Page "Mokele-mbembe" Paragraph 13

A 32-man expedition was sent to Africa from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. between 1919 and 1920.

The objective of this expedition was to secure additional specimens of plants and animals.

Moving picture photographers from the Universal Film Manufacturing Company accompanied the expedition, in order to document the life of interior Africa.

According to cryptozoologists Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe, authors of the Field Guide to Lake Monsters, " African guides found large, unexplained tracks along the bank of a river and later in a swamp the team heard mysterious roars, which had no resemblance with any known animal ".

However, the expedition was to end in tragedy.

During a train-ride through a flooded area where an entire tribe was said to have seen the dinosaur, the locomotive suddenly derailed and turned over.

Four team members were crushed to death under the cars and another half dozen seriously injured.

The expedition was documented in the H. L.

Shantz papers.