Scottish police tried to save the “strange creature” from hunters
In the 1930s, Scottish police officers were so concerned that big-game hunters were going to stalk the Loch Ness monster that they asked London for advice. “That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt,” wrote William Fraser, a senior police officer, “but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful.” At the time interest in a large monster inhabiting the deepest inland lake in Europe was at a fever pitch, following the publication of a picture purporting to show the creature. Reports of a huge animal living near the bottom of Loch Ness started in the sixth century and have continued on and off ever since. “The reason why the Nessie myth persists is it’s such a good story,” said Lee Barron, a lecturer in media and culture at Northumbria University. “We get a sense of wonder out of the ‘what ifs’ of it all. There are lots of monster in the lake myths around the globe, including the U.S. and Europe, but because of the sightings, the fake photos and the romance of Loch Ness, Nessie is the greatest of them all.”