NAKED FOR FORTY YEARS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 17, 11 May 1876, Page 2

NAKED FOR FORTY YEARS.

Incredible as the following may appear, says the Carleton Place " Herald," it is an authentic fact, to which lamdreds can bear testimony " About forty years ago a young man named Wilson, residing near the town of Perth, conceived the lunatic idea of leading a hermit's life. The J'outli had from his early aged showed symptoms of jdSßrangement, and this proceeding on hi&jfpart waj not considered strange by his friencls. 5> The chosen place of his hermit-,-three-quarters of a mile froin®is parental homestead, in the recess of acfense bush, where he erected a small it with log canoe," >?§||phe used as. a couch to sleep in. Bjglpitpg liim3elf of all jjlothing he has remained perlfrctly nude, witleffiSgajeption of a tafctOTeil remnant of a his tain. years lie has lived, winnng depth of winter through tlie snow, and yet he has never been known to have received a frost bite. When he requires a drink he walks deliberately into the river, it mattering not to him what season of the fiiay be, and wades out till the waf®.' reaches his waist, and then he stoops and qua|tches his tiiirst. His food his friends, and when ™ is eaten with the voraciousness oFfm-animal, which he now resembled, more'"'than man, his body being, as heavily coated with hair as that of a cow. He never shows a dangerous disposition, and chatters in monosyllables. When people cross his path he invariably .begs for tobacco, for which he has an evident partiality, and in chattering tones will utter ' 'bacea' until his request is granted. His hair is long, grey, and unkempt, falling far_ over his shoulders, and Ids beard, which is similar, reaches down below his waist. He is now between sixty and seventy years of age, and is possibly the only living being ever known to'have lived yea? after year perfectly naked and exposed to all the inclemencies of weather which mark our Canadian winters."