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]