Knocking in Bertie County, North Carolina

Early in the fall in 89 my uncle and myself were hunting deer in the Cashi River Swamp, a few miles from his home. We were being very quiet and moving slowly trying to get a good look at a spot were deer often cross the creek. Reaching a spot were we could see the crossing I suggested we hide behind a stump that we could see about 50 yards away. My uncle had hunted at that crossing a few times before. He said he never noticed that stump before. Before we could discuss it further the stump moved into a sort of crouching position. This gave me the impression that it might be a bear. I almost fired when it stood to full height. It shook its shoulders and stretched with its arms raised above its head, almost like a human waking from a nap. Through the scope of my rifle I could see its face briefly. It was more apelike than human with deep set brown eyes and a heavy brow ridge. The nose was flat to the face and the lips were very thin and general skin tone was dark. It was covered in long brown to black hair. It was matted in places but flowing in others. We watched it for approx 10 min. as it moved up and down the creek. My uncle had had enough and decided we needed to be going. We were backing away from the area when I stepped under a low tree branch and it knocked my hat from my head. Right afterward we heard a low growl coming from its direction. My uncle got nervous and worked the lever action of his rifle but did not shoot. We saw it through back its head and scream one time. It was like a woman and a bobcat screaming at the same time. It then started running, and cleared a 10 foot creek in one leap. Both of our nerves were pretty well shot by this time so we left the swamp. Talking about it on the way home we decided to go back the next day with a couple of dogs. When we got to within of 200 yards of the deer crossing the dogs began to whine and tried to back away, we joind them. That night a hard rain fell and that entire bottom was covered in about two inches of water.