Again in a later book entitled ‘Old Fourlegs- The Story of the Coelocanth’ published in 1956,
J.L.B. Smith a South African Professor writes: “The Descendents of a missionary who had lived
near Mount Kilimanjaro wrote from Germany giving a good deal of information about flying
dragons they believed to still live in those parts. The family had apparently heard of them from
the natives and one man had actually seen such a creature at night. I did not and do not dispute
at least the possibility that some such creature may still exist.”
In a book entitled ‘Searching for Hidden Animals’ by Roy Mackal there is a report about one
of the zoologists who was on the team examining the Coelacanth called Dr. Courtenay-Latimer,
who also investigated the sighting of a large ‘flying lizard’ in Namibia. Apparently a boy resting
under a tree was awoken by the crashing sound of a huge reptilian looking beast rushing down
from a mountain slope behind him. The boy tells of sheep scattering in all directions to escape the
creature which landed on the ground in a huge cloud of dust. The boy says that the creature made
a dreadful amount of noise and gave off an odour similar to ‘burned brass’ and he passed out
from the fright of the incident. The Police were called and the incident investigated by them and
the by local farmers, some of whom actually said they had seen the creature and witnessed it slip
into a crevice in the mountain side. The Police then gathered some dynamite and set a charge in
the crevice in the hope of killing or sealing the beast inside. After the charge was detonated,
several members of the party reported to have heard a low moaning coming from the rubble for a
short period and then silence.
I would be most interested to know where the location of the actual crevice is in Namibia to see
if anyone has attempted to clear away the rubble from the blast by now to see what may actually
lie buried beneath.
Africa is not the only place where similar sightings have been reported. There was even a news
report that appeared in the ‘Illustrated London News’ way back on February 9th in 1856
concerning an utterly amazing event that reportedly occurred in France. The tale was recounted in
‘Lost Cities of North and Central America’ by David Hatcher Childress, in which he describes:
“...a story of a tunnel being cut to unite St. Dizier and Nancy railways in France, from the ‘Press
Graylouse’ news service, which describe how, when a rock was blasted open. A creature exactly
like a pterodactyl with a wingspan of about ten feet and ‘livid black’ emerged from the rock,
walking with the aid of its wings, emerged into light and expired after uttering a hoarse cry.
Naturalists reportedly identified the creature as a pterodactyl and the rock strata as being
millions of years old.”
Even America has its fair share of similar tales. As a point of interest, the largest pteranodon
skeleton ever found was retrieved in fossil form, from Big Bend National Park in North America.
The creature sported a wingspan of an impressive 51 feet making it the largest flying reptile
remains ever found. A number of Pterodon remains have been retrieved from the Big Bend area
so we know they inhabited the area once and another interesting fact is that almost every Indian
tribe in continental America, both north and South all have tribal legends of flying monsters.
According Hatcher-Childress in ‘Lost Cities...’ many have stories of: “...a gigantic flying
monster so large that, ‘it darkened the sun.’
“The Haida natives of Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia believe that some
Thunderbirds were so large that they could literally pick up small whales from the sea. Much of
their art and woodcarving depicts such a capture by a Thunderbird. Some South American
Indians believed that the bird was constantly at war with the powers living beneath the sea,
particularly a horned serpent and that it tore up large trees in search of giant grubs which were
its favourite food. The clapping of these giants’ wings created thunder, so they were known as
‘Thunderbirds’...”
David Hatcher-Childress also says that carving of one of these birds can be seen on the bluff,
facing the Mississippi at near Alto Illinois in his book “Lost Cities of the Americas”.
There was an intriguing tale by John Keel that appeared in the March 1991 edition of ‘Fate’
magazine. The incident was first reported in the ‘Tombstone, Arizona Epitaph’ in April of 1880.