Science is the pursuit. of the unknown" .JOURNAL of. The Society Fo-:- The Invastigation

Transcription

1 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.} d VOL. 2,. NO.2 APRIL, 1969

2 THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVEIn'IGATION OF THE UNEXPLAmED (Official abbreviation: S.I. T. U.) R.D.,. Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: (201) * * * * * * * * Registered the 25th August, 1965, at the County Clerk's Office, Warren County, New Jersey. Reg. No Also registered in the Office of the Secretary of state of New Jersey. ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIETY ARE TAX EXEMPT,: PURSUANT TO THE UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE CODE. * * * * * * * * GOVER.NING BOARD (*) PresideQt (& Chairman of the Board) (*) 1st Vice-Preside~t (& Admlnlstrative Director). (*) 2nd Vice-President (& Deputy Director) (*) Treasurer' (*) secretary Executive Assistant (& Librarian) Edltorial Director (for l'ubllcations) Public Relations Director pirector of ResellCh (Academic Science) Advisor on Industrial Relations (Technology). Director of Field Operations -. (Member-a~Large). -. Haus 'stefan Santesson.: Ivan T. Sanderson _." '/' Edgar O. Schoenenberger " Alma V. Sanderson Edna L. Currie Marion L; Fawcett Peter G. :Kamitchis Walter J. McGraw Richard 'fl. Palladino William F. Peck, Jr. Jack A. Ullrich Ollver G. Swan (*) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the laws ouhe state of New Jersey * * * * * * * * MEMBERS (1) SPONSORING~ The original Founding Members; those making bequests or gifts of libraries or other properties; Donors, being those making substantial contributions-to. special funds; otbers whom the Board deems have rendered the Society particul"1i.i' assistance..'. '. (Gratuitous for Life). (2) CONTRIBUTING.. Tbe original Committee of O~e Hundred; and those wishing special services, Visiting. and other privileges. $100 ($10 p... ~hereafter). (3) CORRESPONDING. Individuals desiring specific information, aid In making contacts,'or withdrawal of data from Society files; plus the Journal PURSUIT and all other Society publications.; $10 p... i SUBSCRIBERS 1 A. CONTRACTING. Individuals, profit corporations, or other organizations who contract wi~ tbe Society to undertake specific researcb or other work. By Individual Contract. B. SUBSCRmING. '. For the four quarterly issues of PURSUIT' (including postage), and priority in obtaining backnumbers : ".: $5 P.~..:. C. RECIPROCATING...'. '. Other Societies wishing to obtain PURSUIT, on a regular basis, and other incidental papers and publications.. (By excbange). * * * * * * * * NOTICES The Society Is unable to offer any services to non-members. The Society does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expressed by any members in its publlcations are those of the authors alone. No opinions expressed or statements made by any members by word of moutb or in print may be construed as being those of the Society. * All material published in the journal PURSUIT and other publications of the Society is COPYright "ed and ma,y not be reproduced without written permission

3 -21- i J. 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 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, 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-

4 - 22- I 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. ' '.

5 - 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. * * * * * * * *

6 -_.._-----_._------;.---_.._' '\ ~ CONDON II. COSMOLOGY (The structure 2.'ld Behaviour of Existence) Ontology, Metaphysics (classical), Space, Locus, Time, Coincidence, etc. 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 way 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. 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

7 - 25- identified 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 Moore McCormack Line's luxury liner Argentina disappeared from his cabin around three o'clock in the morning. His disappearance was officially listed as "apparent suicide". Thi s 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 incon SistenCies, 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

8 - 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 MID NIGHT at its word on this occasion. So here indeed is a "pretty state of affairs"~ MESSY LITTLE BOY III. CHEMIPHYSICS <.!!!! structure ~ Behaviour of ~) Nucleonics, Chemistry, Physics (classical), Electrics, Electromagnetics, Magnetics, Gravities, Mechanics, and such related technologies as Engineering, etc. 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. I I

9 - 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.

10 ... ' ~... I~ 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.

11 - 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, 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)". MACHINES ON THE MOON IV. ASTRONOMY (The structure I!!!!! Behaviour of ~ Bodies) The Universe(s), Galactics, stellar &n.d Solar Astronomy, Planetology, selenology, Meteoritics, AstrophySiCS, etc. 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

12 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 W

13 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 flash es 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? * * * * * * * *

14 ..._..._... I ~R_.. ~ V. 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 PARA NORMAL, 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 o

15 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 Vol page 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.Simpson s 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

16 :- 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 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

17 - 35- why, for instance, did all dinosaurian-type reptiles, both great and small and,t~e aquatic lacertilians M vanl 'sh whl'le the crocodilians the rest of the 1 acertlll an 5, and more 50 the known as osasaurs" ' ",? A d chelomans, (t or ur tl es ) and the ll'ttle Tuatara ' both of which antedate the dmosaurlans,,, survlve, lat n, ' ly here l 'n the heck did such enormities as the vast herds of primitive ungu es sprlng converse, w, 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. BARTHING VERSUS BAYTHING 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. 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 ~

18 - 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. -Bay thing" 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 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

19 - 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."

20 - 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 univer Sity 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. * * * * * * * *

21 - 39- EARLY EUROAMERICANS 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. In the NEW YORK TIMES of Sunday. October 20th 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 to 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 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 Shades of poor Prof. Ramos of Brazil.

22 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 are 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, 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 W E!!:!!ruI Fiction. New York: Lancer Books. Saunders, Dr. David R., and Harkills, R. Roger (1968).!.!EQ 1 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 , $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 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 with relevant free material. i Wllcoxson, Kent A. (1966). Chains Qf Fire: The story of Volcanoes. Philadelphia: Chilton Books. 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 ~~

23 FURTHER NOTICES.. BE IT NOTED THAT. ALL CONTRIBUTING AND CORRESPONDING MEMBERS WHO JOINED US PRIOR TO THE END OF JUNE OF LAST YEAR, 1968, WERE DUE TO RENEW THEIR ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS AS OF LAST JANUARY THE FIRST, Those joining after the 30th of June, 1968, 'were granted the balance of last year, gratis, and a free copy of PURSUIT, Vol. 1, No.3 (incorporating Newsletter No.3). Their membership subscriptions are not due until the 1st January, New membership is solicited; but, to this end, the Society does not "promote". Therefore, it is up to members and friends to disseminate information on us, our objectives, and the services we offer. 'We do not solicit membership or contributions unless respondents have satisfied themselves 'that we offer services that they feel may be of real interest to them, and until they have also satisfied themselves of the validity of our int~nt, as in our Journal and elsewhere We are still in the process of building (physically) so that, while making ourselves as available to members as possible, we cannot offer residential facilities to others than Contributing Members at this time; and arrangements even for their residence must be by prior arrangement. The reason for our regular statement - under NOTICES on the inside front nap of this journal - should be elaborated. It is simply that, with limited staff and a great pressure of work, we are physically unable to respond to requests from any but members. PUBLISHING RECORD The Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained was founded at the beginning of 1968 by a bequest from the Ivan T. Sanderson Foundation, which was set up by the Sanderson Estate in mid The Foundation issued regular reports to the founders, of an entirely intra-organizational nature, but it published one Newsletter (No.1) for distribution to those who subsequently sponsored the enterprise. The first quarter of 1968 was occupied with organization of the new society and the establishment of a journal which was named PURSUIT. To cover this period and the organizational work during the previous year, a second Newsletter (No.2) was issued in March of The first issue of PURSUIT was distributed in June, 1968, to members only. This contained what would otherwise have been Newsletter No.3, and was numbered Vol. I, No.3, both to pres.erve continuity, and in order to make a start at bringing serialization into conformity with an annual quarterly schedule of four numbers to be issued in January, April, July, and September. During the second quarter of 1968 it was decided to offer the journal to subscribers, libraries, and other non-members at an annual rate of $5, including postage. The response was so considerable that it was then further decided to div(uce the purely intra-society news and affairs from the journal, for circulation among members only. To this end, a Single-fold sheet entitled -SITU. NEWS~ was. initiated for distribution concurrently with PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No.2, in April, The first issue of SITU NEWS is actually the sixth newsletter published by the Society and its sponsors, and is therefore numbered accordingly - No.6. The publishing schedule as now envisioned is four quarterly issues of both PURSUIT and SITU NEWS, dated January, April, July, and September 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, NEWSLETTER DATE JOURNAL NEWSLETTER No.1 NEWSLETTER No.2 (contained in) (contained in) (contained in) SITU NEWS, No. 6 May, 1967 March, 1968 June, 1968 Sept Jan., April, 1969 PURSUIT, Vol. I, No.3 PURSUIT, Vol. I, No.4 PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No. 1 PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No. 2 These are out of print and not available.

24 "Science is the pursuit of the unknown".,. ~, -,, I. ".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, ~. d VOL. 2, NO.3 JULY, 1969

25 THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED (Official abbreviation: S.I.T.U.) R.D., Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: (201) * * * * * * * * Registered the 25th August, 1965, at the County Clerk's Office, Warren County, New Jersey. Reg. No Also registered in the Office of the Secretary of State of New Jersey. ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIETY ARE TAX EXEMPT, PURSUANT. TO THE.'. UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE CODE.... * * * * * *'* *. ' GOVERNING BOARD: Cot) President C& Chairman of the Board) Cot) 1st Vice-President (& Administrative Director) C ) 2nd Vice-President C& Deputy Director) C ) Treasurer C ) Secretary Executive Assistant C& Librarian) Editorial Director (for l-'ublications) \. Public Relations Director Director of Research (Academic Science) Advisor on Industrial Relations CTechn910gy) Director of Field Operations (Member-at-Large)., Hans stefan 8&ntesson Ivan T. Sanderson Edgar O. Schoenenberger Alma V. Sanderson Edna L. Currie Marion L. Fawcett Peter G. Kamitchis Walter J. McGraw Richard W. Palladino William F. Peck, Jr. Jack A. Ullrich Oliver G. Swan (.) Registered Officers of the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the l~ws ofthe state of New Jersey. ~ ' I * * * * * * * * MEMBERS (1) SPONSORING. The original Founding Members; those making bequests or gifts of libraries or other properties; Donors, being those making substantial contributions to special funds; others whom the Board deems have rendered the Society particular assistance. (Gratuitous for Life). (2) CONTRIBUTING.. The original Committee of One Hundred; and those wishing' special services, visiting, ~d other privileges...' ; ".'.....'...'. '..'. $100 ($10 p.a. thereafter). (3) CORRESPONDING. Individuals desiring specific information, aid in making contacts, or withdrawal of data from Society, files; plus the journal PURSUIT and all other Society publications. $10 p.a.. SUBSCRIBERS A. CONTRACTING. Individuals, profit corporations, or other organizations who contract with the Society to undertake specific research or other work By Individual Contract. B. SUBSCRIBING.. '. For the four Q.uarterly issues of PURSUIT (i~cluding postage), and priority in obtaining backnumbers "... $5 P.a. C. RECIPROCATING., < other Societies wishing to obtain PURSUIT.. on' a reg-uiar 'basis, 'and other incidental papers and publications...., (By exchange). * * * * * * * * NOTICES The Society is unable to offer any services to non-members. ot The Society does not hold or express any corporate views, and any opinions expresse!f 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 being those of the Society.,-

26 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 - which Fort 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

27 ~"" " ~"""""""'''''I~'''''''''''''''L.''''''''''~I1~''._''''I''''''''I''~ 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 PERFORMANCE MENTALITY VIII TANGIBLES (See also P. 58)

28 - 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 a 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?

29 - 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 The most famous modern case is that of a Mrs. 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, This latter is d'efiriitely preferred reading for all forteans. It produced the most violent response from certain segment~' o'f the I,I. 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, of course, until comparatively recently there ~ere no such things as meteorites. 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

30 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

31 - 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 ), 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 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

32 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 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. a 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

33 , 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 superior technicians came to this earth and 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 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.

34 - 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." AN IVORY-BILLED WOODP~CKER VII. BIO:t.OGY The Structur.e and Beh:avi.our Q{ Animate Entiti"e~ 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 a descl: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. ~~ 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.

35 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

36 - 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 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 t 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.

37 - 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 a 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.

38 - 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 'ali 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

39 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

40 - 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 he did 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 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 hiding the 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 '.... '.' '. The '''English'' Language...,i' ~." I.. ~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.. -'. -. The concept. of, 'ETIs - Extraterrestrial Intelligencies. -.'... as they,.. are. now called, and everi by 'such.'...,~,!e~ple~' as t.he. scientists y!ho worked on the benigqted -.Condon C.ommittee - visiting. thi:s planet

41 - 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. t ~I

42 - 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. t 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?)

43 - 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. ~oop.erating scienti~ts with doctorates throughout the world. Much has also been done - but little publisi)ed - on the rather unpleasant matter o f 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.

44 - 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. :-- V. ASTRONOMY - The Structur~ and Behaviour Q! ~ Bodies. Galactics, Stellar and Solar Astronomy, Planetology, Selenology, Meteoritics, Astrophysics, etc. 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 using a 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.

45 ... ~ ~ : ~ 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 ( ). 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.

46 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 and so on - and in the,second case, serially. starting with No.6, dated April, 1969 NEWSLETTER" " DATE JOURNAL NEWSLETTER No.1" NEWSLETTER No.2" (contained in) (contained in) (contained in) SITU NEWS, No.6 SITU NEWS, No.7 May. 1967, March June Sept 1968 Jan 1969 April July PURSUIT,. Vol: 1. No.3 PURSUIT. Vol. 1. No.4" PURSUIT, Vol. 2, No. 1 PURSUIT, Vol. 2. No.2 PURSUIT. Vol. 2. No.3, These are out 'of print and not available.. Sent only to members.

47 J,'1 1...J, I.Vol.2, No.4. October;1969

48 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 Participation in the ac[ivities of the Society is solicited. All contributions are tax exemp~, pti.rsuanc to the Ullited States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run fro:n the 1st of January to the 31,$! of D~cember; but those joillinj:: after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter of that year g!':.;lis. The means of participatiun are various, us follows: - (1) Honorary \including Founding Membersj..., (Free for lif,,) (2) Sponsors (51000, or more),.,,...,....,...,. (Free for life) (3) Contributing ($1,00, for special privileges),..... ($10 p.a. thereafter:, (4) Corresponding (data withdrawal service), $10 per annu::' (5) Contracting (fur individu~ projects).,,..., (By contract:: (6) Reciprocatillg lfor uther societies) (By exchange:) ~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 to members i!1 categories (1), (2), (3), and (4) above. Th'e Society further issues Occasional Papers' on certain projects, and special' reports ill 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.

49 Vol. 2. No, 4 October PURSUIT JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE I N VEST I GAT 10 N 0 F THE UN EX PLA I NED Editorial Director: Donald R. Bensen Executive Editor: Ivan T. Sanderson Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett CONTENTS Editorial: A Matter of Semantics 63 Mathematics: Marion's Ontology: 65 Physics: Rats Again - Teleported on Lombok 65 Chemistry: Muonium and Youth 66 Astronomy: Quotes of the Month - Moon Shots and Mars 67 Geology: Much About Muck 68 Nobody Does Anything - London Weather 70 Vortiginous Vortices 70 Biology: Another Matter of Semantics _ "Blackfish" & "Medussa" 72 That Damned Bone - Not Nessie's 72 So They Made It at Last - Giant Snails in Florida. 73 Archaeology: Ancient Egyptian TV?. 74 South American Circuitry? - Designs on Chimu Pottery 75 A Modest Unpleasantness - "Mystery Hill", N. H. 76 A Real Unpleasantness - Our La Brea Tarpit 76 Choas and Confusion: Frowsy Little Thing - Korean Riding a Turtle 77 Five-Da.v Work-Week 78 Ufology: An Open Letter to All Parties 78 All communications should be addressed to: S. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201,

50 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 i tecture, 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; Geodesy, Geogrop hy, Cartography; Dating. THE TANGIBLES "\

51 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 ge0- graphy: 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),

52 64 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 I. MATHEMATICS 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. 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 number 67, but 3 x 67 = 201. So if you add 67 successively 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 = 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 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'?

53 65 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. II. ONTOLOGY No further comment. (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) 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 ru'. 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 h arvest 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 ru 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 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

54 .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 form a 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? 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' will 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 IV. CHEMISTRY 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 c hemistry. 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 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 thrau gh.' But it could exist on!1 star,. and th~" suggest Mc-

55 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 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 squawks. ", Edit,orial by Richard Dempewolff in SCIENCE DIGEST, October, 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

56 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 c hanc.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 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 captured 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. VI. 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 ~xecutive 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- '

57 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 cos mic 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 o ne 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. Alter natively, 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 a mild 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 o verall 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 b ut 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.

58 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~ 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. ' (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 laid to -desert sand" borne by rainstorms. In western Europe it is the Sahara that is naturally picked as the culprit but nobody has ever yet found a sufficiently substantial area of red sand anywhere in that vast region; nobody ha.s pinned down a single wind blowing from anywhere in it northwest and thus contrary to all prevalent and local winds at all levels; and nobody has ever identified the red material in said 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. VORTIGINOUS VORTICES Member No. 286: of South Amboy, New Jersey, dropped us a modest note last July 'which packed the proverbial wallop and has prompted many of us to spend a very great deal of time follo~ing, up his _ suggestions. -His observations "stemmed from our,, PUbliciz~ng the m'atter Qf vortigi~ous areas of anomaly 'that appellj',to girdle the earth ip two layers equally

59 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.

60 ~""l"""""""""""'.'... ~I..._~... I... I... ~ 72 VII. BIOLOGY; ANOTHER MATTER OF SEMANTICS. A- subscriber dropp~d us a really' very flattering letter but asked that we devote 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~atement' 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

61 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 d 113'. " -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 Art Calvert, 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.' - -

62 74 The Giant Snail concerned is properly called but it was not until the Japanese arrived in World Achatina and did in fact originate,~rom the east War II that they made,their next leap eastward. When coastal regions of Africa. It has a very remarkable things got sticky' for the widely, deployed 'Japanese history since it first was exported - inadvertently'it troops and "the, American counter-offensive got, into seems - from there' by Arabic dhows first to s~me of,gear, supplies ran short in outlying posts. The snails, the Indian Oceanic islands at the end of the last, :which are very fast growing were therefore carried to century. It multiplied on some islands literally "like some south Pacific islands and released 'for food. mad" and in some cases actually ate the whole place And they went to work' with a vengeance. But when into oblivion - 'including itself! It then cropped UP the Japanese troops were' withdrawn they once again in Ceylo'n in, its baby form among vegetable~ and got out of hand. Then some of the local seafarers inimmediately went to wo~k mui:\ching up everything advertently transported some of them in various " vegetative in sight, but, was contained because it vegetable products to other islands, and ever east- was soon discovered to be highly edible to both ward until they hit Hawaii and o'ur west coast. Conhuman beings a~d, many other animals. In fact, it tainment was again the order of the day and happily seems to have- been more or less,eradicated in that, some parasites turned UP to aid us in our efforts. country but.,,not,before it had been transported to Things did not get out of hand there but now, due to some Islands off', the south coast of Sumatra. The, a bizarre present to a loving grandmother, they have; writer encountered it there in 1927 on one of the burst out again; and don't think that this isn't ~re~ly smaller Mentawi -Islands,,come wars and charging serious plague. elephants, we have never encountered anything quite Achatina is worse even than the Floridian conser-, so terrifying. Being conducted along the beach by vations seem to realize. Not' only is it a horribly fast some locals with whom we could not talk in any grower and willing to eat everything but it has a~ mutually understood language we became aware of a parently stepped up its proliferation every time it rumbling noise' like an approaching earthquake but hits certain climatic and ecological conditions within continuous and persiste'nt. In due course we saw the a certain belt north and south of the equator. This is jungle tre,es cra'shing to the ground just back from the not latitudinal but vegetational. It will surely get out " bushes froi:)ting, the beach just as if giant bulldozers of its present 13 blocks in the form of eggs or its were pushing them ov~r. We cut into the bush and initially tiny progeny. What happens then remains to there were trillions of these enormous snails just be seen after a winter. If if survives tilis, just about eating',' arid their combined weight bringing huge the only hope would be to burn the whole place, bullbranches to the ground every, few minut~s within our doze the leftovers, spray the lot and mount a guard limited 'vi~w, :while the!"maller trees toppled ove~, in around the' area. Achatina eggs can survive emersion toto. We feft that place and two weeks later the last in some horribly potent liquids and the immature can human 'inh'abitant -left' thp. other end of the island. move an awful long way in a night. ~owever, they do The 'Achatina hit m~~y more Indonesian islands 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 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 '

63 75 iy' The other piece of common ;sense,that we have so. Several to 'whom w.e :ap'plied.have :not :even"answered; far received' came from.the engineers (No.15.~.alii)...one said 'he c.ould 'not translate,the hieroglyphs :shown His assessinent.reads as follows:...:;. iin the.depiction.. and,'another 'said Jhe would 'not!.'.... 'When it came to.the :business.of,trying,to identify "Certain,.elements, esp~cially the c~bles. are this.temple of.dendera.,w.e ran into ~some pretty virtually an exact copy.of engineering illustrations obvious,chicanery. Ev.erybody.s.eems to -translit.erate as currently u~ed~ The' cable -is shown'as v.e:ry heavy. Ancient 'Egyptian names.in their own ways - we have arid striated - indicating a bundle of many.(multi- Denduras. Dendaras, Dhenduras,. 'and on :and 'on _ 'purpose) conductors.,rather than a.single higli... voltage but the most popular,form.of our temple.among these cable. As a ;matter.of ifact. 'a :single (high-voltage) sav.ants seems to :b.e :t'he little 'one-room :temple.of cable 'would" De much' thinner; i:t :the insulation w.as :Dendur that has now 'been 'acquired ;by ;the 'Metropo\i- 'required to be t~!u,h'~!l-vy :for 'extreme!high 'yoltages. tan 'Museum of New York :and 'which 'is being reor moderately, 1!igh v.oltages at.high currents. rest :erecteii under a.special 'dome 1n 'New York's c.entral assured that' no':technician wonlii,be 'holding the,park. a-:his is. of course, the 'safest path to,follow 'associated' device. Corona leak~e would 'get' him because 'it has only,q.!!g Hall :anii 'no such depiction 'most swiftly. Th'e supporting staniis would be 'much in it. 'So iievious, in f~t. have :been :the 'responses taller and" heavier',. to withstand such voltages. of :the Egyptologi:sts,that,we ihave 'applied :iiirectly to "It is' much.more likely that the,cable is. 'as :EgYPt. so 'once,again; we 'must.ask you,to :wait. stated. a mtilti-conductor. wrapped,and insulated w-ith an outer iacket.,~f-.tilis were:a ~1ight. bolo',.the 'maxi 'SOUTH AMERICAN ClRCUlT.RY? 'mum 'size of both wotild be explainable iby heavy Designs.On "Chimu.:Pottery. current demands; :but high-voltage.insulators 0'( such large 'size woulii :nol;.be :requireil. ]t ~woulii seem ito './Uso 'iil our last.issue we 'mentioned.that IBOlney follow that moderateiy!high 'voltages,are :in.use; a :N ashold (No. 81) 'hail :been :collecting,t~aciflgs of,a connector.is obviously' employed; some typ.e 'of 'numb'er of odd (designs,on 'Chimu :and other :ancient.supporting.base to ~gll':ss,seal'seems.apparent. 'However,.the two '.bulbs' 'are not"itienticlil, 'as.sho~n:by :lng,further 'on 'this. 10nce again. Iw.e.ar.e frankly not.south,american :po~tery, :anil~that we'.would:be r~port:-. the designs "on their :sides,',anil the 'base::stanils.i :do."reatly."barney' N ashdld,has,gi ven us.some.photographic not think :that.they are.transparent,.as ahe '!te~hnician's' body 'is 'not visible.through the device; :it 'reproductions :of these 'weird,designs 'with,ac companying comment.ary :but. :so,complex.are "old 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:o f~modern TN (cameramen. complete with :radio "receiv,er 'and/or. earphones for 'direct.instruction,during.. a 'show'.- Engineers are wonderful.,espect-ally when t'hey contemplate matters 'outside :their strict regimen. There 'was 'a 'rider,to.the above ~from <this :fraternity that,stated: - "It should,be noted.:in ipassing ;that 'the priesthood(s) of old w.ere.past.masters ':at '~putting on a show',to impress 'the Iloc8.1!Datives. And what,could be more convincing obheir "mag~c!i.l' :li.bilities than 'a mysteriously appeoling i(and ili!3appearing) :image on a temple wall? Mter all. the "best,way to impress the.natives is :to : scare them half' to death,'-. The replies so. far received 'from,the:ol~ha~logists :and historians. :al),d: notably iegyptologlsts. have, been in 'marked.:contrast. to,these,pragmatic.comnients. '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.civil IZATIONS.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". The rhy.me. and/or,reason 'for.'so 'much Amerindian..pictorial an~:plastic :art :has.always!.been so obscure.,that the average archaeologist.has :fralikly ~gi;ven up on 'it, 'and 'falle.n back 'upon preconceived notions of what 'might be what 'from.the p.urely ~European -point of view. The.Amerinds. ~il notably :the.more:ancient :ones. just :do.not.today think the way Europeans'.do...,l:Uld they nev.er iliii. An.European. wanting :to ;get a 'solar [battery working 'would draw a.blueprint with.ruler. :set-sq~ol~. and compass; an Ancient Egyptian,,it 'seems, woulil paint,a.r.e~isuc. two~dlmensional 'representb:tion 'on. a:plaster.:wall:for.iposterity';.but.an :Amerind.w.ould: seem to.favour 'equating:batterlea:.with

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

65 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

66 ..._..._... ~ 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 ( ) 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,

67 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, (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)."

68 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), "..',

69 A. '.. -I- 11 CUMULATIVE INDEX (Of plrllnent artl.le. publl.bed In PURSUIT fiom Volume I.. No. I. tbroucb Voluml 2 No.4.) 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 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 Vol.. No. " Pase 2: 2. 2: 4. 2: 4. I: 4. I: 4. I: 4. 1:40 2: I. 2: 2. 2: 2. 2: 2. 2: 4- a: 3. 2: 4. 2: I. 2: 2. 2:2, 2: 3. 2: 3. a: 3. 2: 4. 2: 4. I: 4. 2: I, 2: I. 2: 2. 2: 2. 2: 3. a: 4. 2: 4. 2: 4. I: 3. I: 3. I: 4. 1: 4. 2: I II II B 28 sa n Blolol7 cont. Vol.. No. " Pas. lea-cow....d "Wat... Hor.es" a: I. 12 Th. R.turn 01 &leller'. Saa Cow. Multicolored Chl.k.n EI... A Dime In a ChI.ten Ell. Pros Produced from a SllIIle Ell.. AD MOas May Nol B. E.lln.t A Hairy HomlDId Pr.served In I.e. Bath_ Are Not HeallhfUl. Giant &nolle.... SUper_enlory Percepllon. The Ivor"...bllled Woodpecker In Florida Aulllrolla'. 011Ull Ell. Olanl ChI.ken Ell Elepbant. Pound Flo.lI.. In lhe Se.. The Tecollllia "lea MODs&.." The 'Tok I or -Mouth Man- of BE Asia Alsln. Eml-uP 01 "Bozo" Ihe -Iceman-. for Now. Blackftsh Misidentified. The Loch Ness Greal Bone Hoax... GI... t &nails In Florid. via ANTHROPOLOGY &lone ISPheres... Pre-Amerlndian American Cullures.. 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 (B). 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: I. 2:L 2:L 2: I. 2:L 2 ~ 2 ~ 2 ~ 2 ~ 2: 3. 2: 3. 3: 3. 2: 3. 3: 3. 2: 3. 2: 3. 2: 4. 2: 4. a: 4. I: 4. 2: 2. 3: 3. 2: 3. 2: 4. 2: 4. 2: 4. 2: i: 4. 2: I. 2: 2. 2: 2. 2: 3. 2: n D (b). M1SCEl.LANEIOUS Th. Orilin of Porteanl.., I : 3. IS A DenDilioD of Porteanlam 2: Charle. Port - An Edllorlal. I : 4. 2 The Tuonom,J of KDowledle 2: Ob.arvllloD Balloone: A Elaboration.of the Tuonom,y. Too1 for learch.. I : Knowledse..'. 2: Fori'. PhilosoPb7 - an Eldllorlal 2: I.' I A Korean Ride. " Turtle.. 2: 4. n 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!! ItWJ- 1!!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). 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 ). Ijlncounl.rs with AU... : ~ FlelioD II!!! 1!fSl!! AIIlell.: Sbarbournl Pi... Evan8. RalPh II. (1MB). 6D IGlroducllon m!o!!!2. 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.

70 -111- Gaddie. 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).!iiU and!!!!!n. New York: McGraw-HIli. H~aI. Je_Plarre (1987). ADlmal Kilab.. New York: Rendom Houll. BIIIIOod. Cbar11. H. (1958). 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 New York: Hill and Wanl.). (1968). I!! t!ij!!!!9!!i: U!!! Sea Serplnt.. 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 ( ). 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 ; 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 hard cover 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 rw ~ New York: The Maemlll.o Company. I.. (NASA) Beleollftc '" Tecbnlcal Inlormatlon FacllIll Cl ). 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 ( ).. 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. ( tb 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 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: Award Tandem Books.!!l!!!I!!!!!!!!!!!! Unld.ntlfied [!l!!!i Oblects: Heeri... before lb. Commlltel 00 Sclenc. and Altronautlcs. U.s. House 01 Representatives, July 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 In 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 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). ~. ~ II s!l.. Ne. York: EBaande Spacial EdItions!Slmoo '" Scbuater). I,.." I ~.,. -._... '. I...

71 .._ _._--_.. _ _ _ VOL. 3, NO.1 JANUARY, 1970

72 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 ed for five years, 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 General policy and administrative matters are handled by a which consists of the Trustees and four other officers elected annually. These are: an I Assistant;,a Managing Editor; and two Directors for Publicity and Promotion. The First Vice-Presi is the AdministratIve Director, and the Second Vice-President is in charge of the physical establishm I The Administrative Assistant is also the Librarian. Implementation of decisions taken by the Governing Board is then prosecuted This is composed of a standing Committee' of nine officers, and an unlimited an Executive~. 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 designated the ~ tific Advisory Board. PARTICIPATION Participation in the activities of the Society is solicited. All contributions tax exempt, pursuant to the United States Internal Revenue Code. Memberships run from the 1st of! ary to the 31st of December; but those joining after the 1st of October are granted the final quarter that year gratis. The means of participation are various, as follows: - (1) Honorary (including Founding Members) (2) Sponsors ($1000, or more) (3) Contributing ($100, for special privileges) ($10 (4) Corresponding (data withdrawal service) (5) Contracting (for individual projects) (6) ReCiprocating (for other societies) 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 of current events and a commentary and critique of reports on these. It also distributes a quarterly new I ter on Society affairs to members in categories (1), (2), (3), and (4) above. The Society further issue Occasional Papers on certain projects, and special reports in limited quantity on the request of Sponsors I 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-m s. (This does not, of 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.

73 Vol. 3. No. 1 January PURSUIT 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 EdItorial: Instant Everything: Plus. Mathematics: Trisecting the Angle. Ontology: Did They Come Home in Reverse? Physics: Those Damned Quarks Again! Chemistry: "Polly": Where's the Water? AstronomY.: 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 All communications should be addressed to: S.1. T. U.. Columbia. New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 20 I,

74 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.

75 3 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.

76 4 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 thinking as of now is that the fundamental principles 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 de Signed 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

77 5 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

78 6 IIGS. BAY kfcimist NATUIAL IIDIOACTIV'( 'SUISTAficr rhdiium " UICONDARY COSMIC BAY WAIf AlLfN lilt IAD'AT'ON that great brains are something that nobody most q,ertainly not ex- to our famous "wheel 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 1 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 reports, Drs. Adair and should have seen 1,000 They suggest that the clo Cusker takes for Quarks electrons or mu mesons." Well: it's a happy working so assiduously knows exists and which plained. If you will refer of knowledge" you will calculate that they where they saw none. chamber, tracks.dr. Mcmade by high-energy "Humor has no place in. science with a capital s.... This fact of life, as reported in the ~ York Times, 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 '. 1 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 affect or countereffect. If it is an active counteraffect or effect, it is a counter-acti - 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 See by the Papers in the his.magazine Fate, is the kind permission, I herewith follows: - "We choose to discuss sition in his column "I, 1970 issue of best: and so, with his uce it. It goes as 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"''' is about 40. percent den, Other ~apers worth I on this fascinating subject are: - I (1) "Polywater. The Popular Science, Dresner. (2) "Prospecting for r", Newsweek, 29 September (3), "The Structure of, SCience Journal, November 1969, by S. R. Erlander.

79 7 Instead of freezing at 0 0 C. it freezes at 40 0 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 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 C. Now, if polywater does not do so until a minimum temperature of 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 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. sj But perhaps the most important characteristic of * 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 L divided by 9 J (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

80 8 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 U IDg 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 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 1- billion 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.scule 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 matter or this ridiculous bang to maintain it. There is no reason why and globs of matter. cannot evolve in situ.,they don't need to go flying apart while they do so; they could well go 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 words; round and round we go cosmically. just 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 dumbfounded today when ex nation of data showed that the shocks actually 55 minutes. A similar 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 presumptuous but it might as 'be said. This Society has for three years now be working Quietly away on the "Ringing Rocks" of planet - starting with the examination of several I elds" of these amazing rocks in northeastern P I We have learned a lot about them but. while I possibilities have 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 rock- s 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

81 9 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, "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 o t environmental and tellu.ric.:... or should we say litho spheric - 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 273 C. (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

82 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 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- '-_ _ " _.'._.

83 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 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-

84 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. 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 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 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 I call 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 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.' "

85 13 and now, but we investigated the matter over twenty years ago and we cannot lay our hands on the appropriate documents. However, the full facts are in some newspaper morgues in the New York City area and we are making search). As of circa 1950, it was reported in the press that this pond had never been known to freeze even in the coldest winters - and the year 1948 was cold indeed on Long Island - while many other ponds in the immediate area did so, and to a very grim extent. We visited this pond and, sure enough, not only was it unfrozen while its surround was under a foot of snow and ice, but there were frogs jumping in and out of it. There were no visible or known influents or effluents to or from this pond; there were no nearby houses, nor any industry. More curiously, the surface water appeared to be, by thermometer, just a fraction below freezing point while the water immediately under the ice of adjacent ponds was a few degrees above that point. Ponds freeze from the top down. Figure this one out. We were shown this pond by a hydrological engineer because we were doing a series on water on the Island for a newspaper syndicate. Having never, of course, ever conceived of polywater, we enquired whether the water in this pond might have a differen~dissolved mineral content. Our guide stated that it had been tested but that no difference had been deteeted. Our second example is Lake Seton, near Lillooet, in British Columbia. The best on-the-spot description of this was by the well-known B.C. columnist Alan Jay, who wrote of his first visit: "I caught my first glimpse of Seton Lake a few hours earlier while flying into Lillooet from loo-mile House in a private plane. I immediately noticed that the water of the lake, unlike any other stretch of water in the area, was a brilliant green. I asked Paul the reason for this and he said the probable explanation was either a form of minute animal life in the water or some kind of secretion from the mountains around the lake. 'But the color never changes and the lake never freezes,' he said, adding softly, 'It is a most peculiar lake.'.. The third example we offer is that wholly incredible area in Antarctica known as the Bunger Oasis. This, along with two other smaller areas in other locations, is composed of a number of meandering lakes between islands of bare rock and with icefree shores, set right in the middle of the endless sea of upland ice. These lakes are also either vivid green or blue, and many of them remain completely ice free. Some are freshwater, and others saline with either the exact mineral equivalents of sea water, or with a much higher concentration of some elements such as chlorine. Various explanations of this phenomenon have been put forward, notably by the Russians, but this is another story. All make sense but none has yet been fully accepted. The basic fact remains that some areas - and one of them of over 800 sq. kilometers - remain unfrozen in the midst of a whole continent of ice with a mean annual temperature below freezing, and whereupon lows of more than F. have been recorded. The behaviour of these ponds and lakes is not explained. But, in bringing this up, we do not. mean to imply that polywater is the explanation. However, if this should be a natural product and, as has been suggested, "the original basic form" of that substance, am if it does not freeze until 40 degrees below,. might not a percentage of it above a certain point in the waters of such ponds and lakes prevent all its liquid content from freezing at what we consider the normal temperature for doing so? It took us a long 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 'fal se'. 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 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 m the Wake Q! the ~ ~ records a number of reports from the

86 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, 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.

87 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---.--~--:::'; ~ -:-- ':".-. : ".!. -..'. ---., I 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.

88 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 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 mid Eastern Seaboard for sixty years, how in the hell can

89 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. AT LAST SOME COMMON SENSE 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 period 1890 to 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:- "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." 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: "CHICK EN ITZA - A PLACE TO WANDER AND WONDER".

90 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 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! VlD. 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

91 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 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 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 , 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-

92 20 ing to experts at the Corning Museum of Glass, necessitated heating some 11 tons of material to about 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 - NO-COUNT DRACULA Sub-Section: Medicine 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 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.)

93 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-

94 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, 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

95 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.

96 24 CUMULATIVE WBLIOGRAPHl! Von Daniken, Etich, Chariots Q! tl1.e QQ.Wz, London: Souvenir Press, 1969; Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 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., 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, Fuller, John G., Aliens m the Skies: ru New UFO Battle 01 the Scientists, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sobs - Berkley Medallion Books, , Incident 1!1 Exeter, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, , The Interrupted Journey, New York: The Dial Press, Klass, Philip J., l!eq - Identified, New York: Random House, Schwenk, Theodor, Sensitive Chaos, London: Rudolph steiner Press, Vallee, Jacques, Passport tq. Magonia, Chicago: Regnery, Inc., 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..

97 (.) 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 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 (.) 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. 1, No.3 - June, 1968 Vol. 2, No.3 - July, 1969 Vol. 1, NO.4 - Sept., 1968 Vol. 2, No.4 - Oct., 1969 Vol. 2, No. 1 - Jan., 1969 Vol. 3, No. 1 - Jan., 1970 Vol. 2, No. 2 - April, 1969 These are out of print and not available.

98

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100 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, 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'iiVe 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 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."

101 Vol. 3. No. 2 PURSUIT April 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 All communications should be addressed to: S. I. T. U., Columbia. New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

102 THE TAXONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE THE TANGIBLES GEOLOGY VI Atmospherics and Meteorolo9Y; Oceanology, Hydrology, and Glaciology; Tectonics" Vulcanology, Seismology, Geophysics and Geomorphology; Petrology ond Minerology; Geodesy, Geography, Cartography; Dating. Protogeanology. Botany, Zoo ogy, EXDbiology; Histology, Physiology ond Biochemistry; Anatomy (including Mon); Genet Ics and Evolution; Physical Anthropology; Palaeontology; Ethology and Ecology. MATTER Atomics, Molecular Chemistry, Crystollography. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE HUMAN ENTERPRISE. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (Archaeology is a technique); Pre-History, History, and Folklore; Philology and Linguistics. PERFORMANCE Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics, Classical Physics, E lectrics, E lectromognetics, Magnetics, Mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS MENTAL CONCEPTS Logic and Epistemology; Psychology; Ethics and Aesthetics; Comparative Intelligenelll; Parapsychics. 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 i.

103 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

104 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 PHY SICAL 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~ringly "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~ning 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 ) 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

105 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 reverse direction rather t han rotating through 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

106 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 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

107 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-

108 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-of Paradise. 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.

109 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.

110 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 ~multipie-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 "bay thing" 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

111 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

112 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

113 37 the sad expression it had. The term 'sad-sack' would be most apt." It is interesting to note that all reports of ultraprimitive hominids from the Malayan region have been reported to have pale to white skins 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.

114 I_... ~... ~ 38 Later 'deteriorated' models from the Colombian National Collection. 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 invented electric light, and that just about every other currently used technological development like TV, Radar, and radio-telescopes were first invented in this country. But more alarming is the discovery made recently that youngsters, brought up on these techniques as everyday facts of their lives, have absolutely no concept of their historical background or age. Even a high-school science teacher on a television show, competing for a thousand dollars, gave the answer 1770 A. D. as the year that the Atlantic was first stepped by radio! As a result of this appalling ignorance - which is not their fault, but that of our so-called educational system and TV for the most part - the idea that some South American Amerindian artists were making little gold models of swept-wing jet planes a thousand years ago means nothing to them. The general attitude, we personally discovered, was a sort of "So what?" comment, and often followed up with' "Anyhow, what's so great about that?" The "discovery" of these little artefacts is probably one of the most pertinent' ever made through archaeological enterprise - if it is a true discoveryand it has become much more pertinent since more of these items have come to light and the aerodynamics engineers and designers have had a chance to analyze them. The original notion that they were "zoomorphic fantasies", which was nothing more than a last somewhat desperate resort on the part of archaeologists and historians faced with such an alarming mystery, has now been completely demolished by the zoologists who, with all the will in the' world (and they would love to be able to confirm their colleagues in this), simply cannot come up with any animal that has the 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. NOAH'S ARK, AGAIN Some twenty years ago a group of Turkish military planes reported having spotted an enormous outline of a boat-shaped structure at a high altitude in some unspecified, unmapped mountain territory near their eastern border, while themselves flying at low altitude. In due course, this enormity was relocated and photographed from the air. It was dark brown in color and lying in a small flat valley clothed at that time of the year in short, vivid green new grass growth. In the next decade, the Russians reported having spotted a similar appearing structure but declined to pinpoint its location, probably because it was slightly south of their border. (See below for an earlier Russian report.) Since then, there have been a number of so-called expeditions to the general area, and particularly to Mnt. Ararat itself, by private parties who, while for the most part disclaiming any possible interest in finding Noah's or any other Ark, have nonetheless issued some strange claims. Now comes this one, which we take verbatim from The ETM Log which goes as follows: - "Scientists have found what is believed to be the remains of Noah's Ark buried deep in a lake near the top of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. Pieces of timber preserved by the ice have been carbon dated to at least 4,000 years of age. Though there is disagreement in the scientific community as to whether or not this is really the biblical Ark, those experts who have examined the site agree that the lake holds a large wooden artifact of great antiquity. The 16,873 ft. Ararat is famous for gale force winds and drenching 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. "

115 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 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.

116 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 years, borders on the miraculous. THE OLDEST MINE (N. Y. Times-Chicago Tribune Service). JOHANNE& BURG, South Africa, Feb "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" - Chinfl, was built to keep out the mongrels." "The Great Wall of

117 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. THE OLDEST AGRICULTURE This doesn't seem to have been the happiest of years for the archaeological buffs. Not content with demolishing their whole expressed affirmations as to the origin and date of the discovery of metallurgy, as outlined above,others{and of their own ilk to boot) must needs go and wreck their es~imates for the date and place of origin of the earliest agriculture! And, to ma1!:e matter15 even worse, bronze popped up with this earliest so-far dated civilization which, as is stated below. was blooming more than a thousand years before the later stoneage people of Mesopotamia 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 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 India. The theory that seed cultivation first developed in Southeast Asia is not. actually, a new one. As Dr. Solheim pointed out to Bruce Dunford: "It was postulated (as far back as) 1931 by Aswaldo Menghin in Europe. and again by geographer Carl Sauer of the University of California in Both postulated what we are now finding. We're simply bringing in empirical confirmation in the form of observation and experiment to support their theories." Unfortunately, whoever spoke for Mr. Bayard committed the old sin or stupidity. which has marred the history of archeology and made so many fools of so many sincere 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."

118 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. 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 UFO LOGY. 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-of Paradise 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 Halmah era; 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,

119 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 concluded. 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

120 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,

121 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

122 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.

123 47 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: - (1) 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. 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. OUR LIBRARY 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. PHYSICAL SCIENCES I. Mathematics II. Ontology III. Physics IV. Chemistry V. 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 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 ( B. C.) (4) Classical (400 B.C A.D.) (Ii) Mediaeval ( A.D.) (6) Renaissance ( A.D.) (7) Contsmporary ( A.D.) MENTAL CONCEPTS I. Logic II. Epistemology III. Psychology IV. Ethics V. Aesthetios VI. Comparative Intelligence VII. Parapsyohlcs SPIRITUAL CONCEPTS I. Religion II. Other Mysticism III. Mythology IV. The Occult V. Psychics

124 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.

125 (*) 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 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 (*) 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 Represent ati ves SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY 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 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 and so on. Vol. 1. No. 3* - June Vol. 2. No.3 - July Vol. 1. No. 4* - Sept Vol. 2. No.4 - Oct 1969* Vol. 2. No. 1 - Jan., 1969 Vol. 3. No. 1 - Jan 1970 Vol. 2. No. 2 - April Vol. 3. No. 2 - Apr 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.

126

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128 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, 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 , and so on. These are out of print. Vol. 1. No.3 - June Vol. 2. No.3 - July Vol. 1. No.4 - Sept 1968 Vol. 2. No.4 - Oct., 1969 Vol. 2. No. 1 - Jan 1969 Vol. 3. No. 1 - Jan 1970 Vol. 2. No. 2 - April, 1969 Vol. 3. No. 2 - Apr 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."

129 Vol. 3. No. 3 July 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 All communications should be addressed to: S. I. T. U. Columbia. New Jersey Telephone:.Area Code Please notify us promptly of any change of addresfl. and include zip code.

130 THE TAXONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE THE TANGIBLES GEOLOGY VI EARTH SCIENCES Atmospherics and Meteorology; Oceanology, Hydrology. and Glaciology; Tectonics, Vulcanol.. ogy. Seismology, Geophysics and Geamorphology; Pe Irology and Mineralogy; Geodesy, Geography, Cartography; Daling. MATTER Atomics, Molecular Chemistry, Crystallography. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE HUMAN ENTERPRISE Cultural Anthropology and Elhnology (Archaeology is a technique); Pre.. Hisfory, History, and Folklore; Philologyand Linguisticsa. PERFORMANCE Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics, Classical Physics. Electrics, Electromagnetics, Magnetics, Mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS MENTAL CONCEPTS Logic and Epislemology; Psychology; Ethics and Aesthetics; Comparative IntelligenclI'!i 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

131 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

132 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.) '. 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, "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, mu ch 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 andi running 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 plac e- 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~... H r' 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!

133 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. 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 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 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, 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".

134 ,-----,-- 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

135 .,;a 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' ~,.;..',... 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."

136 - 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 vehicle s, 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 mo vel 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 "choombay s" (a West Indian term for poltergeist or geist manifestations) connected with this place. while Islanders of African 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'!"

137 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. HOLES IN OUR UNIVERSE A perfectly splendid round-up of the knottiest aspect of ontology appeared in Science News, of 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 curr ent 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. 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. Could the centers of the whirligigs that we call galaxies be "holes" leading out of or into our space- I

138 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.

139 '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."

140 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 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.

141 61 VI. GEOLOGY YOU THINK WE'RE POLLUTED 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 the following facts. Today, in our headlong dash to get just about everything wrong about everything, a spot of fortean pragmatism is urgently called.for. Pollution has always been an intrinsi~ part, and even a function, of our environment. In the new outcry - which is of course a good thing - we have nevertheless once again got our metaphors mixed. While the overall picture is indeed an ecological matter., it is primarily an ethological one. (Note: not ethgological.) Ethology is the stu.dy of the behaviour of living organisms in their natural. environment; behaviourism is the study of their behaviour in unnatural conditions. The main point at issue today is, therefore, siniply: Is the environment we have created for ourselves natural or unnatural? Since we are manifestly the product of a natural evolutionary process, we can but assume that our present environment is just as natural as anything else. Thus, we are actually not to blame. The current mess is a mess, but now that we have woken UP to this fact, we might take heart from some solid facts that seem to have been overlooked. A rather neat one is the accompanying extract from a fine publication named the Wildlife Review of British Columbia, and which appeared in its Volume No.5, No. 4 (see cut of early British efforts). This should put certain matters in a somewhat different light - or darkness. Then, we have a rather interesting quote from an article by that consummate. pragmatist Dr. Edw81d Teller, in the New Scientist for the 19th February, This reads as follows:- "The fight against pollution has entered into a particularly popular phase, but thoughts on pollution are older. In 1954 Otto Frisch, one of the discoverers of fission, wrote a short parody on the safety measures connected with nuclear reactors. He pretended that in the year 4995 the uranium and thorium mines. from the Earth and Moon mining systems were near exhaustion and wrote: 'The recent discovery of coal (black, fo ssilized plant remains) in a number of places offers an interesting alternative to the production of power from fission The power potentialities depend on the fact that coal can be readily oxidized, with the production of a high temperature and an energy of about megawatt day per gramme..'. Further on, he remfj,rks: 'The main health hazard is attached t.o the gaseous waste products. 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.'- We often wonder what our urban citizens of today would have thought of a good old Liverpudlian or London "pea-souper- of the tens, teens, twenties, al).d thirties. You think you've got pollutionl Dear hearts; just what would you do if your city was completely "blacked out- for three days by a pale-pinkish, acrid smog! so dense that even with the street lights on cops could not direct the traffic? That was pollution. And what about Gary, Indiana, and the bit between it and Chicago today, with hundreds of smoke stacks belching dense clouds of every color from white through rose-pink, chrome-yellow, and sundry browns to jet black? The people who live, and have lived there for three generations, have somehow survived. Could it be this famous "survival of the fittest"? And now another thing. Question: "Whatever happened to spring?" This may sound a bit balmy but please consider the points made by this respondent (member no.218). Let him tell it in his own words. "Our factory pollution is stationary. This is because the factories do not move about. The only thing which moves the polluting factor about is the atmospheric circulation. My point is this:- If the polluting factor moved about, it would pollute a much larger area. One such polluting factor which is no longer with us is the 'steam locomotive'. They have been gone about as long as our 'old fashioned 11t73 Use of coal prohibited in l.ondnn as being.. prejudicial to health." 1306 Royal rroclamation prohibiting artificcn from using sca coal in their furnares. Record of the exccu tion of onc offender Commission of Inquiry appointcd to.. inquire of all such who burnt sea-coal in the city or parts adjoining, and to punish them for ti,e lint offcnce WIth grcat lilies and ransoms, and upon the second offcncc 10 demolish their furnaces." 1578 Qucen Elizabeth I.. lindeth herscaife greately grevcd and anoyed with the tasle and smoke of thc Ica-cooles.". IG" Petition of Londonen 10 Parliament to prohibit the importation of coal from Newcastle on account of the injury they cxpcrienc"cd John Evclyn submiucd his.. Fumifllgium, or thc Smoakc of London Dissipated," to Charles II.

142 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 "

143 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.

144 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 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."

145 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 t heir 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.

146 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. 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. 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 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.

147 IK-NISH 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. 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 "Hi You". 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. 15. TREE STUMPS 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. 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, th~ee 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. 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.

148 68 BOOK REVIEWS The strange World Ilf"Animals and Pets, I;>y Vincent and Margaret Gaddis, New York, Cowles Book Company, Inc., " 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 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, 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 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, 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. " "

149 THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED 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 GOVERNING BOARD 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)

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

151 ! I I.; I., I -1, I i'.~ '. _;..,... _.,. "~'."...,., ~,.:: _,......~. -.:..,. =-..., '.' ~.,.. - '.' ~ zo"!'...., - ~ -= ~= - ~ - - = _ - i.. ~=--- ~- -- ~ _. ~: -=-...sf SCIENCE IS THE PURSUIT OF THE UNKNOWN" w-. VOL. 3, NO.4 OCTOBER, 1970

152 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, 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 until the end of March 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 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.-

153 , Vol. 3. No. 4" October PURSUIT 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! I Editorial Director: Ivan T. Sanderson Managing Editor: Marion L. Fawcett Associate Editor: Daniel F. Manning 1 I CONTENTS 'Ib,g, Taxonomy of Knowledge Editodal 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 Ufology Current Pursuits Qyr. Library Book Reviews All communications should be addressed to: s. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey 07832; Telephone: Area Code 201, Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

154 f ; THE TAXONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE THE: TANGIBLES GEOLOGY VI Atmospherics Qnd MeteorolOiY; Oceanology, Hydrology, and Gla- ciology; Tectonics, Vulcanol- 09Y, Seismology, Geophysics ond Geomorphology; Petrology and Mineralogy; Geadesy, Geography, Cartography; Dating, Protog.analogy. Botany, Zoo ogy, E biology; H.stology, Physiology and Biochemistry; Anotomy (including Mon); Genet Ics ond Eyolution; Physicol Anthropology; Palaeontology; Ethology and Ecology, MATTER Atomics, Molecular Chem.stry. Crystallography. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE HUMAN ENTERPRISE Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (Archaeology is a technique); Pre-History, History. and Falklore; Philology ond Linguistics. PERFORMANCE Theor.tical Physics. Nucleonics. Classical Physics, Electrics. E lectromagnetics, Magnetics, Mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS MENTAL CONCEPTS Logic ond Epistemology; Psychology; Ethics end Aes th.tics; Comparative Intellig.nc... ; Porapsychics. 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

155 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 gu ts, 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.

156 '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, 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~bled 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 Godd ard 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 done no such work and does not know where the story originated, though they speculate that it was an orr-duty 'prank' by serious scientists.

157 '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!). 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 Dr. Wayne E. Black, Director. Division of Laboratories. St. Louis County Health Dept Clayton. Mo. This goes: - -Dear Sir: Your letter of June was referred to me by Mr. Pecsok for reply. Unfortunately, a good deal of erroneous information was released before sufficient laboratory evaluation could be obtained. A 'ballooning spider' phenomenon does exist: bowever, it is doubtful that this was the case in this particular instance. Laboratory tests on the fiber-like material were negative for protein which is the basic chemical composition of spider webbing.. A number of factors indicate that this may not bave been of biological origin.' But. if it was. it probably would have been of plant type. Unfortunately. we exhausted all the material. we bad on hand performing a variety of tests. and consequently we were not able to come to any definite conclusions. /Signed/ Sincerely yours. Wayne E. Black. Ph.D. II One does not wish to be impolite to anybody concerned. but it does seem to us to be a bit odd that stuff can't be analyzed, and even stranger that something which is declared not to be organic might be classed as of a vegetable nature when it was initially declared to be an animal product. And why. above all. if the Smithsonian outfit was set up specifically to investigate such short-lived phenomena, could 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: - Toronto: "The Rev. Arthur Gibson believes com-. puters are 'conscious' and 'alive' and capable of original sin. The Roman Catholic priest, who teaches at st. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. also believes they have free will and can suffer nervous breakdowns. he said in an interview. 'Many people have an emotional resistance to admitting that computers are anything more than machines,' Father Gibson says. 'But it seems to me that the.. computer performs the functions of consciousness and creative thought as man does. We are going to be able to develop genuine friendship with the advanced computers of the future.' Father Gibson.studied the philosophy of science under Einstein at Princeton. He speaks eight languages. including Russian a~d Chinese. And he really feels for computers. 'To destroy. an advanced computer. an exquisite and beautiful vehicle o( consciousness. would be as monstrous as to kill a man. The computer will value continued existence as much as we do.' "There Is a need (or computer psychiatry to deal with the increasing complexity of computer intelligence. especiall~ its capacity (or developing neurosis, Father Gibson says. 'To induce a neurosis in a computer you need simply give it insoluble problems - subtracting seven (rom three. (or example. However, the really crucial point is that sophisticated computers develop neurotic symptoms when (aced with problems which involve moral judgments.' He says an advanced computer is programmed not to do anything which is contrary to the best interests of the programmer. If a computer is put to work developing a nuclear weapon. which it concludes may well I, I'! - J

158 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 Briefly, miles of single-imprirt tracks were found one morning over a large area of Devonshire, England, all in a straight 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 [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 Computers, 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."

159 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, 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.

160 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 "FAFROTSKIES- We 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 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 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, 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 glimps e 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 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."

161 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.

162 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: - (1) Silliman's American Journal Qf Science. vol. V (1822). PP : and vol. XLllI (1842). pp 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. (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 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 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., 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 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 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.

163 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 foot protections 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 " ancient Hindu (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.)

164 80 0 ' ),.,.~.' THE INTE RNA.TIONAL AC.ADEMV :OF SANS~RIT RESEARCHt MVSORE, INDIA. " i{ Jq ~ {. II ~!t O1f ~.' AERONAU.TICS ~~f;rcp loma Sample Extracts ur~~ BY Maharshi 'Bharadwaja A MANUSCRIPT' FROt\1 1 Lit PRE-HISTORIC PAST!! "~,,,q41l1tj!~ IItQl[C '1"',"11.. I.."arIlRldQli1'l'Rir. gil" ~r'l. II ";r",,e,rih'fl'~trtauliit.'''~1{.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'" I c.i'~r"~r;~t.,f'l qls.,.. t IIia.ifW I a firin;t (fa sit~) ir8na"~f "'::~I "_Uf"fC'.~ II I I(I&ln'IT ~ ~'(Jff(1 ~!1"f.llfl1'! r..qt~t.ellrls.'~r... I. In fh;, b'.iok are (Jc~I.:r-ihcd in X pregnant 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 wcll bcidg 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 ~ned ' Vimana ' by scientists. in Aeronautics,'! e co The secrel uf construding aeroplanes, which will nol break, which can~ot be cut, wilj not catch fire. and camiot. be destroyed: The secret of making planes D1otionless. The ~ecn.~t of making Planes II1vi~ib)c.. The secret of hearing convcrsp,tions and other wdii datcicrllite"ef(t«.~t. "'1 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;;ditccti OA.a. '. '~' ~,~.:,Wt~~"i

165 81 qqcllr.i" ;rr;d...'eften... <e.. Il-1 ~n.ilr-t... r(l;'ffl6~t{~~11.1 ; "qr ""iwets~).tiul'lttit?u'iir I wli,htqul;rl8fs g'd~'\f~'n u "".~ql!.tqat@l1''''lituq qq.. ~fit I ~~uii:"tit'ltq,;rr'st"fi'fit..(tv: u. /.lr iitl'~lcf~".. q:n"~igt(8: I qg~"ii"\cii ~fi..,(t'rqiiqitq. II.~ ~'''Im!I){IQ~At~r~u'ii'~'ig'~~1.;'1G1'lItll{ ti{t f{$i~~1 (fa fwi~'i: II Q~umEi,q'~ IJIiI~r fl!l"lll~q:.. q1\li(1(~1:~ 'iq"irl\tr. fuft«;r"'~.n p.. I I 2..The secret of making persons.in enemy planes lose consciousness. 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, 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 - 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... _.,:... fir- '. Itrrl(U 'UI~tt SIl\\': '(alf!l,ar_u~tl I.' 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 "~,,,r(jifqltntlr'~'.t.~q8~ II wboje~ol11e and. body building'" II t'hr;ttsifir 8U[I&,"'tt;r~f.t til'" I M,,'lah suitable for ACC\.lrelancs~ light,. :md 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.ft81;ft~ DI,~!i.fila1ilnfit IIC:~~:- II COllsul\ction:'.. The,manus~ript contalll~ dcta.ils of invaluable worth on these aliq al.lied matters, whose publication shouh1ope n flllt new vistl1s in IUvdern.... acroplane.~llanufacl~rc. O. Ro. [osyer: ~f.a., for.e.s-,. Di."ctor IHnaJIIATlONAL ACADEMY OJ SANSKRIT R.l!SEAkCH' NJlolLEt,~

166 We made so 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. - "Dear Mr. stephens, "We are applying to you on the advice of the - president of our Society, Mr. Hans stefan Santesson, who is a long-time member of yours and who has. contributed papers to your journal. We are wondering and very much hoping that you might be able to aid us in obtaining a translation of the enclosed document. "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 that a number of the characters had flowed together. We are given to understand by one of our communicants that this material is of considerably ancient date _ and he alluded to the 'early Vedic'. Of this, of course, I am totally Incompetent to speak... Anything that you could do to help us would be most enormously appreciated; and, we enclose a descriptive paper on our organization and a list of _ our Scientific Advisory Board as further recommendation. /Signed/ Professor Insler's reply: I am, Sir, Yours sincerely, Ivan T. Sanderson, F.R.G.S., etc. Administrative Director. 82 "Dear Mr. Sanderson:.Prof. Ferris J. stephens, the esteemed Secretary of the American Oriental Society for more than 35 years, unfortunately died last autumn here in New Haven. Prof. Hugh M. Stimson, now serving as Act Secretary for the Society, has forwarded your letter to me for response. "The reproduced page belongs to a text called 'Valminika Sistra, composed by Maharsi Bharadviija. The text is written in Classical Sanskrit, and belongs to a genre of treatises which date from the 3rd - 7th Century A. D. It could be even later than that. but certainly not earlier than the first date given. _.. "The extracts concern themselves with the praise, powers, (and description?) of the vim!l.na, the mythical flying chariot or palace of the gods, which frequently appears in the Mahabhiirata, the great Epic of India. I have bracketed the word 'description' in the previous sentence. because there is no clear verse on this first page primarily occupied with that task, although one refers to the 31 characteristics of a 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 data. The vimana is only a mythological machine, a rather glorified and elaborate flying carpet. /Signed/ Yours very truly, S.Insler, Assoc. Prof. of Sanskrit, yale University Graduate School" We find Prof. Insler's kind reply eminently satisfactory - but for one point. This is his statement that he was "not interested in translating it". We don't blame him one bit; but this is frankly a crashing 'bore' because it leaves us "back in the old drag", and still trying to find out if these "ancient" - or even mediaeval - Indians did or did not say what some of their modern descendents claim that they did. In other words, are the English translations as given in the right-hand columns of the two previous pages true translations, or are they mistranslations, pipe-dreams, pure fabrication, or some other mystical nonsense? It is about time that somebody did translate said passages; and more especially if they do exist in standard texts of any Sanskrit MSS. Indeed, these "Vimanas" may-be only "mythological machines (and) rather glorified and elaborate flying carpets", but what the devil were "flying carpets" anyway? -This looks alarmingly like another "wipe". Why can't we get even these reproductions of alleged "ancient" texts translated? If we could only get some professionals to do just this; and starting with the left-hand columns of the two previous pages; or dig up for us cretins the original passages in the Mahabharata we might get somewhere. Moreover, should any translations turn out to be as stated in the right-hand columns of the previous pages, what on earth are sensible people asked to -make of all of this? Once again. you can't have it both ways. Either this junk is what it is said to be by the mystics. or it isn't. And, if it is, somebody is going to have to explain how a bunch of Indians (circa 400 to 800 A. D.) got all these "crazy" ideas about airplanes, camouflage by invisibility, intercoms, radar-directionfinding. induced pilot 'blackouts', and plain "shooting down" of planes. Really, this is a bit odd, isn't it? But until somebody competent is willing to translate these passages (and honestly), we sensible people cannot get anywhere, and the crackpots can. continue their field-day., ~i ". I 'i\, f

167 83 i 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 SMOK ING' 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. La2- arus 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 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 Column 2 Column 3 O. integrated O. management O. options 1. total 1. organizational 1. flexibility 2. systematized 2. monitored 2. capability 3. parallel 3. reciprocal 3. mobility 4. functional 4. digital 4. programing 5. responsive 5. logistical 5. concept 6. optional 6. transitional 6. time-phase 7. synchronized 7. incremental 7. projection 8. compatible 8. third-generation 8. hardware 9. balanced 9. policy 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...

168 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 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."

169 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 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 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 (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 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 Bel Murduk. 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 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 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 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."

170 ." 86 Piece of wooden beam. ~. t ~.,' J U.s.s.R.."~ MT. ARARAT ~ TURKEY \ "f ".-/,"...."" _'\ ~,? ,.,.",. ~ :-y,, IRAQ co 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. 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: - 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. "On pps 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 -

171 : 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? Let s 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

172 88 I! I 1970), the publication of The British U.F.0. Research Association; which is herewith reprinted with their very kind permission. I i "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 mid Atlantic 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 in volved 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 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

173 .' 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: - (1) 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. (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!l and 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 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 taught to 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 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 ; (b) Mr. George Berklacy. Director of Public Relations. the Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C ; (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 These are the gentlemen who have now claimed that they have all the answers. Ask them. (9) THE LARGEST & OLDESl' PLANT No report yet..

174 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.

175 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., $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 a. 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

176 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 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, $ 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}.

177 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)

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

179 ..., "";. "~""'! = 1=:: = ".' =.' =.. e." /:~ ~ =-.' SCIENCE IS THE PURSUIT OF THE UNKNOWN" VOL. 4, NO.1 JANUARY 1971

180 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, 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, 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."

181 Vol. 4. No. 1 January 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 All communications should be addressed to: S. I. T. U., Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 201, Please notify us promptly of any change of address, and include zip code.

182 THE TAXONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE THE: TANGIBLES GEO!-OGY VI Atmospherics and Meteorology; Oceanology, Hydrology, and G la. cioi09),; Tectonics. Vulcanol- 09Y, 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. PERFORMANCE Theorerical Physics. Nucleonics. Classic-oj PhySICS. Electric!, E lectromagnet.cs, Magnetics, Mechanics. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE 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; Elhics and Aes.hetics, Comparative Intelligenc~; 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. 2

183 3 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.

184 4 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.

185 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. 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. 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 "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 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. 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. 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, "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

186 6 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. ~

187 7 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, as a feature article by Manoff Abdullah (Chronicle Foreign Service), date-lined Kuala Lumpur. "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."

188 8 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.

189 9 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 sick for 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

190 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.

191 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 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 a vailable, 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.

192 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. 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 Department ~ Geography: Demography!!P ~ Date Some of our favourite towns: Eek, Alaska; Enigma, G~orgia; Waterpr~of, LO,uisiana; St 7 amboat, Nevada; Zap, North Dakota; Drain, Oregon; and, best of all, Pamc, Pennsylvama. We re not makmg these up, you know.

193 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.

194 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 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

195 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 6 Z 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) 32J 25J2 or, ii there is no answer there, (5J4)

196 ~,-----~ , ~ , Piutes always called the redheads Si wash Indians but m any 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 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 , 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 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. "THEY ALL DISCOVERED AMERICA" The most startling pronouncement in the field of archaeology last year was undoubtedly Professor 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 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 migratipn of Jews D..e. Hebrews]". It was 'brought to 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 J 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. 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

197 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 The objects were not found in a cache but well distributed

198 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. 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. 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. 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 (phone: (602) ).

199 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; January February 1964; November-December 1965; and November-December 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 scientist s, 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

200 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 Determinism Indeterminism. 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 mid November - 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 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 investigations 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

201 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 (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. (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!] (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.

202 ',... ~... I~ I~.. ~ (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, $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, $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, (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

203 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, $5.95. This is an excellent book, carefully researched and clearly written by our member No 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 $ Daniel Cohen. ~ Modern Look!!J: Monsters. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, $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

204 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' co uld 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. Marion L. Fawcett.. Ivan T. Sanderson. Invisible Residents. New York: World Publishing Company, $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.

205 THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED 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 GOVERNING BOARD 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)

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

207 -= = = =-,...-; ~- SCIENCE IS THE PURSUIT OF THE UNKNOWN" VOL. 4, NO.2 APRIL, 1971

208 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code 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, 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.

209 Vol. 4. No.2 April 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 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 if[ The Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained 1971

210 THE TAXONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE THE TANGIBLES GEOLOGY VI Atmospherics and MeteoroIOl"; Oceanolol[y, Hydrology, and Glaciology; Tectonics. VulcanoloilY, Seismology, Geophysics and Geomorphology; Pe_ trology and Mineralogy; Geodesy, Geography. Cartography; Dating. Protogeano logy. Botany. ZOO 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 HUMAN ENTERPRISE Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (Archaeology is a technique); Pre.. History. History, and Fol~lore;,Philology and Linguistics. PERFORMANCE Theoretical Physics, Nucleonics, Clos,ieal Physics, Electrica, E I.ctromagne'ics, Magn_tics, Mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS MENTAL CONCEPTS Logic and Epistemology; Psycho log)'; ethics and Aes.. thehcs; Comparahve 1"'.lIi98"C""; Porapsychlcs.. MEASUREMENT Number, Quontity. Arithmetic, Algebra. Geome,ry, Trigonome.,y. Calculus. Topology. Theory of Game S I Probob iii ty, Coincidence. THE INTANGIBLES Eyerything in existence, including 8 existence 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

211 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. Hu xley 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 themselve s 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 reality and 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.

212 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 hobbyis ts 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

213 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 phone: (602) , 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

214 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 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 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

215 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

216 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

217 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\..." ~C(;ll~"'J""'.Y'.. ti:..... ',:.":... t.. ""..., :.L""'I! -:.~~.. ~--.. _.. ;.-~.~~ 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.

218 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 EMPTOR- IN 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-

219 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

220 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 (185 i-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 - consid rably 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 Oh 4 Oh.' Chase: 'Ab yes, Op: 'No, Oh 4 Oh.' Chase: 'Th:at's what I said ' 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."

221 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,

222 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

223 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 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.

224 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 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".

225 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. Staurolite crosses. Diagrammatic. "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. 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!

226 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 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.

227 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 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

228 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 undercut 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

229 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-Iraqui Iranian 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 " '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).

230 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. 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 th m 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. Self-starting ~ 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."

231 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".

232 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 72- degrees 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

233 49 ~,,, OUR WORLD AND AROUND WE GO A(JAfN (SK,,. IT] 'j' ' 1 I t :- '- - I..:. - _' _"_1- ~; ~- I':' i. /1", o/iiieas OF j~!ns~ A~LI~S,... 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 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.

234 50 BOOK REVIEWS Michel Gauquelin. The Scientific Basis Qf Astrology. New York: stein and Day, 1969 (translated, by James HUI~hes). $5.95. 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, $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!

235 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, 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.

236 if,,,,,,,,.ii'..,.""."'ii!iji!,... ""'U.,,... _ 52 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 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 II 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 II Advanced Certificate with five Credits". Then, he plu~ged into the following somewhat extraordinary career Trip to France; research and exploration of ice caves in Pyrenean Mountains 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 Yorkshire Zoological Federation, England (Flamingo Park Zoo) - employed as aviculturist and vivarium keeper. During which time discovered techniques in breeding certain species :in captivity Free-lance field study and conservation work in England, Scotland, and Wales 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 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.

237 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 The Ringing Rock s Brain Control Physical Anthropology Richard W. Palladino Alfred D. Bielek Keith Tavernor 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)

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

239 ~ =- - - j -, : -=- -.~-. ' -~ ~ ~- SCIENCE IS THE PURSUIT OF THE UNEXPLAINED" VOL 4, NO.3 JULY, 1971

240 SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE UNEXPLAINED Columbia, New Jersey Telephone: Area Code " 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 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.

241 Vol. 4. No.3 July 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 Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained 1971

242 THE TAXONOMY OF ~NOWLEDGE THE TANGIBLES GEOLOGY VI EARTH SCIENCES Atmosph.rici and M.t.o'~loiY; Oceanol09->" Hydrology, a"d vlo. cioloo,.; Tectonics. Vulcanol- 09" Seismology, Geophysics and Geomorphology; F?. trology and Mineralogy; Geode.y, Geography, Cartography i. Dating.. Protogeonology, Botany, Zoo ogy, E."b,ology; Histology, Physiology and Biochemistry; Anatomy 'inc ludlfuji Man); Genetics and Evolution. Physical Anthropology; Palaeontology; E.hology and Ecalogy. MATTER Atomics. Molecular Chemistry, Crystallography. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE 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 PERFORMANCE Theoretical Physics. Nucleonics. Cla.. icol Physic., Electrics, E l.e'romalneticl, Magneticl, Mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS 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 existencer 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

243 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, 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, 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.

244 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 lat r. 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".

245 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" 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 dowser results 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 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 by Wilma Bonsanti. "The mystery of the 'growing' volcanic ash ma.v never be solved. It has stumped Mrs. William Chisholm 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'

246 '~...,_...r... ~... r...._~..._ 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, th 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 80- ft. 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 i 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.

247 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 which "quotes" noted British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle on "alien minds that control our every move" is, according to Professor Hoyle, a "complete fabrication". He notes in a letter to us that he did give 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".

248 -._ , 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 'Immediate' reports may be telephoned to area code 301, 43fi-0941.

249 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 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

250 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 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.

251 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'." 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. 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 by Michael R. Freedman Holography is a new technological innovation. Or at least one that seems new because nothing much Murphy' s ~ 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 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.

252 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 ru Express, of Easton, Pa. "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 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."

253 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.

254 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 a gainst 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..

255 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 television Or 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 Statesman Examiner 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

256 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 stringent 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 ~ 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

257 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 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:-

258 70 (a) 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. 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). a b c d 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. AMERICANISM\? Section - HISTORY Sub-Section - Modern 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

259 71 people firmly believe that Pearce made his flight before them - in 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 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, experiments 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?

260 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.' i 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, 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

261 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 Virtually nothing 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 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.

262 ~ ~ I--~ I..._... ~ 74 THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF II ABSMs (oc.l~an IA]! i i i ,: 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, broad - but-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 hom - inid, 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 com - pletely human-type feet, but fully ~ toes, that is distributed all around the (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) 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. Iill! Agogwe: A fully-haired. tropical pigmy hominid. [Of doubtful provenance]: Described variously as of very large size but with ~n opposed big toe. More likely a lowland ~orest ape. (see No. 6 above) : The Shiru: A pigmy, fully-haired hominid. 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. : The Mapinguary: This is 1ll-definE1d; but Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans seems to feel that it is at least a giant primate. '

263 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 % 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 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