The Sea Monster: He Dwells Just off The Point
From Carol Livingstone's collection

Some evening as the sun is setting, and the water is glittering in all its glory, a late swimmer, or a beach lover, is going to see him again. Majestically rising out of the water to show his magnificent shape and length; perhaps some primeval cousin of the Lock Ness monster, he will again appear.

Neil Matheson, who was the Provincial - Farm editor for The Guardian in the sixties, was particularly taken with the story of the lone creature. He wrote; add one real honest-to-goodness sea monster to the attractions Prince Edward Island can offer to the tourists. I got this story late last fall (1964) but I thought it would be a shame to waste such an obvious tourist attraction on the bleak months of late autumn, so I kept it until summer... 

Raeford MacLean, O'Leary, and John Ellis, West Point are two of the men who told me about the monster. Both men are reliable.

Mr. MacLean and perhaps a little longer by Mr. Ellis estimated length of the monster to run some 40 to 60 feet... 

It has a serpentine head that's about three feet long, Mr. MacLean told me. The animals top contour slopes back to a large hump some distance behind the head. The body colour is dark. The general shape appears to be serpentine, though of course, much of the body could not be seen, as it would lie fairly deep in the water.

The monster was only about 200 yards when Mr. MacLean first sighted it. Then it went under the water and was probably about 500 yards away it surfaced again. Of course distances are approximate, they must be when one is trying to estimate them on the water. Mr. MacLean suggest it would run 40 to 60 feet and again the variation is understandable, for it's difficult to measure distances in the water particularly when one only gets a fleeting glance at an object. The monster was travelling parallel to the shore when it surfaced twice, Mr. MacLean recalled.

Mr. Ellis' story is very much the same, though he thought the sea monster was more than 60 feet long. Mr. MacLean and Mr. Ellis were together when they sighted it.

'I had gone to see Mr. Ellis to sell him insurance,' said Mr. MacLean, an insurance underwriter. They were just about to enter the house, I believe, when they turned towards the shore, which is near by and saw the monster.

Mr. Ellis is a boat builder, but he fishes lobster in season. I recall looking out his living room window and having him point exactly to the spot he saw the huge sea resident that may yet become a prime tourist attraction.

Mrs. Ellis told me that her brother, William Stewart, had also seen it. Mr. Stewart resides in Halifax now. He was a lobster fisherman when he lived on the island.

Raeford MacLean told me this week that Fred Livingstone, a young man who lives in Dunblane, about three miles form West Point, has also seen it.

The monster has been seen for many years. I was told Mr. MacLean's father Leslie MacLean, Dunblane, saw it back in 1938. He hurried back home to get a rifle he had purchased to shoot seals. But the thing was out of reach when he got back to the shore.
It was probably 1965 when Raeford MacLean and Mr. Ellis spotted the unusual visitor.
I want to emphasize that this is not a 'ghost story.'  The men whom I have quoted have given the facts to me in all seriousness. They are serious minded, reliable men who told me the story of what they and others had seen. There's one indisputable fact about the sea monster story: you can't deprive it. I'm thinking now about the Lock Ness monster that has been getting publicity for that part of Scotland for many years.

What also helps the case for the existence of the sea monster is that it has been seen occasionally over a number of years.

A number of fishermen, some still living, have seen the sea serpent. "One lady in Glenwood has no doubt about the validity of the story because, in her words, "The ministers wife saw it, and she wouldn't tell a lie." Several swimmers have also been rumoured to have seen the sea monster, one as recent as 1983. It has often been described in these sightings as a "...huge, coiling, snake like creature... from the waters near West Point."

Many questions remain to be answered in regards to this unusual inhabitant. Definitely these people saw something. What was it? Was it some oversize eel? Or was it really an oddity of the sea that remains lurking in the Egmont Bay?