Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-21
CAPTURING WILDCATS.
IT TOOK TIME AND PATIENCE, BUT
HE HAD PLENTY OF BOTH.
Amasa Mncomber Wanted to See What a
Wildcats Kittens Looked Like-He Set
Trap and Caught the Mother. and the
boy Discovered the Young Ones.

Trap and Caught the Mother, and the
BOY Discovered the Young Ones.
Amasa Macomber got glimpse of big
she wildcat in the woods on the south side Of
Shiny mountain, in Spring Brook township
He saw she Vas going to give birth to kittens
before long, and he resolved to locate her hid
ing place and find her litter of young ones if
it were possible. Macomber is an old Spring
Brook woodslnan, but he had never seen a
wildcat under the size of a half grown one,
and he desired to find out how wildcats
kittens looked when they were real small A
few days after that Macomber went to the
dark ravine again, secreted himself in a
clump of bushes near little stream, kept
perfectly still and watched for the wildcat to
make her appearance.
PATIENCE ON A LOG.
Macomber is an inveterate smoker, but he
put out his pipe before he got to the woods,
and for four long hours he sat there watch
ing Tor the wildcat to show herself, not dar-
ing to light up for fear of attracting the ami
mails attention.
When he had about made up his mind to
fill his Pipe and start for home he had the
good luck to get sight of the object of his
search. She was creeping stealthily from the
hillside toward the rivulet, only few yards
from where Macomber was concealed, and
her movements showed that she was bent on
catching something. Within few feet of
the brook the wildcat stopped, and for five or
six minutes she sat perfectly still. Then she
made spring, and when she turned Macon
ber saw that she had mole and several
spears of dry grass in her mouth. AS she
cantered up the hillside with her prey Ma
ccmber took note of the direction She went,
and he also noticed that she hadn't had her
kittens yet
A week afterward Macomber watched for
again in the same spot He sat in the clump
of bushes for three OF four hours without get
ting sight of her, but Oh the following day he
saw her mousing near the brook. She caught
something and bounded away with it, and
Macomber saw that she went in the same
direction By that time the wildcat had q
nest OF kittens somewhere in the woods, and
Macomber began to lay his plans to find out
how those kittens looked He might have
killed their mother when he saw her mousing
there, but he said he didn't want to do it, be-
cause her little ones would starve to death in
case he couldn't find the nest aftel. he had
killed the old wildcat.
So Macomber said he concluded to try to
catch her in G. box trap. 1t wouldn't hurt
her any to be caught i'll that way, and if he
caught her he could hunt around in the woods
for her nest without fearing to be tackled by
her. Ii he found her kittens he was going to
take them homo with him and her, too; but
it he didn't succeed i'll hunting up her nest,
he was going to let the old cat loose, and be
prepared to slay her it she pitched on him
THE BOY WAS A MASCOT
On the following day Macomber and his
oldest son, Archer, took a box trap into the
woods, baited itwith a piece of chicken and 4,
house mouse, and set it near the spot where
the wildcat had caught the mole Both Of
them went to the ravine the next morning to
look at the trap. Before they had got in
sight of it they heard wildcat yowling and
screaming further up Che ravine, and they
hurried on, feeling satisfied that the mother
wildcat had stumbled into the trap during
the night. Macomber said he was a little
taken back and Il bit provoked when he
looked through the iron rods on top of the
trap, for, instead Of finding the she cat inside,
big buck wildcat had his back bumped up
against the rods, and was snarling and spit
ting and scratching to get out. Macomber
said he knocked the male wildcat in the head,
hauled him out, and reset the trap with the
same bait, as the buck wildcat had not dis
turbed it.
Each morning Macomber and his son went
up to the ravine, but they didn't find the trap
sprung until the fourth day. 1t then had
screaming she wildcat in it, and Macomber
and Archer let her scream and began to
search for her nest. They looked into every
hollow log around there, as well as into every
cozy spot that was shielded from the weather,
and slowly worked their way up the hillside
toward the spot where Macomber had seen
the wildcat disappear in the bushes with the
mole. For two hours the father and son
searched, the trapped wildcat keeping up
constant yelling all the time Then they sat
down OIL fallen tree to rest, and Macomber
was telling hisson that he guessed they would
have to give up, when the sharp ears of the
boy heard faint noise near the roots Of the
tree.
Archer went to passing around without
saying anything to his father about what he
had heard, and underneath the butt of the
log he soon uncovered four baby wildcats,
two of which he held up for his father to
look at. Their eyes were just open, and Ma
comber said the hungry little things mewed
good deal like domestic kittens when the
boy handled them. They were spotted gray
and white, with nearly white bellies Archer
took the four wild kittens away in his hat,
and when they reached the trap the fierce old
mother wildcat tried her best to break out
and made terrible fuss when she heard her
little ones new. Then they poked the kittens
into the trap, and the old cat quieted down.
She got them into corner with us much
care as tame cat, Macolnber said, and then
curled up and tried to hide them.
They lugged the trap home from the center
Of pole, and Macomber made strong cage
for his savage captives. Scranton Pa.) Cor.
New York Sun.
A Serpentine Problem.
An astronomer from Harvard Observatory
some time ago propounded this problem to
number of fellow savants: Suppose that
three snakes, each feet in length, should
catch each other by the tip Of the tail, thus
making circle 8 feet in circumference
Suppose that each snake should begin to
swallow the one in front of him. In what
way would the resultant figure, after each
snake had swallowed the one in front Of
him, differ from the original circlea There
were many diverse opinions upon the sub
iort coma of them onfariner the c0nsiH ara%ion