History of Geology- Geologist’s Nightmares

Then the Premier asked that, if it were possible, I should capture for the Mongolian government a specimen of the allergorhai-horhai. I doubt whether any of my scientific readers can identify this animal. I could, because I had heard of it often. None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely. It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert, whither we were going. To the Mongols it seems to be what the dragon is to the Chinese. The Premier said that, although he had never seen it himself, he knew a man who had and had lived to tell the tale. Then a Cabinet Minister stated that “the cousin of his late wife’s sister” had also seen it. I promised to produce the allergorhai-horhai if we chanced to cross its path, and explained how it could be seized by means of long steel collecting forceps; moreover, I could wear dark glasses, so that the disastrous effects of even looking at so poisonous a creature would be neutralized. The meeting adjourned with the best of feeling.“This strange creature (said to be 0,5-1,5 meter / 18 inches – 5 feet long) became popular after 1990, when engineer and self-proclaimed monster hunter Ivan Mackerle (1942-2013) published some articles based on his travels to Mongolia.  Today it’s best known as “Mongolian Death Worm“. Not only poisonous, it seems also to possess a electric organ, as Mackerle reports that a geologist was killed by a high-voltage electrical discharge when he inadvertently touched a buried animal with a iron rod.read more