A mermaid found in the Sea of Japan in 19th century

In the late 19th century, a real mermaid was caught in Sea of Japan. Later, the creature was sold and was exposed in a market in Benares, a city ubicated in the State of Uttar Pradesh, northern India.

A journalist working for Delhi Gazette reported:

“Some Mohammedans [Muslims, archaic] of Bengal have recently brought here a mermaid preserved in a case. It exactly resembles a fish covered with scales in the lower half, and a monkey having a head and two arms, with fingers and nails, in the upper. Of course, it is a curious thing to look at. I was quite astonished to learn from some of my friends that a real mermaid, exposed in the chouk of this city, could be seen on paying a single piece. So, as this filled my mind with great curiosity, I went there, yesterday, and saw that it was all true, and that a man, sitting at the door, with a bell in his hand was inviting the passers-by to that spectacle. I, with two friends, went in, saw the animal, and felt it with my own hands. I couldn’t make out anything fictitious in it. On inquiring of the man who was present there, I was informed that it was a real mermaid, found in the sea near Japan, and that a man bought it for five hundred rupees at a public auction in Calcutta. He further told me that another of the same sort, but as big as a man, was sold there for fourteen hundred rupees. The length of the one I saw here was about a foot and a half.”

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Image by DarkmoonArt_de via Pixabay

Sources

• lumberwoods.tumblr.com

A brontosaurus observed in Congo in 1919

In 1919, a Belgian hunter saw with his own eyes a huge and mysterious creature in the heart of the jungle in the Congo.

Mr. Gapelle, a Belgian prospector and hunter, was in the wilderness when he noticed strange footprints on the ground. Astonished, he followed the trail for about 12 miles. After a while, he saw a huge beast. This animal had large scales and a very thick tail, similar to that of a kangaroo. He had a horn on his muzzle and a bump on his back.

Without hesitation, the hunter shot him. The beast then disappeared in the swamps.

According to many accounts, this creature could be a dinosaur of the order of the sauropods, which disappeared tens of millions of years ago.

The inhabitants of the region nickname this monster Mokélé-mbembé. He would live in the tributaries of the Congo River.

According to German adventurer Lt. Paul Gratz's account from 1911:

“The crocodile is found only in very isolated specimens in Lake Bangweulu, except in the mouths of the large rivers at the north. In the swamp lives the nsanga, much feared by the natives, a degenerate saurian which one might well confuse with the crocodile were it not that its skin has no scales and its toes are armed with claws. I did not succeed in shooting a nsanga, but on the island of Mbawala I came by some strips of its skin.”

Alfred Aloysius Smith, who had worked for a British trading company in what is now Gabon in the late 1800s, briefly mentions in his 1927 memoir the "jago-nini" and "amali":

“Aye, and behind the Cameroon there's things living we know nothing about. I could 'a' made books about many things. The Jago-Nini they say is still in the swamps and rivers. Giant diver it means. Comes out of the water and devours people. Old men'll tell you what their grandfathers saw but they still believe its there. Same as the Amali I've always taken it to be. I've seen the Amali's footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead of five.”

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Illustration of Brontosaurus in the water, par Charles R. Knight

Sources

• Forest Monster. Is it the Brontosaurus!, The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate, 13th December 1919
• Mokélé-mbembé

A spherical UFO sighted in 1948 in Adelaide, Australia

At the end of November 1948, several residents of the city of Adelaide, in southern Australia, saw a very bright UFO after dark.

All witnesses stated that this unidentified flying object was particularly bright and that it was spherical in shape. Here are some testimonials.

Ms. M. E. Fry (Hamilton District)

“I saw a very large ball of brillianit light in the early morning of November 25. The lights in the street were out, and all at once my room was flooded with light.

At first I thought it was tihe comet. The ball of light sparkled witlf most beautiful colors. As I watched it glittering, it nearly blinded me; it seemed very close. I watched it for quite five minutes before it disappeared. I thought is resembled a huge crown.”

Mrs. Miriam DAVEY (Paynebam District)

“My window blinds were down when the ball of light shone. Like Mrs. Dalton, I expected that, something strange was going to happen.”

Mrs. Annie E. DIMBLE (Kirkcaldy District)

“I, too, saw the spectacular ball of light at 1.50 a.m on Thursday. I was awake in my sleepout when suddenly the whole universe was lit up by a tremendous pale green ball of light falling from the sky in the north-west.”

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Parliament House, by hypnotiseme, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia

Sources

• Ball of Light, News, 29th November 1948

Young couple terrified by mutant dog on Colorado River

A few years ago, a young couple went on their honeymoon on a boat on the Colorado River. One night, the two lovers saw a terrifying “mutant dog” ...

The following story was related by the young man's father:

“This is posted for my son. About twelve years ago my son and his wife were visiting —– for their third honeymoon. They rented an older —- boat and drifted along —–. Around two in the morning my house phone rang off the hook with my son fanatically shouting that he had just seen a mutant dog with a piercing howl attempting to catch a duck. He forwarded the details as a four-foot mangy dog with terrifying overlapping teeth. He said the dog failed to catch ducks and ran off hungry when they shined a flashlight onto the shore.”

Was it the Chupacabra?

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Image by Yuri_B via Pixabay

Sources

• Haunted El Dorado Canyon and its Mysterious Hellhounds, 22th September 2020

A man greeted by a strange presence in the afterlife

A man named Jim, who suffers from diabetes, has had a severe attack of hypoglycemia. He lost consciousness. It was then that he had a near-death experience.

Jim claims to have been in the afterlife. Everything was dark but he had an unshakeable sense of peace. He explains that there was a mysterious presence that communicated with him telepathically.

He told his story on the Near Death Experience Research Foundation website:

“I felt an indescribable peace and calm. It's hard to put into words but I have never felt such a feeling before in my life.”

“To simply say that I felt calm and peaceful does not do it justice. Low blood sugar, once consciousness returns, produces intense feelings of anxiety, agitation, confusion, fear and panic.”

“I felt none of this. Quite the opposite. I have never felt such peace, calm, warmth and love in my life.”

“There were no tunnels, bright lights or life reviews.”

“What I did experience was a presence, which reassured me that everything would be all right.”

“It was not a spoken voice but rather a telepathic message, which was just as clear as a spoken voice. It reassured me and put me at ease.”

“I firmly believe it was a higher power communicating this message to me.”

Suddenly Jim was back in his body.

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Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Sources

• Life after death: 'There was NOTHING but an overwhelming presence' – claim

Canada - Prominent officer sees ghost of deceased brother

At the end of the 19th century, two officers serving in Canada saw a mysterious figure. One of the two witnesses realized it was the ghost of his brother who died that very night.

Here the original article:

In the whole record of so-called supernatural appearances' there is not one which is more thoroughly authenticated than the following :

John Cope Sherbroke and George Waynyard were two officers in the thirty-third regiment, and at the. Time of the extraordinary occurrence here related the regiment was on service in Canada. One evening, as usual, they went into a little room adjoining Waynyard's bedroom and commenced reading.

After a few minutes Capt, Sherbroke looked up from his book and saw standing in a doorway of the room a man who was a perfect stranger to him. At a loss to account for the intrusion, Capt. Sherbroke turned to his companion to ask if the stranger was an acquaintance of his. Waynyard was as pale as death, and apparently incapable of speech. Seeing this, Capt. Sherbroke made no effort to stop the figure, which slowly crossed the apartment and passed through the door leading to Waynyard's bedroom. As soon as the man was out of sight Waynyard recovered his faculties and cried out, “My brother.”

“Your brother!” repeated Sherbroke. “What can you mean, Waynyard? There must be some deception. Follow me.”

They went into the bedroom, a room from which the only possible means of exit was the one door already referred to. They found the room empty.

This incident produced a profound impression among the officers of the regiment who knew that both Sherbroke and Waynyard were sober, cool headed men of unblemished integrity.

Waynyard declared that the apparition was the spirit of his brother, and expressed the conviction that his brother was dead.

When time had elapsed sufficient to allow inquiries to be made it was discovered that he had died on the very night on which his spirit had appeared to the astonished officers in Canada.

Of the two witnesses of this strange episode one became Gen. Sir John Cope Sherbroke, G. C. B., and the other Lieut.-Col. Waynyard, of the Twenty-fourth Light Dragoons.

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Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa, Public domain, Wikimedia

Sources

• Ghost story, The North Queensland Register, 13th July 1898

UFO terrified Kansas residents in 1913

Over a century ago a strange and unidentified phenomenon terrified the people of Meade County, Texas. At regular intervals, a mysterious light appeared in the southeast of the region, not far from the town of Lakeland.

Here the article published in 1913:

Hutchinson. Kan.. March 16 Special —There is something going on in Kansas which has the people guessing. They are not superstitious people — but yet they would like to know. After a disappearance of six years the ‘Sand Creek ghost light’ is once more beginning to put in an appearance nights in southeastern Meade county, near the town of Lakeland.

This mysterious light white and very bright, suddenly appearing on the prairie often accompanied by a sound as of escaping steam, so startled farmers and stockmen that it was with dread that they would venture out in the night in the Sand Creek neighborhood.

For several years, hoever, since that neighborhood has commenced to settle up the mysterious light has not made an appearance.

A few nights ago John C. Crompton, traveling overland with his family from Oklahoma to Larkin, Kansas, drove hasthy into Meade and reported seeing a strange light, in the very vicinity where the mysterious Sand Creek "ghost light” formerly held forth.

"We were driving along slowly when suddenly a great white light, very bright, appeared to be coming toward us.” said Crompton. “When the light came within a few rods of us it suddenly disappeared, only to reappear in a short time.”

“It was northwest Lakeland : just how far we were from that postoffice I can not say. hut I should judge about six or seven miles. Every time the light appeared the horses reared and plunged and we were compelled to stop to avert a runaway. At first I thought it was an automobile light, but it was too large and bright for that, and, as no machine appeared, I gave up that idea. It was certainly the most bewildering and grewsome light I ever saw and I can not understand what it was”

Meade people immediately recognized the light from the description given by the traveler, and there was much excitement over the news that the ‘ghost light’ had reappeared after several years.

Captain R. M. Painter, a wealthy ranchman. living near Lakeland, and in Sand Creek Township, vouches for the truth of the mysterious light, but is unable to account for it.

“I first saw the ghostly light some seven years ago.” said Captain Painter. “I have seen it on twenty-five or thirty different occasions, but never have been able to explain it. It would first appear like the light of a lantern, but immediately bloomed out as big as a full moon.”

“It looked somewhat like the headlight of a locomotive coming suddenly around a curve, and was accompained by a roaring sound like the escaping of steam, but there is no railroad within twenty miles. It reappeared at Intervals of from one to seven days. It would never get closer than 60 or 70 rods and seemed always to come from the northwest.”

“I and members of my family have observed it many time. We know it in our neighborhood as the ghost light. When it shows up it always badly frightens horses, and has been the cause of many runaway accidents. The horses seem to know its approach before it is sighted.”

“About six years ago many others besides myself repeatedly saw this ghostly light, but it disappeared about the time that the Germans settled in that portion of the county and has not been heard of until now.”

At one time it appeared to be directly in front of the Lakeland postoffice, and several times while driving at night has it appeared, always causing the horses to be alarmingly frightened. One citizen saw it and attempted to go to it, but it disappeared, with no remaining sign or mark left to tell the tale.

“We have made many efforts to ascertain the cause of this strange light. It is not of a phosphorescent nature for there is no marsh or lowland there, and it appears to be of a brilliant white, while phosphorescent lights are bluish of tint, and besides phosphorus lights appear only in wet, marshy, low places. There are no low or wet lands out our way. It is high and dry there. All theories have been exploded after investigation. and the mystery of the light still remains. I am a non-believer in ghosts, but the ghost light never has been explained.”

Herman Tonhoff of Odee, Meade county, has been an eyewitness of the light and describes it exactly as does Captain Fainter. He was riding a horse one night when the light appeared and his horse squatted down trembling with fear.

Frank Fuhr, editor of the Meade Globe, says the reappearance of the Sand Creek ‘ghost light’ is causing much concern. “Whether one believes in ghosts or not, the strange light is a phenomena that is causing much anxiety”, he said.

Several theories have been advanced. One is that the ghost light has some connection with the earth cracks which have attracted much attention in Meade county. The theory is that interior pressure of gases causes these cracks, and that the escaping gas being ignited forms this strange phenomenon. But no trace has ever been found of natural gas or of the effects of gas burning.

Another theory is that the lights are really mirages. If such a thing as a night mirage is possible, of Rock Island railway trains on the railroad twenty miles away, the electric headlight of the locomotive being lifted and shown miles away on the prairie by this optical phenomenon.

At any event the ‘Sand Creek ghost light’ has proved that it can ‘come back’ after having disappeared for several years.

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Sand Creek massacre site, 1985, by Carptrash - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia

Sources

• Strange prairie light that startles Kansas, The Herald Democrat, 17th March 1913