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]