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Extract* from a letter written by Xavier Antunes – Papagaian architect, politician and geologist, to his friend Émile Rivière, an early explorer of caves for scientific purposes. Letter dated June 25th 1891.
*Translated from French

…Here is a tale that will be of interest to you. A saga that has taken up a great deal of my time and imagination.

As part of an expedition – funded by the University at Pacificadora – I was exploring and logging the caves found in the interior of Vulcão. Within one, around two hundred yards from the entrance, I found a collection of animal bones. Unlike yourself, I am no great anatomist, but they appeared to be from a monstrously large bird, perhaps ten feet tall (though we are yet to assemble the skeleton). The most intriguing feature, however, was a tooth lodged in the lower femur, which was significantly cracked. From the look of the tooth, it came from a shark.

For your reference, we were at least three miles from the sea as the crow flies, and further if one accounts for the winding routes in this area. The severity of the damage to the femur suggests a major injury that would render the animal incapable of walking for miles. A memory stirred within me of a folk tale my grandparents told of the Leviatian of Vulcão – a supposed monstrous serpentine beast that lives in these caves. I wondered if there was a truth to them after all...

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Continue reading at sites.google.com/view/papagaio…

Description

Extract* from a letter written by Xavier Antunes – Papagaian architect, politician and geologist, to his friend Émile Rivière, an early explorer of caves for scientific purposes. Letter dated June 25th 1891.
*Translated from French

…Here is a tale that will be of interest to you. A saga that has taken up a great deal of my time and imagination.

As part of an expedition – funded by the University at Pacificadora – I was exploring and logging the caves found in the interior of Vulcão. Within one, around two hundred yards from the entrance, I found a collection of animal bones. Unlike yourself, I am no great anatomist, but they appeared to be from a monstrously large bird, perhaps ten feet tall (though we are yet to assemble the skeleton). The most intriguing feature, however, was a tooth lodged in the lower femur, which was significantly cracked. From the look of the tooth, it came from a shark.

For your reference, we were at least three miles from the sea as the crow flies, and further if one accounts for the winding routes in this area. The severity of the damage to the femur suggests a major injury that would render the animal incapable of walking for miles. A memory stirred within me of a folk tale my grandparents told of the Leviatian of Vulcão – a supposed monstrous serpentine beast that lives in these caves. I wondered if there was a truth to them after all...

~~~

Continue reading at sites.google.com/view/papagaio…