The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-24
THE CANYON WILDCATS.
Big, Fierce Animals that Even
Women Hunt I'm the Sierra Madre.

Big, Fierce Animals that Even
Women Hunt I'm the Sierra Madre.
New York SUM-
Hunting the wildcat is one of the IA
Maj. Sam Garner. These savage a, short
tailed providers find just the sort of homes
they like in the deep canyons of the Sierra
Madre. The wildcat of the Sierra Madre' s
CANYONS is not to be COMPOUNDED with the
bobcat of the East, for our wildcat is
nearly twice as big, bigger yet than II the big
hunted on horseback, with packs of hounds
trained for the purpose. While ordinarily,
will not face a fight when alone. but will
rather sneak away and hide. two of them
together will stand their ground and fight
to the death. something that rarely comes
TO them before more than one hound out
OF a pack has been torn to pieces.
"A wildcat hunt in southern California
IS generally organized after rain, for then
the scent of the cat is fresher on the trail,
and II one chooses to seek his game by the
the paw marks of the animal in the soft
ground. Some old smountaineers profess to
prefer close combat with mountain lion
Madre.
Il remember one hunt I was that
Droug mt out the qualities OF the game n
weren't far out of the way. The dogs had
trailed cat into a narrow defile in the
caynon. On one side of the defile was a wall
of rock. The other side was covered with
a heavy growth of brush. A stream coursed
at the bottom Of the narrow place. The
trail led the dogs into the thick brush on
" disappeared in the. thicket when an i'm
mense wildcat leaped out, landed in the
creek, crossed it and began to scramble up
the wall of rock on the opposite side. In
spite of the almost up-and-down character
of the rocks, the agile animal found foot
hold in its crevices and on it's jagged pro-
jections, and was scaling the wall magnifi-
Gently, when one of the hunters interrupted
her progress with rife ball. She was,
perhaps forty feet up the side of the de-
file. Turning with, savage snarl as she
felt the wound, she leaped into the air,
came down like a meteor lit on the neck
of the broncho the hunter was riding, and
dismounted the rider instantly. Clinging
to the plungng broncho's neck with the
long, hooked claws OF her fore feet, she
hind claws until his breast was laid open
in great gashes, from which the blood
gushed in streams. This was all done be-
fore any one had recovered from the sur
prise the cats terrible leap and assault had
caused.
THE dogs were the first to go to the
broncho's aid. AS they dashed upon the
savage cat she loosened her hold on the
horse and dropped down among the hounds
Before she was killed she had stretched
three of them dead at her feet.
There are wildcat hunting clubs in some
places in southern California, and women
share in the exciting and often dangerous
sport. Some. of the best shots of these clubs
among the wives and sweethearts of it's
members. The trophy of the wildcat hunt
is not the brush, for the wildcat has no
brush unless the three inches of stumpy
tail that anything but adorns the animal
might be called a brush by courtesy. The
trophy of the wildcat hunt is the skin The
fur is coarse. but nicely marked. and makes
a handsome rug. The taking of this trophy
is a hign honor, and no part of the adorn-
ment or decoration of her home does the
wildcat hunting woman of southern Cal
rugs of this animal, made from skins taken
from cats she has herself slain.''