CHAPTER ONE DANGER BELOW E lliott helped his father push their small fishing boat into the lake It was a cold morning in the Scottish Highlands Elliott rubbed his arms for warmth He was also trying to calm his nerves Ever since he was a young boy his mother had warned him of creatures that lived in Loch Ness a Scottish lake He shook his head He was grown now Legends were nothing to be afraid of People have reported seeing mysterious creatures in oceans lakes and rivers for thousands of years 5
C’mon then his father said He held the boat still for Elliott Let’s get going The boat teetered as Elliott climbed in His dad pushed them off They made their way toward the middle of Loch Ness The water was murky and dark Elliott could see only a few inches deep He shivered remembering his mother’s warnings Who knew what creatures lurked beneath their boat Elliott and his father threw out their fishing lines An eerie quiet settled over the loch Then Elliott heard a splashing sound A few yards to his right a curved object sped through the water The object rose Elliott saw an oval-shaped eye Then he spotted a broad horse-shaped head Father he yelled I see it his father whispered his voice shaking They watched in amazement as the monster’s long neck extended It rose six feet 1 8 m above the water Behind its neck three humps broke the surface Elliott guessed the last hump extended 40 feet 12 m 6
back from the animal’s neck Its skin was rough and dark Large waves from the creature’s movements reached their boat The waves spun the boat around By the time Elliott and his father were in a position to see it again the monster had disappeared The only remaining evidence were the waves lapping against their boat Nessie The Loch Ness Monster nicknamed Nessie is one of the most famous water creatures The story of Elliott and his father is not true But it closely matches some accounts of Nessie sightings over the years Since the 1930s there have been thousands of recorded sightings of the serpent Loch Ness Loch is the Scottish word for lake Loch Ness is one mile 1 6 km wide and 24 miles 39 km long It is very cold and deep In places the lake is more than 700 feet 213 m deep Loch Ness is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in Europe Peat seeping from the surrounding land makes the loch murky and dark The darkness only adds to the loch’s mystery 7
