 Illustration from Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods | |
| Grouping | Fearsome critter |
|---|---|
| Folklore | American folklore |
| First attested | 1910 |
| Other name(s) | Lacrimacorpus dissolvens |
| Country | USA |
| Region | Pennsylvania [1] |
The squonk is a mythical creature that is reputed to live in the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania in the United States. [1]
Johnstown, Pennsylvania celebrates the Squonk at the Squonkapalooza in August. [2]
The first written account of the squonk was from the 1910 book Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods . [3] His provenance was attested in the next written iteration, in the 1939 book Fearsome Critters. This book suggested that the creatures had migrated from deserts to swamps to finally settle in Pennsylvania. [4] As logging camps were continuously moving in the early 20th century, this could explain their migration to Pennsylvania. [3]
Unlike many mythological creatures, the supposed physical characteristics of the squonk remain unchanged from the original written account, which states:
The squonk is of a very retiring disposition, generally traveling about at twilight and dusk. Because of its misfitting skin, which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy...Hunters who are good at tracking are able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal weeps constantly. When cornered and escape seems impossible, or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself in tears.
— William T. Cox, "The Squonk", Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1910) [1]
Later retellings included that squonks were slowest on moonlit nights as they try to avoid seeing their ugly appearance in any illuminated bodies of water. In addition to warts and moles, the creatures were given webbed toes on their left feet. [4]
The given "species" taxonomy of the creature, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, is made up of the Latin tear, body, and dissolve. These refer to its supposed ability to dissolve when captured. [3]
Some substances are stable in solution or some other "wild" form but cannot be isolated or captured without actually catalyzing their own polymerization or decomposition ("dissolving in their own tears"). For example, a molecule containing a carboxylic acid moiety and an acid labile moiety might be stable when initially prepared as the salt (e.g., barium prephenate) but unstable as the free acid (prephenic acid). These have been named "chemical squonks". [5]
"Any Major Dude Will Tell You" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker that was first released by Steely Dan on their 1974 album Pretzel Logic and has the line "Have you ever seen a squonk's tears? Well, look at mine".
The progressive rock band Genesis has a song written by bassist Mike Rutherford, about this creature (simply named "Squonk") on their 1976 album A Trick of the Tail .
In organic chemistry, a functional group is a substituent or moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reactions regardless of the rest of the molecule's composition. This enables systematic prediction of chemical reactions and behavior of chemical compounds and the design of chemical synthesis. The reactivity of a functional group can be modified by other functional groups nearby. Functional group interconversion can be used in retrosynthetic analysis to plan organic synthesis.
Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His tall tales revolve around his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox, his pet and working animal. The character originated in the oral tradition of North American loggers, and was later popularized by freelance writer William B. Laughead (1882–1958) in a 1916 promotional pamphlet for the Red River Lumber Company. He has been the subject of various literary compositions, musical pieces, commercial works, and theatrical productions. His likeness is displayed in a number of oversized statues across North America.
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In chemistry, solubility is the ability of a substance, the solute, to form a solution with another substance, the solvent. Insolubility is the opposite property, the inability of the solute to form such a solution.
American mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to America's most legendary stories and folktale, dating back to the late 1700s when the first colonists settled. "American mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the subject matter as represented in the literature and art of other cultures in any period.
A snipe hunt is a type of practical joke or fool's errand, in existence in North America as early as the 1840s, in which an unsuspecting newcomer is duped into trying to catch an elusive, nonexistent animal called a snipe. Although snipe are an actual family of birds, a snipe hunt is a quest for an imaginary creature whose description varies.
In thermodynamics, the chemical potential of a species is the energy that can be absorbed or released due to a change of the particle number of the given species, e.g. in a chemical reaction or phase transition. The chemical potential of a species in a mixture is defined as the rate of change of free energy of a thermodynamic system with respect to the change in the number of atoms or molecules of the species that are added to the system. Thus, it is the partial derivative of the free energy with respect to the amount of the species, all other species' concentrations in the mixture remaining constant. When both temperature and pressure are held constant, and the number of particles is expressed in moles, the chemical potential is the partial molar Gibbs free energy. At chemical equilibrium or in phase equilibrium, the total sum of the product of chemical potentials and stoichiometric coefficients is zero, as the free energy is at a minimum. In a system in diffusion equilibrium, the chemical potential of any chemical species is uniformly the same everywhere throughout the system.
Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula AgNO
3. It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called lunar caustic because silver was called luna by ancient alchemists who associated silver with the moon. In solid silver nitrate, the silver ions are three-coordinated in a trigonal planar arrangement.
In American folklore, the hodag is a fearsome critter resembling a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curved spines down its back. The hodag was said to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen, as the incarnation of the accumulation of abuse the animals had suffered at the hands of their masters. The history of the hodag is strongly tied to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where it was claimed to have been discovered. The hodag has figured prominently in early Paul Bunyan stories.
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts is a 1910 fantasy field guide by William Thomas Cox (1878–1961), Minnesota’s first State Forester and Commissioner of Conservation, with illustrations by Coert du Bois and Latin classifications by George Bishop Sudworth The text is a noteworthy resource on folklore, as a century after its initial publication Fearsome Creatures remains one of the principal sources on legendary creatures of the United States and Canada.
The splintercat is a legendary fearsome critter in the folklore of the United States.
In North American folklore and American mythology, fearsome critters were tall tale animals jokingly said to inhabit the wilderness in or around logging camps, especially in the Great Lakes region. Today, the term may also be applied to similar fabulous beasts.
The Agropelter is a mythical fearsome critter said to inhabit hollow trees of the conifer woods from Maine to Oregon. From this vantage point, the creature would await an unwary person and hurl wooden splinters and branches at the intruder. Some have described the creature as being so quick that it has never been seen. One reference describes the creature as having a "slender, wirely body, the villainous face of an ape, and arms like muscular whiplashes, with which it can snap off dead branches and hurl them through the air like shells from a six inch gun."
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The hidebehind is a nocturnal fearsome critter from American folklore that preys upon humans that wander the woods, and was blamed for the disappearances of early loggers when they failed to return to camp. As its name suggests, the hidebehind is said to be able to conceal itself. When an observer attempts to look directly at it, the creature quickly hides behind an object or behind the observer and therefore cannot be directly seen. The hidebehind supposedly uses this ability to stalk human prey without being observed and to attack them without warning. Said victims, including lumberjacks and others who frequent the forests, are then dragged back to the creature's lair to be devoured. The creature subsists chiefly upon the intestines of its victim and has a severe aversion to alcohol, which is therefore considered a sufficient repellent. Tales of the hidebehind may have been used as an explanation of strange noises in the forest at night. Early accounts describe hidebehinds as large, powerful animals, despite the fact that no one was able to see them.
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