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The Legend
of Nessie The Legend
A Reading A–Z Level Q Leveled Book
Word Count: 1,119

of Nessie

Written by Sherry Sterling

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The Legend
Photo Credits:
Front cover: © Norm Goldstein/AP Images; back cover: © Christine Harris/
Dreamstime.com; title page, page 10 (inset): © Jupiterimages Corporation;
page 3: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy; page 4: © Jason Hawkes/Corbis NX/
Getty Images Plus/Getty Images; page 5: © The Granger Collection, New York;
page 7: Scott MacQuarrie/Alamy; page 8: © Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos;

of Nessie
page 9: Jeremy Hoare/Alamy; page 10 (main): © Cultural Heritage Images/
Universal Images Group/Universal Images Group/Newscom; page 11:
© www.lochnessproject.com; page 12: © Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images;
page 14: © Ralph White/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images;
page 15: John Robertson/Alamy

The Legend of Nessie

Level Q Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z
LEVEL Q
Written by Sherry Sterling Written by Sherry Sterling
Fountas & Pinnell N
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 30
www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com DRA 30
 Loch Ness

Word Origins
The word loch means lake or a narrow arm of the
Table of Contents sea that stretches inland. It comes from the language of
Scotland, called Scottish Gaelic (GAY-lick).

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction
The Loch Called Ness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Is the Loch Ness Monster a myth or
Monster Sightings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 a legend? People have described seeing
something strange emerging from the dark
Fact or Fiction?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
waters of Loch Ness in Scotland. They describe
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 an animal similar to the descriptions of ancient
dragons or sea serpents. The monster has a
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 dark body, long neck, sheep-like head, and two
or more humps on its back. The monster, called
Nessie, is named after the loch, or lake, in
which it lives.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 3 4

 Strange creatures of the sea are found in The Loch Called Ness
many legends, myths, and stories. Scottish The body of water that is rumored to be
myths have been passed down about a water home to the legendary Loch Ness Monster
spirit, called a kelpie, that looks like a horse. is large. In fact, it’s the largest body of fresh
When sailors first started sailing beyond water in the British Isles. Loch Ness is 24 miles
the sight of land, they talked about seeing (39 km) long, only 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, and
monsters at sea. Some of those monsters were over 800 feet (244 m) deep in some places.
described as being so large that they could It’s much deeper
swallow a ship! According to legend, these British Isles
than the seas
huge, horrible beasts guarded treasure at the ATLANTIC
that surround
OCEAN
bottom of the sea. Could Nessie be one of the British Isles.
these monsters of myth or legend? Northern Loch
Ireland Scotland Ness Loch Ness was
NORTH formed during
SEA
the last ice age.
Ireland IRISH SEA At that time, the
land now called
Wales
CELTIC
England Scotland split
SEA
in two, and
earthquakes made
ENGLISH CHANNEL
a trench. Then
France glaciers covered
that trench until
about 12,000 years ago. When the ice melted,
it filled the trench with water to form a loch.
This monster of legend lived in the “Sea of Darkness.”

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 5 6

 Loch Ness’s water is very cold. Peat, a layer Monster Sightings
of dead plant material, is thick in the water of For over 1,400 years, curious people have
Loch Ness. The peat allows light to travel only taken Nessie sightings seriously. Scientists
as deep as a few yards. As a result, sunlight have even used NASA’s computers, along with
can’t warm the water, making it too cold for underwater cameras and other equipment, to
people to swim in. The top 100 feet (30.5 m) test the loch. But long before this testing began
warms up to 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12°C) in the 1970s, other sources saw the “monster”
in the summer. The rest stays at 42 degrees in the loch.
Fahrenheit (6°C) all year round. Because of
this, most life in the loch, such as fish and The first recorded sighting was in ad 565 by
seals, stays close to the surface. an Irish missionary named Saint Columba. The
report says he asked his servant to swim across
the loch to get a boat. A creature came to the
surface, roared, and opened its mouth. Columba
commanded it to go back, be quiet, and not
touch the man. It did, and every sighting since
then has been quiet and peaceful.

This man, who

lives on Loch
Ness, claims
to have seen
Nessie more
than once.

A gray seal might be mistaken for a monster when seen in a loch.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 7 8

 Sightings of strange water creatures are not
unique to Loch Ness. People have reported
seeing similar creatures in at least 265 lakes
and rivers around the world. Some people
think the creatures must be a type of saltwater
mammal or fish.

Some think the Nessie sightings

are of a prehistoric reptile that
somehow survived over millions of
years. They say that when the trench
was created during the last ice age,
a prehistoric beast or group of
Urquhart Castle overlooks some of the deepest known parts
beasts became landlocked.
of Loch Ness.

People kept Nessie sightings quiet until the

1930s, when cameras became popular. Nessie
hunting took off with a flash. People wanted
to catch Nessie, at least in a picture.

Thousands of people who live in the area

have signed a statement promising that they’ve
seen the monster. Most sightings have occurred
near the Urquhart (ER-kert) Castle ruins. The
castle ruins are located near the midpoint of
Some people believe the Loch Ness Monster might be related to the
the loch, where the water is deepest. plesiosaur, which lived millions of years ago and is now extinct.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 9 10

Operation Deep Scan used boats lined up across Loch Ness
to search for evidence of the legendary monster.

Fact or Fiction? This photograph was printed in a newspaper in 1934, but later,
people learned it was a hoax.
Some accept the reports of Nessie as fact.
The believers cite the similarity of descriptions A few of the most famous hoaxes are based
of Nessie, the number of eyewitness reports, on photographs. People thought a photo of
and possible sonar evidence. Others think of three humps was the real monster. It turned
the reports as legends to keep children away out to be a picture of three bales of hay covered
from the deep, cold waters of the loch. The in black tar. A famous photograph from 1934
nonbelievers cite the lack of hard scientific turned out to be a fake sea-serpent head
evidence that proves Nessie is real. attached to a toy submarine.

Some people have tried to make the world Another hoax in 1934 got people excited
believe Nessie is real by creating hoaxes. when they saw a giant footprint in the mud on
These hoaxes are tricks that keep the legend the banks of the loch. A man had used a stuffed
of the Loch Ness Monster alive. hippopotamus foot to make the footprint.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 11 12

 Scientists got involved, despite all the hoaxes.
They wanted to learn whether Nessie was real
and put an end to the mystery. There was
enough consistent evidence that people couldn’t
explain. For example, sonar picked up a long
object moving 480 feet deep in the loch. That
is too deep for most fish. They decided to map
the entire loch.

In 1987, scientists launched “Operation Deep

Scan.” They used 24 boats to map the bottom
and sides of the loch with sonar equipment.
Sonar uses sound to identify the shapes of objects.
A sound is sent out from a sonar machine. When
the sound hits an object, the sound bounces back
as an echo. Scientists measure the time it takes Divers launch this “creature camera” into Loch Ness to try to
capture underwater photographs of the legendary monster.
for the sound to bounce back, which helps
them create a picture. A sonar machine used in Studying the loch has turned up other
the loch shows objects that can’t be seen under findings. In 1981, the Loch Ness Project found
the murky water. fish called red-bellied Arctic (ARK-tick) char.
Some sounds from “Operation Deep Scan” They had been living at a depth of 700 feet
were echoes from the loch’s steep sides. But they (213 meters) for over 12,000 years—since the
could not explain at least one echo from a “large last ice age. Experts had thought the waters
and moving” object 200 feet down. No one knows were too cold for life below a few hundred
for sure what the object was. Was it Nessie? feet. The discovery of red-bellied Arctic char
surprised them.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 13 14

 Glossary
bales (n.) tightly wrapped bundles
(p. 12)

hoaxes (n.) tricks played on people to

try to make them believe
something is real when it is
not (p. 11)

legend (n.) a historical story that is

believed to be true, but cannot
be proved (p. 4)

peat (n.) brown, soil-like material used

in gardening and as fuel (p. 7)

sonar (n.) a system to find objects under

Do you see Nessie?
water and to measure water’s
Conclusion depth by making sounds and
measuring their echoes
Maybe the Loch Ness Monster will one day
coming back (p. 11)
lose its legendary status. It might someday
be identified as a new species (SPEE-sheez) of species (n.) a group of animals that are
fish. But for now, Nessie remains a mystery. similar to one another and
That mystery might be its greatest appeal. may have babies with each
The legend continues to capture people’s other (p. 15)
imaginations.

The Legend of Nessie • Level Q 15 16