'My dear,
thl!re is no number O. Do you mean the digit zero? The letter 0 corresponds to the digit 6.' And :so on. It's
awful and splendid."

37

generated, very high frequency, high potential alternating currents. One of these was termed the "death
ray". Today it might be called a "giant laser beam" or
even an "E-" or "Electric-bomb"! Tesla claimed that
this proposed weapon would be capable of destroying
an army of 250,000 men as soon as that force showed
above the horizon - on land, sea, or in the air. Presumably this device was never demonstrated even in
model form.
While Edison did invent and perfect his incandescent electric lamp first, Tesla invented the "carbon
button lamp" which gave off an intense white light
rather than the then weaker and much more yellow
light of Edison's lamp.
Tesla looked at the sun and saw an incredible
source of energy. On the 5th November, 1901, he was
granted two U. S. Patents, No. 685,957 and No.
685,958, covering devices for extracting power from
the sun, under the title "Methods of utilizing Radiant
Energy". As earth pollution grows and power sources
become restricted, we may find ourselves using still
more of Tesla's 'discarded' ideas.
Guglielmo Marconi received a Nobel Prize for inventing the "wireless" - i.e. what we call "radio"
today. But Tesla had already described this several
years before. He also did basic research in radiocontrolled robots and successfully produced and
demonstrated them in model form.
But Tesla's inventive mind did not deal exclusively with things electrical. He devised a steam turbine.
Its rotor was a completely smooth plate rather than
a "wheel-of-cups" or vanes as used in conventional
turbines. His machine was said to perform very
efficiently and was much smaller and less expensive
to produce as well. Tesla patented this (No. 1,061,206,
issued 6 May 1913): but by that time conventional
steam turbines were so well established that the
manufacturers, fearing economic disaster to themselves, refused to change over, and nothing was ever
done commercially with Tesla's machine.

l'i!t;la2U:.flllllllaDtv N....

~rAlk.

NIKOLA TESL.A, WHO IS TRYING

ro

TALK WfTH MARS.

Photo taken 27 January 1901, in the Leadville Herald

Democrat: from the state Historical Society of
Colorado Library.

Tesla produced a mechanical "vibrator" about the

size of a derby hat: it was so powerful that it could
shake a building to pieces in a few minutes. Once he
saved his own New York laboratory from destruction
only by the quick and effective application of a
sledgehammer!
But perhaps the most remarkable and mysterious
thing about Nikola Tesla was his 'mind' per se. That
it was prodigious there can be little question. He
could - and did repeatedly - think out complete
machines, down to the closest measurements of all
fitting parts, without ever drawing a single diagram.
Those who knew him testify that he could read a
page once, close the book, and repeat verbatim what
he had read, even years afterward! Because of this
phenomenal memory we know little today about his
work: he kept no notes. It seems strange that Tesla
is not even mentioned in Fred Barlow's book Mental
Prodigies, for surely Tesla ranked as high as many
others mentioned there.
This year marks the 115th anniversary of his birth.
For those who wish to know more of him, the following reading list is offered.
Martin, Thomas Commerford. The Inventions, Researches and Writings Qf Nikola Tesla, Milwaukee,

38

Wis., Lee Engineering Co., 1952 (reprint), 483 pp.,

illustrated extensively, indexed.
Tesla, Nikola. Experiments ~ Alternating
Cummt of High Potential and High Frequency, New
York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1904, 146 pp., illustrated. Appendix outlines some of the Colorado experiments.

Hunt, Inez, and Draper, Wanetta W. Lightning in

His Hand - The Life story Q!' Nikola Tesla, Denver,
Col., Sage Books, n.d., 269 pp., illustrated, index,
extensive bibliography.
.
O'Neill, John J. Prodigal Genius - Nlkola Tesla,
New York, Ives, Washburn, Inc., 326 pp.; index, list
of Tesla's u.S. Patents. Frontispiece, Tesla at 77.

Gravity Amended
Edsel Murphy has been credited with propounding the law of selective gravitation (" A dropPed tool will
land where it can do the most damage"), but our member 240 sends us the following from Newsweek of the
5th September, 1949:
.
"The pure flame of scientific curiosity burned in the breast of Benson Perdue, a student :at the University of British Columbia. He, like many others, had observed that buttered toast, when dro'pped, more
often than not defied the law of probability by landing butter-side down. Could this perverse tendency be
demonstrated scientifically? To find the answer, he rigged up a simple apparatus in his Vancouver home.
He suspended a vertical clamp 4 feet above the floor and equipped it with a mechanical trip lever to release the toast.
"Placing a piece of plywood underneath the clamp, he proceeded to drop the toast 175 times. The results were inconclusive. The toast landed butter-side down only 91 times (52 per cent). When, however, he
substituted for the plywood a piece of worn-out carpet, the butter-side-down incidence increased sharply
to 71.4 per cent. And when a valuable Persian rug was placed under the clamp, he insisted the toast landed butter-side down 156 times in 175 trials (89.1 per cent of the time).
"To his figures Perdue applied rigorous inductive reasoning and last week propounded the following
amendment to the law of gravity: 'When an object falls, it tends to fall in such a manner as to cause the
most damage' ...
Inasmuch as Murphy did not publish until 1967, the credit for this valuable contribution to knowledge
clearly belongs to Benson Perdue.

VI. GEOLOGY
WHY THE ROCKS RING
An excellent article appeared in the December
issue of Natural History, the popular magazine published by the American Museum of Natural History in
New York, entitled "Rock Music", by John Gibbons
and Steven Schlossman. This purported to explain
why some of the rocks "ring" in the now famous
Bucks County rock fields in Pennsylvania. While the
reasons they put forward for this phenomenon are
doubtless precisely so from the mechanical, mineralogical, and even possibly the geologicill points of
view, their hypothesis, as given in this article and in
a lengthier scientific paper published previously, is
unfortunately founded in part on some false observations or assumptions. Further, they failed to investigate the biological aspects properly, and especially
the botanical. Then there is another matter which
they did not take into account, but doubtless because
it had not been recorded when they wrote their paper.
Let liS dispose of this first.
When satisfactory aerial photographs were taken
of th.e rock field at Upper Black Eddy, and proper

maps were drawn from them, a number of: highly suspiciOUS conformations came to light. This field turned
out to be precisely circular when cert~n features,
other than the bare vegetationless area,' were taken
into account. Further, there is a deep moat, with a
high ridge on the inside, going more than two thirds
of the way round this area. There is also a double
extension of this wall going down a valley to the
northwest, ending around a small basin k~pt fed by a
year-round spring. On a subsequent survey of this
location, one of our :nembers, a stone mason (and also
a keen spelunker) crawled into a small "cave" between the tumbled boulders on the other :side of this
ridge and discovered two traces of enormous cutstone blocks that were laid horizontally and morticed.
From this we can but assume that, at least at this
location, somebody did some building in very ancient
times. We are urging further controlled professional
excavation by the appropriate authorities to ascertain
whether the whole moat and its inner ridge might be
man-made, and the latter have a cut-ston~ footing all
around it.
.
This discovery does not, of course, 'explain the

39

Fig. 1. Upper Black Eddy Rock Field. Showing general land form and the possible courses of underground
streams. The tableland to the west is slate. and the
bluff appears to be an old fault. The contour lines.
showing descent from the southwest. are only approximately of ten feet. Some onion-tree-boles have
only recently been reported from the area north of the
eastern tine of the rock field.

"ringing" properties of some of these rocks and probably has nothing to do with it. The map of this location looks very much like that of a European copperage hill fort. and early settlers might simply have
made use of these convenient places where rocks did
not have to be dug out of the ground or quarried.
Coming to the rocks themselves. we must point
out that in describing their occurrence. Messrs. Gibbons and Schlossman omitted one vel'y pertinent fact.
Their statement that "The peculiar ability of the
rocks in some of the fields to ring .... " should have
read: "The peculiar ability of ~ of the rocks on
the fields to ring " There is a world of difference
between these two statements. and this is of the
utmost significance. And, pertinent to this are two
gross misstatements that they repeat several times.

Fig. 2. The same, showing a possible ground plan of

a neolithic hill fort, based on the conformity of the
apparent moat and double dykes. It should be noted
that the center of this apparent circle falls exactly
upon, or very close to. the assumed junction of the
upper group of underground streams. An internal
source of water that could not be poisoned was a
feature of copper and early bronze-age defensive
points.
These maps were drawn from a series of aerial
photographs taken at an altitude of about 500 feet. in
1969.
Legend:

",f.";.;'q -

Closed-canopy woods.

11/1/// - steep bank.

- Underground stream.
H. P. - High point.
S.H. - Spring house.
C. S. S. - Cut stone blocks.
~ - Marked tree (low point).

Centers of arcs of high-density copper.

X - Areas of onion-shaped tree boles.

40

The J:irst is that the rocks cease to ring if removed

from the fields - an observation that is contradicted
by their further statement that "Ringing rocks kept
dry ill geologic [sic] collections continue to ring indefini.tely". Second, they state that, if left in moist
situat.ions in "rock gardens or other shaded spots,
the boulders are soon overstressed and break up".
They also make several other flat statements that are
just plain nonsense, such as that these rocks are
usually flat topped, and that, when broken up with a
sledgehammer, they soon stop ringing, and so forth.
By actual counts, about 30% of the rocks in these
fields ring (though this seems to vary throughout the
year), and ringers are found occasionally under the
trees, but only in those two areas inside the circle
(see map). We have yet to find a boulder that has
ceased to ring (and with the same tone) when removed
to our HQ, forty miles away; and we brought the first
set from Upper Black Eddy in 1961. Further, we have
had some of these rocks completely submersed in one
of our ponds, lying about under trees, suspended on
wires or set in concrete in a damp cellar, on shelves
in ouI' laboratory, and even in our house which is
exceptionally dry; and they all continue to ring. Also,
we have smashed up innumerable boulders of all
sizes, and all the parts continue to ring, even down to
cut slices three inches by one inch and I inch thick,
as always. The explanation for the phYsical properties
of the ringers, as given by Gibbons and Schlossman
may bl~ valid to a point; but the basic premises upon
which they erected their theory are (to coin a phrase)
all wet.
Thlm again, they appear to have done nothing
whatsoever about the petrological aspects of the
matter, which causes us to doubt what mineralogical
findinl~s they allege. The constitution of the diorite
'family', of which the diabase country rock of these
fields is a member, is "a soda-lime or lime-soda
felspa:r approximating to an andesite in composition,
together with hornblende. The possible minerals are
oligoclase, andesine, labradorite, hornblende, biotite,
augite, enstatite, quartz, apetite, and magnetite"
[see Minerals and the Microscope, H. G. Smith, London: Thomas Murby, 1922]. Our member 229, chief
technieian of a large ceramo-metal products manufacturer, ran a considerable number of series of tests
of thrE'e sets of specimens, identified only by numbers, t.o wit: (1) ringers, (2) non-ringers from inside
the circle, and (3) non-ringers from outside the circle,
some from as far away as a mile. In developing gross
samples of glasses by fusion from these, it was
found that the melting point of (1) differed markedly
from (~!) and (3). Much more significant was the fact
that different metals - in the form of amorphous

globules - appeared in these two groupings. The nonringers gave what appeared to be copper,: the ringers
a white metal of very high lustre. We hav!! so far obtained only one report on the analysis of the latter,
and this claimed that it was molybdenum!
Turning to the biological aspects, we fear we must
be much more critical. We have had the Upper Black
Eddy field under surveillance on a fairly "regular and
seasonal basis for ten years, and we 'have run a
series of laboratory experiments. These will eventually be reported on in full, so suffice it to state now
that ringing rocks kept (in fish tanks) alongside nonringers, and in open pond water (filtered), in well
water, and in distilled water, in all cases inhibited
both contamination and growth of all kinds, while
developing from themselves large patches of pure
white fungoid mycelia that, in the absenc'e of fructification, cannot be identified. The absence of both
animal and plant life on this field - as diametrically
opposed to screes and other bare rock fields in the
area - is even more peculiar than it at first appears
to a non-biologist. The list of animals is comprised
solely of a number of species of spider, 'two microlepidoptera ("mini-moths"), and (so far: collected)
seven species of Diptera (flies). The last, however,
appear all to be of one Family.
It should also be put on record that while neither
domestic nor wild-caught animals (both local and imported) on leashes, show any disinclinatic~n to cross
the rock field, birds seem most reluctant to do so,
and may often be observed flying halfway :around the
circle in order to cross it. We have never: found any
bird droppings on the field. Turning then to the botanical oddities we must put on record a really most
remarkable phenomenon, one that we have never
heard of elsewhere - outside a laboratory. This is
that a very high percentage of the trees growing in
the two areas marked "X" on the map, have what is
called onion-bulb trunks, in that their bases immediately above ground are swollen just like a fat onion.
Such a condition has been reported in laboratory experiments in which plants were grown in soil containing high concentrations of artificially introduced
compounds of (or native) copper. Finally, we should
add that trees that either fell onto the edge of the
bare rocks, or apparently tried to grow out over it
when saplings, perform the most extraordinary horizontal gyrations, usually leading their grow:ing points
back under the trees, and all of them develoi:>!branches
only on the upper side, while these go straight up
and then bend back into the shade. This 'defies all
known laws for woody plant growth, and on several
scores.
Altogether, while the explanation of the mechanics

Gummed address labels have become a sort of major industry in this country. We were therefore rather
gleefully startled to find on the back of an envelope one such reading "This Label Was Applied: by Mistake".

41

of the ringing by some of these rocks as given by

Gibbons and Schlossman may be perfectly feasible
despite so many mistaken premises, it does nothing
to explain the incidence of the fields themselves,
nor even to explain why only ~ of the rocks ring.
And when it comes to other things not observed by
them - such as that there are some larger rocks
which, when hit appropriately, give rise to a whole
scale; that most of the curious scalloped erosion is
on their undersides; that two different ringers when
knocked together while suspended on wires produce
(invariably, it seems) but one tone, however many
different combinations are used; and so on - it is
manifest that we have a very long way to go yet before we explain these singular natural phenomena.

"FAIRY CROSSES"
From time to time there is a sort of outburst in
regard to what are commonly called "fairy crosses"
found in several areas of the world, and a lot of nonsense is published in less reputable magazines and
papers about these having been formed either "supernaturally" or being the work of some vanished race
of (pigmy) "supermen". One legend has it that woodland nymphs heard of the crucifixion of Christ and
their tears solidified into miniature stone crosses.
Charming as these stories may be, these stones are
perfectly natural formations, and are properly known
as Staurolite. This is an iron aluminum silicate and
occurs in metamorphic rocks. The major deposits are
in the Tyrol, in Switzerland, Brazil, and in Virginia
and other eastern states. (And don't use this limited
distribution as an 'excuse'; black opals are found
only in Australia, and there only in a very limited
area, Lightning Ridge.)
Staurolite is a particular kind of crystal, specifically a compound penetration twin. This is really not
as complicated as it sounds. Crystals are either naturalor man-made solid bodies of matter that are
bounded by regularly arranged natural plane surfaces,
resulting in a definite geometrical form or outline.

Staurolite crosses.

Diagrammatic.

Most are single individuals, but crystals consisting

of several individuals also occur - called compound
crystals. And there are two types of these: parallel
groups and twin crystals. Twin crystals come in two
varieties also. If the crystals are simply in contact
with each other they are called contact twins (what
else?); if, on the other hand, the crystals are so intergrown that they penetrate one another, they are called
penetration twins (again, what else?). Staurolite is
almost the standard example of a penetration twin;
some of the 'crosses' are at roughly 60 angles, the
best at almost exactly 90. Should you like to have
one, and happen to be near Ball Ground, Georgia, a
chap named Oscar Robertson - better known as "the
Rock Man" - will, for a fee, let you take your chances
on finding one by digging in his "back yard".
And, while we're at it, what bothers us most about
the article that brought all this on, is the statement
by the newsman who visited the site that "they paid
Oscar a digging fee, even rented digging tools, and
aimed (Qr ~". Obviously, no one knows any geography: if you dig down from Georgia you'll end up
in the Indian Ocean about midw8 between Amsterdam Island and the southwestern tip of Orstrailia!

Words Should Convey Meaning.

An ad in the National Observer reads "Perfect for home or office, this captain's chair can be moved
from one room to another as needed .... " We have been under the impression that portable chairs were the
rule rather than the exception. If they mean that it fits any "decor", why don't they S8 so?

Semantics
One must, we suppose, become accustomed to calling janitors "custodians" and garbage men "sanitation workers"; but there should be limits to this kind of thing. From a college publication we learn that
"At the Faculty Senate Meeting the faculty decided the word Library should be dropped in favor of the
term Learning Resources Center". Yccch!

42

VII. BIOLOGY

"NESSIE" IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN

URQUHART BAY
by Jack A. Ullrich
Late last summer I led the Black & White Scotch
"Expedition" to find a Loch Ness Monster. We went
to Sc:oUand because the sponsors are intrigued by
the mystery and because their blended spirits have
too long been given too much of the credit for this
monster's existence. Disbelievers usually assume
that the "legend" is perpetuated as a tourist attraction to help keep the Highlands green (pound
notes, as well as dollars, are green). This sounds
like a logical course for the canny Scot to follow,
but it. just isn't so. At no point for over 50 miles, on
either. A82 (the road on the western side of Loch
Ness), or General Wade's Military Road (an old road
on the eastern side of the loch) is there a single sign
to identify one of the two most famous lochs in
Scotland - the other being Loch Lomond. But Loch
Ness is much bigger than Loch Lomond - 24 miles
long by I-%. miles wide; deeper - 970 feet at the
deepE!st point with an average depth of over 700 feet;
and in many a visitor's opinion, more beautiful and
far less commercial. Not only is there no sign anywherE! to identify this ominous body Of water - so
murky from a colloidal suspension of peat that there
is tot.al darkness just 20 feet down - but one has to
search for "monster" souvenirs to send back to the
kiddit~s. This hardly classifies "Nessie" as a tourist
attraction. If it is, the Scots haven't yet realized it!
A perennial question is "If such a thing as a
monst.er is really there, how come nobody has ever
taken a picture of it?" The fact is that hundreds of
pictures do exist, not only still photographs but also
motion pictures, and even an excellent motion
picture of a sonar tracking taken by Bob Love who is
in charge of underwater research for the Loch Ness
Phenomena Investigation Bureau, founded nine years
ago to try to shed some light on this mystery.
The major problem is that most photographs of
"Nessie" result from someone being in the right place
purely by chance. This accounts for the blurred and
grainy pictures that have appeared. Most were taken
by amateurs with box cameras. One unpublished
picture in my possession was taken by B. Mitchell
on a beautiful sunny day just last August. She was
on a picnic with her family and a monster suddenly
rose up within 30 yards of where they had spread
their l.unch. The young lady, showing great presence
of mind .in the circumstances, immediately grabbed
her In:~tamatic camera and took a Single picture.
"Why did you take only one picture?" I asked her.
"Did you run out of film?" "Oh no," she replied. "I
had p]enty of film, but that was my last flashcube."

The hazy, grainy pictures we see ar~ the result

of blowing up a negative that was taken with nonprofessional equipment by an amateur W;ho can't be
expected to do all of the things necessary to get
good documentation. This is whY very few pictures
of the monster have something in the foreground from
which a comparison can be made as to its size and
its distance from the camera. Blowing up, the section
of the negative that shows a creature five or six
hundred yards away results in a blurred, unsatisfactory print unless a telephoto lens is used.
Then there is the problem of ambient: light. Loch
Ness is frequently dark from rain clouds that seem to
provide a continuous somber cast to the area. This
light leaves a lot to be desired for good photography.
but even more aggravating is the fact that "Nessies"
are such shy creatures. Over half of the sightings
take place at twilight or just before da~n when the
photographer is at a disadvantage.
That is whY our expedition put such emphasis on
an infra-red camera that is capable of taking pictures
in total darkness. We stood I-R watches from dusk to
midnight and from 4 a.m. until daylight' every day.
Even this sophisticated ploy was not successful because we weren't in the right place at the right time.
Our only sighting was on the 21st September 1970 at
- naturally, in view of all our careful arrangements!
- 2:45 p.m. on a bright, sunny afternoon when the
loch was dead calm.
Our chauffeur, Ron Chapman, well-known London
photographer, headed toward Urquhart' Castle, a
thirteenth century ruin that overlooks the :home of the
"monsters". With us was New Yorker Hank: McAllister,
a born cynic who is sceptical of everyone and everything. If Hank didn't see it - it didn't happen.
The road on the northwest side of Urqtihart Castle
is about 100 feet above the water and ther,e is a great
view of Urquhart Bay belOW. As we were nearing the
Carey cottage at Achnahannet, I was stattled to see
a huge wake start moving in the Bay ~elow. As I
watched the V-shaped wake forming I shouted to Ron
to pull over. McAllister laughed and said:; "Come on,
Jack! You don't have to carry it this far!" I kept insisting and at the first open place on the ~arrow road,
Ron pulled up. Both he and Hank now saw what had
attracted my attention. We jumped from the car 'and
started down across the pasture below us.
There in the water was an amazing sight. We saw
a pronounced V-shaped wake similar to a wake that
might be formed by a motor boat moving, across the
loch. But there wasn't any boat and we ceuld plainly
see the point of origin of the disturbance. In fact,
there were no birds in the water, no !people, no
ripples, nothing. The loch was mirror-calm except
for the huge area below us that was beIng churned
up by something of immense size just, under the
surface.

43

Drumnadrochit
Urquhart Bay

Fort Augustus

Loch Ness, showing spot from which Jack Ullrich

photographed Nessie's wake.

As the disturbance continued moving out into Loch

Ness, I could see back to the left where the wake
was already beginning to deteriorate and I could still
see the front where the wake was being newly formed.
I shot several pictures with a telephoto lens to verify
this sighting.
The wake moved at about 6 miles per hour and reminded me of wakes I had seen caused by whales
swimming just below the surface. Ripples were forming in circles where the wake had passed. The
patterns were like swirls made by oars or as if something had surfaced momentarily, though we saw nothing. We continued watching the wake for several
minutes as it progressed out into Loch Ness. Suddenly it just ceased. Whatever had caused the disturbance
either stopped moving or, and this is more likely,
slowly descended into the murky depths. Just off
Urquhart Castle is the deepest point in Loch Ness.
It was our belief that there was a very large body
just under the surface that created this massive disturbance. That was as close as we were to get to
"Nessie", the creature that has defied identification
for over 1.400 years. But McAllister became a believer.
Editor's!iQR: Several newspaper accounts erroneously announced that Jack Ullrich was "representing the
Smithsonian Institution" on this jaunt; in fact, he
represented SITU. The error was 'caused' by an overenthusiastic PR man, who may (or may not?) have
been confused by the fact that Jack Ullrich did do
some free-lance collecting for the Smithsonian in
Guatemala several years ago.
"Our Man at Loch Ness" also tells a rather
hilarious story of having been, equally erroneously,

Photograph taken on the 21st September 1970, by Jack

A. Ullrich. Reproduced from original colour transparency.

connected by some with a blithering group from New

England which intended using sex attractants to
catch Nessie. The attractants used were from sealions, eels, and whales - which is perfectly splendid,
provided you wish to attract sea-lions. eels, and
whales!

THE 'BIGFOOT' HUNT - NEW STYLE

A fascinating article appeared in the July 1970
issue of a publication named Oregon Outdoors formerly "Gun and Creel". Said article has no byline
but it ends: - "I'm really kidding. I believe in Bigfoot, and I wish Lee Trippett and his associates all
the luck in the world." This is pretty decent. considering the content of the preceding article.
Lee Trippett who, as explained in this article,
graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959 with
a degree in physics, became interested in the early
1960s in this everlasting business of so-called "Bigfoots" or "Sasquatches", or very large. very primitive,
fully haired hominids which are alleged still to exist
in some numbers in the wilderness areas of our and
Canada's northwest. Lee, and his then bride, came to
visit us at our HQ some years ago, and we had the

44

pleasure of discussing this funny business for a

couple of weeks. Lee is a quiet man and a pragmatist.
He went back to his home state to put his ideas as
to thE! pursuit of this 'phenomenon' into action. Apparently he did just that. This article seems to give
a prel,ty fair exposition of just what Lee Trippett did
do. It goes as follows: "A lot of people think Bigfoot is only an Indian
myth, or maybe an out and out hoax, but Lee Trippett
believes in the 800 pound, seven foot tall, hairy
creatures to the extent that every month or two he
disappears into the wilderness to search for them.
He goes alone because he feels that while he is sure
of his own lack of fear, he could not be sure that
other persons wouldn't panic at the sight of Bigfoot,
or that they wouldn't frighten the creatures away.
Lee's method of searching consists of establishing a
lonely camp in an area where Bigfoot is reported to
have been seen, then quietly waiting. He thinks
Bigfoot has a sort of extra-sensory perception and
seem::; to know when a man is -there to harm him. He
[says he] knows a gold prospector who has gained
the trust of the creatures, and has even exchanged
food with them by putting Trippett's theories into
practi,ce. The prospector, according to Trippett, has
seen as many as 14 E>f these] creatures at a time,
and has watched them hunt. Since Bigfoot is nocturnal" Lee stays awake at night watching for him.
He fe'els that over a period of time he has gotten to
know Bigfoot, and that Bigfoot knows him. 'We are
sort Cof waiting for a chance to shake hands' he says.
"Trippett, 38, has formed a non-profit organization
called Flora-Fauna Research Corp. which will c ategorizl! available data and coordinate research. The
Eugene [Oregon] centered organization hopes to
gather a convincing body of evidence and then ask
certain professional scientists to be consultants on
an overall program to study Bigfoot. As things stand,

he says, professional scientists are f!. little bit

afraid to get involved in this phenomenon because
their reputations would be at stake."
Maybe Lee Trippett has the best idea of how to
bring this seemingly everlasting businesl; to a successful conclusion. Let us face this problem frontally: either such things as Sasquatches exist, or they
don't. If they are only the product of MY~h, Legend,
and Folklore, let them be examined as such. If, on
the other hand, they might be real, then anyone who
has any idea as to how to come up with t:hem should
be assisted. Lee Trippett, I know, leans very strongly to the notion that such living entitie~ exist but
also to the idea that they are so "human'" that they
may be maintaining themselves by a cOll!bination of
what we call straight "bushcraft" plus an equally
inborn expertise in what we have come to call "ESP",
meaning frankly a combination of super-sensory
abilities and (to us) super-perceptive abil~ties.
Lee Trippett's opinions on this problem verge on
what is commonly called "the occult". This is unfair.
What Lee Trippett means is that "if thes~ creatures
exist" (and please note that qualifying word), they
could (another qualifying word) have built into them,
abilities that we (over-civilized as we are) sometimes
admit that other animals have but which we deny ourselves. Lee believes - and we are willing to go along
with him on this - that our best hope in contacting,
or just plain 'discovering' these creatures; is to shut
up and go sit out in the field and see if any such
"thing" might come by. Considering the npw dozens
of so-called expeditions that have gone out west from northern California to the Canadi~ Yukon during the past decade, to look for this 'oddity and
found nothing, we frankly believe that Lee Trippett's
idea is not only as good as anybody else's but probably more worthwhile.

VIII. ANTHROPOLOGY

ARCHAEOLOGISTS - AND OTHERS - BEWARE!

Our member 634 has sent us the following, which
we reprint here as a warning to archaeologists and
everybody else - and also because it's fun! We
begin with the pertinent part of his letter:
"Yesterday, in Guns and Ammo (Dec. '70) I ran
acros::; an item which I believe would have thoroughly
delighted dear old Charles Fort. On page 36, in an
articll!, "I Knew the World's Greatest Shots", author
Ernie Lind relates an anecdote concerning the late
Adolph Topperwein, often called "The Father of
Exhib.ition Shooting". The 'italics' are mine:

"'One time, while hunting down in Arizona, "Topp"

noticE'd a cave entrance and over it a smooth under-

cut area about 12 feet square. This was about 2D.

feet 1!l! the wall with !!Q. ~ ill getting 1m tQ ti.
I<
'The next day, he returned with hi~ .22 rifle.
Climbing out on a ledge opposite the smobth "blackboard", he proceeded to shoot his famous outline of
an Indian chief. As each bullet hit, it would flake
off a chip of weathered stone, exposing Ii bright red
spot.
" 'A couple of years later, the rancher who owned
the property where this had occurred wrote and told
"Topp" that a famous archeologist had studied the
drawing. This man had then stated that :it was the
work of nomadic prehistoric Indians. who; must have
travelled hundreds of miles, as it was the: picture of
the headdress of a Sioux chieftain and not' typical of
the Indians who roamed and lived in that area.
" '''Topp'' remarked that he had been c~lled many

45

things but never before had he been called a roaming

Indian!'
"Wonder who the 'famous archeologist' was? And
did he make any 'published pronouncements' concerning his find? No doubt the Arizona sun would have
weathered the drawing in two year's time. and archeologists don't normally carry 20-foot ladders - or at
least I don't think they do."
If this is not sufficient warning to SITU members
investigating 'things', perhaps the following will
serve as an adequate reinforcement.
During the Depression the WP A provided work for
a number of professors by sending them out to collect
American folktales. One of these gentlemen had the
'misfortune' to run into a frightfully helpful old chap
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This chap. by the
name of Edward (?) Hunn. did not in fact know of any
local folk tales but disliked disappOinting the professor and promptly concocted three splendid ones which were duly published in a volume of folktales
from the Eastern Shore! The talent for spinning tales
ran in the family, but Mr. Hunn's exploit was a matter
of considerable family pride. Crhe writer. MLF. learned of this from his nephew, Bill Hunn. whose attitude
was: "You think I can tell stories; you should meet
my uncle!]
-

NOAH'S ARK(S), AGAIN

Our member 281 has come up with some most
interesting and pertinent ideas concerning the various
"arks" strewn around the Turko-Russian-IraquiIranian frontier. His first letter was written before he
received the October issue of PURSUIT (he is in the
Armed Services abroad). hence his reference here to
only one ark.
"I would like to make a comment on the so-called
Ark that has been reported on Mt. Ararat. If anyone
does any thinking on the subject he will come to the
conclusion that however the 'Ark' got there it wasn't
by a world-wide flood. Human history and natural
history simply cannot be fitted into such an event.
"The question is. what is it doing there? I think a
little analysis of beliefs prevailing in the area at the
time this object was built might shed some light on
the subject. As you know, it was widely believed at
the time that the sky was a firmament which was holdback the 'waters' of the heavens. Windows in this
firmament were opened to let rain fall. Perhaps some

tribe thought that if they built a boat high enough on

a mountain, during a rain storm they could be picked
up by the waters and carried to heaven. This might
explain the traditional view that the ark was completely enclosed and sealed. i.e. a submarine. It would
need to be so to pass through the waters above. When
the project failed to produce any results the tribe
abondoned the ark. and it was found by later travellers
who described it. The tale of this ark was combined
with the tales of the flood from the epic of Gilgamesh
and the whole modified to produce the Flood story in
the Bible. One other thing. Climatic conditions were
different then and trees might have been growing close
by as a source of lumber. I understand they are scarce
there now.
"One other Biblical narrative fits in with this.
That is the story of the tower of Babel. Tn this story
mankind tries to build a tower to reach heaven. This
shows how close heaven was thought to be. It is even
possible that the two events are related."
Following receipt of our October issue. this
gentleman wrote again, as follows:
"One might ask why the arks were so large. It
stands to reason that if one is going to go calling on
the gods one should not go empty-handed. Perhap s
the builders reasoned that if they built a large ship
and filled it with goods such as animals and grain as
gifts, the gods would assist the ship in its journey.
Or perhaps the ship was loaded with gifts for the
gods (a sort of Cargo-Cult in reverse) while the
builders remained on the earth to reap the benefits
O{ their bribery. This is all speculation of course, but
in light of the beliefs of the time it is not unreasonable."
Admittedly, dates assigned to "the" ark on Mt.
Ararat and to the other arks in the area. vary depending on who is claiming what. The best dates - based
on radiocarbon analyses - suggest that they are in
fact a bit late to be 'Biblical' in origin. But the
general suggestion that they were intended either as
vehicles which would carry their owners up to hobnob
with the gods or frankly as bribes is certainly not
invalidated by this factor. Indeed, considering the
lengths to which all peoples - ancient and modern have gone to propitiate their god(s). it provides the
most reasonable explanation we have come across for
the expenditure of so much effort and, one assumes,
money. One does not build enormous constructions in

From International ~ News, Vol. 17-7/8, 10th, Dec. 1970.

" 'Copito de Nieve', the only white Gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Savage and Wyman, arrived at the
Barcelona Zoo .... " A highly knowledgable non-zoologist once asked us: "Tell me, if a Rattus rattus rattus
meets a Gorilla gorilla gorilla, what Happens happens happens?" This is what comes of failing to use
italics and brackets ('parentheses' to Americans).

46

out of the way places just for the heck of it. Even if
lumbl3r was more readily available then than now, it
was still a monumental piece of work.
A STONE AGE "FIRST"
The following item was sent to us by a local member and was found in that rather splendid paper ~
ExprE!., of Easton, Pa., and was dated the 8th
January of this year. We have been unable to find
out where they got it from, as ticker material is
thrown out whether it is used or not. It reads: _
"Archaeologists have recovered eight-foot ivory
javelins from stone Age graves in Russia dating back
20,000 to 30,000 years. The remarkable thing is not
that stone Age men made javelins but that they made
straii:ht javelins out of radically (sic) curved ma~moth
tusks. For this reason, the weapons are of as much
intemst to dentists as 10 archaeologists since ivory
is basically the same material that forms the core
of human teeth. How prehistoric men did it is something that continues to elude modern science, notes
Dr. Reidar F. Sognnaes, professor of oral biology at
the School of Dentistry of the University of California
in Los Angeles. 'The ability to soften the dense
dentin of ivory, to fashion it, and then to harden it
again into a strong weapon to pierce the mammoth's
hide has been lost,' he laments.* 'If we could recapture this secret today, it might mean much to
dentistry and bone repair.' Either that, or there used
to be a type of mammoth with straight tusks."
We! could be wrong, and even if we are not we will
probably provoke a howl of anguish for the following
comments from all sorts of people like dentists and
archaeologists, but we cannot abstain from making
them. First off, where in the heck have the dental
technicians been for the past few centuries? Ap*Marion Fawcett notes that he was making the same
lament in the early 1960s, when she was employed as
an editor of medical books at the J. B. Lippincott Co.
She still remembers his article for DePalma's Clinical ClrthoDaedics, a bound journal.

Self-starting

parently they have not been collecting old ivories.

That's for sure, because anybody in the ivory trade you know, billiard balls, and all that -, would have
pointed out to them that a basic usage' of their industry has always been the softening of ivory, and
the moulding of it either into curves from the straight
or to the straight from the curved. The ~cients used
to soften not only elephant tusks but also hippopotamuses tushes and other dentine (not dentin; incidentally) with muriatic acid, and then harden it with white
vinegar; the same method is still used today. The
Ancients then straightened the tusks and slit them
longitudinally, separated each of the layers (which
are like those in onions), and flattened thm out under
boards with weights on top. Even more fascinating to
contemplate is the discovery that they then further resoftened these ivory planks or veneers, on occasion,
and moulded them over their marble or other stone
statues. Their objective in this case was t.o make said
statues as lifelike as possible because ivory can be
delicately tinted with dyes and other pigments to
exactly imitate the tints of so-called "white" human
flesh. Actually, there was a straight-toothed elephantine, now named scientifically Anancus,: which survived into the Pleistocene and was apparently contemporary with palaeolithic man in Eurasi,a. However,
as we have pointed out, its straight tus~s were not
needed to make straight javelins.
The particular piece of jibberish in this story is
the dentist's lament. Anybody can soften dentine,
and it does not have to be elephantine either. Further,
somebody in Britain, about five years ago, developed
a method of grinding bone, dentin, and: even tooth
enamel very finely, and then filling tooth cavities
with it, or even moulding whole teeth fro~ it. Funny
how one technology can miss the basic facts of another. Just consider fluorides promoting tooth decay;
and fresh orange juice, so beloved of nutritionists
and mothers, dOing the same. For this, see The New
Scientist, Vol. 49, No. 736, of the 28th January,
1971, p. 173, wherein no less a person than Dr. Linus
Pauling sounds off on the matter. And, incidentally,
the British Government has 'canned' the supplying of
fresh orange juice to welfare tots as being thoroughly
dangerous. Vitamin C will in future be, 'old'. and
bottled, in tablet form.

Aren't Necessarily Unexplained

From the Chicago Today Magazine, 20 January 1971: "Winter Car Trouble? Try This Bargain.. : A
school bus, empty and unattended, suddenly went crazy in the parking lot of T~e Dalles [O~e.] HIgh
School. Apparently started by an electrical short, it charged across the lot, scattenng students: "thundered
down a 20-foot embankment, stalled .. and started again. An employee caught the bus and npped some
wiring to stop it."

47

A RETRACTION, AND AN APOLOGY

On page 89 of our October 1970 issue, Vol. 3, No.

4, in a paragraph numbered (8) in our column entitled
"Current Pursuits", we stated, "If anybody should be
seriously interested, we refer them to (a) Mr. Frank
D. Hansen ... (c) Dr. John Napier, and some others . ,
These are the gentlemen who have now claimed that
they have all the answers. Ask them." This was in
reference to the case of a corpse preserved in ice
and exhibited by said Mr. Frank Hansen, which has
become popularly known as "Bozo, the Iceman".
Our purpose in publishing this statement here is
to apologize to Dr. John R. Napier for wording the
statement that we quoted above as we did. What we
meant to imply in our column in the October issue
was simply that we (Ivan T. Sanderson and SITU)
have nothing further to say and that, therefore, anybody who wants further information should apply to
the persons listed. It was primarily from those persons that we obtained our information; and therefore
it should be to those persons that you apply for
further information - if there is any. Let it be clearly
understood that we did not intend in any way to imply

that Dr. Napier, particularly, might have information

that we did not have.
The basic question is really very simple. This is
whether or not the" specimen that Heuvelmans and
Sanderson saw was a genuine corpse of a (previously)
living entity. If it was, it was one of the greatest
discoveries of all time. If it wasn't, it was a fraud
so incredible that it calls for some real explanation.
Nothing will ever be proved one way or the other
until and unless the specimen seen by Heuvelmans
and Sanderson is produced and examined by true experts such as Drs. Napier, Coon, Hill, Agogino, et
al. Meantime, we have nothing further to offer; and,
as we said in our original statement that started all
this, please apply to the people who know as much
or more about the case than we do.
Nonetheless," we wish to apologize to John Napier
for having worded that statement as we did. It was
deplorable and censurable, and the undersigned takes
full responsibility for having penned it.
Ivan T. Sanderson.

CURRENT PURSUITS

As was explained in our last issue, these items

have been numbered purely chronologically; and, as
of our last issue, there were 21 of them. We stated
also, in that issue, that nothing would be published
on any unless we had something cogent to report. To
this end, and also to still further save space, we are
from now on going to list only those on which we do
have something to say. This we will do by number.
(5) CHAIN IN ROCK
The exact location, within give or take a square
mile, of this has now been pinpointed on a C&G
survey map by our member 459. Further, this gentleman has finally dug out the facts of the discovery of
this item, and has interviewed local citizens who
have seen it since then. Said member is a retired
forester. Once again, he advises that it would be
perfectly useless to try to locate this item until May
when the snow is off the ground and before the trees
have leafed.

(13) ENTOMBED TOADS (AND OTHER ANURA)

At long last Marion Fawcett has received a definite statement from a working, professional scientist
- in the Republic of South Africa, to be precise - to
the effect that he was a witness to the sealing in of
a concrete floor which, when broken up five years
later yielded a 2-1/z-inch frog in a completely enclosed
'pocket'. The details of this and other cases will be
more fully written up in due course.
(15) SOUTH NEW JERSEY TREE STUMPS
A very great deal more has eventuated on this, and
quite apart from a number of very fine photographs of
same taken by Jerry Bentryn for which we had been
looking. Member 585, a D.Sc. but also a very careful
amateur (in that it is not his profession) photographer
has offered to obtain further photographs, including
aerial shots. At the same time, a most curious fact
has emerged. This is that even those local citizens

From the New York telephone directory: "Animal Bites Health Department".

48

who are engaged in the shingle industry cannot, as of

now, tell us whether the sunken logs from which they
make shingles have roots or not. In fact, -this whole
business is proliferating in many directions.
(19) THE BOSSBERG SASQUATCH
Not only have we been in personal touch with Mr.
Ivan Marx, we have received reports and visits from
several members who have seen Mr. Marx's film and
still pictures. These members are the best informed
on "Basquatchery" that we have; are hard-nosed investigators, two of them with police training; and all
lean i;o the sceptical though retaining an open-minded
approach to the problem. All of them state that they
could find no evidence of fraud, nor could they think
of any way in which what is shown in these pictures
could have been "set up" to perpetrate a fraud. Mr.
Marx initially accepted an option on the film rights
from a company in Salt Lake City, but by mutual
agreement, contract has not been drawn, and negotiations are under way with another organization. Mr.
Marx tells us that he has, in addition to the film, some
hundreds of stills on which we still have first offer,
but nothing will be released until July. In the interim,
however, Mr. Marx may be able to arrange to come
east to show his material to a closed session of
interE!sted members of our Scientific Advisory Board.
(21) THE THUNDERBIRD PHOTOGRAPH
Our member 17 has searched his files but not
found! the item; member 49 has married and moved
away from his family home but his files are still
stored somewhere there. He has promised to try to
locate them and go through them with a view to retrieving this damned photo if he has it. But we still
appeal to all of you to try to locate a copy. One other
lead which we are following comes from member 117
and is that he believes this photograph was published in none other than the National Geographic ~
~ (!) in the 30s.
(22) TIME ANOMALIES
A!; a result of the publication of a book entitled
Invisible Residents by World Publishing, Inc., a considerable amount of latent interest has been brought
to light on this subject. The initial impetus for this
interE!st came from a phenomenon to which the catchy
title "The Bermuda Triangle" has been applied. This
is an area off the southeastern coast of North
America, in which an excessively large number of
ships, planes, and now some submarines have vanished - as opposed to simply foundering, ditching,

or being wrecked. After checking the al~egations of

such exceptionally high incidence of disappearances
therein, we initiated a critical survey of :the reports.
The result was that there appeared to be ten such
areas precisely di stributed around the earth - five in
the northern hemisphere, and all center~d some 72degrees apart longitudinally; and five others similarlY apart in the southern hemisphere but all shifted
about 20 degrees to the east. Next, the location of
these ten anomalous areas was plotted, and correlations were found only with surface ocean currents.
However, both military and commercial pilots began
supplying us with factual data of another nature. This
was to the effect that in, or immediately around, these
ten areas there appeared to be factual evidence of a
time anomaly. By this is meant (to over-s~mplify) that
a plane may appear to have arrived at itsl destination
either much too soon or much too late; according to
its instruments on the one hand, and by ground records on the other. This "anomaly" is becoming
apparently more frequent, and we therefore want to
receive any and all reports of such incidents. However, please keep in mind that we are interested only
in cases which are backed up with and by factual
statistics or records.
We are also, of course, interested in receiving
reports of ships or planes that vanish w'ithout trace
anywhere - either new reports or old ones, since we
have certainly not got a complete record of these.
Then, something else connected with this wretched business has cropped up. This came up after a TV
show - Dick Cavett of ABC - broadcast ;on the 16th
of March, on which our director was to debate this
whole business with Arthur Godfrey. On two previous
occasions Arthur had told Dick, and his audience,
that he would be willing so to do but, in his good old
style, referred to it as being "a lot of ~:Jloody nonsense" or words 1D that effect. Arthur Godfrey has
been just about the loudest front for aviation during
the thirty years he has been on radio and: television,
but he certainly slammed down the SST tl~at evening,
and everybody expected him to let the poor old
"Bermuda Triangle" have it just as forcefp.lly. But to
everybody's amazement, he not only ~reated the
matter with the utmost conscientiousness and sympathy, but went further to give three flat: statements
confirming this mystery from his own personal experiences. Also, at the end of the show, in reply to
a query from Dick Cavett as to whether he felt the
matter warranted proper scientific investigation,
he
I
replied - directly into camera - with a flat "Yes".
The three cases that Arthur related on the air
were demonstrated on a small globe we had provided
on which the (then) ten known areas of a~omaly were
clearly marked. The first was of the instant and
complete disappearance of a great pl~ne, called
simply "The Mars", northeast of the Hawaiian Islands.
Arthur told us that he was to have been on this

49

~
, ,,

OUR WORLD

AND AROUND WE GO A(JAfN

(SK,,.

'j' '

--1---1

IT]

- - t- - - - - - -

-1- :- ' - -

/1",
........

flight but missed it and so watched its departure on

radar. Snapping his fingers at camera he said: "The
darned thing just went 'puiff', and they never found a
trace of it". His second personal experience was
when he was on his round-the-world flight in a twoengined jet, and started to fly across the infamous
"Devil's Sea" north of the Bonin Islands in the west
Pacific. He told us that this time they lost radio
contact and all other instrument contact with the
'outside' world for an hour and a half, and with only
four hours of gas to go. Arthur stuck his finger on
that blob on our globe and said simply: "And that's
not nice, I'm telling you".
His third case was even less expected. Arthur
asked for the globe again and, turning to Dick, he
outlined the Bermuda blob and pointed out that the
east coast of North America really leans way over
till it almost points south. He told us that he and
other experienced fliers en route from New York to
Florida usually cut across the ocean, so saving a
hundred miles or so, but he then volunteered the information that whenever he did so he kept an awfully
wary eye on his instruments! And that is just what
other pilots have told us, including Bob Durant, who

o/IIIEAS OF

..:. - _' _"_1- __ ~;

~- I':'
i.

j~!NS~ A~LI~S,

used almost the same words on Barry Farber's radio

show.
This information and confirmation given us by
Arthur Godfrey set off a sort of chain reaction among
scientists and engineers. And it was one of the latter
fraternity who came to us the very next day with an
observation that has necessitated our dropping just
about everything else. His suggestion: simply that the
earth is a gigantic static electrical machine having
not just five dipoles - represented by the ten
lozenges, "triangles", vortices, or whatever you want
to call them - but six; the sixth pair represented by
the north and south magnetic poles.
Immediately upon starting to work on this assumption, all sorts of extraordinary things came to light,
and some very "old saws" cropped up. We are loath
to bring one of these up but it is none less than the
very old "hollow earth" business. This we will be reporting on later but, in the meantime, we beg that you
do not suddenly think that our earth is hollow, or
believe any other of the ravings of those who have
suggested that it is. No: the matter at hand is a
great deal more subtle than that. It also stems from
true and proper scientific theorizing.

50

BOOK REVIEWS

Michel Gauquelin. The Scientific Basis

HUI~hes). $5.95.

Qf Astrology. New York: stein and Day, 1969 (translated, by James

Our regular readers, knowing of our attitude toward astrology, may be somewhat startled to see this
titlE! among our reviews. In fact, it is must reading for all forteans for the simple reason that it is, and I
quote from Aime Michel's preface, "the most conscientious, profound and convincing of all the refutations
of journalistic and traditional astrology yet produced".
The book is divided into three sections - first, the early history of astrology; second, an analysis of
astrology as practiced today; and third, some new discoveries. The first section is interesting but frankly
not 'spectacular'; and you may wish to skim the second section, though I strongly recommend that you
read Chapters IX through XI which present statistical analyses of the astrologers so-called predictions.
ThE'se should prove an eye-opener to anyone who is under the impression that astrology 'works'. And I
cannot resist noting that the author points out that all sorts of "influences" are attributed to the planet
Pluto - which was not actually found until 1930! One wonders which planet governed these aspects of
life before Pluto was discovered.
'
However, it is the third section which is of greatest interest, and for several reasons. As t:he author
says in his Introduction, "In the twentieth century our ideas about the relation between man and the
cosmos have ended up in one of two dead-end streets: an unyielding science and a market-place astrology
... The feud between these two groups has been endless, but of late a new school of scientists h:as managed to break the vicious circle. For some years now these scientists have been discovering that'there are
certain unexpected but close connections between man and the solar system, and between man and the
galaxy... beside the superstitions of astrology there is a place for a 'new and different cosmobiology' "
and, if one may coin a word, 'cosmochemistry' that he treats in this last section; and some of thEl findings
are indeed extraordinary - and in one case, utterly fortean. We cannot go into this in detail, but: this last
item concerns the cleaning of boilers - i.e. removing the scale that forms on the walls - by using "treated
watl~r"; no one knows how or why this works but it does. However, it works better on some days than on
others. An Italian chemist spent years making daily tests in an effort to find out why this variation occurred. His irrefutable conclusion is that the efficacy of the treatment varies with the relative positions
of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun! And this is not kookery but established fact.
Get the book.
Marion L. Fawcett.
Charles Berlitz. The Mystery

Atlantis. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1969. $5.95.

There have been a great many books published on the subject of the "Lost Continent of Atlantis". Far
too many consist of insufferable drivel written by persons whose enthusiasm is matched only by their lack
of knowledge. Many others simply attempt to prove that Atlantis was not in the Atlantic but in'the North
Sea, the Sahara, etc., wherever the author has 'discovered' it. In fact, one would think there have been
quite enough books about the subject, but Charles Berlitz has produced the "exception that proves the
rule". His is an eminently sane and remarkably objective presentation and analysis of the evidence for
and against Atlantis, and is also surprisingly complete for a book of non-encyclopaedic size.
The author is, of course, at his best when he deals with linguistics - he speaks "30 languages, give
or take a few". He points out that much of the linguistic (so-called) evidence is absolute baloney - e.g.
Le Plongeon's use of a Mayan word list which he thought was an alphabet, to translate various documents
that "proved" the existence of Atlantis (according to Churchward, these same documents provEi!d the ex-

* The latest in this marathon is an ad sent us by our member 582. This appeared in the Sunday NY ~
Book Section (Book Exchange Columns) for a number of weeks in April 1970 and read as follo~s: "FOR
SALE material for most historic book, the mile posts of the legendary Atlantis and its parent civilization.
Price' $250,000. ~o, that's not a 'typo'.J Edward Jackson, 79 Ocean st., Woollahra, Sydney, Au;stralia."
Our member wrote to Mr. Jackson on the 19th April 1970, by air mail, but never received a reply. For that
price we would want a large chunk of Atlantean real estate and an ironclad guarantee that it would stay
above water!

51

istence of Mu!). On the other hand, he notes that there are certain valid linguistic 'links' between the Old
and the New Worlds which need explaining rather badly.
His knowledge of both cultural anthropology and archaeology is good (one can only assume that he
suffered a complete "mental block" when he put Stonehenge and Avebury in Cornwall rather than in Wiltshire) and he does not stretch the evidence as so many authors do. He is undoubtedly pro-Atlantis but his
bias is rarely obvious. The fact is that there are a large number of knobbly little problems which could be
solved by the previous existence of a continent - or a large island - occupied by a people with a fairly
advanced culture. And we are not here postulating a super-civilization with ray guns and other appurtenances of the woollier science fiction.
Even those who have reached the "saturation point" on the subject of Atlantis will find this book of
value as a reference. Unhappily, there is no index.
MLF
Hans Stefan Santesson. Understanding Mu. New York: Coronet Communications, Inc. Paperback Library,
1970. 75.
This is an exceedingly difficult assignment. It should be clearly ulJderstood that it purports to be a review of this book, not of its contents. Regarded in this light, said book should be appreciated as a very
real contribution to our overall, so-called cultural appreciation. In fact, an exposition such as this of the
"content" is long overdue.
The subject of this book is a mass of drivel published over many years by a slightly demented British
ex- Army officer who spent some time in India and became obsessed with some aspects of its mysticism
and its renowned forms of intellectual jargon. His name was Colonel James Churchward. Just about everything this poor man ever said was not only rubbish but as near mad as you could wish. Based on nothing
more than some alleged conversations with a "priest" of a cult virtually outlawed even by the tolerant, and
long-suffering Hindoo hierarchY, and endless borrowings from, and even plagiarisms of, such other mystics
as Madame Blavatsky and Le Plongeon, this amaible old gentleman made a profound indent, through his
writings, upon our modern world. Trouble is, an awful lot of people have believed what he said.
What Churchward did say is so appallingly idiotic as to be pathetic but, so help us all, he has been so
believed by a very large audience. These were those who had either not had cause to read the known facts
about that of which he spoke, or were too abyssmally ignorant to understand that the poor man was talking
complete nonsense. This man thus was, and still is, a major menace; so it is greatly to the credit of the
author of this book that he has brought all this pernicious drivel out into the open, and displayed it to the
general reader for what it is. Hans Stefan Santesson is an historian and in this book he gives us a compendium of the ravings of Churchward; and then lets us judge these for ourselves.
If you still believe this compounded mass of inexactitude, there is nothing further that even the erudite
author of this book can do for you. Colonel James Churchward was undoubtedly a remarkable man, and
probably rather a charming one, but he was quite mad. Unfortunately, he managed to slip his nonsense in
at a time in history when scientific exploration had not yet brought to light the realities of the past, even
as now known. Thus, he was able to erect theories, and claim "evidence" for them, when nobody had the
.
time or the facts to check his statements or to refute his arguments.
The really terrifying thing is that countless people, and especially intelligent young people, still get
hold of Churchward's effusions and take them as "scientific" fact. Indeed, many people seem to feel that
because he spent his entire life "investigating" this, that he must have "known what he was talking
about" and was somehow automatically admirable! A moment's thought by any sane person will reveal the
idiocy of this notion.
Would that this little book could be made not just preferred, but essential, reading in all schools and
the basis for intelligent schoolroom debate. The author has cast the first stone at this monstrous effigy
of insanity. Would that others should follow.
Ivan T. Sanderson.
New Scientist and Science Journal: We most strongly recommend this publication to all our members. It's
full of good solid stuff, as well as the hilarious, and it gives very good coverage of American affairs
scientific, as seen by intelligent Anglo-Saxon-speaking foreigners. It may be ordered from New Scientist,
128 Long Acre, London WC2E 9QH, England; the price is $16 by air - not bad for a weekly journal.

52
if,,,,,,,,.iI'..,.""."'Ii!iji!,.....""'U.,,............_

IN MEMORY

_lIiIiI_~

_________

Keith Tavernor

All of us have but one life to lead, and what we call death must indubitably come to al~ of us. When
we have lasted our allotted span, we should both accept it and perhaps even welcome it. But we who are
left here, have a duty to report the passing-on of any of our members.
This morning, the 30th March of this year 1971, we had just finished reading a letter from our member
No. 665 - namely, Keith Tavernor - when the phone rang and our member No. 385, whose name is John G.
Borowczak, of Beavercreek, Oregon, told us that Keith had been knocked down by a car a few hours previously and - the Good Lord be praised - had died instantly. The "coincidentiality" of ~his chain of
events is onerous to bear: but, as of the moment, we can think qnly of his family.
Keith's father died in 1945 of wounds sustained in the defense of his country; we know only his
brother, James, and this only by long distance. Keith came to us literally "out of the blue", ;and we were
his only contact in this country. He worked for our mutual benefit, and on a matter that is of great interest
to all of us. When he left for the west coast, we "appointed him officially" as our representati!ve in charge
of those matters - to wit, the Sasquatches. When this shocking phone call came in today anhouncing his
death, we naturally went to his file in order to inform his family. But what did we find?
In a letter of recommendation that we gave him, the third paragraph read Any help or as!Sistance you
might render the bearer would be most gratefully acknowledged by our Board of Directors; and, ~ M
~ with!!! accident [emphasis added]; or, for other reasons, be unable to communicate with us, we
would ask you to phone the above number." Though this sad business is now irrevocably ov!!r, we would
like to take a few moments to contemplate it.
Keith Tavernor was born on the 8th of July, 1944, in stockport, England. He quit school at the age of
15, with what they call over there, an Advanced Certificate with five Credits". Then, he plu~ged into the
following somewhat extraordinary career.
II

II

1959 Trip to France; research and exploration of ice caves in Pyrenean Mountains.
1961-64 Enlisted in H.M. Royal Marines, during which time served fourteen m'onths active service in Aden
Protectorate; extensive field work in Africa on field survival, jungle warfare, etc., esp~cially in Mt.
Kilimanjaro Province. Places visited: Persia, Yemene, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda,
Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Muscat, and Oman.
1964-67 Yorkshire Zoological Federation, England (Flamingo Park Zoo) - employed as aviculturist and
vivarium keeper. During which time discovered techniques in breeding certain species :in captivity.
1967-68 Free-lance field study and conservation work in England, Scotland, and Wales.
1968-69 Trip to Africa alone for further field work; via Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sud~n, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia. Worked with Zambia Game and Fisheries, based ~hilanga and
and did field work involving Eland (Taurotragus derbiana) on the Kafue River Reserve.
1969-70 Employed by Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, Jersey, Channel Islands; Director, Gerald
Durrell, F.Z.S. etc. Working with Simians and Pongids.
In the summer of 1970 he just "upped" and climbed aboard a boat to come to this country.' He had been
corresponding with John .Borowczak about this everlasting (and seemingly endless) pursuit of the Sasquatches and Bigfeet of our Northwest; and he had decided to drop everything and come over here, and get
into the act. By the merest chance, he got into conversation with another of our members '- the famous
big-game photographer and film producer, and also Charles Darwin's great-grandson, we mig~t add! - No.
181, aboard a liner. As a result, he was with us four hours after he landed in America for t~e first time!
He spent a month with us, last Christmas and New Year. He reorganized all our files on North American
ABSMs, and he offered to take over control of all activities in the Northwest on our Society"s behalf. He
then submitted monthly reports up to the one that we received this morning. But this came ;no more than
five minutes before the phone call announcing his untimely death.
Romance is not yet dead; but Death can be romantic.
Your Colleagues.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
President (and Chairman ofthe Board) (*)
First Vice-President (u.)
Second Vice-President ( ..... )
Third Vice-President (U)
Secretary ( )
Treasurer ( ... )
Elected Member for One Year
Elected Member for One Year
Elected Member for One Year
Elected Member for One Year

Hans stefan Santesson

Edgar o. Schoenenberger
Ivan T. Sanderson
Michael R. Freedman
Marion L. Fawcett
Alma V. Sanderson
Walter J. McGraw
Daniel F. Manning
Allen V. Noe
Adolph L. Heuer, Jr.

(*) Elected for Five Years.

(**) Permanent, without re-election.
(U*) Trustees and Life Members.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Director (General Administration)
Deputy Director (Establishment)
Executive Secretary (and Librarian)
Assistant Director (Communications)
Assistant Director (Science & Technology)
Assistant Director (Field Operations)
Assistant Director (Public Relations)

Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar o. Schoenenberger
Marion L. Fawcett
Michael R. Freedman
Adolph L. Heuer. Jr.
Jack A. Ullrich
Daniel F. Manning

gr ANDING COMMITTEES

Richard W. Palladino
Alfred D. Bielek
Keith Tavernor

The Ringing Rock s

Brain Control
Physical Anthropology
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman. Department of Anthropology, and Director. Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of Science. Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia.
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
Dr. J. Allen Hynek - Director. Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center. Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology. Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
G~hy~~
.
Dr. Martin Kruskal - Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology. Rutgers University. Newark. New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology. Department of Archaeology. University of Alberta. Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology. Emeritus. Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology. Queen Elizabeth College. University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - President. Roth Research-Animal Care. Inc . Washington. D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head. Plant Science Department. College of Agriculture. Utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman. Department of Anthropology, Drew University, Madison, New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)

HICKS PRINTING COMPANY.

37 BELVIDERE AVENUE. WASHINGTON. NEW JERSEY. TELEPHONE

201-689-0194

=-

...

.~-. '

-~

~-

......
-=- -:-

SCIENCE IS THE PURSUIT OF THE UNEXPLAINED"

VOL 4, NO.3

JULY, 1971

SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Telephone: Area Code 201 496-4366

"
ORGANIZATION
The legal and financial affairs of the Society are managed by a Board Qf Trustees, in accordance with
the laws of the State of New Jersey. These Officers are five in number: a President, elected for five years;
two Vice-Presidents; a Treasurer; and a Secretary. General policy is supervised by a Governing Board.
consisting of the five Trustees, and four other members elected for one year terms. General administration and management is handled by an Executive Board, listed on the inside back cover of this publication. The Editorial Board is listed on the masthead of this journal. Finally, our society is counselled
by a number of prominent scientists, as also listed on the inside back cover of this journal. These are
designated as our Scientific Advisory Board.

PARTICIPATION
Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. Memberships run from the 1st of January to
the 31st of December; but those joining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year
gratis. The annual subscription is U.S. $10, which includes four issues of the Journal PURSUIT for the
year, as well as access to the Society's library and files. through correspondence or on visitation. The
annual subscription rate for the journal PURSUIT (alone, and without membership benefits) is $5, including postage. (PURSUIT is also distributed, on a reciprocal basis, to other societies and institutions.)
The society contracts -- with individuals, and institutional and official organizations for specific projects
-- as a consultative body. Terms are negotiated in each case in advance. Fellowship in the Society is
bestowed (only by unanimous vote of the Trustees) on those who are adjudged to have made an outstanding contribution to the aims of the Society.

NOTICES
In view of the increase in resident staff and the non-completion. as yet, of additional living quarters,
there is no longer over-night accomodation for visitors. Members are welcome to visit to consult our files,
but we ask that they make application at least a week in advance to prevent 'pile-ups' of members who.
as a result of the simple lack of facilities, as of now. cannot be properly accomodated.

PUBLICATIONS
The Society publishes a quarterly journal entitled PURSUIT. This is both a diary of current events
and a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes an annual report on Society affairs
to members. The Society further issues Occasional Papers on certain projects. and Special Reports on
the request of Fellows only. A four-page newsletter goes quarterly to members only.
RECORD: From its establishment in July. 1965, until the end of March 1968, the society issued only
a newsletter. on an irregular basis. The last two publications of that were. however. entitled PURSUIT-vol. 1, No.3 and No.4, dated June and September. 1968. Beginning with Vol. 2, No. 1. PURSUIT has
been issued on a regular quarterly basis: dated January, April, July, and October. Back issues, some
available only as xerox copies, are available; those wishing to acquire any or all of these should request
an order form.

Vol. 4. No.3
July. 1971

PURSUIT
THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE
INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED
DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF -THINGS
THAT ARE CUSTOMARILY DISCOUNTED

Editor & Publisher: Hans stefan Santesson

Executive Editor: Ivan T. Sanderson
Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett
Assistant Editor: Daniel F. Manning
Associate Editor: Alice J. Gleason

CONTENTS
Iilll Taxonomy QI Knowledge
Editorial
Chaos and confusion
More on Those Damned Tracks
More on Dowsing
Growing Ashes
~ P.!!ill! chaos
On Trashpapers
Ufology
On Infirmity
Ontology
Time Travel
Black Holes
Physics
A Truly Hair-Raising story, by Michael R. Freedman
Tri-Dimensional Computers, by Michael R. Freedman
Chemistry
Mercury Again
Geology
A Hole at the Bottom of a sea
Biology
Ivan Marx's Film
Anthropology
The Chain in the Rock, by Richard T. Grybos
Footprints in the.
Americanism?, by Ivan T. Sanderson
Current Pursuits
!!22!i Reviews

54
55

56
57
57
58

59
60
61

62
63
63
64
64

65
68
69
70
71
72

Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained 1971

THE TAXONOMY OF

THE TANGIBLES

~NOWLEDGE

GEOLOGY

VI
EARTH SCIENCES
Atmosph.rici and M.t.o'~loiY;

Oceanol09->" Hydrology, a"d vlo.

cioloO,.; Tectonics. Vulcanol09" Seismology, Geophysics

and Geomorphology; F?.

trology and Mineralogy;
Geode.y, Geography,
Cartography i
Dating.

Protogeonology, Botany, Zoo

ogy, E."b,olog y; Histology,
Physiology and Biochemistry;
Anatomy

'inC

ludlfujI Man); Genet-

ics and Evolution. Physical Anthropology;

Palaeontology;
E .holog y and
Ecalogy.

MATTER
Atomics. Molecular
Chemistry, Crystallography.

APPLIED
KNOWLEDGE

PERFORMANCE
Theoretical Physics. Nucleonics.
Cla .. icol Physic., Electrics,
E l.e'romalneticl, Magneticl,
Mechanics.

TECHNOLOGY AND
THE USEFUL ARTS

HUMAN
ENTERPRISE
Cultural Anthropology and
E .hno logy (Arc haeo logy is a
technique); Pre-Histor,.:

History, and Fal~lore; F?hilol

ogy and Lingui.tic

MENTAL CONCE PTS

Logic and Epistemology;
Psychology; Ethics and Ae
,he'les; Comparatlye Int.,lilgenc,,;
Parapsych,cs.
I

MEASUREMENT
Numbe" Quanti.,.
ArithmetiC, Algebra,
Geome'ry, Trigonometry.,

Calculus, Topology, Theory

of Gomes, Probability, Co. I
incidence.

THE INTANGIBLES

Everything in existence r including -existence- itself, and thus all of our possible concepts and alllcn'owledge
that we possess or will ever possess, is contained within this w'heel. Technologies and the useful arts lie
within the inner circle, having access to any or all of the ten major departments of organized Icnowled~e.
From the KORAN: -Acqui ..e Icnawledge, It enables its possessor to 'lcnow right from wrong; it lights th!t way to
heaven; it is our friend in the desert r our society in solitude; our companion when friendless; it guid,n us to
happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is on ornament among friends; and on armour against enemies. ..;.
The Prophet.

54

55
EDITORIAL
One does not enjoy taking one's own establishment apart; but on the grounds of common honesty, just
such a 'taking-apart' would appear to be called for. Said establishment is commonly called "The Fourth
Estate" - i.e. the popular press, and assorted dependents. The undersigned has for over forty years now
considered himself honoured to be officially included in the ranks of both the working (news) press and the
magazine field. and calied a "science reporter". We have, however, all along felt that this would be better
designated as "A professional writer who specializes in matters scientific".
Over the years in this - in any case - rather touchy profession, we have noted an increasing difficulty
in interviewing working scientists .. The reason given us would appear to be utterly legitimate: to wit, that
previous reporters either just plain didn't know their stuff and/or made it up. Worse still. others persisted
in mis-quoting the interviewee, to his horror and amazement, and often to his professional detriment. A
working scientist is fighting for his life, as well as his reputation, just like anybody else. But his job is
tougher. He may spend decades searching into, and then researching, his speciality. He may need another
decade to digest his findings and write them up. Then, some chap who is an expert on Greta Garbo or some
such, and whose science 'training' is limited to a course in "general science" taken in high school twenty
years before, comes along and interviews him - and then goes away and publishes pages of tripe. It is not
fair. Moreover, these so-called professional newsmen sometimes even sign guarantees that they will not
publicize, or publish, without prior written permission from said research worker. But then they do; and
without any permission. And what recourse has the poor scientist? Try and pen a refutation to the popular
publication? Or write it up for a scientific journal that may not be able to publish it for two years?
The most horrifying example of this irresponsibility that we have ever encountered came to our attention only now. We picked this up from UPI last December and commented upon it in our January issue. It
was an article on "thinking machines", written for LifeMagazine by one Brad Darrach. We thought it a
bit far-fetched at the time. Then comes from one of our members a tear sheet of a reply by the unfortunate
scientist interviewed - Dr. Marvin Minsky of M.LT. - in a journal entitled SIGART. dated December,
1970. This is published by the A.C.M. which is the official mouthpiece of the American Computer Society.
From this, it transpires that a very substantial part of what Mr. Darrach claimed Dr. Minsky said is a pure
pipe-dream. This is bad enough; but what nauseates and terrifies us is that there was, at a very minimum,
what used to be called a "gentleman's agreement" to the effect that no story would be published until it
had been submitted to the interviewee. It was never so submitted.
The field of (human) brain control and mind patrol is not pleasant; and when it comes to what we can
but call "computerism", Ne are into a really sensitive and sticky area. (We know personally one Congress
man who is so Illarmed by developments in the latter that he is showing signs of leaving the House, after
a most distinguished career and being re-elected for the Nth time; and going directly to the people.)
We have talked to Dr. Minsky, and he wishes us to make one point. This is that "mechanical brains
will most probably - the way things are going currently - indeed be developed some day. However; how,
when, and where, as stated by Mr. Darrach, are not Dr. Minsky's thoughts; and Dr. Minsky never said the
things anent this that he was alleged to have said in the Life interview. UPI, on the other hand, did show
decent journalistic courtesy by clearing their version of the story with the interviewee, prior to its publication in Life Magazine. These are the facts of the case. If you want the details, get a copy of Life for
the 20th November, 1970; and then. a copy of Sigart for December, 1970. Said facts are bad enough; but
what we are interested in is the background of all this.
Reporting on matters scientific is, admittedly, not easy. Further, nobody (just because they have the
ability to write, and write cogently and understandably) should mix into matters in which they have not
had proper training, and which they do not understand. We have laid it down as part of our policy - and in
print - that we (SITU) will not presume to comment on various matters, such as the Law, Medicine, Politics, the Occult. et alia. That's one stage of veracity. The next. we feel, is that no writer, however
erudite. should presume to write about (say) ecology unless he or she has studied the business for many
years, and has had an appropriate amount of practical experience in it. And when it comes to such ticklish
matters as mechanical brains and human brainwashing. one would strongly urge that all writers, except
real experts, keep out of it.
If the scientific community is going to communicate with the 'lay' public, they are going to have to
round up the editors. That is where the system breaks down. For pity's sake: if "editors" can get out the
N. Y. telephone directory year after year without mistakes, and the big publishing h<?uses can bring out
medical texts, upon which the nation's health depends, can't a popular magazine with all its money and
resources, get articles of real interest properly checked. corrected, and put forth? And why should any
publication not stand by its guarantees - written or merely verbal - to at least let the interviewee approve
what they propose to put out? We run a magazine, and we've also been an editor of others - and of textbooks. SO, O.K.: scientists are notoriously slow, but they are busy people. And does a lapse of a couple
weeks really throw your publishing schedule off? Phui!
Ivan T. Sanderson.

56

CHAOS AND CONFUSION

MORE ON THOSE DAMNED TRACKS

In our April issue we presented a preliminary
report on tracks found in snow in a Mr. Fraser's back
yard in Farnborough. England. with the statement
that we would make further enquiries when the British
postal strike ended. And so we did. Our correspondent.
Miss Janet Gregory. wrote on the 6th May. as follows:
"I have made some enquiries about the footprints
in the snow at Farnborough. as you requested, but
what I have discovered is not very promising. I
wrotEl to the Police at Farnborough. whose reply I
QuotEl. 'A report was received from Mr. Fraser on the
31st December 1970 that he had found strange footprints in the snow in the back garden of his house.
One of my officers visited and found what he describes as about one dozen foot-marks in the snow
confined to the back garden. The snow was melting.
which appears to have exaggerated the size and
shape of the marks. He saw no reason to think that
the marks were caused by any unusual animal. I regret
that I am unable to give you any possible explanation.
The matter was possibly given more press publicity
than was warranted. There has been no recurrence
that would suggest anything out of the ordinary is
happening.'
"8ince receiving this letter. I have written to the
man who reported the footprints. Mr. Fraser. but
sincE! I wrote on 16 April and have not yet had a reply.
it looks as though he is remaining silent. If I hear
anything from him. I will of course send the details
on to you."
In away. this would seem to have ended the
matter. But Miss Gregory wrote again on the 5th
June:
"] am very glad to report that there have been more
developments in the 'Farnborough tracks' case, in
that I have today received a letter from Mr. Fraser
whose back garden they appeared in. I was beginning
to consider the case closed. after the negative response
from the police and the lack of response from Mr.
Fraser. but I think you will agree when you read Mr.
Fraser's letter that this case gets curioser and
curioser! I won't leave you in suspense any longer.
Here is what Mr. Fraser wrote:
'with ref to your letter of Apri116th 1971 regarding
"Footprints in the Snow". First. I wish to apologise
for not answering your letter sooner. which !trust you
you will accept.
'What happened was: Just after Xmas and we had
all gone to bed. my wife and I were awakened in the
early hours of the morning by my bla~k labrador dog

Sheena making a curious high pitched barking noise.

Normally. if she is disturbed she barks very loud and
fierce and I always make a point of gOing downstairs
to investigate as I did so on this occas'ion. I would
like to state at this stage we have two cats. the she
cat Twinkle: and black tom cat Fred. I did not go outside. but checked that all was in order ih the house.
and looked ~ut of the windows but could! see nothing
so I returned to bed. A short while latr. I heard a
sound like something knocking against wood. the dog
did not bark so we went off to sleep. arid forgot the
incident.
'
'The fol~owing morning. I had occasion to phone
my wi'fe. arid
she said that "I am ' glad you rang as
I
there are some unusual marks in the snow". and she
seemed concerned. so I came home imme:diately. and
there they were. I have travelled a little~ in my time.
but I had hever seen anything like it. They were
I
'
large, the !?hape of a human foot (base) but at the
toe part. th~re were deep marks of claws in the snow.
and fresh. they had not been there the day previous. I
did not know what to think. at first I thought that
some large animal was loose and as ther,e is a playground near; and thinking that there was a danger to
children, I rang the police. I then search~d my garden
and sheds. :but found nothing except that the prints
were clearlY visible right up to the win~ows of the
room where ;the dog sleeps. The footprints appeared
to me. that the creature that made them :was on two
legs: I could not detect any place 'where they entered
or left. but ,assessed that whatever it wlits had gone
over our hH~h wooden fence and that this was the
!
noise I had heard later.
'The Police came. but were non committal and
told my wif~ that it was probably a deer or a fox [! ].
the prints Were later measured at 8-W' long. The
local newspaper Farnborough Chronicle sent their
reporter and photographer and I have no' doubt they
will supply you with copies of its photogr.aphs. but if
you cannot ~btain them. we have the cuttings [clippings to youi in the U.S. - and it would b~ nice if our
country had; a name!"'] from the papers at home and
you are welcome to borrow them.
'In conclusion. referring to the cats, ftir about two
weeks prior ,to this my she cat Twinkle had behaved'
in a very scared manner and was very)umpy. and
would only go out when someone was there. and then
not for long.: My tom cat Fred seemed all tight except
that he kept ,prowling around a large lilac' bush in the
garden looking into it and sniffing aroupd. Nothing

"'In Ameri~a. i.e. the western Hemispherie, there are

the United States of Mexico. Venezuela. I Brazil. and
'America'; several others (Colombia and Argentina.
we think) are also technically "united st~tes".

57

unusual has happened since. but my wife does not

like gOing into the garden in the dark. since the
incident. and for that matter. neither do I. but I have
a good look round just in case. I trust that this ma.v
be of some assistance to you.
Miss Gregory again: "All I can sa.v is. some fox!
I don't know whether the added description given
here will give Mr Sanders.Jn any clue as to what
species of creature left the prints. but if all Mr Fraser
sa.vs is true. then it must have been a mighty peculiar
one."
Miss .Gregory wrote for photographs. and we are
awaiting these. But a humanoid footprint - if one can
trust Mr. F'raser's description; and he sounds like a
solid citizen - with claws is very odd indeed; and
we will continue to pursue this whatever-it-is.

MORE ON DOWSING
SOmewhat regretfully this has once again to be
put into the category of Chaos & confusion because
there is just so much of both involved in it. Like
astrology. there could be the proverbial "grain of
truth" underlying the business. but the exponents of
both efforts are so stuck with ancient traditions, preconceived notions. and such. that neither of them
will cut out the guff and even try to get down to the
realities. Dowsing is neither a science nor an art.
Also it does not work consistently- if a human being
is in any way involved in it. If executed entirely
mechanically. and without human interference, it
apparently does so (see Chapter ll. More "Things".
1969. Pyramid Books. N.Y . by Ivan T. Sanderson).
Please to absorb the following from Science News.
-13th Feb . 1971:
"Dowsing Discounted. Using a divining rod to
locate underground sources of water or minerals has
a long history. and there are at present many practitioners of the art.
"R. A. Foulkes of the Institute of Industrial
Research and standards at Dublin reports that experiments with experienced dowsers obtained results
that were no better than a series of guesses. The
tasts involved searching for various types of buried
objects and for moving water. he reports in the Jan.
15 Nature.
"FQiiikt:!s says he went out of his wa.v to make
the experiments reliable, choosing only those who
claimed and were recognized to be good dowers and
making sure that they agreed beforel,and that the
experiments were fair.
"One theory. sa.vs Foulkes. is that the dowser is
sensitive to variations in the earth's magnetic field;
a number of experiments showed that this was not so.
he reports. He suggests that the extraordinary motion

of the divining rod in the hands of the dowserresults

from the way it is held. which makes any chance motion of the tip extremely difficult to suppress."
The point that has somehow to be rammed home
is that humans and other animals are electrical machines. and they can produce, either deliberately or
unwittingly. some most extraordinary electromagnetic
effects. Whether flowing water. under-ground; stationary water; air in metal pipes; lumps of metal; or
anything else, gives out "waves of any kind - EM or
otherwise - has not yet been determined; but there
is no doubt that "L"-rods running mechanically over
such items (linearly) do react regularly and consistently in certain manners; and consistent with whatever is below ground. at least to a certain depth.
With a human running a fly" twig. or a coat-hanger.
or what else. anYthing can happen - and often wrong!
We have also tried this with dogs. and things do
happen - sometimes - but. as Dr. Foulkes found out
working with humans. they were neither consistent
nor accurate by any defineable fraction above the
law of averages.
We would be more than just interested in seeing a
similar scientific testing of the most extraordinary
aspect of this so -called dowsing; namely. finding
water. and other items. from maps. Is this also just
a 50-50 chance hit-and-miss business? There are
those who use pendula as well as twigs. rods. and
other devices to do this. Should the "findings" of
such operatives prove to be even a tiny percentage
above the average. we really would have a problem
on our hands.
GROWING ASHES
This is a new one to us;. and. of course. we don't
have one iota of firsthand evidence that any bit of
the story is true. However. for what it is worth. here
it is:
The Statesman. Salem. Oregon. 10th Feb 1971.
by Wilma Bonsanti. "The mystery of the 'growing'
volcanic ash ma.v never be solved. It has stumped
Mrs. William Chisholm. 3208 Keen Ave NE. and her
friends and neighbors for years. It also has defied
explanation by Dr. Harold Enlows. chairman of the
Oregon State University geology department. whose
specialty is volcanic rocks. Meanwhile. the ash
apparently is continuing to expand.
"Mrs. Chisholm sa.vs she brought a tablespoonful
of the material back from Kodiak Island. Alaska.
in 1965 for 'a souvenir. When I first got it I had no
idea it would grow.' She believes the ash came from
a 1912 volcanic eruption at Katmai on the Alaska
mainland. 'I had the ash in a medicine vial.' she
sa.vs. 'and in about a year it filled the vial.' Mrs.
Chisholm then put the ash in a baby food jar. When
the ash overflowed that container. she 'transplanted'

58

,
it into a pint jar. 'It's not quite filled yet,' she
commented.
"The ash, a fine powder, reveals under a microscope the tiny shards of glass characteristic of volcanic ash, says Dr. Enlows. 'As far as I can make
out, it's pretty straight-forward material,' he says.
'I'd be most surprised if it suddenly multiplied.' But
multiply it has, agrees Mrs. Larry Stormo, 1733 59th
Ave., SE, who says friends and neighbors of Mrs.
Chisholm have 'talked quite a bit' about her increasing Iluantity of volcanic ash over the past few years.
'It's kinda weird, all right - like a science fiction
movi.e,' said Mrs. Stormo. Dr. Enlows noted that volcanic ash often contains various types of clay minerals which can expand by taking on water. But Mrs.

Chisholm says she has kept the ash containers covered and in ~ dry house. 'I remove the lid occasionally
to let out g,s. It smells like sulphur,' she said. Says
Dr. Enlows:, after studying a sample of:the ash, 'it
contains nothing unusual. I can't explain .it in natural
terms. She'll have to ascribe it to the supernatural.' ..
We don't 'dig'this at all, and we are sending it on,
prior to publication, to our adviser for all matters
geological.: for comment. Perhaps he might be able to
contact Dr .Enlows; get a sample from Mr~. Chisholm;
and come up with some suggestions .. Maybe he could
even "plan~" a sample in his. lab (under !umed guard,
of c01:1rse!), ,and watch to see if it does im'-eed "grow".
Normally, w.e delight in commenting on these esoteric a;
but this time we positively decline.

I,

JUST PLAIN CHAOS

ON TRASHP APERS
We have a number of so-called "newspapers" in
this country and in Canada that are more than Just a
menELCe. They are irresponsible and, from the point
of view of the general public, deadly. We have subscriptions to all of them, and we have found out that
they are sometimes just plain liars. Time and time
again we have read sensational stories in them and
then rung up, or written to, the persons named (and
even quoted) in these stories, only to learn that said
persons either do not exist; never said a word of that
which they were alleged to have said; or were grossly
misQluoted, or quoted "out of context". Sometimes,
howl!ver, there is an initial "grain of truth" in these
ephe,mera. A good example came from a publication
naml!d Midnight (vol. 17, no. 46, 31st May 1971).
This was headlined: "Complete town is mystified
when Man discovers 80-foot hole under his house .
and finds Dog nursing her pups at the bottom". It
. then opens as follows: "To suddenly discover an 80ft. hole under your house is enough of a surprise, but
imagine finding a female dog and her healthy puppies
at the bottom of that hole! Aaron Brasher of Birmingham, Alabama, heard the distant barking of dogs one
day, and the sound seemed to be coming from underneath the house." and so on. Big mystery! So we
rang the Brashers and had a very friendly, personal,
and interesting talk with Mrs. Brasher sr. And here's
the true story - from the main course to nuts, and
without the "soup".
The Brashers have owned and occupied the house
for 30 years and since it was built. They had always
known that the constructors had drilled beneath the
lot - in the hope of finding a source of water on the

land - and that they had gone down "s,ome hundred

feet". Over, the years a variety of anim!!1s, both do-
mestic and! wild, had either fallen into this hole, or
had resorted there to have their litters. However, it
was solidly plugged and only about two feet deep.
Aaron Brasher Jr. had often rescued said animals
simply by teaching down and hauling t:hem out. On
this occasi'on, however, the combined ",eight of the
dog - a str:ay mutt -- and her puppies had apparently
caused the "plug" to collapse, and they slowly slithered down the shaft, undamaged. When puppy noises
were heard) Mr. Brasher Junior said something like:
"Oh! Here !we go again; I'll go fish them out". But
when he crawled under the house he was indeed somewhat startled to find that he could not reach the bottom of the hole.
So he and his dad const~ucted
a sort
,
,
of grab-bag and, with a powerful flashlight, went
'fishing' . Mrs. Brasher tells me that they got the
mother intd the net very quickly and hauled her up,
but that th~ pups didn't seem to know quite what to
do. So theyi 'baited' the net with food a~d, after several tries, they got first one and then the other pup
up safely. :
i

Mrs. Brasher says that they still do not know how

this "new~paper" got into the act, b~t the phone
started jangling on the first of June and kept it up for
a week. Wi~hin two days they had good homes for all
three dogs,! They had alerted the local ASPCA and
the Humane Society, but neither rendered any assistance -- mostly because they had no experience of
such an affair, nor equipment to cope with it. In our
opinion, they should have got in touch WIth the local
Grotto of the National Speleological iSociety who
specialize in getting 'things' out of cayes. Be that
as it may, this great 'mystery' would appear to be
solved as otnow, and so we can all return :to abnormal.

'~. . . . . .,_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. r. . . . .~. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .r.

. . . . . . . . . . . . ._~. . . . . . . . . . . ._ . . . . . . .. . .

59

UFO LOGY
We are extremely pleased to be able to report that
one after another of the serious-minded ufological
journals are begi nning not only to publish listings of
reports but to analyze them statistically. The British,
the French, and the Spaniards are hard at work, and
we understand there are more such surveys upcoming
from Denmark and Sweden. At least three groups in
the United states speak of eventual computerization
when enough material has been assembled to sort out
the factors to be analyzed. This is all very encouraging, but we are once again beginning to have doubts
as to the efficacy of all this because we more and
more veer to the thoughts expressed in this column
in our last issues.
Also, more and more, it comes to look as if these
phenomena come from other universes, as opposed to
astronomical bodies in our Universe. What is more,
there could be either one of two (or both at once)
reasons why this will make it impossible for us to
identify them even taxonomically. First, as Einstein
pointed out, there could be an infinity of other universes, so that there could be an infinite variety of
UFOs from which no amount of statistical analysis
will produce anything tangible. Second, we now have
to contend with Vallee's theory, which is increasingly subscribed to by an ever growing number of
scientists (see P.6'2). This, of course, would render
any of our (human) efforts completely worthless,
since they would be incomprehensible to us.
To reiterate, and to put the matter into the proverbial nutshell, this theory presupposes that not
only are we dealing here with intelligencies immensely superior to ours (and technologies to go with
these) but that these creatures can create, spontaneously, anything they like, anywhere -- and animate

as well as inanimate -- and any time. Further. they

themselves may have no corporeal existence per se.
but be more like "minds" and thus invisible to us.
Comes then the next question.
Are what we call UFOs really "real" according to
our definition of reality, or are they like those
mirages which can be photographed? The electromagnetic effects that they cause are not incompatible
lith the second notion; likewise, thermal, chemical.
radiational and even sonic manifestations could be
explicable. And. speaking of mirages, most of them
have not in any way been explained, notably those
mediaeval-looking towns in the skies over Sweden
in which people could be clearly seen going about
their business. And how about the Spanish fleet that
sailed over the Sahara, which was filmed by a French
film crew that was on location in Morocco? Many of
the ships were later identified from their pennants
from sixteenth century naval records. Might these not
be other constructs of a nature similar to UFOs?
All of this speculation leads us directly to consider two more well established phenomena: poltergeists and the so-called humanoids. They too could
be mere constructs: the first invisible, the second
visible to at least some of us. Cats, owls, and, as it
now appears. many other predaceous animals. can see
way out into the infra-red and so hunt warm-blooded
animals in what appears to us to be total darkness.
SOme of the smaller wild cats can also see some
things that we cannot. in bright artificial light. In
fact, it begins to look as if our environment is perpetually loaded with all manne r of entities. Some
could be indigenous to this earth; others need not be
- and quite apart from the constructs.

Irresponsible Journalism
An article entitled "Gov't Hides Facts To Head Off Panic" in the National Bulletin of the 10th May
1971. which "quotes" noted British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle on "alien minds that control our every move"
He notes in a letter to us that he did give
is, according to Professor Hoyle, a "complete fabrication".
a press conference when he was in Canada last year, and that possibly the National Bulletin reported all
these facts incorrectly. As for the press conference in London - this is complete rubbish!"
Elsewhere in this issue we present some glaring and disgraceful examples of irresponsible journalism.
But this menace comes in various forms. Edward J. Fortier, writing in the National Observer, notes that
"Only last year a major American Publisher produced an expensive book on Alaska that is regarded by Alaskans as the definitive book of erroneous information about our state. Item: The book reports that Eskimo
hunters are finding it difficult to feed the horses they use for hauling sleds because of a shortage of walrus
meat, which, according to the book, is a staple in the horse diet. Most surprised by this revelation are the
Eskimos, most of whom have never seen a live horse." One can only hope that the fact that the book is not
named, mean& that Mr. Fortier is kidding; but we have a horrible feeling he isn't. He also notes that Alaskan
companies "are resigned to having large suppliers in the smaller states D.e. all 49 of them] aSK them to
please remit in U.S. funds".

._----

-------

-------,--------------

60

Our technology is creeping up on these unseen

worlds. Comes the question then: will we be allowed
to take a look at them? Superior intelligencies m.ight
well prefer not. But then again, if they have such ultimate power over us, what would they want with us in
the first place? Is it not possible that they have
al ways been controlling our evolution, and educating
us to a point at which we could be ready to take a
peek at the greater reality. We have said before that
there' is nothing illogical in supposing that this
plant!t is nothing more than a nursery; and old
Charles Fort constantly remarked that' we would
appear to be owned, just like a herd of cattle.

ON INFIRMITY
About a month ago, as of the time of writing this,
a Mr. Elliot Carlson, a staff writer for the august
newspaper the Wall Street Journal, rang us to ask the
the very simple question "Whatever happened to
'flying saucers'?" Since this gentleman was a professional journalist, we endeavoured to answer his
ques'tion, which we felt was realistic rather than
purely rhetorical. It was really very simple because
the only reason for supposing that the number of
repoIts had dwindled away almost to zero, as most
people seem to think, is that newspapers have given
up printing them! However, to back up this contention,
we sent Mr. Carlson quite a lot of material, and
references to the massive summaries being published
in Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Britain,
France, and Spain. Last week [14 June] ~I his story
appeared on the front page of his paper. This is a
very fine piece of reporting. Unfortunately, however,
Mr. carlson didn't do his homework; but, rather, relied
on the now considerably infirm organization called
NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena) which apparently has not done its homework (or even the daily work for which it was set up
to do) either.
It would seem that NICAP does not read other
ufological publications and especially foreign ones.
But then, Americans always were more than a little
chauvinistic. Furthermore, from one statement in
Mr. Carlson's story, it would appear that NICAP has,
and l:or the third time in its sixteen years of life, de-

cided to commit SUIcide. This remark is' emphasized

below:"Then again, the buffs expect UFOs to be around
for a long time, one outgrowth of a theory :that asserts
the existence of another universe located very close
to earth's. 'Only it's invisible because it'sonanother
space-time continuum,' explains Ivan Sanderson,
director of the society for the Investigation of the
Unexplained. 'However, beings from truls other universe sometimes choose to appear here physically,
which they can do by manipulating various time warps.'
"NICAP derides all this as bunk, but 'nonetheless
refuses to accept the-validity of the Condon report's
conclusions ...
NICAP was founded by a professional' promoter on
on a somewhat grandiose scale and with a sensiblesounding prospectus, so that a number of prominent
people accepted positions on its Board. Said promoter
then set about to "murder" the enterpris~ by turning
it into a sort of intellectual circus; arid the thing
would have foundered then and there had not Major
Donald Keyhoe come to the rescue and ~managed to
get this gentleman to resign. Serious-minded ufologists
were greatly encouraged and the organization immediately assumed top place in the field - and internationally at that. However, the new apprpach to the
subject almost immediately got into anot~er rut. This
was the adoI.tion of a paradox as the basis of its
policy: namely, that UFOs were/are machines, but
that, at the same time, they did not, an~ could not,
have occupants. This turned off anyboc!-Y with any
scientific training for, while we indeed had robot
machines as probes, such as we used before the
manned lunar landings. there could be ,no possible
reason for asserting that such machine-probes could
not be 'manned'. This ruling cut off any possibility
of analyzing reports of said occupants - just as
much as it did those of the so-called "contactees".
Then Don Keyhoe got in an argument with the USAF,
and for some years NICAP's efforts s~em
to have
I
been devoted almost exclusively to lam~asting that
already embattled outfit, thus antagonizing not only
it but most other departments of government. The
organization also got into one hell of a financial mess.
Next, NICAP loosened up intellectually and realistically to the extent of admitting the possibility of
'occupants', and it even went so far as to announce

!tequest ~ Help:

One of our members has a team competent to investigate reports of UFOs. He has asked ttiat anyone
ha\-ing knowledge of such reports in Maryland, Delaware, northern and eastern Virginia, ea~tern west
(by gosh!) Virginia, and southern Pennsylvania, get in touch with him. His group will investigate and will
send full reports to APRO for their computerization program. 'Old' reports may be sent to him, 8.ddressed
to Member #460, c/o SITU, Columbia, NJ 07832. 'Immediate' reports may be telephoned to area code 301,
43fi-0941.

61

that it would devote some time and thought to analysing the stories of the contactees. But, unfortunately, it appears to have been too late, since they
didn't go far enough and face up to the new theory of
the advanced 'established scientists, like Drs. Vallee,
Schonherr, Michel, and others. Also, they either did
not read, or failed to understand, Dr. Carl Sagan's
Intelligent ~ in the Universe, though that admittedly only added fuel to their own particular fire.
which was to the effect that the constructors of UFOs
must be what are calJed ETls or extra-terrestrials.
And with this concept they were so stuck that they
just brushed off Messrs. Vallee, et alii - and, it
would seem, ourselves - as per the quotes above
from Elliot Carlson's column. This road leads to utter
extinction, not just suicide. The truth of the matter
is that not only NICAP but a number of other sincere
and serious-minded organizations that started out on
a one-theme basis (ufology) are not only infirm but
have become senile. They are 'old-fashioned' and
they have failed to keep up with current scientific
thinking. This could be due to lack of basic 'scientific' training and knowledge of methodology.

In this country, it would seem to us that APRO

(Aerial Phenomena Research Organization) alone has
stuck to a pragmatic approach; while the new outfit,
named "Data Net" is positively hard-boiled. In the
other countries mentioned above, one organization
stands out, and like the proverbial sore thumb. This
is that which has published a magazine entitled
Flying Saucer Review since 1955. They have been
on to this "New Theory" - that NICAP and, regretfully, Mr. Carlson, has missed - for more than a
decade.
UFOs have not faded away. To the contrary, reports of them have increased drastically since the
Condon Report was issued. However. it is our contention that there are probably no more now than at
any other time throughout history. It is simply that
the general public is slowly becoming better educated
and less scared of "authority". And now that Vallee
et al, have propounded their theory. you are gOing to
see-enormous "batches" of other people, who were
never before interested in the business, bobbing up.
The working press had better keep its mouth shut but
its ears wide open from now on.

II. ONTOLOGY
TIME TRAVEL
The following fascinating little ditty comes to you
fourth hand, but we doubt that many of you subscribe
to the British scientific weekly, ~ Scientist and
Science Journal, or even to the American Journal Qf
Physics. It's too good to miss, and goes as follows,
in toto, from the former publication (issue of the
27th May, 1971):
"I was my own grandpa in a tachyonic way:- If
tachyons, hypothetical particles which travel faster
than the speed of light, really do exist. we had better
start rethinking our concepts of time, free-will and
history. According to L. S. schulman, Indiana University, Bloomington, resolution of tachyon paradoxel>
about which comes first, the cause or the effect, can
lead to a very static picture of history. Using physicists' parlance: 'history is a set of world lines essentially frozen into space-time'. (American Journal of
Physics, vol. 39, p 481). "While we may feel strongly
that our actions are determined by our past history.
our present may also be a product of our future. Consequently, free-will may be tossed out the window.
Schulman cites several science fiction writers who
have dealt with this problem. They handle history in
a tachyon-consistent way when confronted with characters who can travel back and forth in time. For
example. in 'Behold the Man' by Mike Moorcock,
Jesus turns out to be a twentieth century time trav

ener who is so interested in the crucifixion that he

goes back to watch--and gets crucified. Did you hear
the one about the bloke who inherited his genes from
his son?"
An oft neglected statement was made by Einstein
shortly before his death, and in the presence of one
of our members. This was to the effect that he had
never said that the speed of light was the ultimate
possible speed for anything and everything. Rather,
he said, it appeared to him from his mathematical
analysis of reality to be only a 'turn-over' point; and
for photons only. as far as he knew. In simple terms,
this means two things. First. light could surpass this
turn-over point; and, second, 'other things' could do
so without 'turning over' as one might say. Photons
apparently have no existence until they start to move,
but whether they (or anything else for that matter)
were ever at rest is a moot point! This is pertinent
to the further question as to what happens to them
eventually. Do they accelerate comparatively slowly
and so surpass the speed of light, or do they come to
rest and just cease to exist, or do they go on forever
around their universe? To oversimplify: should we
have (say) a "picture" spreading out at the speed of
light, does it go on forever, or does it eventually
vanish?
These hypothetical tachyons -- tachy means
"quick" in Greek -- present us with a somewhat different hypothetical question, as outlined in the above

62

quot,~. Just what might they 'carry'? Time? Gravity?

What we call Mentality? Or perhaps Progression. as
opposed to Time? But then, would they hit a turn-over
poini; too, so that their future becomes their past, or
vice versa? The essential point is, just what does
happen if (say) photons can exceed the so-called
"speed" of light? Does your backside catch up with
your front-side, and then keep gOing so that you becomE! inverted; and if so, would you then be going
backwa.rds in time. or just go on going forward but
"arse- end- befront" as the British say? In either case,
what's the net result? Methinks this might be of more
import to mentalogists than to cosmologists because,
if se:ience fictioneers can conceive of the results,
they would seem. at least to an ol~ fashioned philosopher, to have made the jump already, and at a far
greater speed than that of light.

BLACK HOLES
We seem to be becoming excessively ontological
but t;his item too falls within the fortean purlieus of
reality. Ontology encompasses cosmology and, as per
the taxonomy of knowledge displayed on page 54, also
the ultimate basics of space. time, and locus. What
is more, year by year, unexplaineds both great and
small are falling ever more into a recognisable pattern. The clue to the whole business, moreover.
would now appear to be the thing we call "time".
which we seem to have apparently so grossly misinterpreted until now. And here it comes again.
In Science, vol. 171. p. 1228, Allen L. Hammond
preslmted an article entitled "Stellar Old Age III:
Black Holes and Gravitational Collapse", in the
regu] ar section entitled Research Topics. This starts
off by saying: "According to the present understanding of stellar evolution, dying stars that are too massi ve"to become white dwarfs or neutron stars collapse
into what are called black holes" If!mphasis ours]
The're has been a lot published on these mysterious
phenomena in recent years, and not only in scientific
litereLture but in some better popular magazines, and
the sl~ience columns of newspapers. It is an abstruse
and highly technical matter and the average layman,
even if deeply interested in the sciences, may well
have given up on it after the first paragraph, as it is
not one that can be made readily understandable
without calling upon quite a lot of knowledge of
cosmology. astronomy, physics. and nucleonics.

We do not presume to attempt an exposition of this

ourselves. for even if we felt competent ~o to do, we
would never be able to get a clear up-tO-date statement into a quarterly - things are moving :too fast. On
the other hand. we feel we should bring: to your attention certain aspects of what has been published
about these black holes that are of mate~ial interest
to forteans, and we have not seen the'se better or
more lucidly expressed than in this article. They
bring us squarely back into this distres~ing field of
time anomalies. In this respect. Hammond goes on to
say: "Black Holes were so named because no mass
or light can escape from them. but it Ihas become
clear that as much as half of the energy, of 'rotating
black holes' could be extracted." He then goes on to
explain that: "APparently there are four kinds of
black holes. The simplest - named : after Karl
Schwarzchild - has no charge and is ~ot rotating.
The more complicated geometry that results in the
second type, which has both mass and :angular momentum, was first worked out by Roy Ke~r; this type
of black hole has an inner surface known as the event
horizon, from which no light or mass can ~scape, and
an outer surface known as the stationary ~imit. These
two surfaces coincide in the Schwarzcilild type. A
third type of black hole is characterized by mass and
charge. The most general type, the fourth, combines
all three properties - mass, charge, and angular
momentum. According to Wheeler and RUffini. transitions are possible from one form of brack hole to
another by, for example, the accretion o( particles."
But the most fascinating observation goes: as follows:
"The interiors of Black Holes are beli~ved to have
some remarkable properties. Inside the outer surface
of these collapsed objects, for example, distance !!!!Q
time switch roles [emphasis ours] according to the
theory. Distance becomes a timelike coordinate, so
that the distance of the particle from the center of
the hole must al"WayS decrease in the saine way that
time must go forward under ordinary circ~mstances."
These quotes are admittedly "out of context" but
they are not invalid as a perusal of the w;hole article
will prove. The point is that, once again, though
purely theoretically, what we can call 'time' can
behave in a manner other than that which we have
thought up till now. and this is just the point that
such scientific thinkers as Drs. Jacques Vallee.
Luis Schonherr, AimiMichel. et alii. have "considered.
If there can be "time stretch"-oiSiow-dawn, or inversion, a great many enigmas could be explained. We
come back to this again later.

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said. but I am not sure you realize th'iLt what you
heard is not what I meant.

63

III. PHYSICS
A TRULY HAIR-RAISING STORY
by Michael R. Freedman
Much more than being just plain fun, the following
story is significant because of its apparently fortean
nature. The incident was related to us in a letter
from Mrs. William L. Ashby, a resident of New Jersey:
"Every summer we go on a family fishing trip out
of Clayton, New York, on the st. Lawrence with a
Captain [name withheld] as guide.
"It was a gray rainy-looking day, altho not raining
at the time. There were 3 teenagers, 3 adults, and
our experienced guide, whose 28' cabin cruiser we
were aboard. We were drifting, fishing for bass and
pike. Since for the most part we were watching our
fishing lines, we didn't realize anything unusual
until we happened to look at each other. Our hair
was standing straight up! As we started to laugh at
each other, one of the teenagers, a girl who had long
hair and was under the shelter in the cabin, stepped
out onto the open deck to find out what the joke was.
As she stepped into the open, her hair stood straight
up (and I mean straight up to heaven!). But when she
stepped back under the roof of the cabin, her hair
would return to normal.. We all thought this a great
joke and took turns stepping back and forth under the
cabin to have our hair raise and lower as we did so until the guide discovered our hilarity and came aft
to see why we were alllaughing so. He was born and
brought up on the st. Lawrence and has been guiding
parties for years. He had never seen the like before
and became alarmed, taking the metal fishing poles
away from us immediately and making us all go into
the shelter of the cabin, and started up the motor
saying 'Let's get the H~-- out of here'."

This phenomenon is quite common on the water

and is popularly known as "st. Elmo's Fire". an
effect manifested as visible radiated electrical energy
from the tops of masts and other spars on a ship. [lt
was used effectively in the motion picture Moby
Dick.] This results from the build-up of opposite
electrical charges which can originate in clouds.
During magnetic storms, the effect may be even
stronger and more spectacular. whether or not the
captain knew what he was dOing and why. his decision to have those in his charge avoid the metal fishing rods and seek cover was a wise one, as the enhanced electrical character of the area can act as an
attraction for lightning. Lightning need not be accompanied by thunderstorms, you know! It can pop out
from a perfectly clear sky.
To sum up and simplify, what Mrs. Ashby and the
others on the vessel experienced was nothing more
than a static charge held by the immediately surrounding atmosphere and bled off through the most convenient path.
Though most non-experts tend to assume that this
occurs only on water, and particularly at sea, skiers
at "Hyak's Big Blue Chair" near Seattle. Washington
(seattle Times. 28 March 1971) were quite literally
shocked. and also astounded when their ski poles
lit up. One witness reported "lightning hit the mountain and the whole mountain lit up. I felt a small
shock. Then there was a really big flash and I got a
bigger shock. My sister's ski poles lit up." Weather
service officials opted for st. Elmo's fire; and the
man ager of the resort noted that "There were no
marks or burns on any part of the lift or its terminals"
[as there would have been had 'ordinary' lightning
been responsible].

TRI-DIMENSIONAL COMPUTERS
Mrs. Ashby knew the cause was some kind of
electrical phenomenon, but she was puzzled nonetheless. We circulated her letter among our Advisors
who were easily able to pinpoint the cause of this
strange effect.

Murphy' s

by Michael R. Freedman
Holography is a new technological innovation. Or
at least one that seems new because nothing much

Again

Our Board member, walter J. McGraw, called us in some desperation to say that Murphy was a contemporary of Charles Darwin, and promulgated three laws: "If anything can go wrong, it will"; and two others,
generally to the effect that "Everything will prove to be more difficult then it appears at first" and "Everything will take longer than you think it will". We explained to him - and we now explain to you - that we
are speaking of Edsel Murphy - not Sean - who published in 1967. Murphy's Laws, by the way, are proliferating: one of our subscribers has sent us Murphy's Marketing Maxims. These cover advertising., market
planning, market research, publicity, and sales. The Managing Editor of this publication will shortly be
working on Murphy's Laws on Publishing.

64

was really heard about it before ~970. The fact is

that holography has been with us since the late
1940s! Only recently, however, have the technologists been able to come up with a practical way to
put it to use. And now we have "holophones", as
reported in New Scientist and Science Journal last
January.
Before we lose nearly everybody, we had better
explain in the simplest terms what a "hologram" is.
Essentially, it is a picture (photograph) which can be
projected into the air and which has three-dimensional
properties. One may look at this "photograph" from
any angle, even from its "back" and see an "object"
just as if it were solid.Of course, it really isn't. The
photographic buffs call this a "virtual image". Since
this isn't meant to be a technical paper, we will not
attempt to illustrate just how this is accomplished.
Instead we will press forward to "holophones".
The holophone has the ability to record a "pattern"
in time somewhat similar to the ability of a hologram
to record a pattern in space. Thi's effect was first
noted by Dr. C. J. H. watson (not the Dr. watson of
IBM. or of Baker Street either) of the Atomic Energy

Association in Great Britain, as a consequence of

his studies of the atomic plasmas. An appropriately
excited plasma has the ability to hold information in
such a way that a "cue" from the original message
will stimulate immediate recall of the entire message.
This differs from present-day computer storage methods in that information must be "located" and cannot
be recalled until the proper location has been fed in.
with the use of the holophonic principle, all one
need do is give the computer the "cue" and it will
dispense the information. Simply telling the computer
"Hickory Dickory Dock . " will result in its immediate recall and a reply without pause, " the
mouse ran up the clock". Quite a time-saver Might
put a lot of key-punch operators out of business,
though!
APplication of this new principle is yet to be
realized, since further research and design are needed
to put it to practical use. But when such a method
has been found, we will have a computer that can
"think" in terms of concepts instead of the present
"information bits". That is where the battle of the
wits will begin - man vs. machine!

IV. CHEMISTRY
MERCURY AGAIN
This little item was found in the 23rd March issue
of the respected daily
Express, of Easton, Pa.

ru

"Vapor Finds Gold. Valuable deeply buried deposits of gold, silver, copper and other metals can
be spotted by the presence of escaping mercury vapor, says U.S. geochemist J. H. McCarthy of Denver.
'Most metallic ore deposits contain mercury - tiny
amounts of which continously escape to the earth's
surface and enter the atmosphere," he says. 'This
"leaking" mercury can be detected not only in soil
gas at the surface but also in the earth's atmosphere
above the deposit.' "

Every time we turn around, or even sit still and

read, it seems that mercury crops up again. We've
had old German U-boats floating in and allegedly
loaded with mercury - and this story we can confirm
from our official duties during W. W.U; excessive
mercury in oceanic fish; mercury "engines" alleged
to have run ancient Indian "Flying Carpets"; mercury
engines run by modern physicists; mercury popping
UP in rivers; mercury poisoning of many kinds; and so
on and on. Now this. It's up to the chemists and
notably the geochemists to pronounce upon all this.
We reserve even comment, but we are deeply intrigued. Everything about this element is odd. Is
there such a thing as a true "mercury expert"?

VI. GEOLOGY
A HOLE AT THE BOTTOM OF A SEA.
The following fascinating little story appeared in
the USN'S publication All Hands, for May 1971.
And we quote:
"Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Four from
MAS Jacksonville, Fla., may be the only squadron in
the U. S. Navy to have found a hole in the ocean.

"One of the squadron's planes was sent to investigate a chasm in the ocean floor which appeared to
be a source of fresh water about 30 miles east of st.
Augustine.
"The matter was of immediate interest to the communities of st. Augustine and Jacksonville because
they feared a connection with freshwater artesian
wells ashore and their eventual saltwater contamination.

Sign seen on the back of a 5-axle truck: "Before I die and turn to dust. just once. let me pass a Greyhound
BUS."

65

"The VW-4 aircraft located the hole by using radar

and navigational equipment. Sea surface and underwater temperature readings were taken by dropping
bathythermographs (temperature recorders) into the
water.
"The hole, scientists"discovered, is oval-shaped
and measures 75 by 175 f!!et. Cables one thousand
feet long have been dropped into the center of the
hole but preliminary investigations failed to establish
its depth.
"Marine biologists took samples of marine life
and marine geologists studied the earth's crust in
the area. Navy photographers attached to VW-4 used
a newly developed color film to photograph the hole
and a television camera was lowered into the hole
from a support ship for pictures to be used in a
future documentary.
"The hole may have been formed during one of the
earth's ice ages and may be the only phenomenon of
its kind on the east coast continental shelf."

Quite a lot of comment is called for on this. First,

it is not a "hole in an ocean". It is a hole at the
bottom of a sea, being on the continental shelf. Second, the suggestion that it "may have been formed
during one of the earth's ice ages" is pure drivel. The

last batch of southward ice-advances in North America did not get south of the Delaware River on the
eastern seaboard. Should some so-called "ice-age"
have had drastic effects on the climate and geology
of southern Florida, by just what means could it cause
a deep hole to appear on the bottom of the continental
shelf, 30 miles off the coast? Come. now!
One might suggest that this is an underwater
cenote, a circular or oval "sink-hole" such as are to
be found allover the limestone (and lime marl)
plateaux of Yucatan, Quintanaroo, and substantial
parts of Florida. These areas are riddled with a network of caves, and many of these contain saltwater,
though many miles inland, Further, we have seen
aerial photographs taken from low altitude over
shallow waters off the east coast of Quintanaroo,
where the water is as clear as the air above, that
show innumerable such cenotes; and going right out
into deeper water. Just as saltwater leaks in under
the adjacent land masses through some of these, so
also can fresh water bubble up "through them from
pressure on said land.
What the Navy and the oceanographers ought to do
is borrow a bathysphere, or bathyscope, or deepwater
minisub, or some such, and go down to the bottom of
that hole and look around for lateral "entrances"
with a powerful spotlight.

VD. BIOLOGY
IVAN MARX'S FILM
In our April issue we reported very briefly on a
film taken of an alleged Sasquatch (or Bigfoot, or
what you will). The initial reports were favourable,
and a number of veteran ABSM-'hunters' stated that
so far as they could tell, the film seemed to be gen
uine. Our Director, Ivan T. Sanderson, talked to Mr.
Marx by phone, and Mr. Marx stated that he planned
to come to the East in late June or July; he asked if
we could set up a showing for a panel of scientists,

as had been done for the film taken by Roger Patterson.

He was informed that we would be delighted to do
this. However, our investigation of Mr. Marx and his
film continued -- primarly through the good auspices
of Mr. Peter Byrne, Director of the International Wildlife Conservation Society, Inc., a long-time friend of
Mr. Sanderson's and formerly associated with the late
Tom Slick who spent literally millions in an attempt
to capture at least one kind of ABSM (he had groups
both in our Northwest and in the Himalayan area).
Just after the April PURSUIT went to press we re-

We received, some time since, two books from a Mrs. John Tindall. we are delighted to have these, but we
frankly haven't the foggiest notion who Mrs. Tindall is or where to reach her. Can any of our members help?

One of our members is trying to collection information on this. If any of our members are interested in,
and/or working on, this, it would be appreciated if they would write to us. We will put you in touch with
this gentleman.

66

CeiVE!d the following report from Mr. Byrne, which we

quotE! herewith:
"I am sending you half a dozen slides taken from
the Marx film of the 'sasquatch'. For your interest,
the 'creature' in these pictures, which is either Ivan
Marx or another man in a fur suit, is no more than
six feet in height. The lowest branches of the locust
tree, under which he passes in picture No. 273 are
betwl~en 6 ft 1 in and 6 ft 2 ins from ground level.
You will also notice in the picture a white 'glimmer'
in th,~ left background. This is water, a small lake in
the trees. Marx claimed that he took these pictures at
a distance of between 20 and 30 ft with an ordinary
lens. However, if this had been done the water would
not show in the picture. The water can only be seen
from a higher elevation and this elevation can only
be obtained by backing up a small hill (which does
not show in the foreground) and shooting the scene
from this hill with a telescopic lens. This is what
Marx did. He used a telescopic lens, with a tripod.
But he did not have a tele[photo] lens with him on
the day that he supposedly photographed the sasquatch
(Oct. 7th).
"The actual points of proof that we have that the
.
Marx film is a hoax are these:
"A. It was not made where he said that he made it.
(And where, on the day, he took ten or so people up
with him, went in, talked on the radio back and forth,
said that he was in sight of the creature, was getting
pictures of it, that it was turning towards them, to
try and head it off, etc., etc.).
"B. It was not made at the time that he said that
it wa.s made (Oct 7th) but at another time, probably
some time in September, when he was twice seen in
the a.ctual area of the movie (where it was actually
made) supposedly gathering mushrooms with another
man (:alled Red Moon.
"C. The movie was made with a tele[photo] lens
at a distance of from 30 to 40 yards from the subject,
using a tripod. Marx had no tripod with him on the
7th Oct.

"D. Marx claimed to have leaned hi~ camera against a tree to get the smooth pictures. that he did
get of the sasquatch. There is no tree where he
stood to take these pictures.
"There is more. . . but it is circum'stantial and
cannot be regarded as proof positive.
"1. Marx bought old fur coats at the GO,odwill Store
in Spokane in August of last year, a mont:h before the
film. He was seen there by a man caped Gordon
Izacks, of Evans.
"2. When he emerged from the forest on the day of
the movie, when he supposedly had been:following a
sasquatch for four to five hours (and. he told me that
he had great difficulty in keeping up withi it) he wore
a shirt buttoned up to the neck and was not sweating.
I
John Suismehil (name spelling uncertain), a Border
Patrol man, with experience in human 6bservation,
noticed this.
"3. When he gave us (IWCS) the slide~ of the film
to look at, he carefully removed all slidEfs that contained the apple tree. This stunted apple .tree was an
identification mark that worried Marx. A: small boy,
the child of the people who actually discovered the
place of the hoax, * had noticed this in M~rx' shouse
when he first showed the film to some lochl people in
November. Marx remembered this and preshmably was
worried about it being noticed and so it ~as not included in the slides of the film that he gave to us.
"4. We learned, some time in February. !that he had
also taken some stills on the day of the :filming. He
*[Footnote from Peter Byrne: "Don By~ngton (who
found the place where Marx made the film, after a
search that started when his young son, viewing the
film in Marx's house, thought that he rec~gnised the
site and said so. The search, carried :on quietly,
without telling anyone, by Byington and his wife,
I
took four months.) Byington is a rancher at Evans,
near Bossburg.]

"The 800th Lifetime" from Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler.

" ... if the last 50,000 years of man's existence was divided into lifetimes of approximately 62 years each,
:
there have been about 800 such lifetimes. Of these 800, fully 650 were spent in caves. [sic]
"Only during the last 70 lifetimes has it been possible to communicate effectively from one lifetime to
another--as writing made it possible to do. Only during the last six lifetimes did masses of men iever see a
printE!d word. Only during the last four has it been possible to measure time with any precision. qnly during
the last two has anyone, anywhere, used an electric motor. And the overwhelming majority of a;ll material
goods we use in daily life today have been developed within the present--the 800th--lifetime.
.

67

never showed us these stills. Presumably he was

worried that we might blow them up and see whatever
it was that the National Film Company in Salt Lake
City saw we heard that it was stitching in the fur
joints.
"5. Under the terms of his contract he was to hand
over the master copy of the film to us for safe keeping. He gave us a canister, which we, trusting the
man, never did open. (In any case, master copies of
film should never be handled.) When we heard, in
late March, that he was in the process of releasing
and distributing the film in Canada, we opened the
canister, which contained mostly blank film."
We have not heard from Mr. Marx since Mr. Byrne
queried him about these items, and there is no indication whatsoever that he plans to come east to show
his film to experts in physical anthropology. In fact,
he left Bossburg and returned to Burney, California.
(rather quietly, apparently), stating that the people in
Bossburg (one must assume that he is referring to
various investigators) "were not very nice to me".
There are those who still believe that Marx's film
may be genuine, though even they admit that there
are discrepancies in his story. some of the facts, in
no particular order (!), are as follows.
Marx has owned good camera equipment for a good
many years. His 'business' is taking people on cougar
hunts, and one of his gimmicks is to film the hunt
from start to finish, providing the hunter with an
additional 'souvenir' of his hunt. (The fact that cougars - or pumas, mountain lions, 'painters', 'panthers', etc. - should not be hunted because they do
preserve the so-called "balance of nature" is distressing in this context, but not relevant here.) He
has a motion picture camera, identified as a Bolex
16 mm, and a 35 mm camera; the latter is identified
as a Nikon in various newspaper articles, though our
member No. 292, who is himself a photographic expert,
states that it was his opinion that the 'still' camera
Marx owns is a very old Argus (he did not examine it,
but notes that that camera had a very good lens indeed).
We are also told that the reason that Marx has
been unable to find a 'buyer' for his film is excessive
greediness: his price is reportedly based on "How
much per head for 200 million viewers?"! [emphasis
ours] No televisionOr film producer is going to even
consider such a 'deal'.
Also, Marx has told some people that this particular suskwatch is the one known as the "Old Cripple"
who has been known for years in the Colville area.
At the same time, he has also contended that it was

one recently injured: According to The StatesmanExaminer of the 13th November, 197O,'in an article
by Denny Striker, "On the nie;ht of Oct. 6 [1970] an
unidentified person [who said he knew Marx] called
the Marx home, leaving a vague message that either
a car or a train had struck a large, upright creature
on the highway about seven miles north of Bossburg ...
Somebody apparently changed this story somewhere
along the line, since our member No. 292 reports that
he was told that the person reported that ~ had hit
the creature and thought it was a Suskwatch. Now,
Denny Striker stated that "Probably the most impressi ve part of the film, besides its extreme clarity [this
we are not sure of; John Green reports the film to be
"badly underlighted"], is the fact that the Sasquatch
is visibly injured, holding its right arm tightly to its
chest and using its long muscular left arm for compensating balance. Also, both ankles appear badly
skinned, the wounds showing plainly raw against the
black hair of the legs and feet. In watching the frames
singly, the injured or skinned area appears to extend
onto the bottom of one foot, and possibly on both
feet which would account for the apparent pain-filled
movement of the frightened creature." This clearly
.implies a recently wounded ABSM, not the "Old
Cripple" who has been wandering around for years
near the railroad tracks.
Marx reportedly has 35 mm still shots of this
alleged ABSM as well as 35 mm film, though he has
been extremely cagey about letting anyone see the
stills. They are reported to be extremely clear by
Rene Dahinden - who, oddly enough in view of his
activities, doesn't believe in ABSMS! - but we have
not seen them, nor have casual visitors, all of whom
are apparently expected to pay for this "privilege'"
That Marx was able to get both excellent motion
pictures and stills indicates really exceptional ability
on his part. This author (MLF) is pretty fair photographer, but she would not attempt to do both at once'
There is no question at all that Marx expected to
"make a million" on his film. He lives in what has
been described as a "Tobacco Road Shack'" He
does have a rather nice guest house for the hunters
he takes out to look for pumas; but his own home is,
we are told, put together with bailing wire and string.
And his first move on 'getting' this film was to check
various color TV sets for reception in his area. He
had formerly owned a radio.
It is also reported that, rather than treating this
film as valuable, he sent it off by mail to an outfit
that processes film and sends a new roll with the
processed film. This is hardly the way one treats a
unique bit of work!

Let's face it. Marx has lived in the area a good

68

many years; he was associated, however remotely,

with Tom Slick who spent millions searching for a
SUflkwatch; and he is, so far as we are able to determine, "money hungry". The movements made by a
Su~;kwatch have been described in detail by Amerinds,
and are also shown in Roger Patterson's film (!) which
no one has been able to prove is a hoax.
,John Green intends to make some experiments with
a camera come next fall, to see just what is visible,
etc .. on the day that Marx says he filmed it - and the
day that Peter Byrne specifies. Until proved otherwise, I'm afraid we accept Mr. Byrne's report.
Or would Ivan Marx like to "report in" and let us
see everything he has?

There would seem to be a general impression that

if one can get a motion picture of an ABSM, one will
automatically make a milliqn dollars. Patterson and
Marx have now found out otherwise. In fact, films -though facts in themselves, even if genuine (which
Patterson's seems to be) -- are not proof of the existence of these creatures. The only real proof is a
spec:imen, living or dead. And anent this: we receive
innumerable letters from members and non-members,
asking "What happens if I shoot one?". If you do so

in Skamania County, Washington, you can get five

years in jail and a $lO,.OOO fine. So far: as we know,
this is the only formal ordinance that has been passed,
but. . .
.
Fish and Game Commissioners in: a number of
western states have pointed out -- ra~her emphatically -- that because an animal is not specifically
listed in the fish and game laws does hot mean that
one may take pot shots at it: it is, in ~act. automatcally DQ!; "fair game" until a ruling has been made
concerning it. And if an ABSM, of whatever kind, is
determined to be human or hominid rather than pongid,
then it's murder. "Self-defense" is unlikely to impress
a jury in view of the known number of ctiaps traipsing
cross country looking for one.
:
Insofar as Canada is concerned, the! Sasquatch is
Royal Game. In other words, it belongs to the Crown;
in addition to which, gun regulations are very string.
ent in Canada. SO, brother beware!
We do not reproduce here the slides :we have from
Marx's film, partly because of legal omplications
but primarily because, unless blown up tQ about 8 x 10
feet, you cannot really make anything o~ them.
We remain convinc~d that there is an as yet uncaught, unidentified hominid in the montane areas of
our Northwest, across the forested part!s of Canada,
and elsewhere; and eventually someone: will get one
-- for information on stun guns, write to: Red Palmer,
Palmer Chemical & Equipment Co., King Drive, R.R.
#4, Douglasville, GA 30134.
~

VIRI. ANTHROPOLOGY

THli: CHAIN IN THE ROCK

by Richard T. Grybos

Way back in 1966 two of our members, # 17 and

#49, went to Renovo, Pennsylvania to investigate
reports of Thunderbirds in that area. As is the way
with such fortean enterprises, they learned little on
this score, but ran into something else: a report of a
chai n allegedly embedded in rock, and embedded so
deeply that it seemed that it must have been 'dropped'
there before the rock formed. This chain was alleged
to have very large links, not to rust, and to be gradually weathering out of what was aescribed as a
granitic-type rock. The area in which it was located
is extremely 'wild' --and mostly straight up and down!
-- and we were cautioned that no attempt should be
made to find it except during that very short period
after the leaves dropped but before the snows come in
the f.all, or after the snow melted but before the leaves
came out in the spring. And from 1966 through the fall

of 1970 we tried; and each time something happened

and we didn't make it.
In mid-May of this year we received! a somewhat
desperate note from our member #459 wpich said, in
effect, "NOW!". Accordingly, Marion Fawcett, our
member Mark van Horne, and I loaded pur gear and
headed for Coudersport, where #459 resipes. We were
treated to the most extraordinary hospitality by him
and his entire family and, frankly, with04t their help.
we would probably still be there, trying to find our
way either to or from the chain.
On the evening of our arrival we talked by phone
with both the original informants -- whose stories had
changed considerably over the years -- ahd laid plans
for the following day. The next morning Bob and Mary
(#459 Jr. and his wife) appeared as s6heduled and
drove us to see a sort of local "lore master" who provided additional information and excellent advice.
They then drove us, using a topograph~c map and a
compass, through a maze of State Fore$t roads (and
even then we got lost once!) to the trall
that leads
I
down to Paddy Run. Bob and Mary very sensibly -- and
fortunately, as it turned out -- staye~d with their

69

volkswagen Camper, while the three of us trekked

down the trail to the spot where Dark Hollow meets
Paddy Run. We searched this area thoroughly but
found nothing to indicate the presence of said chain.
although there was evidence that a chain could possibly have been placed in one of the boulders near
these streams. this in the form of a groove in a large
boulder which was definitely not natural in origin and
seemed to have some type of concrete remaining at
its base. On returning to our rendevous point, we
found that Bob and Mary had solved the 'mystery'. A
local resident on whose land we were parked, happened to stop by, and they had asked him about the chain.
He knew all about it, having owned a cabin there
for nearly 50 years and having played along Paddy
Run as a child. It is (or, probably -- by the time you
read this -_. was) about 200-300 yards up Paddy Run
from its intersection with Dark Hollow Run, and is
nothing more than an old logging chain. There was a
sawmill there many years ago and white pine logs
were cut and floated down the streams when the
spring floods were on. They were stopped at the mill
site by logs chained together and stretched across
the creek. As #459 told us, "At times, the chains
were anchored into solid rock. A 2" hole was drilled
into the rock. A chain attached to an eye-bolt was
dropped into the hole, which was then filled with hot
lead. If the links entered the hole, so much the better
for a firm grip." Member #459 had seen an old logging
chain and had described it to us; and, on our return
Marion Fawcett called the owner of the cabin and
asked very innocently "Are the links round?" - a
'leading' question which, if she were a lawyer, would
have brought a reprimand from any judge in the country.
There is no question that this is a logging chain:
the links are!l!ll round, but rectangular; these loggingchain links were made with squared-off corners, so
that they would bite into the logs. Mr. W., who lives
in Williamsport, also offered to get the chain for us
when he is next at his cabin. We have dropped him a
note and will pick it up, or have one of our members
do it for us, and add it to our "museum". We have had
serious doubts about it for some time, but in view of
the various and conflicting reports about it, it seemed
worth investigating. It turned out not to be a mystery,
but we will not soon forget the extraordinary help
and hospitality of #459 and family!
FOOTPRINTS IN THE ...
We have dealt before with apparently human footprints impressed in solid - and very ancient - rocks.
Footprints, or tire tracks, or practically anything else
in (surface) sandstone are one thing; footprints from
a deeply buried stratum overlaid by a variety of
other strata, are something quite else. However,
some of the prints that have turned up were definitely "manufactured".

Paul Bonneau of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan,

Canada, owns a rock which was found originally in or
about 1910 by one Curtis McCammack who was
digging a 6S-foot well on his farm. near Gravelbourg.
It is not clear whether the rock was found in the well
or simply near it. but the footprint was not noticed
until the light happened to strike it at a particular
angle. The rock was taken to the University of
Saskatchewan at Saskatoon where it was estimated to
be thousands of years old. Paul Bonneau, in an article for True west (Jan.-Feb. '71) implies an expression on the part of the University experts that "The
footprint was made by pouring drops of water on the
heated rock by the Incas people who lived in the
Rockies of western Canada. They were wiped out by
the second Ice ~ .. [emphasis ours]. .
We have no idea who these "Incas" were, and we
are even more puzzled by people bright enough to
produce an excellent footprint in rock by the method
alleged above - who presumably simply sat there and
shivered until "wiped out by the second Ice Age".
Also, the onset of the Second Ice Age was certainly
hundreds of thousands of years ago. (The geologists
keep pushing everything ever further backward in
time, and have not yet reached any agreement on any
dates for the various "Ice Ages".)
The rock, which measures 14" long by 9 'h" wide,
is described as granitic in Mr. Bonneau's article,
though he told us on the phone that it was "black lava
rock". It weighs about 50 pounds. The print itself
(see cut) is lO 'h" long from heel to toe and 4" wide
across the widest portion of the ball of the foot.Now,
someone made the comment "It can't be a policeman's
footprint because it isn't flat-; and Mr. Bonneau
noted that "The foot which made the imprint was
never, according to the measurements of the ball of
the footprint, restrained or held in or tamed by the
invention of civilization .. the shoe, . n. However,
in the first place, it certainly ! flat, showing no
sign of any "arch" at all. Footprints are funny things.
A chap named Ray Pickens has been having fun in
our Northwest with wooden "Bigfoot" prints nailed to
his boots. The prints have fooled a good many people
in the Colville (Washington) area, some of whom
refuse to believe that the prints made by Pickens are
not genuine. There is no doubt at all that ~ of the
tracks which have been found are fraudulent; but
jokesters should be warned that wood doesn't bend or
do a number of other things that "live" feet do. Fakes
may fool a "layman" but they won't fool an expert on
feet (apply to Dr. John Napier!). Then, there is another aspect to all this.
Few people realize the variation there is in the
imprints left by ordinary human beings. TO exemplify,
we had the resident members of our staff oil the soles
of their right feet and then step on to a large slab of
slate, with the results shown in the accompanying
cut. The persons concerned were:-

70

l1~ichard Grybos, male white Caucasoid of

Polish extraction; 6 ft. tall, weighing 140 lbs.
(b) Michael Freedman, male white Caucasoid of
Hebrew extraction; 6 ft. tall, weighing 140 lbs.
(c) Ivan Sanderson, male white Caucasoid of
Scots extraction; 6 ft. tall, weighing 160 lbs.
(d) Marion Fawcett, female white Caucasoid of
German-.polish-English extraction; 5 ft. 1 in.
tll.ll, weighing 91 lbs.

(a)

It should be noted that all four persons listed in

the above were, from the time they could walk, shod.
However, (c) and (d) have not, for a number of years,
worn shoes of any kind, either summer or winter, and
both wear only soft-soled mocassins when travelling.
It is not suggested that this is the cause of, or reason
for, their very pronounced "arches". However, there
is no doubt that their toes have "expanded" due to
the release of their feet from the confinement of
standard footwear.
It should be noted that none of these imprints in
any way resembles that of the "Yeti", while they
could, by deeper impression, coincide with those of
the "Suskwatch" (page 7 3).

Photograph courtesy of Paul Bonneau.

There can be little doubt that early man "carved"

footprints into rocks for some purpose or :other, just
as the artists who did the cave painting se'em to have
delighted in making hand-prints either by :stamping a
hand painted with red ochre or such, or by squirting
colouring matter around a hand adpressed ~o the rock
face. This could explain the footprints fou;nd all over
the world in igneous rock. However, it sti~l leaves a
mystery. This is how some of these goti so deeply
buried under sedimentary strata - not la"jas, please
note - if the reports of such are valid. l'i!aked footprints are bad enough, but when we come ~o apparent
shoe imprints (see PURSUIT, Vol. 3, No.4) one does
indeed become confused.

Section - HISTORY
Sub-Section - Modern
AMERICANISM\?
This is not normally our stuff since it i.s primarily
technological; and it could be construed: as having
political implications. However, we conte~d that the
following are purely historical.
Two items have been brought to our attention_ One
concerns the "invention" of the airplane;: the other
of television. From records that we h~ve in our
private and family files, some claims concerning the
latter, would appear to be travesties. [Th~ Russians
some time back claimed the invention of the first
electric light bulb and - like Pharaoh'~ daughter
and her story about the bullrushes - they apparently
got away with it! This, too we happen ~o know is
nonsense, because the undersigned's mot.her turned
on the first such bulb in Europe, in a ~earoom on
Bond Street in London, when she was twelve years
old (1894). It was supplied by a fellow name:d Edison!]
The matter of the first-heavier-than-air machine
that flew, we know nothing of. The story goes as
follows, ex the Edmonton Journal of Canada, and
was sent us by a member who, in turn, ~ot it from
Gene Duplantier. a most respected canadran author.
"Auckland, N.Z. (CP) - A relic of intense interest in the history of aviation is lying neglected and
slowly deteriorating in Auckland. It is an aircraft, or
the remnants of one, built by Richard Wi11i~m Pearce,
a New Zealander who, many people believe, may
have flown a heavier-than-air machine before
the
I
Wright brothers. something of a recluse, Pearce made
his experiments on a remote New Zealand !farm without fanfare or publicity. He was undoubtedly a natural
mechanical genius and the aircraft he built were
marvels of ingenuity. It seems certain that;they were
equipped with ailerons earlier than any other aircraft.
"Opinions differ about the time of Pearce's first
flight. Some evidence points to 1904, a tittle later
than the first flight by the Wright brothers; but some

71

people firmly believe that Pearce made his flight

before them - in 1903. In any event, the remnants of
Pearce's third aircraft have been preserved and for
the present are housed in the Museum of Transport
and Technology in Auckland. But they have been
there since 1964 without work being done on them.
The museum authorities are fully aware of the need
for action, but lack of funds prevents a full campaign
of restoration. In any case there are two schools of
thought - that the machine should be restored, or
that it should be preserved as far as possible in its
original state and a replica made. The machine was
found more or less intact many years after Pearce's
death in a hangar used by the Canterbury Aero Club
[we assume that the machine was found in the hangar,
not that Pearce died there: words should convey
meaning. MLF]. Both the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington and the South Kensington Museum in
England have said they would be happy to take over
the aircraft as a machine of major historical importance."

When it comes to the next one, however, we really

do have to take issue. This is the little matter of
television. A "combined dispatch" from Salt Lake
City, utah, dated the 12th March of this year, read
(in part) "Philo T. Farnsworth, 64, considered by
many the father of television, died last night in the
Hospital of the Latter Day Saints. Farnsworth transmitted the world's first TV picture in 1927 when he
was 20 from a laboratory he set up in san Francisco
after securing his own financial backing. In 1929,
he made his first effective transmission of motion
- showing cigaret smoke - in a Philadelphia laboratory He had developed a complete theory of
electronic television by the time he was 15, and
applied for a patent on a television system when he
was 18 His development of a working system of
television transmission occurred simultaneously with
that of another American inventor, Vladimir zworykin,
who was working separately, but Farnsworth always
got credit for the first transmission . . . Following
development of his system, he was granted the

first television broadcasting license in '1934 "

If you will read any good modern encyclopaedia
you will find that the principles of television were
worked out by a German physiClSt in the late 1800s.
However, nothing was done about lts practical appliuntil 1913 when one Dr. Baird of London, England,
started experimenting. Now, as it so happens, one
of my godfathers, by the name of James McKelvie,
who was in charge of all fuel supplies for the Allies
in World War I, and who was also a partner of Marconi's,
put up one fifth of the money for this work. My mother
put up another fifth, Marconi another, and a gentleman named Weaver another. Who put up the rest I do
not know.
Baird single-handedly developed television broadcasting; and, by 1918 he was able to give his first
demonstration to his sponsors. My mother was present
and I have her account on file. They were first shown
his lab, in which a young man sat on an inverted
bicycle bolted to the floor. He had a pedometer and
had to maintain a certain speed by peddling. One
wheel of the bicycle was elevated and had four transparent segments, coloured red, blue, green, and
yellow. or. Baird projected certain pictures, and a
scan of his lab, through this spinning w heel. The
sponsors then went five houses up the street - actually Frith street, in SOho, London - and viewed
what Dr. Baird was projecting - on (and get this) a
36" X 48" ground-glass screen - and in full optical

1J.2.1..w:!
It may surprise Americans to know that there were
six hours, six nights a week, of TV broadcast by the
BBC in England in 1934, which reached about sixty
miles around London. I made my first TV cast in
early 1938 - with a live elephant on the first floor
of the old Alexandria Palace, incidentally - and half
adozenothers before the outbreak ofW.W.II in Europe.
Mr. Farnsworth may have been the first American
inventor of television, but I am afraid the United
States can't claim a first on everything. And also
bear in mind that amazing "parallel evolution" of
ideas that has happened so often in history.
Ivan T. Sanderson.

CURRENT PURSUITS

ENTOMBED TOADS (AND OTHER ANURA)

Marion Fawcett continues to plug away at this
and is currently carrying on some rather lugubrious
experiments. Member #66 has reported that a friend
of his claims to have found some dessicated frogs
underneath his refrigerator and to have placed them
in water in the sink, where they allegedly revived in
a matter of hours. Dessicated, and definitely dead,
frogs are a fairly common 'phenomenon' in the base-ment of the Old House at our HQ. Thus far, experi-

ments have failed to provide the slightest confirm a..

tion of the claim reported above.

CHAIN IN ROCK
No. 5 is being 'scratched' - see page 68 for our
full report. However, we would still like to know
more of the alleged enormous chain reportedly used
as a 'ladder' somewhere up the Amazon River.
Member #300. where are you?

72

THE BOSSBURG SASQUATCH: see page 65.

THE THUNDERBIRD PHOTOGRAPH
nus is becoming ridiculous! Can't somebody find
this #*4%#* photograph. We know of dozens of people
who have seen it; and in fact have just received a
letter from a member who says "Not two months ago I
saw the thunderbird photograph but for the life ot me
I can't find it now!" Our member who works at the
NGS says he has looked at all National Geographic
maga:~ines for the 30s and cannot find it. On the other

hand, recent reports from a particular area have led

us to ask a fairly "footloose and fancy-free" couplethe husband with biological training and both with
extensive experience in camping - to try to park in
that area in an attempt to locate a thunde~bird and at
least get photographs if not a specimen. I They have
promised to try.
TIME ANOMALIES AND VILE VORTICES,
we are gathering information and id~as by the
bucketful, but until all of this is fully an~lyzed and
correlated, we will make no further report.'

The Society is unable to offer or render any services whatsoever to non-members. Further, th~ Society
does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its publications are those of the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any members by word
of mouth or in print may be construed as those of the Society.
~
There have been a number of articles recently on the problem of junk mail and the way in whi;ch one's
naml~ gets on such a mailing list. We should like to assure our members and subscribers that our mailing
list is available only to resident staff at our headquarters.

BOOK REVIEWS

by Marion L. Fawcett
Odette Tchernine. !!! Pursuit Q! the Abominable Snowman. New York: Taplinger.197L $6.95. (Pub~ished in
Eng]and as The ~. London: Neville Spearman, 1970. n.75)
,
We know virtually nothing of Miss Tchernine except that she is of Russian descent and was br6ught up
in France. Her publisher is not very helpful, simply describing her as "a student of her subject :formany
year s". Her English is delicious, and her editor, if she had one. had the sense to leave it alone; though
therE! are a few passages which defy interpretation completely, and these should have been quer~ed. She
also makes some classic statements, one of which I cannot resist quoting: "Nobody ever succeeded in
catching him [an ABSM] , apart from the very few cases of 'wild men' being captured." She also' crJdits our
very old fri&nd Gerald Russell with having advised one expedition "on the choice of essentfal eqhipment,
such as lamps, flying syringes to fire sedatives, and other articles useful when camping in remote and
diffieult terrain". But, to be serious, her book, though enchanting to read, has some value but mitny very
serious defects.
:
She begins with a discussion of the Bozo or "Iceman" case and makes the most frightful mud4le of it.
She seems to have aquired most of her information from one or two newspaper articles, though she has read
Bernard Heuvelmans' paper. She dismisses this whole business as a hoax, primarily on the basis iof inaccura1;e information; and some of her "research" methods are a bit odd. She states that she f040wed a
"hunch" and wrote to VancojJver, B.C., for "a clue to the myster;y."One can only presume that she ~oes not
read the London Sunday Times -it carried detaildd accounts of the progress of the 'case'. She reproduces
one of Heuvelmans' photographs of 'Bozo', and Ivan T. Sanderson's very careful drawing, made after lying
on top of the 'coffin' for six hours, making technical sketches - this is labelled "an artist's dr~wing
of
,
the Iceman", and is "attributed to Heuvelmans in the text!
:
Having disposed of this, she launches into her main text, namely, the Russian, Mongolian, and'ichinese
findings. Her information comes mainly from Professor Boris Porshnev and is largely in the form, of quotations from his letters. Were it not for this, we would be inclined to be even more sceptical of her material
than we are. She is, in fact, abysmally ignorant of affairs in the western hemisphere generally, ~and has
obvi()usly never read Ivan T. sanderson's book Abominable Snowmen: Legend ~ !g ~ (Phila?elphia:
Chilton Books, 1961, $7.50). [She quotes Porshnev as saying that -His book has had no effeqt on the
public. People avoid it and shrug their shoulders". Ha! Judging by our mail, and by the fact that after ten

73

years the book is still selling over 800 copies a year (unless you are in the publishing business you may not
realize just how phenomenal this is), it has had considerable impact.] She states that "The last report I
received about that cousin of Bigfoot bhe Canadian Suskwatch], was a rambling story that circulated some
years ago" - she is referring to Ostman's story! And she mentions a "Victor Birn" who worked with the
late Tom Slick; this was Peter By,rne (see elsewhere in this issue for his report on Ivan Marx's film). In
other words, she is so inaccurate, and uninformed, about affairs on this continent, that one must be wary
of statements she makes about other areas.
When she quotes directly from Professor Porshnev, she is undoubtedly accurate; and the same may be
said for material quoted directly from Academician Rinchen of the Mongolian Academy of Science; and, <;0
far as we know, also Professor Jeanne Josefovna Kofman (who was born in France but has adopted Russian
citizenship, and has done a great deal of work in the Caucasus). However, the information and even reports
that Odette Tchernine quotes, are extremely vague and general in nature. She does not include the full
technical details included in the original 'official' reports, or the publications of any of these authorities.
This makes interesting reading and does provide considerable information on ABSMal affairs which
has not hitherto been available to the general public, or readily available even to the most devoted ABSM
'addict'. However - and this is an extremely 'large' "However": Odette Tchernine's book was published in
England as The Yeti and in the United States as In Pursuit of the Abominable Snowman. Let us get this
straight once;nd for all: this book has Virtuallynothing todowith the Yeti or 'original' "Abominable
Snowman". The author babbles happily about several types of ABSMs, giving their local names in great
detail on occasion, but makes no distinction whatsoever between the various types, lumping them all as
"relic Neanderthalers". (She may have got this bit from Professor Porshnev who tends to lump all ABSMs
in this category.)
Take a look at the two illustrations below. That on the left is an imprint of a Yeti, a giant, rock-climbing APE or Pongid; that on the right, the imprint of a Suskwatch (or Bigfoot, or Oh-Mah, etc.) found in mud
on the banks of the Frazer River in British Columbia, Canada.. The latter is the footprint of a HOMINID or
man-type or human-type 'creature.' There is not the slightest resemblance between them. The Yeti or
"Abominable Snowman" is an APE; the others are all "MEN". The Yeti is restricted to south central
Eurasia - i.e. the Nan Shans, the Himalayas, and the Karakorams. They do not live on the snowfields;
they live in the upper montane forests where there is something to eaN
The other ABSMs - an abbreviation coined simply because there is no general term for these hominids constitute a rather bewildering array, but can be confined to thrke primary categories:- sub-humans in East

Imprint of right foot of the "Yeti", taken. from a

,plaster cast made by Eric Shipton in snow on the
Menlung Glacier in 1951. on his reconnaissance
of the route to conquer Mount Everest.

Imprint of right foot of "Suskwatch" taken from

mud on the banks of the Fraser River in British
Columbia in 1959.

__-------------------------------..

.. ..

--------~--------------.~--

I--~

74

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF II ABSMs

(oc.l~AN IA]

-....-..

,:

- .. -.i, ,,_. _ _ .'_ ......

.......

ANTARCTICA

MYTH. LEGEND r,
FtlLKLORE OF A&.sM.

(1)

(2)
(3)

(4)

(5)
(6)

The Wudewasa: Probably a Neanderthaler. and

extinct. except for certain recent reports
from northern Norway and Finland.
The Guli-avan: Namely. the mll.n-sized, broadbut-human-type-footed creature that ranges
from the. Caucasus to southern China.
The Almasty: The very human type of the open
country; leaving footprints almost exactly
like those left by Neanderthlliers in caves
in Italy and the Crimea.
The MEH-TEH (or !Ell): Manifestly n2l a hominid, but a pongid, and probably a residual
of Gigantopithecus, but too heavy to climb
trees. and thus a rock-climber.
The Orang ~: A tropical pigmy form, with
long head hair. (The Malayan, white skinned
type might be a larger form of this species.)
The Dhzu-teh: A very large hominid, with completely human-type feet, but fully ~
toes, that is distributed all around the

I. . . . . ._ . . .

Pacific Arc, from southwest ,China., via

eastern Siberia to Alaska, down and across
Canada (as the Suskwatch), a~d then on,
via California (their 'Bigfoot'),; to Mexico,
Guatemala, and the Andes to' Tierra del
Fuego.
(7) Iill! Agogwe: A fully-haired. tropical pigmy
hominid.
(8) [Of doubtful provenance]: Described variously
as of very large size but with ~n opposed
big toe. More likely a lowland ~orest ape.
(9) (see No. 6 above)
:
(10) The Shiru: A pigmy, fully-haired hominid.
(11) The Didi: This sounds very much li~e a form of
- NOS. 6 and 9, but practically: nothing is
known of it. The footpr1nt is definitely
hominid, with apposed big toe. :
(12) The Mapinguary: This is 1ll-definE1d; but Dr.
Bernard Heuvelmans seems to feel that it
is at least a giant primate.
'

75

Eurasia and Orient alia. i.e. Malaya. China. central Eurasia (possibly a Neanderthaler) and eastern Eurasia
(also possibly Neanderthalers); proto-dgmies in Central and South America. Sumatra. west and East Africa.
and the valley forests of the Himalayas; and neo-giants in Indo-China. East Eurasia. North and South
America (this includes the Suskwatch. Bigfoot. Oh-Mah type).
If you will take a look at the footprints of our resident staff (see p. 70). you will see that the Suskwatch
print is very human in appearance. though much broader and longer. As noted there. the business of footprints is a sticky business. But no one can fail to see the e xtraordinar.y difference between these human
(or hominid) prints and the print of the Yeti. The latter has not just one but two widely spaced opposed
"big toes". and three tiny (three. four and five) closely spaced toes. This does not fit any known pattern but
is certainly pongid rather than hominid. Photographs of these prints do not really give any idea of their
size. The first sight of an actual cast of a Yeti print is an awful shock; they are not really very long but
they are enormously broad - about 8Yz" wide!
As a supplement to the photographs of tracks. we add a map showing the areas inhabited or allegedly
inhabited by the variou~ types of ABSMs.
All of this Odette Tchernine simply ignores. I am sorry to say that it is probable that she has no knowledge of it and does not have proper training in zoology. let alone physical anthropology. to correctly
analyze reports in any case. we recommend that you read Ivan T. Sanderson's book before tackling Odette
Tchernine's effort; you may be able to sort out some of the reports. But her opinions and general comments
should be taken with a large bag - not the proverbial grain - of salt. She does not read Russian (Prof.
Porshnev does speak and write English. though the latter is sometimes a bit stilted) and there were times
when I doubted her ability to read English - i.e. she completely misunderstood Carleton Coon on the
the subject of the so-called "hairy Ainus" (and in fact. has apparently not read his book either!); and she
makes an utter shambles of Ivan T. Sanderson's comments on Darwin vs. the Bible: i.e. that Darwin can
l!2!: be denied. and that a careful reading of the latter confirms him.
There is an appendix by Gordon Creighton (readers of Flying Saucer Review will be familiar with his
name) an eminent linguist among other things. of naiiieSi'n'd'1'e'mi's possibly referring to "Remnant
Hominids"; and an utterly ridiculous and useless "index". There are a number of illustrations. quite a few
of them photographs of skulls and reconstructions of these "fleshed-out- - which are not even referred to
in the text! And there are no references or bibliography.
Miss Tchernine is undoubtedly charming and. in a way. delightfully naive. but she is suspect even as a
reporter. apparently believing anything that comes from Russia. Mongolia. etc. (also a few British reports
from Africa which she tosses into the middle of the book). and disbelieving anything' from the U.S. and
Canada. though she seems to be a bit confused here: ex p. 75 "The situation regarding the Californian
legends may now in the late sixties have altered. and alleged developments there will be examined in later
pages [not really). though the reports of America's fruitful west Coast in this case. rather remind me of
the famous James Thurber cartoon: 'All right. you heard a seal bark!' "For the benefit of the 0.00001% of
our membership who may not know this cartoon. the whole point is that there is a seal leaning over the
back of the bedstead! SO what does she mean by that???

Ole Godfred Landsverk. Ancient Norse Messages on American Stones. Glendale. California: Norseman
Press. 1969.
For quite a number of years there has been gOing on a rather acrimonious debate concerning the authenticity of Norse runic inscriptions found in North America. one party contending that they are fraudulent.
the other that they are genuine and provide evidence that Scandinavians not only visited this continent
but travelled extensively through it. primarily via its waterways. Runic inscriptions have been found in
our Northeast and in Oklahoma. The most famous inscription is. of course. the Kensington Stone..
The "anti-Norse-. if one may so call them. have contended that the inscriptions are forgeries because
some of the runes "don't make sense". Dr. Landsverk and his associate Alf Monge. a cryptanalyst. have
worked on these runic carvings for a number of years and in 1967 published a preliminary report on\their
discoveries. The current volume, by Dr. Landsverk alone. brings up to date their discoveries.
The 'phoney' runes are. in fact. a "lost art" and are puzzles rather than a code - i.e. they do not
require a 'key'. but simply a knowledge of the way in which dates could be indicated with a minimum
amount of carving or chiseling in rock (ever carve your initials in tree bark?).
This book is not easy reading and requires considerable concentration; but the experts on runes who

76

have been asked to find fault with the author's findings and conclusions. have been remarkably quiet; for
two and one half years! In other words, those who contend that North American runic inscriptiohs dated
between 1008 and 1362 A.D. are forgeries, have had to shut up.

Robllrt Charroux.. One Hundred Thousand Years of Man's Unknown History. New York: Berkley Jl4edallion
95.
-----

Boo~~.

This really is bilge. It contains a few interesting grains, but the major portion of it is unutterable
rubbish. The author begins, after a sort of general introduction. by stating that Tiahuanaco was built by
Venllsians. The vast majority of his conclusions, speculations, etc., are based on this totally unproven
"fact". One is reminded of the saying, "If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny"; but the fact is that this
is the kind of book which is read and believed by those with little knowledge and inadequate education.
The author castigates Churchward - and then proceeds to emulate his faults. He interlards the text with
reference numbers, but when one checks these, most prove not to be references at all! His knoyjledge of
physical and cultural anthropology is almost nil, and most of what he does 'know' is wrong any~ay: e.g.
he refers to "a little pile of ash for Zinjanthropus" (as the only evidence of this species), etc., ad nauseam.
His thesis - like von Daniken's - may be, in some respects correct: that this planet has beenl visited,
even 'planted' by extra- or ultra-terrestrials; but this author would appear to be arriving at a possible
rig hi: answer by all the wrong methods and for all the wrong reasons. I am reminded of a doctor in! Georgia
in the late 18th-early 19th century who was alarmed by the incidence of malaria in his district; he promulgated an eukase that everyone should tack thin muslin 'screening' over windows and doors to kee~ out the
'miasma' that caused malaria, and the incidence of the disease dropped almost immediately. A~ we now
know. what he was keeping out was mosquitoes. not 'miasma'. But. for heaven's sake. don't 'consider
Charroux an expert on anything.
Vitus B. Droscher. The Friendly Beast. New York: Dutton. 1971 . $8.95.
The title of this book is ridiculous, but the book itself is absolutely fascinating; I could not put it
down. I suppose the majority of zoologists have been braying for years that one must not "anthfopomorphize" 'animals' - i.e. animals other than Homo sapiens - attributing to them "human emotlon~". This
book is devoted almost entirely to "human behaviour" on the part of animals .. I admit to having been a bit
bored with the very short section concerning humans but one can always skim or even skip ~his. The
author is primarily a journalist but has obviously checked his material thoroughly; and the observ~tions he
reports were made by truly qualified ethologists. almost all of them working in the field rather, than the
:
laboratory. So you think you're human!

~:

The excellent and rather vital book Intelligent Life in the Universe by I. S. Shklovskii and Carl
Sagan, is now available in paperback for $2.95. The publisher is Delta, a division of the Dell Publishing
Company.
!

~ !'!!:~ ~ Obtaining~:

A number of our members have complained that they cannot find books reviewed here in their local
bookstores and that said bookstores have been apathetic. to say the least. about ordering books Ifor them
from the publisher. No bookstore can stock copies of all books published during the year. let alo~e books
published last year. etc.: thousands of books are published each year. All bookstores ought to b~ willing
to order books when requested to do so. but apparently many 'cannot be bothered' to do so. If YOll cannot
find:a book locally. and your local bookstore does not have one of the various .directories listing pu~lishers'
addr.esses and refuses to order for you. we will be happy (well. at least willing!) to forward y~ur order
direet to the publisher. The publisher will. of course. add a certain amount for postage and ~andling.
But, please note, ~ do !!21 sell books.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE

INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED

GOVERNING BOARD
Hans Stefan Santesson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Ivan T. Sanderson
Michael R. Freedman
Marion L. Fawcett
Walter J. McGraw
Allen V. Noe
Daniel F. Manning
Adolph L. Heuer, Jr.

President (elected for 5 years)

*First Vice-President
*Second Vice-President
*Treasurer
Secretary
Board Member (elected for 1 year)
Board Member (elected for 1 year)
Board Member (elected for 1 year)
Board Member (elected for 1 year)
Trustees in accordance with the laws of the State of New Jersey.

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Director
Deputy Director
Executive Secretary
General Manager
Assistant Director for Communications Media
Assistant Director for Science & Technology

Ivan T. Sanderson
Edgar O. Schoenenberger
Marion L. Fawcett
Michael R. Freedman
Walter J. McGraw
Allen V. Noe

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. George A. Agogino - Chairman, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern
New Mexico University. (Archaeology)
.
Dr. N. Burtshak-Abramovitch - Academician, Georgian Academy of Science, Palaeobiological Institute; University of Tblisi. (Palaeontology)
Dr. Carl H. Delacato - Associate Director, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia,
(Mentalogy)
Dr. W. C. Osman Hill - Dublin and London (Comparative Anatomy)
. Dr. J. Allen Hynek - Director, Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Northwestern University. (Astronomy)
Dr. George C. Kennedy - Professor of Geology, Institute of Geophysics, U.C.L.A. (Geomorphology and
Geophysics)
Dr. Martin Kruskal- Program in Applied Mathematics, Princeton University. (Mathematics)
Dr. Samuel B. McDowell - Professor of Biology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. (General Biology)
Dr. Vladimir Markotic - Professor of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Alberta, Canada
(Ethnosociology and Ethnology)
Dr. Kirtley F. Mather - Professor of Geology, Emeritus, Harvard University. (Geology)
Dr. John R. Napier - Unit of Primate Biology. Queen Elizabeth College. University of London. (Physical
Anthropology)
Dr. W. Ted Roth - PreSident. Roth Research-Animal Care, Inc., Washington. D. C. (Ethology)
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury - Head, Plant SCience Department. College of Agriculture, utah State University.
(Phytochemistry)
Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz - Psychiatric Consultant. Montclair General Hospital. Montclair. New Jersey.
(Mental SCiences)
Dr. Roger W. Wescott - Professor and Chairman. Department of Anthropology. Drew University, Madison. New
Jersey. (Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics)
Dr. A. Joseph Wraight - Chief Geographer, U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. (Geography and Oceanography)
Dr. Robert K. Zuck - Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany, Drew University. Madison, New Jersey.
(Botany)

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