Pennsylvania wild cats

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BY

HENRY W. SHOEMAKER

(Author of The Pennsylvania Lion, or Panther)

ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA

PUBLISHED BY THE ALTOONA TRIBUNE PUBLISHING Co.
1916

Copyrighted : All rights reserved.

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‘*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’’)

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The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder.
Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
More than the wild cat.— Shakespeare.

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ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA
PUBLISHED BY THE ALTOONA TRIBUNE PUBLISHING Co.
1916

Copyrighted : All rights reserved.

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INDEX.
Chapter Pages
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Il. Lites WW tl cL Coats i, =, ork op tonnes reretormnts Cas ang 8-10
Lae The Bob Cat, or Catamount.......2..- 11-13
TV. The Big Grey Wild Cat..2<...<....; 14-16
V. The asliaes NLoumtain Cate... sy oss ai 17-18
WET: Wircede wired S © . ian wotaslaceess s+. 8's'=%s musts 19-20
WLR Gay lak ii ohh ch aii mania reer Cth teks eee 21-26
Re teem Gort” SEP REGS ys fo Spee coo Ble sont's asso sesele > 27-344

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page
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PREFACE.

FTER 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 pros-
pects of these most persecuted animals since ‘“Mam-
mals 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 Penn-
sylvania, 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.

HEN, through villainous bounty laws, the exist-
ence of one of the most useful animals in Penn-
sylvania 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 pre-
served 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 per-
forming 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

6

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 In-
dians. 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.
7

Il. THE WILD CAT.

HEN, as a young boy, in 189%, the writer first
W 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 Her-
lacher, pointing to the trophy, “what the first settlers
called a ‘wild cat’; in reality it is the cub of the pan-
ther, 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 fore-
fathers were calling the cub panthers ‘wild cats,’ they
were calling the true, stump-tailed wild cats ‘cata-
mounts, 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.’ ”

8

““CLEM”’ HERLACHER, Loganton, Clinton County,
Greatest living Pennsylvania wild cat hunter

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. Pee

At the close of this dissertation, the words of which
became indellibly impressed on the writer’s mind, Her-
lacher 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 Pennsylva-
nia, 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

10 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

into these matters more in detail. Emmanuel Har-
man, 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 nat-
uralists.”’

Il. THE BOB CAT, OR CATAMOUNT.

W. DICKINSON, experienced hunter and nat-

e uralist, of Smethport, McKean County, describes
the true Pennsylvania wild cat (Lynx Rufus), some-
times 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 sev-
enteen 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 panthe, 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 surpris-
ing 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

11

12 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS

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 $. 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 coun-
ties, 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 ev-
ery 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 speci-

EMMANUEL HARMAN, born May 27, 1832
An authority on the cat family in Central Pennsylvania

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PENNSYLVANIA WILD GATS. 13

mens 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 Coun-
ties, 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 Pennsyl-
vania 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.

IV. THE BIG GREY WILD CAT, OR CANADA
LYNX.

OHN G. DAVIS, old-time woodsman of McElhat-
J tan, Clinton County, gives the best description of
a mammoth Canada Lynx (Lynv Canadensis) killed
by John Pluff, at Hyner, in that County, in 1874.
Pluff, who was a noted hunter in his day, died in Jan-
uary, 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 neigh-
bors, among them Davis, and they gazed with amaze-
ment 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 Thanksgiv-
ing, it was supplemented to the turkey feast, and all
enjoyed the deliciously flavored white meat more than

14

JESSE LOGAN (1809—1916)
An Indian Hunter of Warren County who killed many wild cats

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 15

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 Courity, some claim, but never frequent-
ly. 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 Pennsyl-
vania.* Clem Herlacher has killed a number of these
animals in Clearfield and Cameron Counties, but in
widely different localities and different dates. He de-
scribes the Canada Lynx as follows: “The two most
remarkable characters of the Canada Lynx are tie
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 spe-
cies 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 for-
merly 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

*Jesse Logan died February 17, 1916.

16 PENNSYLVANIA WILD GATS.

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 sup-
posed 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 cat-
amount 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.

V. THE BLUE MOUNTAIN CAT.

N 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 Moun-
tains 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 Moun-
tains. 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, ex-

aly

18 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

cept 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 Penn-
sylvania 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 re-
gions in Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon and Lehigh Coun-
ties. 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 Coun-
ty, declares that for a time both varieties existed in
the Blue Mountains.

VI. MIXED BREEDS.

IKE SULLIVAN, a very intelligent bar clerk at
Johnsonburg, Elk County, called the writer’s at-
tention 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 weigh-
ing 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 gen-
erations 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

19

20 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

and Bob Cats and tame cats gone wild; it happened in
the old country, why not here?” ‘The above observa-
tions, which have also been advanced by C. W. Dickin-
son, 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 ani-
mal. Perhaps much of this was due to faulty taxi-
dermy, 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 North-
western 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.

Vil. CAT HUNTING.

W. DICKINSON describes cat hunting in Penn-

e sylvania 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 Cam-
eron 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 sev-
eral fine wild cats by this means on Scootac Run, Clin-
ton County. William Henne, a noted cat hunter, re-
siding 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

21

22 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

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 Coun-
ty, hunted wild cats with fox hounds, trained especially
for cat hunting, and wtih 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 moun-
taineers, but such discerning naturalists as Dr. Mer-
riam and Prof. Emmons have attested to this. As
a source of food supply the wild cat deserves protec-
tion. 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 wili fight to the last
breath, and has no fear of man or dog. Last summer

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ee ad en

““JAKE’’ ZIMMERMAN
For Years a Terror to the Bob Cats in the White Deer Creek Narrows

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 23

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
Iivonia (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 destructive-
ness 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 local-
ity” 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.

24 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

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. Ffawns 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 caus-
ing little trouble to game birds or deer. Yet the man-
agement of this same park continues the unscientific
methods of the gamekeepers of the Middle Ages,
ordering Logue to trap wild cats, foxes, and other use-
ful mammals incessantly. We have progress in every
other branch of human activity except game propaga-
tion, 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 van-
ished. 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 oppo-

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 25

site Chimney Rock a cat appeared on the ties in
front of him, trotting on ahead, and sometimes cross-
ing and recrossing the tracks or lying down and roll-
ing. 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 in-
terest: 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, be-
tween 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

26 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

in Cambria County, also between 1885 and 1896, in-
clusive, on 136 cats. During January, 1916, boun-
ties were paid on 221 wild cats in Pennsylva-
nia. And “game,” that is, grouse, quail and rab-
bits, 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. ‘lhe presumption of politicians
who encourage this in the face of facts is disgusting
and discouraging. ‘lhe 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.

BIUBAJASUUDG UJ2Y}NOS jO Jo}UNY yeQ salwosg
(14Hly 9wasXs ty) LHOIMM TIHd

Vill. CAT HUNTERS.

|; eae 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 1s 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 “for-
ests, 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 de-
scribing 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

27

28 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

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 whit-
tles,” 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 Hunt-
ingdon County trapper, has probably taken more cats
than any other hunter of the present day in Pennsylva-
nia. He is credited with having trapped at least 500
cats, sometimes thirty in one season. C. IX. Logue, in
connection with his duties as gamekeeper of Otzin-
adison 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

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C. E. LOGUE
The mighty cat hunter of the Sinnemahoning

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. 29

weighing sixty pounds, the smaller one thirty pounds.
The big cat measured 3714 inches from nose to root of
tail; the tail measured 614 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 lcng 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 His-
tory of Northwestern Pennsylvania,” says: ‘The cata-
mount 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

30 PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

Jefferson and Clearfield Counties, who died in 1880, is
mentioned by Dr. McKnight as having killed in Penn-
sylvania 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.” EF. 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 1s
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 Ger-
mans 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 hunt-

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at

SAM’L MOTTER, Mt. Zion, Clinton County,
Better known as ‘‘California Sam’’
Famed for catching wild cats alive with his bare hands

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. } 26 Us

ers 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 McEIhattan 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 Ikarstetter, 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 cata-
mounts 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 ob-
served in Berks Countw for many years. ‘I'he 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 leg-
gings 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

39 fre PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS.

young if they are born in close confinement. A “breed-
ing 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 cat-
nip as a tame “tabby.”

“California Sam’ gives these quaint views concern-
ing the Pennsylvania wild cat:

“Tt 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

ROBERT KARSTETTER,
A Veteran Clinton County Cat Hunter

PENNSYLVANIA WILD CATS. pe . 33

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 drum-
ming 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.

FV Weta okie oh Sh PENNSLYLVANIA WILD CATS.
In order to get any large and satisfactory photos of me
you must either tree me or catch mein 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 CAINS ATCHANCE