No snowman

SIR – It has long been surmised that the Yeti is a bear (report, November 29). HW “Bill” Tilman of the 1938 Everest attempt recounted that “on 4 July, I was hospitably received by Dr Schaefer’s scientific party who were in Sikkim collecting birds, insects, and plants . ... They comprised every breed of scientist: ornithologist, zoologist, entomologist, anthropologist and many other ‘ologists’.

“I took the anthropologist aside and adjured him to spare no pains in tracking down Homo odiosus, the ‘Abominable Snowman’, and begged him not to be discouraged by the zoologist [Schaefer], who would certainly tell him that the tracks he was following were not those of our abominable friend, not even a Snark, but a bear.” Roger Croston

Christleton, Cheshire