Traverspine Gorilla (crypto-hominid)

Traverspine Gorilla is an appellation for a cryptid (crypto-hominid) of the Labrador interior region of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, named for the Traverspine River, a tributary of Churchill River, near where the creature was first reported as having been seen. In Elliott Merrick's relation of the account of the Michelin family, first published in True North (1933), the "gorilla" was described as a "huge hairy thing with low-hanging arms" and a distinctive white mane, its face having expressive features, such that it could be said to have a grin; and it was supposed that, when standing erect, the creature was seven-feet tall, and the Michelin's took paper measurements of its twelve-inch long footprints, "narrow at the heel and forking at the front into two broad, round-ended toes," found deep enough in the snow that they estimated it might weigh five hundred pounds. In one notable encounter, the gorilla was said to have used a club to attack the Michelin home, hitting "a corner of the house with such force it made the beams tremble."