Hemlock Bay

Occultum Investigamus

A private collection of cryptobiological specimens, anatomical plates, and field notes from the Hemlock Bay Institute archives. Enter at your own discretion.

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A Note from the Curator

The Dark Curiosity Cabinet

What follows is a selection from the restricted archives of the Hemlock Bay Institute of Cryptobiological Studies — specimens that the public catalogue does not contain, plates that were never published, and field notes that were never submitted for peer review.

The Institute has maintained a quiet collection since its founding in 1847. Most of its holdings are unremarkable: pressed plants, mineral samples, the usual detritus of provincial natural history. But a few drawers were kept separate. These are those drawers.

The creatures documented herein are not recognised by any accredited zoological body. Their taxonomic status remains provisional. Their existence, where acknowledged at all, is attributed to hoax, misidentification, or local superstition. The Institute takes no official position on their validity. We merely preserve the records.

The collector whose name appears on the original catalogue entries was a man of meticulous habit and questionable judgment. His annotations are reproduced faithfully, including those passages where his handwriting becomes agitated.
Cervidae aberrant
Drawer I

Hunter Stag

Cervus venator
Catalogue No. HBICS–C–021
TAB. CII. — Cervus venator, skeletal view
Classification: Cervidae (aberrant) Status: Existence provisionally accepted Etiology: Suspected mycotoxin

An aberrant cervine marked by upright posture and predatory dentition. Nocturnal and solitary in habit. Seldom encountered beyond deep woodland regions of scarcity.

Mycotrema cervina (Stag's Bane) — a rare toxic fungus found in deep, overgrown woodland with depleted soil. Fruiting bodies are pale, fibrous, and irregularly antlered in form, emitting a faintly sweet, resinous odor. Healthy deer appear to avoid it entirely.

The condition appears to affect stags exclusively, most frequently following prolonged starvation during or after the rut. Afflicted individuals are suspected to ingest the fungus under extreme distress, precipitating severe neurological disturbance, metabolic collapse, and morphological aberration culminating in the predatory form.

Early colonial correspondence contains scattered references to the introduction of foreign game animals, occasionally accompanied by warnings regarding their unsuitability to local conditions and the unforeseen consequences of their release.

The upright posture is unmistakable in the field, yet no complete specimen has ever been retained. What we know comes from fragmentary reports and a single set of sketches dated 1873.
Plate: TAB. CIII. Source: Comparative osteology series

A second plate in the series depicts the specimen from the opposite aspect, revealing the full extent of the cervical elongation and the modified dentition. The inclusion of a human skull for scale (lower right) was, according to the marginalia, the artist's own decision — the collector made no such request.

The comparative skull is labelled simply "a" and is believed to be that of an adult male. Its provenance is not recorded in the catalogue.

TAB. CIII. — Cervus venator, alternate aspect
Never among hinds
Ardeidae prov.
Drawer II

Witness Heron

Ardea testis — The Devil's Heron
Catalogue No. HBICS–A–017
Classification: Aves, Ardeidae (provisional) Status: Publicly dismissed; privately documented Etymology: testis — witness

A marsh-dwelling carrion bird persistently miscast as demonic by colonial authorities. The species does not cause death — it is observed only in its proximity. It arrives after the event, much like vultures.

Paired keratin horns are present atop the skull. Structures are symmetrical, permanent, and non-pathological. Infernal interpretations are unsupported by the evidence — though Puritan clergy of the 17th century described it as "a bird that counts the damned."

Ardea testis — The binomial was chosen deliberately by early scholars to assert that the creature does not cause death, but merely appears in its presence. A distinction consistently rejected by theological doctrine.

The bird will often stand motionless for extended periods, facing the deceased. If disturbed, it does not flee. It slowly turns its head and emits a low, windlike vocalization. No attacks have been recorded. Its diet includes fish, small mammals, and carrion — with a marked preference for human remains.

By the early 18th century, physical specimens had been documented, skulls catalogued (then miscatalogued or misplaced), and illustrations circulated privately among naturalists. The public position became: a malformed heron. A hoax. A colonial superstition.

Folklore holds that if the bird faces a dwelling, death is already inside. Its bones are considered cursed, yet are nevertheless collected.
TAB. CX. — Ardea testis, skeletal plate
Counts the damned
Hominidae aberr.
Drawer III

Common Werewolf

Homo lycanthropus
Catalogue No. HBICS–H–024
TAB. III. — Homo lycanthropus, skeletal plate
Classification: Hominidae (aberrant condition) Status: Condition acknowledged; mechanism unresolved Transformation: Periodic and reversible

A rare and profoundly aberrant condition in which human skeletal morphology undergoes periodic and extreme lupine distortion, producing a hybridized form characterized by digitigrade posture, elongation of the facial bones, and hypertrophy of the appendicular skeleton.

Note the comparative human skull labelled "B" (lower left), included to demonstrate the extent of craniofacial remodelling. The artist has taken care to illustrate the dental transition — from omnivorous dentition to the carnassial arrangement of an obligate predator.

The underlying cause remains unestablished. Proposed explanations include transmissible agents, hereditary predisposition, or a degenerative neurological disorder. None sufficiently account for the observed periodicity or consistency of transformation across disparate regions.

No complete skeletal material has been retained. Documentation relies entirely on episodic observation. Transformation is periodic and reversible; no stable intermediate morphology has been documented. Reversion occurs without observable transitional ossification.

The collector's notes on this specimen are fragmented and contradict themselves. At one point he refers to the subject as "Patient Zero." At another, he writes only: "I have seen what a man becomes when the bone forgets its shape."
Bone forgets its shape
Arachnid Society · Selected Specimens

The Framed Collection

Mounted specimens from the private collection. Glass-fronted, velvet-backed, and numbered — though the register that corresponded to these numbers was lost in a fire in 1928.

(Dynastes hercules)
Hercules Beetle
Prosopocoilus inclinatus
(Japanese Stag Beetle)
Theraphosidae sp. — Tarantula
Acquisition dates and provenance are not recorded. The specimens were accessioned as a single lot under the catalogue number ARAC–X–001. The accession ledger entry reads simply: "From the estate of ———."