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• Latin Meaning: Great Stomach Ricochet (Megalogaster repercussus.)
• Identification: The Gumberoo is coal black with a nearly complete lack of hair and its body bears an extremely high resistance to an opposing force.
• Distribution: The 'foggy' region along the Pacific Coast from Grays Harbor to Humboldt Bay.
• Diet: The Guberoo will devour anything which appears to it appetizing.
• Niches: Spends most of its time in the bulk of cedar trees; always hungry.
THE GUMBEROO.
(Megalogaster repercussus.)
In the foggy region along the Pacific Coast from Grays
Harbor to Humboldt Bay there ranges a kind of creature that
has caused much annoyance in the lumber woods. This is the
gumberoo, which, luckily, is so rare that only once in a great
while is one seen. It is believed to remain in hiding most of
the time in the base of enormous, burned-out cedar trees, from
where it sallies forth occasionally on frightful marauding expe-
ditions. During these periods of activity the beast is always
hungry and devours anything it can find that looks like food.
A whole horse may be eaten at one sitting, distending the gum-
beroo out of all proportions, but failing to appease its hunger
or cause it the slightest discomfort.######################
The specimens seen are reported to have been coal black, but
that may have been due to their being smirched with the
charred wood. In size the beast corresponds closely to a black
bear, for which it might be mistaken only for the fact that the
gumberoo is almost hairless. To be sure, it has prominent eye-
brows and some long, bristly hairs on its chin, but the body is
smooth, tough, and shiny and bears not even a wrinkle. The
animal is a tireless traveler when looking for food, but is not
swift in its movements or annoyed in the slightest degree by
the presence of enemies. The latter characteristic is easily
accounted for by the fact that no other animal within its range
has ever found a successful method of attacking a gumberoo
or a vulnerable spot in one's anatomy. Whatever strikes the
beast bounds off with the same force. Its elastic hide hurls
back with equal ease the charging elk and the wrathy hornet.
A rock or peavey thrown at the creature bounds back at who-
ever threw it, and a bullet shot against its hide is sure to strike
the hunter between the eyes.###########################
It is believed that the scarcity of gumberoos is due to their
combustible character and the prevalence of forest fires. The
animal burns like celluloid, with the explosive force. Frequently
during and after a forest fire in the heavy cedar near Coos Bay
woodmen have insisted that they heard loud reports quite
unlike the sound of falling trees, and detected the smell of
burning rubber in the air.##############################
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