1885, Summer: Sightings of a Large Beast

"In the summer of 1885, stories were circulated about a strange beast being seen by many people about Loch Ness. It usually only appeared for a few minutes on the surface of the Loch, so that no one could properly describe it..."

        The above was extracted from a letter printed in The Scotsman on October 20, 1933. The letter was sent by a Mr. D. Murray Rose, and this snippet was reprinted in Rupert T. Gould's book on the Loch Ness 'Monster' published in 1934. It was presented there -- and here -- as an example of the many sorts of claims that were being made in 1933 for sightings of a large animate object in Loch Ness previous to the 1933 'discovery' of the 'monster' that made the story a worldwide sensation.

Unreliable

        Untimately Gould didn't credit accounts like this -- published after the idea of a monster in Loch Ness had become a popular news item -- with any sort of scientific value for the study he was performing in 1933 of the developing claims. No wonder: we're left with only a vague claim that has no testable or verifiable details, rendering the statement completely unreliable.