Conference turris::scandia

200.0. "Something sighted in Sweden's Lake Storsj�n" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Mon Apr 06 1987 10:21

Associated Press Sat  4-APR-1987 07:17                         Swedish Nessie

                Scientists to Search for Swedish Lake Monster
                              
                                By ARTHUR MAX
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Does Nessie, the monster of Scotland's Loch
    Ness, have a great-aunt Greta who lives in a huge mountain lake in
    northern Sweden? Scientists say they will make a search to find out.

    Sten Rentzhog, a local curator, said his staff has collected reports
    from 400 people who claim to have seen a monster in Lake Storsj�n, 300
    miles north of Stockholm.  The first reported sighting was in 1635.
    Rentzhog runs the county museum in nearby Ostersund and is director of
    the newly formed Society for Investigating the Great Lake.    
    
    Lars Thofeldt, a member of the 12-man scientific team, said no clear
    picture of the monster emerges from the accounts. He is a botanist and
    teaches at the college in Ostersund. "Some people said they saw a large
    neck undulating back and forth that looked like a horse's mane,"
    Thofeldt told The Associated Press by telephone. "Others observed a
    large wormlike creature." 
    
    Rentzhog said: "Scientifically, you can't say it exists until it is
    proved, but there is at least as much evidence as there is about the
    Loch Ness monster." 
    
    Reports of the creature's size also differ. One of the earliest reports
    described it as large enough to wrap its body around one of Storsjon's
    many islands, but later ones give a variety of lengths ranging from 10
    feet to 42. The Loch Ness monster is described as 40 to 50 feet long. 
    
    One of many theories is that the reported monster was trapped in the
    Swedish lake 15,000 years ago, during the Ice Age. Thofeldt said it
    could be a water reptile or akin to a large snail. 
    
    Human settlement in the Storsjon Basin has been traced to the Iron Age
    around 400 B.C., making it the oldest inhabited area in Scandinavia,
    Rentzhog said. 
    
    Although the Great Lake society will search for evidence of the
    monster, Thofeldt said, its "real aim is to investigate the area and to
    create an interest for bringing qualified enterprises here." 
    
    Swedish news reports said submarines would probe the lake, which is 243
    feet deep and covers an area of 164 square miles. "It would be a
    splendid idea to go down with headlights and cameras," Thofeldt said,
    but it was doubtful the society could raise enough money. 
    
    Among the first tasks he listed: Collate information from the sighting
    reports, try to identify any pattern in timing or location and compare
    notes with other organizations, such as the Loch Ness Society.