A monster was seen on Eyrarbakki - History

On November 19, 1594, there was a great storm, and the sources say: the river Hvítá dried up in two places near a farm called Áhraun in Skeiða-hreppi and in Flóa-hreppi to the east of the country, near the farm Brúnastaður, almost all over.  There, we walked with dry feet to one of the islets, which was previously impassable, and from there we took stilts as a sign.  People were surprised at this, that the two sections should dry up, because the river was seen as a sea elsewhere with a storm.  In these same storms the surf was terrible.  A monster was then seen on Eyrarbakki, in the neighborhood of Háeyri and the neighborhood of Skúmsstaðir;  it was four-legged and tall-legged, skin like that of a seal, had either a dog's head or a hare's head, but ears as big as socks they lay on the back;  the trunk was like a foal's body and somewhat shorter, there was a white lining around it at the sides, but it was gray or something like gray-brown in front;  a turnip was long, a knob like a lion's tail at the end, and swift as a dog;  seen in the evening.  – The description of the monster fits well with a donkey or a mule, but where did the creature come from?  It is likely that a ship was wrecked in this weather and that this animal was among the ship's cargo and made it safely to land.