Sasquatch Sightings

Account

This story in the Victoria Colonist, July 3, 1884, was presented as an apparently-serious dispatch from a correspondent at Yale. In the early 60's August Castle, an Indian at Yale, said he remembered the incident although he had not seen the creature. There were also people who were told about it by parents who were there at the time or shortly after. On the other hand, the newspapers at New Westminster at the time dismissed it as a hoax. The story was that the crew of a train saw someone lying beside the track. When they stopped the train the supposed man sprang up with a sharp, quick bark and began to climb the bluff beside the track. It became trapped on a shelf and one of the men got above it and knocked it out by dropping a rock on it. The creature was then tied up and lowered, and taken to Yale, where the train was headed. It is described as "something of the gorilla type standing four feet seven inches in height and weighing 127 pounds." It was covered with inch-long, glossy hair, and was stronger than a man. A George Tilbury, of Yale, looked after the creature and proposed to take it to England for exhibition. Note that at 127 lbs. a creature only 4'7" high would be of very heavy build. (Double the height and the weight increases 8 times, ie at 6' it would weigh 285lb.)