Bestia Secretum collects 15 tales (short stories and novellas) of strange creatures haunting the farthest unexplored regions. Civilization encroaches on fiercely-guarded territories while encounters with the unknown offer surprising and dangerous glimpses of bizarre branches of the animal kingdom. From prehistoric survivors to creatures with extreme adaptations, uncanny intelligence to hidden terrors, these stories exemplify the imaginative bestiary of classic cryptozoological science fiction.
Stories include: The Moa at Last (William Turton, 1884), The Explorer—What Was It? (J. C. Meadway, 1885), Spirit of the Woods (T. P. Porter, 1893), The Linguin (Andrew Haggard, 1899), The Something in Black Swamp (Lin Wood, 1906), A Strange Experience (J. C. Du Bois, 1908), De Profundis (Robert Coutts Armour, 1914), The Horror of Johnson’s Flats (Arundel Begbie, 1914), The Water Devil (Crittenden Marriott, 1916), Nightmare! (Francis Stevens, 1917), A New Species (Robert Coutts Armour, 1921), A Horror of Darkness (Claude E. Benson, 1925), The Ocean Leech (Frank Belknap Long, Jr.), The Abu Laheeb (Lord Dunsany, 1926), The Whistling Monsters (B. Wallis, 1926).
