244 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March jd, igoi. 
all three cubs. Now, why did not those four hungry 
cougars tackle me when they had every chance in the 
world? And this is only one of many like instances. 
Is there a case on record of a grown man having been 
killed by a panther? A panther is no bigger and no 
stronger than a man, and what is there to be afraid of? 
1 have killed several by cracking them over the head 
with a six-shooter, and one blow did the business. An 
active man with a club, a knife or even a stone in his 
list can kill any panther or wolf that ever walked. One 
heavy blow on the head, one dp with the knife, and the 
job is done. I had a cougar hook his claws into my hand 
once, and not having any weapon I kicked all his ribs loose 
and made him let ,go. If the man told of by j^our corre- 
spondent, who was a captain in rank, had gathered him 
a club and gone after that panther he would not have 
been followed any more that ni.ght. 
Now as to the men who heard the wolves howl and 
thought the horse saved them. Wolves like horse flesh, 
they often follow people, and they are very fond of howl- 
ing. If a pack of wolves were hungrj' they would follow 
a horse and woiild howl like blazes. If they saw that a 
man was with the horse, the}^ would howl some more, but 
they would not think of taking hold of that horse as long 
as a man was along. If the horse was alone it would 
probably be good-by horse. 
When a wolf is hungry and lean it is a pretty fast 
animal. It takes a good fast greyhound to outrun a wolf 
in that condition, though when a wolf is fat and gorged 
with food a good horse can beat one. When the men 
with the fleet horse ran away the wolves naturally fol- 
lowed in the hope that the men would climb a tree or 
otherwise desert the horse, and according to wolf nature 
when hunting in packs they howled. If they had wanted 
to catch the horse it is very likely that they could have 
done so, because a hungry wolf can outrun a horse in 
harness. 
Whenever anyone brings forward an undoubted case 
of a man in America being killed b.y either wolf or pan- 
ther, I will believe that they will make an unprovoked 
attack on man, not before. 
The truth of the matter is, our forefathers came to this 
country loaded up with all the old world tales of wolves 
and were-wolvcs, and finding in the panther a sly, blood- 
thirsty beast and a great killer of game and stock, they 
at once concluded that the beast was a man-killer also. 
And so the fireside tales, without any real foundation 
in fact, went down from generation to generation, until 
the bloodthirsty wolf and ferocious panther are so firmly 
implanted in American folk-lore that they can never be 
eradicated. 
And all this in face of the fact that there is not on 
record the death of a man by either one. 
My people have fought Indians and wild animals on 
the frontier for a hundred and fifty j^ears, and in all the 
family tales there is not one that even indicates that 
either wolf or panther is to be feared. Now let us hear 
from the other side. Wm. Wells. 
Wells, Wyo. 
Monroe, Neb., March 13. — One day, while marching 
in the Big Horn country, in 1865, one of our scouts 
jumped of? his horse and ran into some chokecherry 
bushes to get some of the cherries. He disappeared in the 
bushes, but almost immediately reappeared, running, 
with a big grizzly after him. 
He came out of the brush on the edge of a steep 
cafion, and just then the bear overtook him and made a 
stroke at him with her paw. She caught the Indian on 
the side of his head and took his ear off as clean as you 
could cut it with a knife. 
Both bear and Indian disappeared over the bank into 
the cafion, and by the time we got to the edge of the 
cafion the bear was climbing up the opposite side and 
the Indian was lying at the bottom insensible, with the 
muscles all torn out of one arm. He got well, but was 
minus one ear and had a badly crippled arm. 
He said the bear was about 40 feet from him when he 
first saw it, and it immediately charged him without any 
provocation. 
We- killed the bear before it got out of the cafion. It 
was a large female, and I think the editor of Forest and 
Stream has seen the skin in my brother's (Maj. Frank 
North) house. L. H. North. 
A Singing Mottse* 
Elverson, Pa. — Editor Forest and Stream: For more 
than a month we have had a sing'ng mouse with us. Our 
house is an old-fashioned stone building 108 years old, and 
is not drummed, although it is, of course, plastered and 
papered within. It has, however, the common wash- 
board in all the rooms. Behind the washboard in the 
north wall of the library lives our singing mouse. He 
sings only at night and at rare intervals. This even- 
ing while I was reading, one of the ladies called my atten- 
tion to him. I am rather deaf, but easily heard the mouse 
at least 10 feet away. Then several of us collected around 
the place and the little fellow seemed to realize his 
audience, for he gave us a selection of beautiful songs with 
all manner of trills imaginable. Once by keeping my eyes 
on the musical spot in the wall where there was a slight 
opening between the washboard and paper. I got a bare 
glimpse of him. Even then, when he was again out of 
sight, the song kept up. A door was opened and we 
walked around, but our fearless songster kept it tip for 
some minutes longer. Octavius Bull. 
There is a well attested story about Daniel Webster 
and a Marshfield farmer. Mr. Webster was out shoot- 
ing, and in his rambles came to a deep creek. Seeing a 
skiff moored to a stake and the farmer cutting salt hay 
near by, he begged to be paddled across. The farmer 
dropped his scythe, unhitched the skif? and took Mr. 
Webster over, and then, after declining a proffer of pay- 
ment, lingered a moment to hold this dialogue: "This is 
Daniel Webster, I believe." "That is my name," Mr. 
Webster replied. "Well," said the farmer, "it seems to 
me that if T could earn my living by pleading cases up 
in Boston I wouldn't be trying to get it by wading 
through these marshes in hot weather shooting little 
birds." _ 
Ducks Breeding in New York. 
Penn Yan, N. Y., March 23. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have read with interest the articles lately 
printed in Forest and Stream on the breeding of ducks 
in the United States, and have thought that it might be 
of interest to relate a little incident that I observed while 
on a, trout fishing trip to the North Woods last season — 
1900. I think it was the 20th day of June that I was 
fishing down the Jordan River, a very narrow and 
tortuous stream that empties into the Raquette, at the 
head of the Upper Hollywood Stillwater. I was fishing 
from a canoe, as it is impossible, except in a very few 
places, to fish from the shore or wade. The veteran Norm 
La Roe was paddling me. 
We had dropped down the river quite a distance, when, 
rounding a bend, we ran on a brood of duck quite close to 
us. Away they went, skittering down stream, and we 
saw no more of them till we had drifted down perhaps a 
half-mile further, when we came on them again. This 
time they did not act nearly so shy, and only went down 
stream a short distance and dropped in a little cove where 
a stream from a spring opened in the river. The river at 
that point was not six yards wide. 
Paddling as close as we could to the opposite shore, we 
kept as motionless as possible till we were nearly oppo- 
site them, when Norm held the canoe stationary, and we 
watched them for several minutes. It was a flock of red- 
heads, the little ones on\y a little larger than a robin. 
There were thirteen of them. I counted them over two 
or three times to be sure. They scarcely acted more 
shy than domestic ducks, and were the cunningest little 
things I ever saw. 
To me it was worth the trip there to see them. They 
woidd dive, splash the water and play just like their tame 
relatives, while we were but little more than a rod from 
them. Oh, for a kodak I but none was at hand. It was a 
beautiful sight and one that I shall not soon forget. 
E. P. S. 
Syracuse, N. Y., March 1%.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have interviewed a sportsman of my acquaintance on 
, the subject of ducks breeding in this State. When I 
told him that there was a question as to whether they 
did breed in this State, he said, "Mallards, black duck, 
teal and all that class of birds used to breed on the west 
side of Onondaga Lake until a few years ago, when they 
had to clear out on account of the advance of the city. 
One day last spring when I was out snipe shooting west of 
this city a big mallard flew up from under a bush, and 
before I thought I let drive and dropped her. When I 
went to pick her up I saw that under the bush there was a 
nest with three eggs in it. In a tree near my cottage on 
Lake Ontario a wood duck has bred for several 5'ears, and 
tirrie and again I have seen these little wild ducks all cov- 
ered with yellow down out around the islands, where no 
one disturbs them. 
"If Long Island wants spring duck shooting, let her 
have it, but we want a law for the inland part of the State 
to stop this spring duck shooting. I am decidedly of 
the opinion that if the ducks are let alone they will breed 
here in numbers and we will have an increase in the fall. 
This everlasting banging is enough to drive anything to 
the North Pole." 
The gentleman who told me this is well known in this 
vicinity, and anything that he savs mav be accepted as 
the truth. J W. 11. F. 
A Thrilling Experience. 
State College, Pa., March 11. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: During the past three weeks the press of this 
State has been giving prominence to the follow'ng hair- 
raising story, with apparently no attempt to discover the 
truth : 
Man has Thrilling Fight with Wildcat. — Belle- 
fonte, Pa., Feb. 10. — O. H. Holmes, a young man of 
State College, had a thrilling experience with a wildcat 
recently, and it was only after a terrific fight that he suc- 
ceeded in getting the better of the animal. Holmes was 
attacked by the animal when he had nothing to defend 
himself with and was badly bitten before he could secure 
a club. Homes' flesh was badly lacerated, and when 
speaking about the aflfair he said that he thought for a time 
that he was done for. Pie is just now recovering from 
the effects of his encounter. — Philadelphia Inquirer, 
P'eb. 20. 
With the above was published a photograph of O. H. 
Homles, of this place, and of a man holding a gun and 
of an animal in crouching attitude, wh'ch was doubtless 
intended to convey to the mind of a reader the impression 
of a wildcat, but as it more resembles a common raccoon 
than a wildcat, we must conclude that either it was with 
a coon with which Holmes had his "terrific fight" or that 
the "newspaper artist" had never seen a wildcat, and to 
him "all coons look alike." 
It is the serious duty of all persons who are in position 
to learn the truth in such circumstances to do what they 
can to prevent such travesties on nature from going un- 
challenged before the public. While naturalists are ear- 
nestly striving to establish the truth concerning our native 
animals, such published falsehoods as the above will do 
much toward tearing down the work of years of careful 
study and keeping us in the realm of darkness, superstition 
and unnecessary fears. 
As the undersigned lives at State College and has as- 
certained the facts of the above occurrence, he feels it his 
duty to make them known in order that nervous women 
and timid children may not be afraid to go abroad in our 
woods and fields and enjoy their beauties with the "sense 
of ftill security, whether it be by day or by night. 
The morning after this bloody (?) encounter Mr. 
Plolmes came to the museum of the Pennsylvania State 
College to have his wildcat mounted. He appeared as 
"calm as a May morning " with no evidences of nervous 
prostration and not a scratch upon his body. The element 
of truth in the yarn from which the cloth was fabricated is 
as follows: 
On Feb. t6 Mr. Holmes was hunting, and although 
that looks sttspicious in this State, as it is "out of season" 
for all kinds of "game." he was "only after foxes and 
wildcats, of course." He related the occurrence: "I was 
hunting foxes, and my dogs treed something in a brush 
pile. They went in under the brush from opposite sides 
and soon commenced to fight some animal, I laid my gun 
down in tbe snow and got dowii on ray hands and kees to 
see what was going on. One of the dogs had a wildcat 
by the back and was shakings it. As I was there in the 
stooping position he threw it with force and it happened 
that it struck me in the breast. As its back was broken 
and it could not use its hind legs, and as 1 d d not have 
time to pick up my gun, I grabbed it by the back of the 
neck and pressed it down in the snow and choked it to 
death." 
The writer identified the animal as a fine specimen of 
the American wildcat (Lynx rufus) , which is really not 
very rare in central Pennsylvania. There have been many 
instances reported of this animal attacking mankind, but 
we have never seen it possible to find one authenticated, 
andwe do not believe there is onetrue case on record where 
either the wildcat or the lynx has attacked man, woman 
or child, either in self-defense or through extreme hunger. 
It is a shy retiring animal, and we recently saw one flee 
away with all possible speed the moment it sighted a 
person, even at some distance. 
There is quite a difference between strangling a 
wounded and consequently defenseless animal and being 
attacked and forced into an open-handed encounter with 
a bloodthirsty brute. We hope readers of this article will 
help circulate the truth about similar misstatements con- 
cerning our harmless animals — as are nearly all of those 
Avhich are left in America. 
H. A. Surface, 
Professor of Zoology, the Pennsylvania State College. 
— — <$> — 
Profjrietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
tliem in Forest and Stream. 
An Adirondack Deer Hunt. 
It was on the afternoon of Nov. 6, 1900, that a party 
of hunters, answering to the names of Ted, Fred, George, 
Frank and the writer — five of us — packed up our camp 
tackle, consisting of tents, sheet iron stoves, blankets and 
eatables, such as bacon, beans, potatoes, onions, coffee, 
milk and a dozen loaves of bread, and boarding a train on 
the Auburn branch of the New York Central R. R., started 
for a week's hunt among the deer of the Adirondacks. 
At 4 o'clock in the moi-ning of the next day we reached 
our destination, a point on the Adirondack division of 
the New York Central R. R., about ninety miles north 
of LUica. Arriving there in a cold drizzling rain storm, 
securing a hand car. we pttshed our baggage up the track 
about a mile, and at once proceeded to put up our tents 
and make our camp comfortable for the week's stay. As 
soon as the camp was completed we partook of a good 
breakfast of fried bacon, potatoes and hot coffee, then 
we were ready for hunting. 
Ted, Frank, George and the writer were all armed with 
Winchester rifles, model '92, .44-40, weight 6^ pounds. 
Fred carried a Savage .30-30 of about 8 pounds. Ted, 
Frank and George had never hunted deer before, nor had 
they ever seen deer running in the woods. Fred and the 
writer had hunted deer for several years in Michigan, 
Pennsylvania and New York State, and we considered 
"ourselves fairly successful as deer hunters. So much for 
the personnel of our party. We employed no guides. 
Each man carried a good compass, and no trouble was 
experienced by getting lost. 
It was about 10 o'clock in the forenoon of Nov. 7 when 
we struck out in the woods for game, each man taking 
the direction wh'ch he fancied was the best, and hunting 
from a mile to five miles from camp. The first day all the 
party saw from one to three deer, each getting running 
shots at them. The writer succeeded in wounding two 
deer, but failed to get them, as it came on to rain hard 
soon after we got in the woods. I am satisfied that these 
two deer were shot too far back, so as to fail of striking 
a vital place, but the shots were difficult, and it would 
have been better that I had not taken them. So the 
day ended in a cold driving rain storm, with no deer 
taken. 
A good hot supper was eaten and then when the pipes 
were filled we settled down to the hunter's happy hour, 
and then filling our stoves up full of wood and wrapping 
ourselves in our blankets, we fell into such sleep as only 
the hunter knows about. 
The next day was a bad day in the woods. Fred killed 
a young buck — saw him as he got up otit of his bed and 
put a .30-30 through his neck, which was instant death. 
No other deer was seen by the party that day. 
The morning of the 9th found it snowing hard, and it 
continued to snow all day. Nothing seen. 
The loth George shot a fine yearling buck — his first 
deer. He saw him standing in a clump of bushes. Got 
him through the neck. 
The nth nothing was done. 
The I2th was cold and clear, and found us in !he 
woods at daylight. Frank got a nice young buck this 
day. which was his first deer. Several others were seen 
by the party and a few shots were fired, but without re- 
sults. 
The 13th was cold — 9 degrees below zero. This was 
Ted's day. He secured a large doe, which was his first 
deer. 
The writer also crawled up on to two deer lying down. 
They were about three rods away when seen. Killed 
one and the other was away before I could get a shot at 
him, it being in a very thick swamp where the deer were, 
All the party sighted game that day. 
The T4th and last day of our hunt opened cold and 
clear. George got a standing shot at a doe and killed her 
instantly, The writer started a buck, which he did not 
see until the deer was twenty rods away. He put in a 
couple of shots in quick succession, one of them shntterinsc 
the hind leg at the gambel joint. It was 9:30 when the 
deer wa^ wounded, and I put the final '^hot into him at 
11:30. This proved to be an eight-prong buck, weight 175 
pounds. Fred got a stand-ng shot at a doe this day, but 
made a clean mi^s, and so ended our hunt for the fall 
of 1900. this having proved one of the most enjoyable 
and successful hunts that the writer ever took part in. 
It is needless to say that all parties voted to make our 
next hunt on the same grounds in the fall of 1901. 
Ezra G. Smith, 
1 
