MOUNT KEMBLA MYSTERY

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2575, 9 August 1909, Page 3

MOUNT KEMBLA MYSTERY

A REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE

Dr Arthur Scott, of called at the “Sydney Morning Herald” office and explained the eirciimstances under which he was mysteriously attacked at Mount Kembla.

The /appearance of the report in-the paper/ he said, might give rise to the lief that someone had played a practical joke on h,m. “But I can assure the public,” lie added, “that this ns a serious matter. For two months past it has been common talk in the neighborhood that a mysterious animal had been seen, and its roaring heard. I was amongst those who r.dicuied the idea. But my experience on Thursday night has placed the matter beyond possibility of doubt. “I went, in company with Mrs Scott, to attend a patient at the loot of Mount Kembla. Mrs Scott remained on tho road with the motor, about 120 yards from the house in which the patient resided. 1 left the house at 9 o’clock and walked towards the motor. I was in an open sp ice when I heard a roar of an animal similar to what ono hears in the Zoo when animals of the cat tribo are being led. To make assurance doubly suro I stopped for a moment to listen. Then I heard the roaring most unmistakably. In my own mind I had not the faintest shadow of doubt that the roaring was that of an animal. “As I consequently learned, Mrs Scott, who was at the motor, also heard it, and she confirmed my statement. I should say—although it/ is impossible to fix any distance precisely —that the sound came from a point about .50 yards away from me. That, at all events, was an impression. It seemed to me to come from tho direction of the motor. The roar, or howl, was repeated ; it was very loud, and when my first impression was confirmed by hearing it again, I called to i Scott to start the motor engine go-

in o *. “I do not believe that any person who has heard the animals at the Zoo could come to another conclusion than that it was the roar of some animal ot the cat tribe. I started to run towards the motor, when I perceived something approaching on my right side, and ” almost instantaneously I was struck violently on the head and felled Now I was struck on the right side, and I fell on my loft side. The straw hat I was wearing was smashed to tatters. Beyond that I can remember nothing until I was next in the company of my wife. . “I have a reminder of the attack in this lump on the right sido of my head.” And here the (lector showed that his head was swollen above the right ear. It was apparently a blow that one might reasonably suppose would immediately render' a man unconscious. The doctor proceeded: “That I did see it coining is true, but that I can describe it is impassible. The blow was so violent that it deprived me temporarily of consciousness, and it is* a peculiar fact that the loss of memory often dates something prior to the loss of consciousness. That is a common occurrence. I can remember running, I can remember being momentarily under the animal, hut my memory is net sufficiently clear to give a description of it. What took place afterwards I am unable to say precisely, because I was attacked at 9 o’clock, and it was LO.oO before I again saw Mrs Scott. “But I do know that, in a more or less dazed condition, I had walked a rni’e and a half towards Dapto. I was lying against a railway embankment when consciousness fully returned. As soon as I could get my. wits together I walked along tho railway lino to Kembla, and when I met Mrs Scott she was under the impression that, I had been all tho time attending the patient. She had heard the curious roaring that had preceded the attack upon me, but at that particular time she, with the assistance of a friend of the patient, was turning the motor round. As the noise ceased she was reassured, although at first naturally somewhat alarmed. “Now, it seems a curious thing that a wild animal should attack a man and then leave him. That is a part of this particular experience that I cannot explain. It may have been the noise of the moving motor; it may have been, the fact of my medicine-bag, which was open, gave out a strong stench of iodoform. Indeed the bag did give out a particularly strong stench of that drug. Again-, it may have 1 been the smell of petrol from the motor, or it may have been that the animal had knocked me down because I happened to be on the track upon which it was travelling. I was making for the entrance to a lane, and the animal anparontly making for tho lane way at the time, and it may have had no further malevolent intentions on me than to make a clear road for itself. Howevei that may be, I do not give any reason or explanation of this incident beyond the facts that I have related. They are indisputable. There are a number of witnesses who can support me. I would not run tho risk of public ridicule as a medical man if I was not absolutely confident that the attack upon me was made by an animal, and not by a human being. . , “Had you not given this matter publicity in‘the ‘Herald’ ,” concluded Dr Scott, “I would have made representations in the proper quarter, so that some official action, might- ho taken. 1 think that when a man stakes his professional reputation upon a report or this character it is entitled to some consideration.”