The Beast of Lake Memphrémagog
By: Brown Lotus
Tags: Cryptids, Canadian Lakes, Canadian Cryptids, Education, Canada

Education

The Beast of Lake Memphrémagog

A beautiful view of nature’s pristine hiding places in the wilds of Canada (photo courtesy of Matt Thomason via Unsplash)

Thirty-one miles of pristine, mirror-like waters comprise what’s known as Lake Memphrémagog, and well before the first documented sighting of something abhorrent there in 1819, First Nation tribes in the area have known never to set foot or canoe into the lake without back-up.

The tranquil appearance of Lake Memphrémagog might fool you, though. Situated between Newport, Vermont, and Canada’s Magog in Quebec, this zig-zagging streak of blue is actually a freshwater glacial lake; it supplies roughly 200,000 people with potable water, and is home to a grand total of twenty-one quaint islands. Five of these are located in the U.S., another fifteen in Canada, and one is claimed internationally.

Lake Memphrémagog is a hugely popular destination for fishermen, boaters, and swimmers. It even has a ferry service, but it is crucial to remind oneself that all is not exactly as it seems.

Foam-capped waves give way to innumerable species of fish, mussels, and microscopic prawns, but it’s likely also home to something else. In 1816, a man known as Mr. Berry and his wife claimed to have seen a hideous-looking creature swimming in the lake, possessing the frightful appearance of a ‘skinned sheep’ and anywhere from twelve to fifteen pairs of legs.

That sighting was only the beginning.

Some 34 years later, poet Norman Bigham would pen literary pieces about a ‘serpent’ in Lake Memphrémagog which lusted after human prey. This further paved the way for Henry Waldeigh’s experience in 1854. He reported witnessing a creature which initially looked like a log or some kind of overturned canoe. This proved to be illusory. In very short order, the head of the beast emerged and peered just above the water’s surface. The head, Waldeigh claimed, had a breadth of at least two feet. (The latter report does not elaborate on whether Waldeigh observed the creature from shore or while in a fishing boat farther out into the lake.) 37 more years passed before there was another sighting of the creature. William Watt declared to have seen a beast that was a chilling 30 feet long, travelling across the lake with its head raised three feet above the water’s surface.

(Photo courtesy of Ivana Cajina via Unsplash)

Aquatic-cryptid sightings are notorious for how much they differ from one another, even — or especially — when the reports are associated with the same body of water. But with the information gleaned so far, it’s fair to say there are enough puzzle pieces to shine a hesitant light on what type of creature we’re dealing with. And if the details used to connect the dots about this cryptid are accurate, I wouldn’t allow my children into Lake Memphrémagog anytime soon.

Up to this point we have (a) a creature with enough length to resemble an overturned canoe, (b) about fifteen pairs of ‘legs’, (c) a head that is two feet wide, (d) and the appearance of a ‘skinned sheep’.

The amount of limbs reported here seems at odds with those of ‘conventional’ lake monster sightings, in which the aquatic cryptids usually have two sets of limbs (flippers/paddles). Therefore, the many-legs theory may not be entirely accurate, but nonetheless is still possible. It could be that Mr. Merry mistook the creature’s fins, if it had any, for multiple legs. But the ‘skinned sheep’ report is both oddly specific and the most difficult to decipher. I don’t believe the Merrys saw a skinned or injured lake monster emerge from the depths. It is feasible, though, that the creature might have been vaguely pinkish in color. Yangtze river-dolphins are renowned for their unique, carnation-pink hue, so it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the creature dwelling in Lake Memphrémagog might be similarly-colored.

Fast forward to 1929: by now, Lake Memphrémagog’s mysterious denizen has affectionally been dubbed ‘Memphré’. This time, there’s a frightening new element; three friends relaxing in the area claimed to have seen Memphré on SHORE, explaining later to investigators that it looked like a colossal alligator and even left tracks in the sand. In 1933, twelve vacation-goers on a cruise reported a ‘snake-like fish’ undulating on the surface of the lake, well over fifty feet in length. The witnesses further elaborated that the ‘fish’ had a breadth of ten staggering feet.

The tentative Memphré constructed so far — the one with a canoe-like body, broad head, and possibly-salmon-hued skin — has now undergone another transformation. This time, Memphré has been seen on land, which gives new life to the earlier detail of the creature having many limbs. Memphré wouldn’t necessarily have needed feet to climb ashore; sea-turtles are a prime example. Sea-turtles are hugely intelligent creatures who can swim, clamber onto land, dig holes in the sand for their eggs, and then hoist themselves back into the water afterwards. Why couldn’t Memphré have done the same?

That leaves one irreconcilable detail: the out-of-water version of Memphré looked like an alligator. There is almost no way that an alligator, crocodile, caiman, or other similar reptile can fit the reports about the Lake Memphrémagog beast that began to trickle in in the mid-19th century.

That, to me, means one thing: that there might be more than one type of aquatic-cryptid cruising the chilly depths of Lake Memphrémagog.