Twice ToldMartin Sheffield to Clemente Onelli, Esquel, 19 January 1922
- Language
- Spanish
- Read from
- leaf n54 of Caras y Caretas no. 1224, 18 March 1922, in the article "Lo del animal misterioso"
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
The letter reached the public in Caras y Caretas, the Buenos Aires weekly, on 18 March 1922, printed inside a boxed panel in the middle column of Onelli’s article “Lo del animal misterioso”. The caption under it reads “La carta en que el senor Sheffield anuncia el sensacional descubrimiento”. Onelli, then director of the Buenos Aires zoo, writes in the same article that the only graphic proof he can offer is “el fac-simil de la carta”; on the page the body of the letter is typeset in italic and only the signature is a reproduction of handwriting.
Esquel, 19 enero 1922.
Señor doctor Onelli. Director del Jardín Zoológico. — Buenos Aires.
Muy señor mío:
Conociendo el empeño que usted siempre ha demostrado en fomentar el adelanto del establecimiento que tan dignamente dirige, me permito distraer su atención sobre el siguiente fenómeno que por cierto ha de despertar su vivo interés, ya que se trata del posible ingreso a su jardín de un animal hasta ahora ignorado del mundo. Paso a relatar el hecho:
Hace varias noches que he podido registrar un rastro en el pasto que cerca la laguna donde tengo establecido mi puesto de cazador; el rastro es semejante a una huella de una chata muy pesada, la hierba queda aplastada y no se levanta más, lo que hace suponer que el animal que por allí se arrastró debe de ser de un peso enorme; he podido apercibir en medio de la laguna un animal enorme con cabeza parecida a un cisne de formas descomunales, y el movimiento del agua me hace suponer un cuerpo de cocodrilo. El objeto de la presente es de conseguir de usted el apoyo material para una expedición en toda regla, para la cual se precisa una lancha, arpones, etc.; la lancha se podrá construir aquí. Ahora bien: para el caso de no poder sacar al animal vivo, sería también preciso de contar con material de embalsamar. Si usted tiene interés en el asunto, podría facultar a la casa Pérez-Gabito, en ésta, para que me facilite los medios para realizar la expedición.
Espero de su gentileza me conteste a la brevedad posible y aprovecho la oportunidad para saludarlo con mi mayor consideración, S. S. S.
[signature] Martin Sheffield
Translation
Esquel, 19 January 1922.
Dr. Onelli, Director of the Zoological Garden, Buenos Aires.
Dear Sir,
I know how keen you have always been to improve the establishment you run so ably, so I take the liberty of drawing your attention to a phenomenon that is certain to rouse your keen interest, because it concerns a possible new arrival for your garden: an animal the world has not known until now. This is what happened.
For several nights I have been able to make out a trail in the grass around the lagoon where my hunting post is. The trail looks like the track of a very heavy flatbed wagon. The grass is flattened and does not spring back, which suggests that whatever dragged itself through there must be enormously heavy. I have also made out, in the middle of the lagoon, an enormous animal with a head like a swan, of monstrous proportions, and the movement of the water makes me think its body is that of a crocodile. I am writing to ask you for material support for a proper expedition. It needs a launch, harpoons and so on; the launch can be built here. And if the animal cannot be taken alive, we would also need embalming supplies. If you are interested, you could authorise the Perez-Gabito firm here to supply me with the means to carry out the expedition.
I hope you will kindly reply as soon as you can, and I take the opportunity to send you my highest regards. Your obedient servant (S. S. S.),
Martin Sheffield
Notes
- Transcription: spelling and accents as printed, with the line-end hyphens removed. “S. S. S.” is the usual closing abbreviation (su seguro servidor). The typeset line “hierba” is slightly blurred in the scan but reads as given.
- “Una chata” is a flat-bottomed vehicle: a river barge or lighter in the Rio de la Plata, and in Argentine usage also a flatbed wagon. We chose the wagon because the trail is on grass; the barge reading is possible. “Arpones” are harpoons. Perez-Gabito was a business in Esquel; the letter does not say what kind.
- The letter does not say plesiosaur, gives no name for the lagoon and no date for the sighting beyond “varias noches”. It asks for money and equipment, and offers the animal to the zoo.
- Onelli’s own article around it says he knew Sheffield in 1898 or 1899, when Sheffield was about thirty, and describes him as tall and stout, in gaucho trousers and a cork helmet, firing his revolver between his horse’s legs as he left visitors. He calls the animal “el problematico plesiosauro” in the first paragraph.
- The same letter is quoted, in part, by Perez, Toledo, Vizcaino and Tonni in Revista del Museo de La Plata 9(2) (2024), p. 225, who report that a copy of the original is in the Museo de la Patagonia. We have not seen that copy, so we cannot say whether the Caras y Caretas text matches it word for word.