10-00-1973

10-??-1073

At the end of its journey from the lake where the Meusers had their view [See: 05-01-1974-CF-] of a flaming object and down the wooded slopes where Kershaw had his encounter, the Cowichan River pours into sheltered waters in the Strait of Georgia. For sports fishermen the river and its bay provide memorable vacations, while for natives on the bordering reserve they provide a livelihood. Long after fishing enthusiasts have packed it up at night, members of the Quamichan band will continue to probe with spear and net for the salmon which to them is virtually a staple of life.

So it was late one night in October, 1973, when a group at the Quamichan fishing camp decided to send back to the village for more coffee. The run was good and there could be hours of work ahead.

One of the five who went on that errand told us what happened and, in support of what he said, it should be explained he was showing courage in speaking to us at all. We did not pry but it may have been true that not all fishing regulations were observed that night, and it was only with the help of a trusted mutual friend that an interview was arranged. Also the witness seemed more receptive after he and his wife looked through a copy of our magazine. Obviously we were not there to discuss his fishing problems.

"It was about 11 o'clock that night when five of us started off for coffee," he said. "It was very dark but the clouds were up high enough for us to see everything that happened.

"We had been walking for just a couple of minutes when we noticed a round black thing over the trees behind us. They were cottonwood trees and this thing was just over the tops, so it must have been about two hundred feet up and it was three or four hundred feet away.

"Then, from the bottom, a white light shone out like a spotlight. It moved its beam up the river as if it was looking for something. By this time we were all pretty scared. We thought, 'Sure the others at camp have seen it, too', but afterwards they said they hadn't seen a thing. There was a bend in the river between us so I couldn't say for sure whether they did or not."

But the witness looked as if he could not understand it and, since he himself wished to have his name withheld, it occurred to us that the denial of those back at camp may have been to ensure secrecy for themselves.

The witness said the object was illuminated in some way so that even in the darkness its outline was quite clear. He estimated it was about 80 feet in diameter and it remained fully visible to his party for about '15 minutes.

For, a moment it looked as if that was all the witness had to say. He and his wife glanced at each other and we had the impression they wanted to end the interview at that point. So taking the cue we prepared to leave, but asked, as we did, how the object had disappeared.

It was a routine sort of question, the usual answer being that the light flashed out or the object moved out of sight. But here the reply was not usual. Instead it touched on a peculiarity of UFOs so little known there was no chance the witness could have made it up.

In his book UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, John Keel suggests our visitors sometimes conspire to make witnesses look foolish as if to hide what they are really doing. According to this idea, one of their tricks is to masquerade as normal-looking aircraft with some odd unexplainable detail or in conditions where no normal aircraft would fly. This sort of behaviour was brought to our attention when a woman wrote in that she and two friends had heard a craft sounding exactly like an airplane fly low overhead but when they saw the craft it appeared to be a shapeless object circled by red flashing lights. Then the engine seemed to cut out and the object stopped in mid-air. Obviously it was a type of craft they had never seen before.

So the halting reply of the witness in the Cowichan River case had impact.

"Well, if we told people about this, they'd think we were crazy," he said. "But all of a sudden it looked as if the thing we saw had turned into an airplane. It made a noise like a plane and it looked like a plane, only all the lights went out except for a little red one. It went right past us and disappeared over the trees."

UFOCAT PRN - 96007

North America – Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver Island

Cowichan River Latitude 48-46-00 N, Longitude 123-38-00 W (D-M-S)

Strait of Georgia Latitude 49-30-00 N, Longitude 124-00-00 W

Quamichan Latitude 48-45-30 N, Longitude 123-44-00 W

Reference: http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php

UFO Location (UFOCAT) Latitude 49.5 N, Longitude 125.0 W (D.%)