"I spotted him in a cave," reported Mr Dobbs. "At first I thought it was just another stalacmite." Closer inspection with his torch however, revealed the distinct outline of a nose and mouth. "You can imagine my excitement," recorded Dobbs in his chronicles, "as I scraped at its upper protrusion and found it not to be a calcium encrustation, but a pointed hat." 

Museum experts were divided as to Zog's authenticity. Intense academic furore led it to be variously described as the greatest archealogical find of all time, to a hoax on the scale of the Piltdown Man. The controversy raged unabated until Zogmania was overshadowed by the the discovery of Tutenkhamun's tomb and Zog was confined to a cardboard box in the basement of the British Museum. The Zog conundrum remained unresolved until 1964 when two simultaneous discoveries re-kindled interest in the case. Firstly, it was announced that three years of painstaking excavation work had revealed the remains of a neolithic garden centre in Glastonbury. Secondly, in the Mendip Hills, speleologists came upon primitive cave paintings in which the remarkable likeness of Zog is depicted weilding a spear. 

The theory of "Hunting Gnome" was initially dismissed by experts as "improbable", although it has since been maintained that fishing rods were yet to be invented and that spear fishing was the only technique available at the time. Furthermore, age confirmation by carbon dating, now makes it certain that Zog is the missing link between Neanderthal Gnome of pre-glacial Europe, and Gnomo Sapiens which appeared on the Earth around 30,000 years B.C. 

Mike Sealey, researcher. Gnome Ontology Bureau. (GOB)