Underground Monsters

The journal Nature ran a piece titled “Underground Monsters” in 1878. The piece referred to a previous article that discussed the Minhocao, an underground monster from Brazil. This article tells of underground monsters similar to the Minhocao living in Nicaragua.

I have reprinted "Underground Monsters" in its entirety below:

“In a former number (vol. xvii. p.325) we gave some account of a curious underground monster, the Minhocao, supposed to exist in Brazil. Dr. Spencer Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, sends us an interesting document, which shows that the belief in such a monster is not confined to Brazil, but is shared in by the people of Nicaragua. In the Gaceta de nicaragua for March 10, 1866, is a long letter signed "Paulino Montenegro," containing a circumstantial account of an object possessing very much the same attributes as the Minhocao. The letter is dated Jinotega, Nicaragua, February 21, 1866. The writer states that he went to Concordia on private business, when he heard on the 17th of a serpent having taken up its abode at a place called La Cuchilla, within the jurisdiction of the village. Along with some friends, M. Montenegro set out on the 18th to examine into the foundation of the report. A tradition concerning such a monster has existed from "time immemorial." After having travelled on that day about two leagues (1 league = 2.6 English miles) northeast from the village, they reached the spot where the inhabitants of the neighbourhood had traced signs and tracks, which, M. Montenegro states, positively prove the existence of such an animal.

“The most detailed accounts stated that here, some five years before, a sort of platform of about fifty varas diameter had been formed at the foot of a large rock cropping out from a hillside. One of the neighbours had established there an orchard, though no one had been able to account for this new formulation. Three years before, however, people began to observe that this little piece of level ground was gradually deepening, and that in the month of November the base of the rock adjoining it became exposed and worn from some agency, notwithstanding that there was not sufficient water to cause the phonomenon. At the same time mighty trees (robles) were observed to become uprooted and to fall in great disorder, while immense rocks were moved and shifted their foundations so much, that in the following month of December, during one night, the road from Chichiguas and Cuchilla to San Rafael del Norte was destroyed by a multitude of cracks and clefts, which had suddenly opened. At that time the ground was observed to be undermined, falling in at intervals. These occurrences were observed some three days before M. Montenegro and his friends visited the place, which they saw all to be in accordance with the statements. Immediately on examining the locality for themselves they came to the conclusion that there were signs not of one but of two animals, probably of the shape of huge fishes.

“In commencing their work these animals seemed to pursue a kind of an upheaving movement. As the bottom of their hiding place was loose, shifting ground, the surface of this was seen to give way, while trees were shaken out and came down crashing. The noise of this seemed to scare the animals away. One of them- -believed to have been the male on account of its larger size and greater strength --took to the left in descending, but always in a parallel direction with and along the slope of another hill, which here terminated. As it broke through the banks of a ravine, which measured about twenty varas in width and nine feet in depth at its greatest opening, he passed with his head underground. The thrown-up soil showed the tracks of the head, which left its marks both in the soil and on the roots of the trees, which were broken, the broken pieces being four inches thick. The main part of the body, which certainly must have passed here uncovered, left its traces at the bottom of the ravine. Passing out from this the animal entered upon ground more level and friable, which it went through at a depth of five quarters (1.25 varas), forming a furrow and leaving behind a ridge more than one vara high. Following the ravine for a distance of about sixty varas it encountered two deep ditches, then it turned and traced its way back, and, approaching the aforesaid ravine, took to the bed of a pond and disappeared perpendicularly.

“The other animals, which left behind a smaller track, and therefore was believed to have been the female, went at once to the right, to the outlet of the pond of water before referred to, leaving behind it everywhere the same marks as the other. When it reached the two deep ditches it turned back also, and undoubtedly encountered its companion afterwards.

“The whole ground had become irregularly disturbed and broken up, and the power of these animals is shown by their being able not only to throw up huge masses of soil but even to move rocks weighing more than thirty quintals.

“The animals seem to be covered with a skin clad with scales or plates, the markings of which, imprinted on the soft clay or loam, bear much resemblance to those of the garrobo in the mud. It appears that the shape of these animals must be like that of the guapote. The length of the body is at least twelve varas, the height three, and its thickness 1.5 varas.

“A tradition about such an animal as this has been kept up unaltered, without contradiction, for more than a hundred years. It is described in general as a large snake, and called "sierpe," on account of its extraordinary size, and living in chaquites. One is said to have been once killed by lightning the the moment it had left its hiding-place in the river "Sebaco viejo."”

— Nature, 18:389, 1878.

In my book Water Monsters South of the Border, I discuss the Minhocoa as well as other underground monsters. The book made renowned cryptozoologist Loren Coleman's "Top 10 Cryptozoology books of 2016" list. Find out why.

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