The Monster of Lake Lametrie | Page 3

it until I tell what I did, for I did not fairly see the terrible creature until
I had swung my machete round and sliced off the top of its head, and
then tumbled down into the shallow water where I lay almost fainting.
I did not fairly see the terrible creature until I had swung my machete
round.
Here was the black log I had seen in the middle of the lake, a
monstrous elasmosaurus, and high above me on the heap of rocks lay
the thing's head with its long jaws crowded with sabre-like teeth, and
its enormous eyes as big as saucers. I wondered that it did not move,
for I expected a series of convulsions, but no sound of a commotion
was heard from the creature's body, which lay out of my sight on the
other side of the rocks. I decided that my sudden cut had acted like a
stunning blow and produced a sort of coma, and fearing lest the beast
should recover the use of its muscles before death fully took place, and
in its agony roll away into the deep water where I could not secure it, I
hastily removed the brain entirely, performing the operation neatly,
though with some trepidation, and restoring to the head the detached
segment cut off by my machete, I proceeded to examine my prize.
In length of body, it is exactly twenty-eight feet. In the widest part it is
eight feet through laterally, and is some six feet through from back to
belly. Four great flippers, rudimentary arms and feet, and an immensely
long, sinuous, swan-like neck, complete the creature's body. Its head is

very small for the size of the body and is very round and a pair of long
jaws project in front much like a duck's bill. Its skin is a leathery
integument of a lustrous black, and its eyes are enormous hazel optics
with a soft, melancholy stare in their liquid depths. It is an
elasmosaurus, one of the largest of antediluvian animals. Whether of
the same species as those whose bones have been discovered, I cannot
say.
My examination finished, I hastened after Framingham, for I was
certain that this waif from a long past age would arouse almost any
invalid. I found him somewhat recovered from his attack of the
morning, and he eagerly accompanied me to the elasmosaurus. In
examining the animal afresh, I was astonished to find that its heart was
still beating and that all the functions of the body except thought were
being performed one hour after the thing had received its death blow,
but I knew that the hearts of sharks, have been known to beat hours
after being removed from the body, and that decapitated frogs live, and
have all the powers of motion, for weeks after their heads have been cut
off.
I removed the top of the head to look into it and here another surprise
awaited me, for the edges of the wound were granulating and preparing
to heal. The colour of the interior of the skull was perfectly healthy and
natural, there was no undue flow of blood, and there was every
evidence that the animal intended to get well and live without a brain.
Looking at the interior of the skull, I was struck by its resemblance to a
human skull; in fact, it is, as nearly as I can judge, the size and shape of
the brain-pan of an ordinary man who wears a seven and an eighth hat.
Examining the brain itself, I found it to be the size of an ordinary
human brain, and singularly like it in general contour, though it is very
inferior in fibre and has few convolutions.
MAY 5TH, MORNING.
Framingham is exceedingly ill and talks of dying, declaring that if a
natural death does not put an end to his sufferings, he will commit
suicide. I do not know what to do. All my attempts to encourage him
are of no avail, and the few medicines I have no longer fit his case at

all.
MAY 5TH, EVENING.
I have just buried Framingham's body in the sand of the lake shore. I
performed no ceremonies over the grave, for perhaps the real
Framingham is not dead, though such speculation seems utterly wild.
To-morrow I shall erect a cairn upon the mound, unless indeed there
are signs that my experiment is successful, though it is foolish to hope
that it will be.
At ten this morning, Framingham's qualms left him, and he set forth
with me to see the elasmosaurus. The creature lay in the place where
we left it yesterday, its position unaltered, still breathing, all the bodily
functions performing themselves. The wound in its head had healed a
great deal during the