Great Places, Great Explorers

Planet Earth is a great, big wonderful place…full of magic and mysteries. And our Earth is full of exotic people living in very, very different worlds than the one we inhabit here in the USA.  When I was a boy I was always more interested, it seemed, in what I found in a book than what was around me in my hometown. I grew up reading adventure stories and travel books, and I dreamed about visiting the places I read about and having my own adventures. What interested me most was literature and travel. Why? Maybe because it was such a thrill to be on my own in a new country surrounded by new people, speaking a new language and observing a new culture. Coming home from a trip always seemed such a letdown. But then I’d just start reading about my next trip and the adventure would begin again.

The stories that interested me most as a boy were about distant lands full of wild animals and dangerous tribes. Saturday afternoon Tarzan movies and Sunday night tv shows like Wild Kingdom were my favorites as a kid. As I grew older I learned that these exotic places were in danger of being destroyed. The trees of the rainforest were being cut down for furniture and the fields given to cows so we here in the USA could eat more hamburgers. The incredible wildlife of the rainforest was disappearing and with it the many traditional Indian groups that share the forest with the animals. At college I studied the literature and culture of Latin America. I became hugely obsessed with the Amazon rainforest and everything about it. After college I began to travel by myself as a backpacker throughout Latin America. And as fate would have it I met my wife-to-be in the city of Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. My wife also happened to be a jungle guide. And that was it. I moved to Manaus to live and work there. My wife and I opened a riverboat tour company called Swallows and Amazons in 1992 and only last year we came back home to the USA with our 2 daughters. I may not be so obsessed with the Amazon today. It is still an amazing place, and a place (sadly) threatened with destruction, but I figure after 20 years it’s time to see something else of the world.

My mother and father were born and raised in Scotland. And I was born in London, England. When I was just a baby my family moved to Nigeria, a country in West Africa. My father worked for a British construction company, and in the early 1960s Nigeria was still a British territory (or colony) as that time. My first “real” hero was the Scottish missionary and explorer, David Livingstone. Besides exploring much of South and Central Africa- bringing Christianity to the native people and trying to abolish the practice of slavery- Livingstone became involved in one of the greatest geographical quests of all time…the search for the source of the Nile River.

If we look at one of Livingstone’s maps we can see that the lakes of central Africa he discovered. The Nile River flows northwards and discharges its waters finally into the Mediterranean Sea. For a long time the Nile was thought to be the longest river in the world but no one knew how long because no one knew where it began.

Livingstone’s expeditions were sponsored by the Royal Geographic Institute of Great Britain, the greatest geographical organization in history. Their mission was to explore the world in an effort to expand what was called the British Empire. Our own National Geographic Institute is modeled after this institution. As Livingstone travelled farther north each year into lands once labeled “incognito” or “unknown” the Royal Geographical Institute began suggesting he make efforts to find the source of the Nile. What was hoped for was that a better understanding of the river systems of Central Africa would help open the region to trade and civilization. Travel through the tropical rainforest was extremely difficult; river travel wherever possible was always easier and safer.

On one of his last expeditions Livingstone disappeared and was feared dead. Numerous expeditions were sent to find him. Eventually one lead by the American newspaper reporter Henry Morton Stanley found Livingstone deep in what today is the Congo Rainforest. The famous explorer was gravely ill. Their historic meeting is remembered for Stanley’s humble greeting with the famous African explorer. When the two white men met, Stanley simply said, “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”

Livingstone would never see his native Scotland again. When he died his heart was buried in the village where he had been living, and his body was brought back to England where it is entombed in London’s famous Westminster Abbey, final resting place of Britain’s greatest Kings & Queens, statesmen, soldiers and explorers. Livingstone did not find the source of the Nile. And neither did Stanley though he did go on to explore even more of Central Africa.

After Livingstone and Stanley the most famous early African explorers were Richard Burton and John Speke. In 1858 they discovered a large mountain lake they named Victoria, a lake Speke was convinced was the source of the Nile. Burton reminded Speke that without geographical proof they could not prove this conclusively. In 1862 Speke returned to Lake Victoria with another Africa explorer, James Grant, and this time he circled the lake to confirm it did indeed flow north and was the source of the Nile River. Back in England however the disagreements between Burton and Speke continued and Speke, deeply depressed, committed suicide.  Burton was a broken man himself and never returned to Africa either.

Film: The Mountains of the Moon (1990), with Patrick Bergin.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles

I have told you something about natural mysteries (The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman). Now I’d like to introduce you to another kind of mystery. These are written mysteries, or mystery stories.

In the United States, Washington Irving wrote “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820. Nataniel Hawthorne wrote his gothic masterpiece “The Scarlet Letter” in 1850. And Mark Twain published “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in 1884. All of these stories contain elements of mystery, horror or suspense, with creepy characters in often spooky settings. But the first truly “modern” mysteries were written by the American Edgar Allen Poe. In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” published in 1841 Poe introduced a new kind of fictional character to readers, a scientist-detective named C. Auguste Dupin. At theaters right now you can see the movie, The Raven, a mystery thriller about the life & works Edgar Allen Poe.   

British writers were also producing some fantastic stuff too.  And growing up in Canada these were the books that got me excited when I was a boy and still amaze and influence me today; not just the big, atmospheric novels by Charles Dickens such as “Great Expectations and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” but faster-paced thrillers like Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, “Kidnapped” and “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde” or H.G. Well’s “The War of the Worlds” and “The Invisible Man”. But nothing, nothing, caught my imagination more than one book in particular that brought together a great detective and a truly great mystery. I’m talking about Sherlock Holmes and “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

Everybody likes a good mystery, and a lot of people like a mystery that is solved by a larger-than-life detective.  The classic detectives- the ones you see on Masterpiece Television, for example- include that sweet old lady detective, Miss Marple, and the funny little Frenchmen with the moustache, Hercule Poirot. Both these detectives were created by one of the world’s greatest mystery writers, Agatha Christine). But the most popular detective of all time is Sherlock Holmes.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes was a man named Arthur Conan Doyle, an English doctor who spent his free-time writing historical novels. His inspiration for the cool, analytical character of Sherlock Holmes was one of his professors at university, Doctor Joseph Bell. And much to Conan Doyle’s surprise his Sherlock Holmes stories became an incredibly popular phenomenon. In total Conan Doyle wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and his quiet, though able, partner, Doctor Watson.

What was unique about the detective Sherlock Holmes were his incredible powers of observation and deduction. He could just look at a man and tell you where he was from, what his job was, where he had been injured, where he had been in his life…things like that…just from information he saw on the person…the sort of shoes or clothes the person wore, how he walked, his haircut, his accent. In other words he was great observer of facts, and nothing mattered to Sherlock Holmes but the facts. His most famous saying was, “eliminate the impossible and what you are left with- no matter how strange or unlikely- must be the solution”.

Conan Doyle became famous because of Sherlock Holmes. And, remember, this was in a time before movies, before television, even before the radio. The stories of Sherlock Holmes were first published in news magazines which were the most popular medium of communication at the time. Magazines were cheap and that’s what most people read. And to make money the newspaper owners had to publish exciting stories people would pay to read, real or not. Before Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens was the first writer to realize the possibilities of newspaper publication. His novels such as Oliver Twist and Great Expectations were published first in the newspapers also- a chapter at a time each week- before they were published in the more expensive book form. Following Dicken’s example, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes’ stories were published the same way too, in the newspapers first, so they would be wider read by the public.

But even as he became rich and famous Conan Doyle eventually grew tired of writing about Sherlock Holmes and nothing else. So after some 20 stories he had Holmes die in an accident. The public however became so upset about the death of Sherlock Holmes that Conan Doyle had no choice but to bring him back to life, if only in print. He really does meet his death at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland during a fight with his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty but Conan Doyle began writing new stories about Holmes that were set in a time before his death at the falls.

Throughout all the stories Conan Doyle uses Holmes friend Doctor Watson as the one who writes about Holmes and his detective cases. Doctor Watson is what we call “the narrator” of the stories. And it seems only fair that when Holmes did make his first appearance after Conan Doyle had “killed” him the action in the story centers around Doctor Watson for more than half the story.

The most famous Sherlock Holmes story of all is The Hound of the Baskervilles. And it is a novel not just a short story. It has all the elements of a great mystery: a great detective, a great villain, a damsel in distress, an ancient document that tells of a family curse, a monstrous beast in the form of a killer hound, a scary setting which are the misty moors of southwestern England, a haunted house which is Baskerville Hall, exciting action and chases, some funny parts and, of course, a series of murders that must be solved before it’s too late.

First published in 1902 The Hound of the Baskervilles is a popular book for readers of all ages. Anyone can read it. It’s not an adult book filled with too much blood or nasty things happening to people. And it’s not a kid’s story with little or no action. It’s a great mix of all the elements that make for a great mystery story. But, if the written story was popular, what has been even more popular are the films and television movies based upon the story. The Hound of the Baskervilles must be one of the most filmed stories of all time. Soon after it was published it was first produced in Germany as a black & white silent film in 1914. It’s most famous version in 1939 starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, the two actors most usually associated with Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. It was also filmed with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, famous for many low budget horror movies filmed in the late 50s and early 60s. Most recently it was a Masterpiece Television film, one of few versions actually filmed on the moors of Dartmoor.

And on May 13 this year The Hound of the Baskervilles will be presented again on Masterpiece Mystery Television in a modern version where Sherlock Holmes uses email, cell phones and GPS to get the job done but without losing the cool appeal that has always been his trademark. Don’t miss this one! Look for the older film versions too. And of course read the book…preferably alone in bed on a wild, stormy Cape Cod night!

Mysteries (cont.)

Around the world there are stories of mysterious monsters said to live in remote forests and mountains. In the Northwestern United States (California, Oregon, Washington) and Western Canada (British Columbia) there have been stories and sightings of an apelike beast since the early 1800s. The Indians called the beast Sasquatch (the hairy giant of the woods).  In 1958 a forest worker in Humbolt County, California, named Jerry Crew made plaster casts of footprints of what he called “Bigfoot”. 

 

Then in 1967 two men looking for Bigfoot in Northern California shot a short film of what they say was a Sasquatch. No bodies or other physical evidence of Bigfoot have ever been found and there are few if any other photos that I know of.

So the film is really the only thing we can examine. Now what’s interesting about the film is that it seems to show a female bigfoot of all things. And if it was a fake who would think of making a female fake and not a male one? As well the way the beast walks had been studied by scientists who say this is the correct way that an upright ape would walk if it had evolved enough to walk on two feet rather than four like, say, a mountain gorilla from Central Africa.  

Of course North America has no apes or even monkeys for that matter. There are bears- and big ones too- but Bigfoot has never been described as, or mistaken for, a bear. The Bigfoot in what is known as the Patterson film is either a fake or something very unusual indeed. Many have suggested that the Bigfoot in the film is just someone in costume. But experts have said that it would have to be one huge person in costume and one with a head piece making her taller than the tallest man. As well the appearance of the beast is said to be so real-looking that not even the best Hollywood costume designers could have produced something like this in the late 1960s. The first Planet of the Apes film with Charlton Heston was produced in 1968. But the technological realism seen in films these days just wasn’t attainable back then. Even the original costume designer of that The Planet of the Apes, John Chambers, has denied any involvement in the famous bigfoot home movie.

The Abominable Snowman

On the other side of the world- in a land as distant and exotic as you can imagine- is said to live another apelike creature called The Yeti, or The Abominable Snowman. In the Himalayan mountains of Tibet, the highest mountains in the world, early British explorers and mountains climbers heard stories told by the local people of a Wildman who lived in caves amongst the sacred mountains around them. In 1921 Lt. Col. Charles Howard Bury led the first large scale expedition to survey and climb Mount Everest which had recently been confirmed as the world’s highest mountain. At great distances they claimed tom have seen large creatures walking across the high mountainsides. But when the climbers drew near they found only large unidentifiable footprints in the snow. English newspapers gave the beast the name of “abominable snowman” based on his local name, the Metoh-Kangmi. Other local names included the Dzu-the, Meh-teh and the most common one used today, the Ye-the (yeti).

Like the American Sasquatch there are few if any photographs of the Himalayan Yeti. Plenty of footprints have again been reported and photographed over the years, even by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay, the first men to climb Mount Everest in 1953. Norgay’s father was one of many locals who claimed to have met a Yeti during a mountain trek. Hillary, on the other hand, has stated many times he does not believe in the Yeti.

Still it is worth noting that quite a number of other respected persons have claimed to have seen the Yeti. The American Sasquatch has been seen by no one of any authority as far as I know. Persons who have seen the Yeti include mountain climbers John Hunt, leader of Hillary and Norgay’s expedition, and the German super-climber Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb all 14 of the world’s highest mountains without the use of bottled oxygen to combat the thin air at high altitude.

The locals believe the Yeti guards their most sacred mountains from invaders. Yet again, why has the body of one never been found? Why no other proof but inconclusive sightings and footprints that could so easily be faked? There are, of course, other elusive creatures living in the remote Himalayan Mountains where few people venture. The legendary snow leopard is one that has seldom been photographed or filmed. And there is also a strange species of high altitude brown bear, coincidentally called the Meti, whose existence was only recently confirmed by scientists and is worshipped by the locals in ways similar the Yeti. This bear is called the Himalayan or Tibetan Blue Bear which might account for the white-colored fur the Yeti is supposed to have. Could this be the basis for the Yeti legend? In a local monastery near Everest it was once possible to see what is claimed to have been a decaying hand and preserved scalp of a Yeti. But the items have since gone missing and who knows what they really were. Some say just remains of the Tibetan Blue Bear. Others say they belong to the Yeti. What do you believe?

Mapinguari

Lastly I want to tell you that in the Amazon where I lived and work during the last 20 years we heard stories of a creature called the Mapinguari. The animal most closely resembling the Mapinguari is the giant land sloth believed to be extinct but which may still live deep in the dark forest of Amazonia, another remote and difficult place to visit and explore. Again no body has been found. No photos have been taken. But the locals claim it exists, and that it attacks and eats people from time to time. And with other creatures in the Amazon such as anaconda, pink river dolphins, fresh water sting rays and 12 foot catfish, it’s quite possible. The Mapinguari might even be just an overly large Amazon anteater.

Remember, unless you can prove it otherwise why shouldn’t legendary creatures like Nessie, the Sasquatch, the Yeti and many others exist. The world is still full of mysterious and exist places to explore such as the Amazon, the Himalayas and our own Northwestern forests. Do you believe? 

Notes

]     ·         Two very good books about cryptozoology (the study of hidden animals) have been written by Roy Mackal, co-founder with Bernard Heuvelmans of the now defunct International Society of Crytozoology. They are The Monsters of Loch Ness (1976) and Searching for Hidden Animals (1980).

      ·        The best contemporary source for material about the Loch Ness Monster is Adrian Shine of The Loch Ness Project (www.lochnessproject.com)