< < BACK TO GALLERY

TYLER S. GREEN

Dingonek

Relief

12" x 12"

2016

“It’s real prize money that beauty would fetch.”

In 1907, on an expedition in Kenya, European explorer and hunter John Alfred Jordan heard rumor of a “reptilian bounder” the locals called a Dingonek. Jordan sent men ahead to look for a place to cross the flooding Migori River. A short time later he heard a scrambling in the brush and the men raced out, wide-eyed and claiming to have seen a “...cross between a sea serpent, a leopard, and a whale.” Thinking they had hallucinated, Jordan trudged down to the riverbank to investigate for himself. “...There their bounder lay, right-oh!” exclaimed Jordan, “Gad! But he was a hideous old haunter of a nightmare, was that beast-fish.” He lost track of time staring in wonder at the 15-foot creature. Eventually he began to panic. “I began to fear he would shift or turn and see me, I gave him a .303 hard-nose behind his leopard ear.” The Dingonek sprang up. The shot only angered it. Jordan and his men took off at a full run up the bank and into the brush. He never saw the creature again, although one of his men claimed to see it twice after this incident.

Source: Bronson, Edgar Beecher. 1910. In Closed Territory. Chicago: A. C. McClurg.