SASQUATCH

( (from Salish se'sxac, wild men), ) also called Bigfoot, a large, hairy humanlike creature believed by some persons to exist in the northwestern United States and western Canada. It seems to represent the North American counterpart of the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti. The British explorer David Thompson is sometimes credited with the first discovery (in 1811) of a set of Sasquatch footprints, and hundreds of alleged prints have been adduced since then. Visual sightings and even alleged photographs and filmings (notably by Roger Patterson at Bluff Creek, Calif., in 1967) have also contributed to the legend, though none of the purported evidence has been verified. Sasquatch is variably described as a primate ranging from 6 to 15 feet (2 to 4.5 m) tall, standing erect on two feet, often giving off a foul smell, and either moving silently or emitting a high-pitched cry. Footprints have measured up to 24 inches (60 cm) in length and 8 inches (20 cm) in width. A Soviet scientist, Boris Porshnev, suggested that Sasquatch and his Siberian counterpart, the Almas, could be a remnant of Neanderthal man, but most scientists do not recognize the creature's existence.