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]