尼斯湖水怪

颜丹

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2， 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier relates an account of a local couple who claim to have seen “an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface.” The story of the “monster” becomes a media phenomenon1， with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20，000 pound reward for capture of the beast.

1933年5月2日，尼斯湖水怪的现代传说诞生在当地新闻中。《因弗内斯快递报》报道了当地一对夫妇的描述，他们声称看到了“一只巨大的动物在水面上翻滚并下潜”。关于“水怪”的故事成为一种媒体现象，伦敦的报纸向苏格兰派出记者，一个马戏团提供了2万英镑作为捕获怪兽的丰厚报酬。

After the April 1933 sighting was reported in the newspaper on May 2， interest steadily grew， especially after another couple claimed to have seen the animal on land.

在1933年5月2日报纸报道的4月目击事件后，尤其是在另一对夫妇声称在陆地上看到了这只动物之后，人们的兴趣逐步增加。

Amateur2 investigators have kept an almost constant vigil3 for decades， and in the 1960s several British universities launched sonar expeditions4 to the lake. Nothing conclusive was found. But in each expedition the sonar operators detected some type of large， moving underwater objects. In 1975， another expedition combined sonar and underwater photography in Loch Ness. A photo appeared to show what vaguely resembled the giant flipper5 of an aquatic6 animal.

几十年来，业余调查员几乎一直在监视，到了20世纪60年代，英国几所大学开始对该湖进行声纳探测。没有任何确定性的发现。但是在每一次探测中，声纳操作员都探测到一些大型的，移动的水下物体。1975年，另一次探测将声纳和水下摄影结合。有一张照片似乎显示出隐约与某种水生动物的巨大鳍状肢相似的东西。

Further sonar expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in more inconclusive readings. Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo was a complete hoax7 has only slightly dampened8 the enthusiasm of tourists and investigators for the legendary beast of Loch Ness.

80年代和90年代進一步的声纳探测得到的是更多的不确定的结论。1994年曝光1934年的那张著名的照片完全是一个骗局，而这只是稍微打消了一点游客和调查人员对具有传奇色彩的尼斯湖水怪的热情。