In the world there are many mysterious phenomena that scientists can neither explain, nor prove, nor disprove. Mysterious tribes are found in the jungle who avoid meeting with civilization, in the Himalayas someone is looking for evidence of a yeti, they are going to Scotland for a hunt for the Loch Ness monster, and they come to Lake Baikal in anticipation of strange mirages.
The Labynkyr devil is one of those phenomena that someone seemed to have seen, someone had heard, but they can’t find any evidence of its existence.
Labynkyr Lake
Only a few hundred kilometers from the cold pole in the Oymyakon district of Yakutia is a lake known for its anomalies. The reservoir, located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level in the Sordonokh plateau in place of a moraine amphitheater in the upper reaches of the Indigirka, has a rectangular shape, a width of 4 km and a length of 14 km.
A crack located at the bottom of the lake increases its depth to 80 meters, therefore, if the Labynkyr trait lives here, scientists do not know how to catch it at such a depth. The reason to believe that either a huge marine animal unknown to science or a prehistoric pangolin lives here is evidence of local hunters and fishermen back in the 19th century.
In fact, they saw it or not, it is not known, but the strength of their faith in its existence is such that there are not only settlements near the lake, but also ordinary fishing in a pond full of fish, the locals do not go. In addition to legends, there are other anomalies that scientists studying Lake Labynkyr cannot explain. The Labynkyr trait, even if it exists, could not have survived without them.
Lake anomalies
The nearest settlements Tomtor and Kuidusun are located more than a hundred kilometers from the lake and are well known as places of the cold pole, so the average air temperature in winter (-50 degrees) does not surprise anyone. Scientist Obruchev once recorded here its decrease to - 71.5 degrees Celsius.
Naturally, all the nearby reservoirs, of which there are a great many in Yakutia, are covered with such strong ice in winter that they drive it by car. This does not happen only on the lake, where according to legend the Labynkyr devil is found. Scientists can not answer why it begins to freeze much later than others and never completely covered with ice, leaving large wormwood in the middle of the reservoir.
No thermal springs were found either nearby, or underground, or at its bottom. Another nearby lake is not freezing - the Gate, in which a strange animal called the Labynkyr devil was also observed.
The bottom fault is a mine-type tunnels, one of which is horizontal and the rest are vertical. Scientists suggest that these underwater "corridors" connect both lakes, so the water in them does not freeze completely, they have no other, more scientific explanations.
Description of an unknown animal
As scientists say, for a long time studying the life and culture of the Yakuts and Evenks, these people are absolutely not capable of telling lies, they are very naive and straightforward. Therefore, many of them took the stories of local old-timers about a huge creature living in the waters of the lake, as based on real facts.
Nobody will say today where to catch the Labynkyr trait in order to fix its existence, but the fact that strange phenomena occur on this lake and strange sounds of animal origin are heard are confirmed by modern researchers.
According to numerous descriptions provided by the locals, this is a large animal with a flattened dark gray body and a large head with a mouth like a bird's beak with huge teeth. In general, the stories of different people were similar, but the description given by the head of the geological expedition of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1953 was considered to be the most reliable.
The story of Soviet scientists
Geologist Boris Bashkatov and academician Viktor Tverdokhlebov in July 1953 watched the waters of the lake from the shore when they saw that some kind of animal was floating on it. That this living creature was visible by the way it moved - slightly raised above the water and, as it were, threw its body forward.
A large, dark gray carcass was partially visible above the surface, on which two bright symmetrical spots resembling eyes were clearly visible. Something sticking out from the back of an unknown beast resembled either a stick or a bone growth.
Based on what they saw, the scientists determined that the animal has a rather large massive body, and its head either appeared above the water, then disappeared, making squelching sounds. According to them, observers suggested that the beast hunts under water, and its movements caused on the surface of the wave.
The observation recorded in the scientific diary caused a lot of noise in the scientific community, therefore from the 60s to the end of the 70s several expeditions were visited here, the purpose of which was to catch the Labynkyr trait.
Local legends
Since there are no roads to the lake and you can get to its shore either by an all-terrain vehicle, or horses, or by helicopter, there were few visitors there. Among the local population, for some, these places were considered sacred, for others - damned.
Several stories have been preserved of incidents in its waters.
Once a family of Evenks-nomads stopped at a halt near the shore, moving with their herd of deer to summer pastures. While the adults were preparing everything they needed for an overnight stay, their child went to the water, and soon his cry was heard. When the adults came running, they saw how a huge animal with a mouth like a bird's beak with many teeth grabbed the boy and dragged him under water. According to legend, the grandfather made from a deer skin stuffed with rags, straw and grass, in which he put smoldering wood chips, a bait that the beast swallowed. The next morning, his carcass was washed ashore, and the old man, tearing his belly up, took out the body of his grandson, who was buried here on the shore. The animal was 7 m long, had short flippers and powerful jaws. His bones lay for a long time on the lake.
And also the fishermen, who decided to go fishing on a large ten-meter longboat, claimed that suddenly the bow of the vessel banked, as if someone huge, floating under it, lifted it.
Whether it was a mysterious Labynkyr trait, just an accident on the water or a collision with a large log, no one knows, but legends have survived to this day.
Expeditions in Soviet times
The first scientific expedition to Lake Labynkyr was organized in 1961 after the publication of the diaries of the head of the geological party Viktor Tverdokhlebov. They were unable to find anything, probably because they did not know what to catch the Labynkyr trait.
Neither traces nor the presence of an aggressive lake predator were found. In the period from the 60s to the 70s, several divers dives were carried out, during which they saw something in the muddy water. Some scientists offered their versions of the one who lives in mysterious waters, but they did not have any scientific justification.
So some suggested that this is a huge five-meter catfish, weighing 300 kg, ignoring the fact that catfish are not found in this lake. Others have hypothesized that this is a centennial pike of large size, although there has never been evidence that pikes can live so long. The only thing that Soviet researchers discovered was the underwater tunnels in which the "monster" could easily hide from curious scientists.
Expeditions in the 90s
Interest in anomalies was especially pronounced at the end of the 20th century. Not only special newspaper publications and books appeared on UFOs, yetis, and relict animals, but also departments in scientific institutes that sent their expeditions to strange and mysterious places.
Researchers now had special equipment in their hands to help them scan the bottom of the lake and thereby give an answer to who lives there. As the head of one of the teams, Vadim Chernobrov, noted, on the shore of Lake Labynkyr, they discovered icy growths formed by drops that flowed from the body of an animal that came out of the water.
Judging by the distance between the ice growths, the carcass of the animal was up to 1.5 meters wide and stayed on the shore for about a minute, after which the monster crawled back under the water. The experiment helped to determine the time: it was during such a time that the droplets that the scientists splashed onto the ground turned into ice growths of the same size.
Expeditions nowadays
Interest in the elusive animal living in Lake Labynkyr does not subside today. After it was possible to detect large moving objects under its waters with the help of echo sounders, scientists do not give up hope that the next scientific Russian “fishing” will give results. Labynkyr hell was it or just a big school of fish, the echo sounder did not show, but it fueled the curiosity of the researchers.
With the help of a tele-sonder capable of working at great depths, at the bottom of the lake were found the remains of animals, which were bones, vertebrae and jaws, possibly deer or livestock.
The last expedition, conducted in 2013, also did not detect an anomaly.
Fauna of Lake Labynkyr
So far, the mystery of this reservoir has not been solved, but it is of interest in itself, since it is very rich in fish, among which there are quite rare specimens. So, burbot feels like a master here, and besides him live whitefish, malma, swamp, alimba, grayling, pike, char and lenok.
Despite the abundance of fish, neither local nor visiting fishermen do not fish here, preferring ponds more calm and safe.
