Library of Cryptozoology

When asked to describe Kátcheetohúskw, the [Naskapi] informants said he was very large, had a big head, large ears and teeth, and a long nose with which he hit people. His tracks in the snow were described in their stories as large and round. One Indian who had seen pictures of the modern elephant said he thought that Kátcheetohúskw was the elephant ... the older Indians question were unanimous in declaring that such had always been the description of the Kátcheetohúskw so far as they had any knowledge. ... Dr. Frank G. Speck has kindly sent me an interesting tale which he recently secured from the Penobscot Indians of Maine. The myth concerns the adventures of Snowy Owl, a Penobscot culture hero ... He saw what seemed to be hills without vegetation moving slowly about. Upon closer scrutiny he saw that these masses were really the backs of great animals with long teeth, animals so huge that when they lay down they could not get up. They drank for half a day at a time. Snowy Owl went ...

There was a tradition among the Indians [northwest of the Ohio] of the existence of the mastodon; they were often seen; they fed on the boughs of a species of lime tree, and they did not lie down, but leaned against a tree to sleep.

... [28 September 1807:] The Old Chief & others related that in the Woods of the Mountains there is a very large Animal, of abt the height of 3 fms & great bulk that never lies down, but in sleeping always leans against a large Tree to support his weight; they believe, they say, that he has no joints in the mid of his Legs, but they are not sure as they never killed any of them, & by this acct they are rarely or never seen--this is no doubt some Animal of their Nurses Fables, as they cannot say they ever saw the least remains of a dead one. ... January 5 [1811]: ... we are now entering the defiles of the Rocky Mountains by the Athabasca River... strange to say, here is a strong belief that the haunt of the Mammoth is about this defile... I questioned several, none could positively say they had seen him, but their belief I found firm and not to be shaken.... All I could say did not shake their belief in his existence... ... January 7: Continuing on our journey in the aft...

A long time ago [according to the Chitimacha] a being with a long nose came out of the ocean and began to kill people. It would root up trees with its nose to get at persons who sought refuge in the branches, and people lived on scaffolds to get away from it. It made its home in a piece of woods near Charenton, and when guns were introduced the people went into this wood to kill the monster, but could not find it. When the elephant was seen it was thought to be the same creature, and was consequently called Neka-ci ckami, 'Long-nosed spirit'.

Many years before the discovery of the elephant in the bayou called Carancro an Atakapas savage had informed a man who is at present in my service in the capacity of cow-herd that the ancestors of his nation transmitted to their descendants that a beast of enormous size had perished either in this bayou or in one of the two water courses a short distance from it without their being able to indicate the true place, the antiquity of the event having without doubt made them forget it. The fact has realized this tradition.

Some of the Upper Crees, a tribe who inhabit the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca river, have a curious tradition with respect to animals which they state formerly frequented the mountains. They allege that these animals were of frightful magnitude, being from two to three hundred feet in length, and high in proportion; that they formerly lived in the plains, agreat distance to the eastward; from which they were gradually driven by the Indians to the Rocky Mountains; that they destroyed all smaller animals; and if their agility was equal to their size, would have also destroyed all the natives, &c. One man has asserted that his grandfather told him he saw one of those animals in a mountain pass, where he was hunting, and that on hearing its roar, which he compared to loud thunder, the sight almost left his eyes, and his heart became as small as an infant's.

The Tartars maintain that the mammoth still exists in their country at the mouths of rivers ... It is also claimed that hunters have pursued them [mammoths] west of the Mississippi.

Mr. Editor, the following short notice relative to what seems to me to be a subject of no slight interest may probably be deemed worthy of insertion either among your customary memoranda of natural history, or in some vacant corner of your instructive miscellany. You know that specimens of what has been denominated the wool-bearing animal have lately been transmitted from the rocky mountains of North America, to the professor of natural history in this city. This animal had not been described in any of the great works on natural history; and though it is a remarkable quadruped, not only from its haunts, which are among the high precipices of stupendous mountains, but from the great beauty and value of its fleece, it has till within few years been altogether unknown to any of the numerous scientific individuals who have been so actively engaged in investigating the wonders of every quarter of the globe. The fact is, however, that this animal, which we are informed is intermediate betwee...

There is also a rather amusing tradition among these [Algonkian] barbarians of a great moose, next to which the others are like ants. They say it has legs so high that eight feet of snow do not hinder it. Its skin is proof against all sorts of weapons, and it has a sort of arm coming from its shoulder that it uses as we do ours. It never fails to have a large number of moose following it that make up its court and that render it all of the services it requires of them.

Tis also advised from Louisiana, that the Natives advancing into some uninhabited Countries found some Elephants that had perish'd in a marshy place; which had given rise to a question whether this country does not border upon Asia the rather because the Natives say, they never saw nor heard that there were any Animal of that kind in that Country.

They saw a live elephant. At Valentine, Nebr. where them springs are is where they saw this Pa sno ta, a live elephant standing by a fall, a big spring.

"From these villages, they would go on Wah-ni-sa (Buffalo Hunt) up the Missouri River, way in the Rocky Mountains. They say where they step over the Nu-sho-day (Missouri River) they would follow the Rocky Mountains to Pikes Peak and they would come back to Nebraska and they would follow on the rivers back to Wah-ta where Fremont, Nebraska is. From Santee to Niobrara River, here they saw a Pa-snu-tah dead (an Elephant) ... PLC identified this animal as a "hairy elephant" ... ... The Twin Buttes were the places for the medicine men to perform. There is a cave in the east one there is where they saw a prehistoric animal, the Pah-snu-tah ... According to PLC this "hairy elephant" was alive." PLC [Peter Le Claire] ... in his "History" (p. 18) and in an interview, gives (and gave) the term Pásnuta (pa-snu-tah) for both the bones of extinct elephants and for the hairy mammoth allegedly seen by the Ponca near Butte, Nebr. He mentioned that this term w...