The Snow Wasset is a mysterious cryptid that originated in the lumberjack folklore of North America. It is said to live in the snow-covered forests of Canada and is believed to be very aggresive and dangerous not hesitating to attack and kill a human.
| Cryptid Name: | Snow Wasset |
| Location: | Canada |
| Category: | Lumberjack Folklore Cryptid |
| Description: | Large carnivorous creature with a long body and a thick coat of white fur |
| Size: | Large |
| Behavior/Characteristics: | Very aggressive and dangerous. |
| Diet: | Unknown. |
| Habitat/Environment: | Forests of Canada. |
| Evidence: | No physical evidence has been found. |
| Sightings and Encounters: | A number of reports of snow wasset sightings have been made, but there is no scientific evidence to support their existence. |
| Skepticism/Explanations: | Most experts believe that the snow wasset is a myth or a misidentified animal. |
What Does The Snow Wassel Look Like?
The Snow Wassel is described as being a large furry creature with a long, slender body.
During the summer months, it has short stubby legs which it uses to move around and its fur is a greenish color. It is said that the Snow Wassel prefers to hibernate during the summer months.
Once winter arrives, the Snow Wassel loses its legs and its greenish fur becomes thick and white helping it to blend in with its surroundings and survive the harsh Canadian winter conditions.
In winter, the Snow Wassel becomes a stealthy predator that is easily able to move through the snow quickly and quietly without being detected. When it hunts it lies silently beneath the snow waiting to attack unsuspecting prey which it grabs and pulls under the snow before devouring it.
The Legend of the Snow Wasset
One of the first mentions of the Snow Wasset was in a book called, “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts” by William Thomas Cox.
On the most northern logging camps of Canada we hear of the snow wasset. This is surely an animal of the Boreal Zone. It is a migratory animal, wintering in the lumbering region between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay and spending its summers far north in Labrador and the Barren Grounds. Unlike most wild creatures of the North, the wasset is said to hibernate during only the warmest weather, when its hair turns green and it curls up in a cranberry marsh. During the summer it has rudimentary legs, which enable it to creep slowly around and remain in the shade.
After the first howling snowstorm the wasset sheds its legs and starts south, dipping about in the snow. It soon attains remarkable skill in this method of travel, which enables it to surprise burrowing grouse, crouching rabbits, and skulking varmints of many kinds.
Later in the winter, when food becomes scarce and more difficult to obtain, even wolves are seized from below and dragged howling and kicking into the snowdrifts. According to woodsmen, the tragedies of the far North are more numerous beneath the crusted snow than above it. There is no telling how many creatures are pulled down and eaten by the wasset, for this animal has a voracious appetite, comparable only to that of the wolverine, but since it is four times as big and forty times as active as the wolverine it must eat correspondingly more.
The only specimen of this beast ever examined by white men was an imperfect one on James Bay, where a party of surveyors found an Indian in a peculiar canoe, which, upon examination, was shown to be made from one wasset hide greatly stretched. There being no leg holes in the white winter pelt, it is peculiarly adapted to the making of shapely one-man canoes, which are said to be used also as sleds by the Indians. A whole battery of dead-falls are believed to be used in trapping a wasset, since it is impossible to tell in what direction the animal’s body may extend. The trigger is set so that a dozen logs fall in from all sides toward the bait, pinning the animal under the snow wherever he may be.
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Source: Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Similar Cryptids
- The Squonk – Pennsylvania
- The Hodag – Wisconsin
- Cactus Cat – Southwestern United States
- Slide-Rock Bolter (Mountain Whale)- Colorado
Resources
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts
