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Title: Pennsylvania wild cats
Author: Henry W. Shoemaker
Release date: February 15, 2026 [eBook #77943]
Language: English
Original publication: Altoona: The Altoona Tribune Publishing Co, 1916
Credits: Charlene Taylor, Paul Fatula and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS ***
[Illustration: “FRANCE” HOWER (1847-1915)
His faithful dog and two bob cats from Jack’s Mountain]
(Frontispiece)
Pennsylvania Wild Cats
BY
HENRY W. SHOEMAKER
(Author of “The Pennsylvania Lion, or Panther”)
[Illustration: Small decorative divider]
_The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder._
_Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day_
_More than the wild cat.--Shakespeare._
[Illustration: Small decorative divider]
[Illustration: Union Label]
ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA
+Published by The Altoona Tribune Publishing Co.+
1916
Copyrighted: All rights reserved.
INDEX.
Chapter Pages
Preface 5
I. Introduction 6- 7
II. The Wild Cat 8-10
III. The Bob Cat, or Catamount 11-13
IV. The Big Grey Wild Cat 14-16
V. The Blue Mountain Cat 17-18
VI. Mixed Breeds 19-20
VII. Cat Hunting 21-26
VIII. Cat Hunters 27-34
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
“France” Hower (Frontispiece).
“Clem” Herlacher 9
Emmanuel Harman 12
Jesse Logan 15
“Jake” Zimmerman 23
“Phil” Wright 27
C. E. Logue 29
Sam’l Motter 31
Robert Karstetter 33
PREFACE.
After the widespread researches of S. N. Rhoads it might be said
that there is little left to write on concerning Pennsylvania wild
cats. However, there have been changes in the numbers and the
future prospects of these most persecuted animals since “Mammals of
Pennsylvania and New Jersey” appeared in 1903. In addition to offering
a brief for the protection of the lynxes, space will be devoted in the
following pages to the noble sport of cat hunting, and the bold spirits
who took a leading part in the chase in Pennsylvania, past and present.
But the main idea of this book is to obtain for the wild cats, now
on the verge of extinction, a re-hearing on the trumped-up evidence
against them--so that they may get another chance. Let us preserve this
picturesque and useful mammal for future generations.
+Henry W. Shoemaker.+
+Altoona Tribune Office, February 15, 1916.+
I. INTRODUCTION.
When, through villainous bounty laws, the existence of one of the
most useful animals in Pennsylvania is threatened, it seems high time
for a voice of protest to be raised. Immediately the question will be
asked, what is the use of the wild cat? Its values are manifold. In the
mountainous districts, where hunters are few and far between, rabbits,
unless kept in check by wild cats, would become so numerous that they
would destroy vast numbers of growing trees by eating off their bark.
As it is the aim of all good Pennsylvanians to aid in the reforestation
of the desolated areas in the State--after the forest fire menace
has been checked, the wild cat should be preserved to help along the
arboreal millennium. In the settled neighborhoods, where farmer boys
and city hunters keep rabbits killed off, there is little need for
wild cats. And the cats have the common sense to stay away from such
localities, though they have on rare occasions come near barnyards or
hen-houses. Such cats are renegades to their race and should be killed.
But the vast majority of wild cats follow out their lives hunting
rabbits, rats, mice, shrews and other vermin. They prey on the rats
and mice which destroy the eggs of game birds. They eat much carrion,
and as such are invaluable forest scavengers. They are performing
faithfully the duties for which the same God who created us made them
to do. If rabbits become scarce, wild cats decrease, just as does the
Canada Lynx of the North; bounty laws are unnecessary, wasteful and
cruel, a sop thrown by crafty politicians to keep the mountaineer vote
in line. If there were no rabbits in the mountains there would be no
wild cats. Note carefully the sections of the State where cats are
rare, all for the same cause--lack of food supply, when not wiped out
by the mercenary bounty hunters. Those who slaughter wild cats wantonly
are false to posterity, unacquainted with natural history, ignorant of
the scheme of nature. There is some excuse to hunt wild cats for the
sport, if no attempt is made to annihilate the species. It provides a
grand chase for men and dogs, gives city men a love of the open, and
when the cat escapes, furnishes fun for the cat. The wild cat is fairly
valuable as a fur-bearer; its relative, the Canada Lynx, was much more
so, but it is now totally extinct in Pennsylvania, at least the pure
race. Therefore, as an aid to sylviculture, as a means of sport, and
for its fur, the wild cat deserves protection. Its meat is considered
very good. Such men as Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Prof. E. Emmons
pronounce it most excellent. It was a favorite relish for the old
pioneers in the Pennsylvania mountains and the Indians. Another cause
for the protection of _Lynx Rufus_. And then there is the sentimental
side, which side appeals only to the few. But it is real; animals have
rights; they add to the sum total of the beauty and picturesqueness
of this world of ours. We have no right to condemn a species to
extermination that a Wise Power saw fit to create. It is presumption on
our part. Who gave us such authority?
GIVE THE WILD CATS A CHANCE.
II. THE WILD CAT.
When, as a young boy, in 1897, the writer first paid a visit to
Loganton, “the hunting capital” of Sugar Valley, Clinton County, and
was invited to inspect the barber-shop trophy room of that prince of
Pennsylvania wild cat hunters, Clem. F. Herlacher, the most noticeable
object in the collection was a long-tailed, cat-like specimen which
occupied the place of honor over the central mirror. “That is,” said
Herlacher, pointing to the trophy, “what the first settlers called a
‘wild cat’; in reality it is the cub of the panther, _felis couguar_.
The old-timers ofter ran across these huge kittens in the woods; they
were always blundering into the traps, or their dogs were killing
them, and they did resemble ‘cats,’ with their fluffy fur, broad
faces, and long tails. But gradually the truth dawned on them when
they found these ‘wild cats’ trailing along with mature pantheresses,
or smaller-sized ones were taken from panther nests on rocky ledges.
They were not wild cats at all, but half-grown or cub panthers. During
the time when our forefathers were calling the cub panthers ‘wild
cats,’ they were calling the true, stump-tailed wild cats ‘catamounts,’
making in that designation another absurd mistake. The true wild cat
is the bay lynx, whereas the catamount is really the Northern or
Canada lynx, always a rare animal in Pennsylvania, and unknown in
most of the counties except in the ‘Northern Tier.’” At the close
of this dissertation, the words of which became indelibly? impressed
on the writer’s mind, Herlacher pointed to a second stuffed animal,
on a shelf above another of the mirrors. “There,” he said, “is a true
wild cat--_Lynx Rufus_--a fine specimen; it weighed thirty-five pounds
when I killed it two years ago near ‘Captain Green’s Trench,’ in Green
Gap, down the valley. See, it has a short tail, about six inches, is
more distinctly mottled than the panther cub, its fur is shorter and
smoother.” The writer then inquired where the panther cub had been
obtained. Herlacher replied that he had on two successive years--1892
and 1893--secured panther cubs from a nest in the Panther Rocks, in
Black Wolf or Treaster Valley, Mifflin County. He had trailed the
old panthers on their regular crossing from Sugar Valley. It was in
Treaster Valley that the noble Pennsylvania lion or panther made its
last permanent abode in Pennsylvania, the cubs taken by Herlacher
being, as far as known, the last panthers born in a wild state in the
Keystone Commonwealth. As curios they were in great demand, but he
regretted not having taken them alive. The great hunter had given away
all but the one adorning the shelf above the central mirror. Later it
became moth-eaten and was thrown away. Alas! for a priceless natural
history specimen. And from the above it will be plain to the readers
of these pages that the original “wild cat” was the panther cub, the
wild cat of today is the bay lynx, the real catamount is the Canada
lynx. But the next few chapters will go into these matters more in
detail. Emmanuel Harman, of Mt. Zion, Clinton County, aged 84 years,
and many others, have regaled the writer with the story of the wild-cat
panther-cub blunder of the “pioneer naturalists.”
[Illustration: “CLEM” HERLACHER, Loganton, Clinton County,
Greatest living Pennsylvania wild cat hunter]
[Illustration: Decorative divider]
III. THE BOB CAT, OR CATAMOUNT.
C. W. Dickinson, experienced hunter and naturalist, of Smethport,
McKean County, describes the true Pennsylvania wild cat (_Lynx Rufus_),
sometimes called the Bob Cat, and erroneously called the Catamount,
as follows: “The size of the average grown wild cat is: Length from
nose to base of tail, 30 inches; tail 4 inches; weight, about 26
pounds. The longest cat I ever saw weighed tipped the scales at just
32 pounds. The wild cat only raises one litter of kittens annually,
the time they are born being the 15th or 20th of April. The number of
kits in the litter varies from two to five. The weight of a kitten at
eight months after birth will be from thirteen to seventeen pounds.
It takes them about three years to get their full growth. It is the
opinion of many of the old hunters that the cat, as well as the
panther, did not like to stay in a locality inhabited by the grey
wolf, as the wolf usually roamed about in droves or squads of from two
to ten or twelve in a pack. It seems that the cat family was deathly
afraid of the wolf family. Their fear was due to the superior numbers
of the wolf family traveling together. It was really surprising how
fast the cat family increased in this locality after the wolf became
extinct. There are three times as many wild cats in McKean County
today as there were fifty years ago, notwithstanding they have been
hunted hard since the bounty laws were enacted. Yet I do not think
there is more than one cat now to where there were three fifteen years
ago, while grouse and rabbits, both ‘snowshoe’ and ‘cottontail,’ are
also decreasing. The wild cat is a great hunter. Naturally he is a
night prowler. He is fond of ’coon, rabbit, ground-hog, all kinds of
birds that he can catch, and he can capture a mouse as quickly as a
house cat. Wild cats are handy with their paws; they have large nails,
which are as sharp as needles.” The present range of the wild cat is
practically the same as it was when S. N. Rhoads’ admirable work on
Pennsylvania and New Jersey animals appeared in 1903, which was the
entire State of Pennsylvania, except Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver,
Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer and Washington Counties in the west,
and Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties in
the east, thirteen out of sixty-seven counties, but its numbers are
now sadly diminished since Rhoads made his researches. Preying as it
does on sickly and weakly game birds, it was a tower of strength in
combatting the “grouse disease” and the “quail blight,” and also kept
in check the ravages of destructive rabbits and other small mammals.
In every district where it has been extirpated the game birds and
game animals have decreased with it, until it would look that tame or
hand-raised game will alone survive the next quarter of a century. The
folly of destroying the wolf, fox and wild cat will not be understood
until it is too late. Nature decrees all forms of life or none--except
the domesticated or semi-domesticated specimens of animals and
birds. If the present bounty law, giving $6 for every wild cat’s scalp,
is continued, few cats will be left in the State by 1921. They are
wholly absent from many localities where they were fairly numerous
five years ago. They are practically extinct in the Blue Mountains,
the Bald Eagle Mountains, and the main chain of the Alleghenies. In
Northeastern Pennsylvania a few are taken annually at Blooming Grove
Preserve, in Pike County; in Clinton County some are trapped every
year in Otzinachson Park--drawn thither by the rabbits and entrails of
deer--but these preserves will be responsible for the destruction of
all the cats in their respective localities; they will last longest in
parts of McKean, and Cameron Counties, away from settlements, in the
Seven Mountains in Centre and Mifflin Counties, and in Eastern Clinton
County, in the Zimmerman country, unless destroyed by the increasingly
frequent forest fires. There is a great diversity of coloring in
specimens of Pennsylvania wild cats. They are mostly of a cinnamon
brown color, black striped or spotted on the legs and shading into a
white or marbled on the belly. Some are of a rich chestnut brown in
color, beautifully spotted with black, while a few are of a grey-drab
in color, the black markings resembling bars rather than dots. They
usually have a white patch on the ears.
[Illustration: EMMANUEL HARMAN, born May 27, 1832
An authority on the cat family in Central Pennsylvania]
IV. THE BIG GREY WILD CAT, OR CANADA LYNX.
John G. Davis, old-time woodsman of McElhattan, Clinton County, gives
the best description of a mammoth Canada Lynx (_Lynx Canadensis_)
killed by John Pluff, at Hyner, in that County, in 1874. Pluff, who was
a noted hunter in his day, died in January, 1914, in his 74th year. One
evening when Pluff was at supper, he heard a commotion in his barnyard.
Taking down his rifle he hurried out, only to notice a shaggy animal
moving about among the feet of his young cattle. Courageously driving
the steers into the barn, he came face to face with a gigantic Canada
Lynx, or what was called, in Northern Pennsylvania, a “Big Grey Wild
Cat,” or catamount, to distinguish it from the smaller and ruddier Bay
Lynx. Taking aim at the monster’s jugular, Pluff fired, killing the big
cat with a single ball. The shot attracted the neighbors, among them
Davis, and they gazed with amazement at the giant carcass, the biggest
cat killed in those parts since Sam Snyder slew his 10-foot panther on
Young Woman’s Creek in 1858. The Canada Lynx measured four feet ten
inches from tip of nose to root of tail (the tail measured four inches)
and weighed seventy-five pounds. The next day being Thanksgiving, it
was supplemented to the turkey feast, and all enjoyed the deliciously
flavored white meat more than the conventional “Thanksgiving Bird.”
This lynx was probably a straggler from the Northern Tier, as none
of its kind have been about Hyner since. At the same time the Canada
Lynx has been killed in many parts of Pennsylvania, as far south
as the Seven Mountains and Somerset County, some claim, but never
frequently. Jesse Logan, Indian hunter, of the Cornplanter Reservation
in Warren County, who is now 107 years old, says that he cannot recall
Canada Lynxes ever having been plentiful in any part of Northern
Pennsylvania.[*] Clem Herlacher has killed a number of these animals
in Clearfield and Cameron Counties, but in widely different localities
and different dates. He describes the Canada Lynx as follows: “The two
most remarkable characters of the Canada Lynx are the beautiful pencils
of black hair which ornament the ears, and the perfect hairiness of
the soles of the feet, which have no naked spots or tubercles like
other species of the feline race. The catamount, which is the true
Pennsylvania title for this animal, is of an ashen grey in color,
with a ruff of stiff dark hair about its neck and looks ‘chuffier’
than the common wild cat; it most resembles an Old English Sheep Dog.
I know nothing of its domestic habits, though I believe it formerly
bred in some of our northern counties. Dr. Merriam says that it has
two kittens at a birth. The biggest catamount I ever killed measured,
exclusive of the tail, forty inches, the tail measured four inches,
or an inch shorter than most wild cats. Catamounts were driven into
Clinton and Mifflin Counties by forest fires from their northern range,
but never remained long. I think that the Canada Lynx is now totally
extinct in Pennsylvania. It was a fierce fighter, but I have heard of
Seneca Indians who tamed it to follow them about like dogs. Among the
Pennsylvania Dutch it was supposed to be endowed with the power to look
through opaque bodies, hence the old expression of a person with keen
sight being ‘lynx eyed.’” Rhoads records instances of catamounts taken
in Cameron, Potter, Columbia, Forest, Lackawanna, Lycoming, McKean,
Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Somerset and Tioga Counties. Jesse Harman and son
Ed., accompanied by Sam Motter, “California Sam,” a noted trapper, took
a catamount at the head of McElhattan Run, in Clinton County, early in
1903. Out of a dozen cats caught by these hunters that winter it was
the only Canada Lynx. It weighed sixty-five pounds and measured exactly
five feet from tip to tip.
[*] Jesse Logan died February 17, 1916.
[Illustration: JESSE LOGAN (1809-1916)
An Indian Hunter of Warren County who killed many wild cats]
[Illustration: Decorative divider]
V. THE BLUE MOUNTAIN CAT.
An animal so widespread in its range as the wild cat doubtless has had
many diversified types, even sub-species. Hunted for the most part
by unscientific persons, no descriptions have been kept, all have
been classed alike in the bounty records. A few years ago, while in
conversation with the venerable artist and nature-lover, C. H. Shearer,
of Reading, the subject turned to wild cats. “Are you aware,” said the
old naturalist, “that the wild cats from the Blue Mountains east to the
Delaware were vastly different from the cats found in other parts of
Pennsylvania? I am not certain of any marked difference between, say,
the cats of Potter County and those of Fulton County, except perhaps
that they reached the maximum of size in the central part of the State,
in the Seven Mountains. But in the Blue Mountains, and on Penn’s Mount,
we used to take a cat vastly different from the cats of the Juniata
country. In my opinion the Blue Mountain cat was the ‘mountain cat’
described by Loskiel. Its coloring, according to that early observer,
was ‘reddish or orange colored hair, with black streaks.’ As a boy
I used to trap many of these cats in Irish Gap and at the head of
the Schwartzbach, back of Tuckerton. These cats were short-coupled,
compact, rather short-legged, with long, wavy fur, much like the modern
pet Angoras in confirmation, except for the short tails. Ten or
fifteen pound cats were big specimens. In winter time they were pale
greyish colored, like the Canada Lynx; in summer, orange color, and
instead of being dappled were striped like tigers. When I first saw
the cats in Central Pennsylvania I was struck by the difference--the
Juniata cats were so ungainly, with higher hind legs than front legs,
they were usually so meagre looking, their noses were longer. When I
was a boy, before the Civil War, Blue Mountain cats were common in all
the hilly regions in Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon and Lehigh Counties.
I have not seen one since about 1870.” The writer at once started
on a search for the hide of a Blue Mountain cat, being rewarded by
securing a fine hide, corresponding exactly to Shearer’s descriptions.
The hide was of a mature bore cat in its winter coat, which had been
killed, according to Paul Weber, the Reading taxidermist, in the Blue
Mountains, near Millersburg, in 1864. In color it closely resembles a
Canada Lynx; its legs are very short. A large stuffed wild cat in the
bar room of the hotel at Upper Bern, Berks County, said to have been
killed in the Blue Mountains near Shartlesville in 1892, has none of
these characteristics. It is a typical Bay Lynx. William Henne, a wild
cat hunter of Strausstown, Berks County, declares that for a time both
varieties existed in the Blue Mountains.
VI. MIXED BREEDS.
Mike Sullivan, a very intelligent bar clerk at Johnsonburg, Elk County,
called the writer’s attention to the length of the tail of a mounted
cat in the hotel at that prosperous lumber town. “A great many wild cat
hides, taken in Elk, McKean, and Forest Counties are shipped to a fur
dealer in town,” said Sullivan, “and I have been struck by the length
of their tails. I put a foot rule on this one, and it measured exactly
twelve inches. That cat, I am told, weighed forty-one pounds. We have
quite a few varieties of cats in these parts. First of all, there is
the Canada Lynx, grey in color, with tabs on his ears and hair on the
soles of his feet; a big, fierce fellow, often weighing fifty pounds.
He has always been a scarce cat, even the Indians say he was never
plentiful. Secondly, there is the true wild cat, or ‘Bob’ cat, reddish
in color, mottled like a fawn, smaller than the Canadian Lynx, but
with a longer tail. Thirdly, there is the tame cat gone wild--escaped
from lumber camps and the like. Some of these grow very big, and in
one or two generations are brindled and bushy tailed. Many people
call them ‘coon cats.’ Then we have the fourth kind, the mixture,
hybrid or mongrel, whatever you call it, between the Canada Lynx and
the Wild Cat, or Bay Lynx. In my opinion, that cat on yonder shelf is
a cross between a lynx and a Bob Cat. Old hunters tell me that the
product of that cross has a longer tail than either lynx or Bob Cat--a
throw back to the type of long ago. There may also be crosses between
lynxes and Bob Cats and tame cats gone wild; it happened in the old
country, why not here?” The above observations, which have also been
advanced by C. W. Dickinson, of Smethport, have a considerable element
of common-sense to them. In deer breeding there is a tendency to throw
back to good-headed, or poor headed ancestors, as the case may be. In
South Carolina there are frequent cases of palmation in the deer, due
to some English fallow bucks liberated by planters in the Eighteenth
Century. A cross between two varieties of short-tailed lynxes might
provide a longer tailed type. In other respects the cat in the
Johnsonburg house showed an accentuation of characters. Its hind legs
were apparently twice the thickness of the front legs, and very much
longer. It was an unsymmetrical animal. Perhaps much of this was due
to faulty taxidermy, but that would not account for the length of the
tail. Its color, a darker grey than the true lynx, was almost of a drab
hue. It was darker about the head, but there were no regular spots. The
Canada Lynx early succumbed to changed conditions in his faunal zone,
the forest fire, the clearing, the drained swamp, the passing of the
northern hare, but for a time his blood will live on in the crossbreed
with the more adaptable Bay Lynx. As these long tailed cats are said
to be plentiful in the wilder sections of Northwestern Pennsylvania,
it may be that this new race will possess the power to best endure
existing conditions--though S. N. Rhoads says that such a cross would
be infertile.
VII. CAT HUNTING.
C. W. Dickinson describes cat hunting in Pennsylvania in the following
language: “Wild cats are hunted with hounds chiefly. If pursued by a
fast hound, the wild cat will either go into some rocky ledge or go
up a tree, as he can climb a tree as easily as a squirrel can. If a
hunter has a good cat dog it is quite exciting sport. I know, as I have
often been on a cat hunt. It is a sport that ought to be preserved.”
One of the very best out-door-life articles that has appeared in a
sporting magazine in recent years is J. B. Sansom’s contribution
entitled: “Cat Hunting: A Real Winter Sport,” in the January number
of “In the Open.” It describes a thrilling cat hunt in which “coon
dogs” were used on A. R. Van Tassel’s ranch in Cameron County, not
far from Sinnemahoning. The hounds, which had never previously been
used on cats, took to the sport at once, and three cats were secured
on the hunt. A. Phillips, a Lock Haven cat hunter, has used Airedale
terriers successfully, securing several fine wild cats by this means
on Scootac Run, Clinton County. William Henne, a noted cat hunter,
residing at Strausstown, Berks County, trained beagles to trail wild
cats in the Blue Mountains, when cats were plentiful in that region,
twenty years ago. One Christmas eve his dogs started a wild cat which
headed toward the mountain back of Fort Northkill. While passing along
an old lumber road a second cat leaped from a persimmon tree on the
back of the unsuspecting Nimrod. A struggle ensued, in which Henne was
badly clawed. Eventually he shook off the cat, which was killed by
the beagles, and, continuing the hunt, secured the second cat at its
den on the top of the mountain. George Potts, of Millersburg, Berks
County, hunted wild cats with fox hounds, trained especially for cat
hunting, and with considerable success for twenty years after the
close of the Civil War. Cat hunting is usually carried on when there
is a good “tracking snow.” C. E. Logue states that this winter he shot
four wild cats “ahead of his dogs” in Northern Clinton County. This
grand sport is little prosecuted in Pennsylvania, most of the cats
being trapped, a mean advantage to take of a noble game animal. Wild
cats make delicious eating. Not only the old mountaineers, but such
discerning naturalists as Dr. Merriam and Prof. Emmons have attested
to this. As a source of food supply the wild cat deserves protection.
Dr. Merriam, in this connection, says: “I have eaten the flesh of the
wild cat, and can pronounce it excellent. It is white, very tender,
and suggested veal more than any other meat with which I am familiar.”
The flesh of panthers and catamounts was also highly spoken of by the
Pennsylvania backwoodsmen. Lion’s meat was regarded as a delicacy by
the French soldiers in Algeria. The wild cat is worth hunting, as he is
a bold, courageous animal. He will fight to the last breath, and has
no fear of man or dog. Last summer Jake Zimmerman, the celebrated
guide and hunter of the “Zimmerman Country,” in Eastern Clinton County,
was followed by a wild cat four miles one night, while driving from
White Deer Hole Valley to his home in the mountains. It bounded along
by the side of his horse and wagon, every few leaps uttering a piercing
cry. Others who have been followed at night by wild cats are Lincoln
Conser and W. J. Phillips, of McElhattan, Clinton County, and Reuben
Stover and daughter, of Livonia (Stover’s), Centre County. Rev. D. A.
Sowers, of Lock Haven, met a finely spotted wild cat standing on a log
in the forest near DuBois, during the deer hunting season in 1914. As
it appeared to be unafraid the young hunter promptly ended its life
with a well-directed bullet. According to C. W. Dickinson the skin
of an average Pennsylvania wild cat (if prime) is worth about $1.25.
Finely mottled hides bring much higher prices. Mounted specimens
sell for about $10 apiece. In the form of rugs they bring from five
to eight dollars, according to size and markings. C. H. Eldon,
the gifted Williamsport taxidermist, has mounted several thousand
Pennsylvania wild cat hides during the past thirty years. The alleged
destructiveness of wild cats, at most a specious argument, is crushed
like an egg-shell by the testimony of C. E. Logue, gamekeeper at the
extensive Otzinachson Park Preserve in Northern Clinton County, the
“type locality” of the Bay Lynx in Pennsylvania. Within the enclosure
of this preserve, which embraces over three thousand acres, several
hundred deer are kept. In Mr. Logue’s experience he found only one
case where a deer had been killed by wild cats. In this instance it
was a very old deer, and may have been found dead by the cats, which
dragged it a hundred feet down a hill over the snow and devoured parts
of the carcass. Logue has never found evidence that fawns have been
molested by the cats. Fawns have no scent, hence cannot be trailed by
cats; the mother deer are well able to care for them. He classes the
wild cats as “game hogs” as regards rabbits and rats, but capable of
causing little trouble to game birds or deer. Yet the management of
this same park continues the unscientific methods of the gamekeepers
of the Middle Ages, ordering Logue to trap wild cats, foxes, and other
useful mammals incessantly. We have progress in every other branch of
human activity except game propagation, and the results show it. Dr.
Warren mentions a cat which followed a young swain in Southwestern
Pennsylvania, going home from courting his “best girl,” finally
“treeing” him on a fence, and keeping him there until daylight. “Link”
Conser, of Clinton County, had an almost similar experience during his
courting days on the ridges south of the “Sugar Valley Hill;” in his
case the cat kept crossing and recrossing the road in front of him,
sometimes lying down and purring at him. This kept up until daylight,
when the cat vanished. A. R. Sholter reports another case from Weikert,
Union County. One night, some years ago, when returning from a call,
he had occasion to walk along the tracks of the L. & T. Railroad. When
opposite Chimney Rock a cat appeared on the ties in front of him,
trotting on ahead, and sometimes crossing and recrossing the tracks or
lying down and rolling. Dr. Warren wonders if the Pennsylvania wild
cat could by any possibility be the patron saint of young lovers! In
order to show the extent of the slaughter of wild cats in the Keystone
State by professional bounty hunters, the following figures, quoted
from Dr. Warren’s statistics on the subject, may be of interest: In
Clinton County, the “cat stronghold,” in the years 1885 to 1896,
inclusive, 298 bounty claims were paid on wild cats. The largest
number in a single year was in 1891, when 91 scalps were brought in.
During the first six months of 1914, bounties were paid on the scalps
of 62 wild cats in Clinton County. In Clearfield County, during the
seven years, 1890-1896, bounties were paid on 430 cats. In February,
1916, two well-known citizens of Clearfield County killed a wild cat
at Crystal Springs, which weighed 46 pounds. It was four feet long.
In Centre County, 1885 to 1895, inclusive, bounties were paid on 252
wild cats. In Potter County, 1885 to 1896, inclusive, bounties were
paid on 264 cat scalps. During January, 1916, bounties were paid on
the scalps of 45 cats in Potter County. In Sullivan County, from 1886
to 1896, inclusive, bounties were paid on 224 cats. In Huntingdon
County, between 1886 and 1896, inclusive, bounties were paid on 127 of
these animals. In Franklin County, 1885 to 1896, inclusive, bounties
were paid on 196 cats; in Fulton County, during the same period, on 89
cats, and in Cambria County, also between 1885 and 1896, inclusive,
on 136 cats. During January, 1916, bounties were paid on 221 wild
cats in Pennsylvania. And “game,” that is, grouse, quail and rabbits,
are scarcer now than with all these cats in the woods. When it is
considered that in the eighties and nineties the bounty amounted to
only two dollars per cat, and up to 1915 four dollars at most, the
toll to be taken at the present bounty of six dollars per cat means
extermination. A rogue’s march is going on of lazy ne’er-do-wells,
idlers and thugs, going to the forests to destroy an animal that the
Creator put there for a wise purpose. The presumption of politicians
who encourage this in the face of facts is disgusting and discouraging.
The writer has no complaint against the man who hunts for food, or fur,
or for love of the chase; but he who wipes a species off the face of
the earth for a few dollars is earning tainted money and is a traitor
to all the higher instincts of his race. The large numbers of starving,
emaciated wild cats shot in the open woods and fields this winter shows
that with the scarcity of rabbits the wild cats of themselves will
vanish from the face of the earth.
[Illustration: “JAKE” ZIMMERMAN
For Years a Terror to the Bob Cats in the White Deer Creek Narrows]
VIII. CAT HUNTERS.
Hunters specializing on wild cats were never numerous, consequently
the roster of celebrated Pennsylvania cat hunters is not a long one.
Most cats, as before stated, have been taken in traps, depriving the
sport of its real zest. Except in winter time, when the country is
open, the wild cat is difficult to locate. Its coloring blends with
rocks and branches; it is quiet and unobtrusive in the extreme. Dr.
B. H. Warren, now Director of the Everhart Museum at Scranton, in his
valuable treatise, “Enemies of Poultry,” published at Harrisburg in
1897, thus describes the “favorite haunts” of the cats. These consist,
he says, of “forests, rocky ledges, briary thickets, slashings and
bark peelings strewn with decaying logs, fallen trees and brush piles,
grown up with rhododendron (buck laurel).” At night the wild cat,
like the panther, is much in evidence. A. R. Sholter, a young hunter
of Weikert, Union County, describes the nocturnal cries of wild cats
answering one another--one on Paddy’s Mountain and the other on the
White Mountain, the valley of the Karoondinha reverberating with the
savage love notes. Professor Emmons, in describing the panther, says:
“Though it will not venture to attack man, yet it will follow his track
a great distance; if it is near the evening, it frequently utters a
scream which can be heard for miles.” J. W. Zimmerman and others who
have been followed at night by wild cats report the same habit, though
the cat’s cry is much fainter than that of _felis couguar_. Friends
of Clem. Herlacher claim for him the distinction of being one of the
most famous cat hunters in Pennsylvania in present or former times.
They aver that he killed fifty Canada Lynxes, at the recital of which
record the modest Nimrod “just whittles,” taking pains to remind his
friends that he has slain half a hundred wild cats, some of them
after spirited combats. But in his hunting days in Clearfield County
he surely killed many catamounts. Ranking high in the lists of cat
hunters is Sol. Roach, who hails from Windber, Somerset County. Roach
is accredited with killing half a hundred wild cats, six of them in one
week, at the Bear Rocks, at the head of Beech Creek, in Centre County.
John P. Swope, the Huntingdon County trapper, has probably taken more
cats than any other hunter of the present day in Pennsylvania. He is
credited with having trapped at least 500 cats, sometimes thirty in one
season. C. E. Logue, in connection with his duties as gamekeeper of
Otzinadison Park in Clinton County, has trapped probably 100 wild cats,
some of them large specimens. Phil. Wright enjoys the distinction of
having killed more wild cats than any hunter in Southern Pennsylvania.
This Nimrod has taken at least 100 cats of various sizes. W. H.
Workinger has taken many cats in the Seven Mountains. This hunter,
who resides at Milroy, Mifflin County, in January, 1916, caught two
cats, one weighing sixty pounds, the smaller one thirty pounds.
The big cat measured 37-1/2 inches from nose to root of tail; the
tail measured 6-1/2 inches. “France” Hower, who was accidentally shot
in a fox-trap last summer, was a terror to the wild cats of Jack’s
Mountain. In his long career as a hunter he probably killed fifty
of these animals. George Potts, of Millersburg, Berks County, was
for years the leading cat hunter of the Blue Mountains. Between dogs
and traps and still hunts he undoubtedly killed over one hundred Bay
Lynxes and Blue Mountain Cats. Abe Simcox and his son John killed
nearly half a hundred cats along the south slope of the Sugar Valley
Hill in Clinton County. David A. Zimmerman and son Jake killed twice
that number in eastern Sugar Valley and the White Deer Narrows. Earl
Motz, “the schoolboy hunter” of Woodward, Centre County, has killed
many wild cats in the Pine Creek Hollow. E. N. Woodcock and Leroy
Lyman, noted Potter County hunters, undoubtedly killed over one hundred
wild cats apiece. Dr. W. J. McKnight, of Brookville, in his “Pioneer
Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania,” says: “The catamount
is larger than the wild cat. They have been killed in this region
six and seven feet long from nose to end of tail. They have tufts on
their ear-tips, and are often mistaken for panthers. George Smith,
a Washington Township early hunter, who resided in the wilds of Elk
County until his death in 1901, killed in this wilderness five hundred
catamounts and six hundred wild cats.” Bill Long, the “King Hunter” of
Jefferson and Clearfield Counties, who died in 1880, is mentioned by
Dr. McKnight as having killed in Pennsylvania five hundred catamounts
and two hundred wild cats. His son, Jack Long, who died at his home,
two miles from DuBois in 1900, killed, according to a statement made
by him to Dr. McKnight, “wild cats and catamounts without number.”
E. H. Dickinson, pioneer hunter of McKean County, killed a number of
Canada Lynxes, or catamounts, during his early days in the Northern
Pennsylvania wilderness. He died in 1885, aged 75 years. With his
son, C. W. Dickinson, he helped kill his last catamount in November,
1867. In commenting upon the Canada Lynx, Dickinson is quoted thus by
S. N. Rhoads: “We have a cat in McKean County yet that is called a
lynx, because of its size and color. Some of them will weigh as high
as forty-four pounds. But they are a darker grey than the lynx. I
believe they are a cross between the lynx and the common wild cat.”
The true lynx is a silent animal, not given to whining or screaming
like the wild cat, except when badly wounded. Rhoads states that the
early Swedish settlers on the Delaware called the lynx the “Warglo,”
or wolf-lynx, and the wild cat the “Kattlo,” or cat lynx. Among the
Pennsylvania Germans the lynx was called the “Harsh Katz,” and the wild
cat the “Wild Katz.” The French in Clearfield County, in the Loup Run
Country, now corrupted into “Loop” Run, who came mostly from Picardy,
called the lynx or catamount the _Chet Cervier_ and the wild cat the
_Chet Savage_. No list of Pennsylvania cat hunters would be complete
without a mention of Sam Motter, better known as “California Sam.” He
was left a fortune by an uncle who went to California in 1849. Sam
Motter’s specialty, as long as the supply of cats lasted on the head
of McElhattan Run, in Clinton County, was catching these animals alive
with his bare hands. His dogs would trail the cats to their dens, where
Motter would dig them out, and with deft movements seize them by the
throats. He sold the cats at good prices to zoos, shows, hotels and
fanciers. Robert Karstetter, of Loganton, Clinton County, often used
his coon dogs to trail wild cats with considerable success. Dan Long,
who killed the last wolf in Berks County, in Shubert’s Gap in 1886,
killed many wild cats and Blue Mountain cats during his eventful career
as a hunter. In the county records of Berks County, _Lynx Rufus_ is
classed as a “catamount,” and the Blue Mountain cat as “wild cat.”
During the years 1885-1893, inclusive, bounties were paid on thirty
catamounts and wild cats in Berks County. Of these eleven were classed
as “catamounts,” the heavy type of Bay Lynx. The Canada Lynx has not
been observed in Berks County for many years. The Seneca Indian doctors
used the fat, blood and excrement of wild cats as a cure for divers
maladies of mankind, including baldness, gout, the falling sickness and
shrunken sinews. They recommended coats and leggings of cat fur (worn
fur inward) for various aches and pains in bones and joints. Wild cats
will breed in captivity if given a large enclosure, but kill their
young if they are born in close confinement. A “breeding cage” should
contain running water, trees to climb on, and much dense foliage. It
should be wired, of course, on top, to prevent the agile animals from
climbing out. Wild cats in captivity prefer as food the entrails of
animals and fowls, chicken heads, cow and horse heads, fish heads,
berries, potatoes, grass, bugs and grubs, but be sure that they get
plenty of fresh water. They often become friendly and playful, and will
have as much enjoyment out of a ball of catnip as a tame “tabby.”
“California Sam” gives these quaint views concerning the Pennsylvania
wild cat:
“It appeared to me an opportune time to write a few lines on the wild
cat to clear up in the minds of the younger generation some of the
stories that have been told to me when but a boy, some hair-raising
tales of the monster ‘catamount,’ ‘wild cat,’ ‘bob cat.’
“Now let me say I live in the southeastern part of Clinton County,
Pennsylvania, and in my fifty years of travels in the forest, so well
I became acquainted with the cat that I could communicate with an old
bore cat. This is what he once told me: ‘My mate met with a sad failure
when she jumped in Sam Motter’s face. Although Motter is only a small
man, my spirits dropped out of my long legs when I saw the ease with
which he handled his 80-pound pack, and it occurred to me that my
little 25 pounds of nerve and sinew would count little in case of any
serious trouble with Mr. Motter. I therefore got out of his way. I
wish to say to the younger sportsmen that my breed of cats do not
attack men under any circumstances when we can get away. In fact, we
do not like men at all, and I have heard old hunters say, when talking
over their campfire, that as many years as they had been in the hills
they never had seen a mean, quarrelsome cat, and they wondered where
they kept themselves. We wild cats have no special range, but come
from the highest peaks to the lowest bottoms in the day time and sleep
in some dense thicket or in some cave or under some rock where the
sun does not penetrate. As cool dusk comes on we prowl softly about,
looking for lazy snowshoe rabbits or some grouse or field mice. Many
an unsuspecting brood or aged drumming cock have I devoured as the
light grew dim in the spring evening. It is very amusing to sit and
watch an old cock grouse, as he swells and walks along his log. And
when he has his thoughts full of his sweetheart and begins to drum, I
just make three jumps and then with one stroke I crush the life and
conceit out of him. Of course squirrels, small birds and even fish are
all acceptable when they are foolish enough to come my way. I am also
very fond of the remains of deer or other dead animals when killed by
hunters. When I am angry I don’t stand with my ears pitched forward
like a horse, neither do I show my teeth and growl. When I get mad I
lay my ears well back, just as any other cat does, and the madder I
get the lower I lay them, producing a snaky expression. In order to
get any large and satisfactory photos of me you must either tree me or
catch me in a trap.’
“So I will close my quotation. Oh, how dear to my heart is my old
hunting coat, my old shooting coat that has worn me so well, for weeks
at a time in all kinds of weather, and if it could talk, many’s the
tale it would tell!”
* * * * *
_GIVE THE WILD CATS A CHANCE._
[Illustration: PHIL WRIGHT (At Extreme Right)
Premier Cat Hunter of Southern Pennsylvania]
[Illustration: C. E. LOGUE
The mighty cat hunter of the Sinnemahoning]
[Illustration: SAM’L MOTTER, Mt. Zion, Clinton County,
Better known as “California Sam”
Famed for catching wild cats alive with his bare hands]
[Illustration: ROBERT KARSTETTER,
A Veteran Clinton County Cat Hunter]
[Illustration: Decorative divider]
Transcriber’s Notes
Plates (photos) have been moved to the ends of chapters.
Inconsistent hyphenation of terms has been retained.
Changed “＝” to “-” in “(1847-1915)” in the Frontispiece caption
Added Preface to the Index (Table of Contents)
Changed “Homer” to “Hower” in the Index to Illustrations
p. 9 changed “indellibly” to “indelibly”
p. 12 changed double quotes to single quotes around ‘snowshoe’ and
‘cottontail,’
p. 22 changed “wtih” to “with” in “with considerable success”
p. 31 changed “Countw” to “County” in “Berks County for many years”
p. 34 added opening double quote before “So I will close my
quotation.”
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