by: George Gay

Inland sea serpents are not unknown of in Canada. The story of the Memphe  resembles very closely that of Ogopogo in central BC.

Lake Memphremagog is a long finger-like running south from Magog, Quebec (near Sherbrooke) across the Canada/US border to about Newport, Vermont. Nestled in between mountains, the lake is both deep and cold.

In the latter part of the 18^th century stories of encounters by Indians with a giant sea creature began to emerge. One of the best descriptions of the creature was produced by Norman Bingham in his novel, The Sea Serpent Legend, in 1926. In the book he revives old legends with a brief description in a poem as follows:

They saw a monster dark and grim

Coming with coiling surge and swim,

With lifted head and tusk and horn,

Fierce as the spirit of Hades born.

According to research released by Sonia Bolduc of the University of Sherbrooke there have been (to 1997) 215 well documented sighting of the Memphre.

In 1961 two fishermen saw a black creature about 40 feet (13 metres) long swimming, partially submerged, past their boat. In 1994 four persons in two separate boats reported a 30-foot long, black, three-humped creature.