The first report of the Loch Ness monster was in 565 A.D. The biographer of St. Columba wrote that the saint rescued a man from a water monster in the lake. According to the account, a huge beast emerged from the lake, opened its mouth and roared. The saint commanded it to go back, and it fled, terrified by the sound of his voice. Since then, local residents and visitors have told stories of dragons, water horses and other strange creatures living in Loch Ness and nearby lakes. Then in 1933, a road was built along the north shore, and sightings began to proliferate. At least 50 people said they saw the monster. Believers say the blasting of rocks to build the road roused the monster from the deep. Skeptics say the road, and the media attention, simply brought more people to the area. Most people who say they've seen the Loch Ness monster describe a creature from 15 to 60 feet long, with a long neck and a small head. It's sometimes said to have fat legs, a long tail and two humps. Most people say they've seen it swimming, but a few claim they've seen it on land. Scientists have speculated that the monster could be a plesiosaur, a 20 to 50 foot reptile related to the dinosaur. Fossils show they had sharp teeth, flippers and necks that bend easily. But skeptics point out that plesiosaurs became extinct 70 million years ago, and if their fossils have turned up, then traces of a modern-day descendent would have turned up too. The first photograph purported to depict the beast was taken by Hugh Gray on November 12, 1933. It shows a rounded object, partially submerged, with a projection that looks like a fin on one side. The image is blurry, and looks as much like part of a boat or tree, as a monster. Subsequent photos, film and videotape are also too blurry, grainy or far away to provide conclusive evidence of a Loch Ness monster. Even so, Gray's photo piqued interest. And when the following April, the Daily Mail published a photograph of a long neck and head rising from the depths of the lake, people around the world took notice. The photo was exposed as a fraud in 1994. But in 1934, a wealthy businessman launched the first major expedition to find the elusive creature. Twenty local residents, armed with cameras and binoculars, kept up a constant watch. They made eleven sightings and took five photos that show something in the water. Four of them look like they could be disturbances made by passing boats. One shows something spraying water, but it's of such poor quality it's hard to make out the image. As technology became more sophisticated, more ambitious projects were dispatched to Loch Ness to find the creature. Since the 1960's, scientists and fishermen have periodically used sonar to scan the lake. Scientists doing a sonar search in 1968 claimed they detected several large objects, moving several hundred feet per minute along the bottom of the lake. But divers couldn't find anything. Nature magazine published an editorial saying the equipment used for the project was unreliable. Operation Deep Scan in 1987 equipped more than a dozen boats with sonar equipment. They swept the lake from end to end and found nothing. In 1994, the Loch Ness mystery is still alive and well. Research expeditions continue to search the lake regularly, though officially, they admit only to mapping the lake's geographical characteristics, or analyzing its ordinary animal and plant life. The monster is also responsible for a booming tourist trade. Hotels and souvenir shops thrive on visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of "Nessie." Many residents have turned their homes into bed and breakfast inns. And beginning in 1994, tourists have been able to book passage on a submarine that carries them to the depths of Loch Ness, where true believers maintain the monster hides.
