St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1915-01-02
MONSTER or DEF Cast l.rOx1
ISLAM IS CLINT V:u.i..l.. 49,

MONSTER or DEF Cast I.rOy
ISLAM IS CLINT I'u...i.. 49,:
Whale In Life Fully Eighty Feet
Long.
The Times-Picayune Expedition to
Last Island, via, Morgan City, La.
Dec. 27-s
Away of in the hazy distance, sep
arated by miles and miles Of green
ish. restless water. misshapen black
object seemed to rise out Of the sea
and take Its place on tn eextreme
end OF the dim shore line. Of Isle
Dernierre, and Capt. Dan Lynch, ~
he picked up the thing in, his Clauses
from the hurricane deck Of the Lou3
isiana Conservation Commissiop1
power boat, Opelousas. was eerta41
that his search for the mysterious
monster of the Gulf was to have its5
early reward.
In less than two hours. Capt.
Lynch's conclusion was verified, and
the captain and the members of the
'Times-Picayune's Expedition were
standing on the surf-lapped beach Of
the island, gazing in wonder at the
huge proportions of a veritablc leviae
than-stranded, dead, and rapidly
falling into decay. The leviathan.
however, was not the leviathan of
the scripture, or even remnant of
the vast monsters that roamed the
primeval world before the coming Of
man, but giant whale of the tooth
less or baleen variety.
Size Extraordinary.
The whale is extraordinary though
for it's size. Its proportions fit in
with the measurements given some
days ago by G. J.. Labarre, of Ar
sumption and New Orleans, and Al
bert M. Dupont, OF IIouma. who
brought the first information of the
strange find to the Times-P icayune.
The animal lies half buried in the
sand. Just as Mr.. LaDarre SO wildly
described It: its right side and part
OF It's back are exposed. and its hind
quarters and tail rapidly disintcgrat-
ing into putrid blubber and m0.tify-
ing strands of flesh extend out into
the waters Of the gulf.
AOIO d10 PAy 04VoA CA0A eANeOA AOsxNO
evident after a close examination
that leave no doubt as to the crea-
lures class and species. To the av-
erage layman, its proportions might
fit in with anything strange. mys-
FERROUS and horrible.
Lying stretched in sixty-three feet
Of curving length,t and sand and
beach, one might imagine il an ich-
thyosaurus Of the Mesozoic period;
zeulodon, first of whales, OF the
Miocene, or even sea serpent. i
forms truly unrecognizable mass.
upon which the imagination may
build the most startling structures,
but taken in its several sections, and
studied from tip Of snput to decay
ing strips Of missing tall, its identity
is no longer mystery, and It is re-
constructed baleen or right whc -
The whale had been driven UP the
beach, head on as though with IT.
| expiring faculties It had directed it,
course there. After various photoA
graphs had been taken. Ctpt. Lynch
| and the Times-Picayune man In
charge Of the expedition measured
every part of the creature. From
the sncut to where the tail slu1ed
away in q mass Of rattennesS, the
distance is sixty-three and 0ne-half
feet. With the tail intact, the mon-
ster would easily have been seventy.
Ave or eight feet in length.
One empty eye socket showed on
the right side. Il was four inches
across. The main fronta. bono, COW.
cred with q thick rhinocerous-hkc
hide, reared ei~ht feet from the sand,
but the body fell away In Jelly like
mass, denoting disintegration Of the
lorgans, both toward the snout and
tail The one I'm showing on the ex-3
posed side was five feet two inches IN
length. The width from the eye,
across the head. to the line OF tsand.
in which the whale was buried was
thirteen and one-half feet. The ami
NAL would have measured twelve or
fourteen feet, from the top Of IT..
head, through the thicEest Fart Of ftsl
body. Onesb!ow hole was visible. six
Inches across, and fifteen feet d
line from the eye. The sluh;pG away
of the sneut and hind quarters 1ava
added prominence to the height Of
the head, sustained by the bone struc-
lture, and gave the animal the ap-
lpearance in a measure Of huge ALI
Igator.
The bony structure extending from
the decaying mouth very closely re-
sembled tusks, and gave rise to
belief in the minds Of the first ind
ers that the animal was some strange
unheard-of creature of the deep. The
fesh had decayed rapidly IN the Fe4s
ion OF the moth. and left the upp0D
and lower Jaw bones exposed.
To Preserve the Head.