The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-21
OFFICIAL HUNTER
 FOR UNCLE SAM P. C. Peterson Follows Unique
 Occupation ROOSEVELT APPOINTED HIM Draws $75 Per Month From Forestry Department and Also Gets Bounty for Pelts From Counties
 in Which He Works.
ROOSEVELT APPOINTED HIM

1
 government hunter in the state of Wash ington, who, after hunting big game in | nearly every part of the world declares that the sport he has had in the Cascade mountains rivals anything he ever eX- perenced elsewhere.
 Peterson's duty is to slay predatory an- imals. For this he Is paid $75 a month
 by Uncle Sam and, in addition, he re- ceives the regular state bounty on every wild pelt brought to the auditors of the various counties in the commonwealth.
 He was appointed to the job when the forestry service created similar berths in several western states at the sugges- ton of Col Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States. The ranchers who recommended him are pleased with his work.
 Hunting has been his occupation since boyhood days in Denmark where, when 9 years of age, he obtained his father s fowling piece by trickery and killed a neighbours pet cat. He has killed seals and polar bears and hunted with the na- tives in the Ural mountains, where he killed 2l wolvAs and brown bears He also brought down six out of a pack of Il Siberian timber wolves in their native heath. He passed nearly a year hunting and studying wild life in Russia. Re- turning to Denmark he embarked on a round the world cruise on the Danish man-of-war in command of Prince Vald- emar, being In a Chinese port a month during the Boxer uprising. Upon the completion of the voyage he came to the United States, hunting for a year in northern Minnesota, Montana and Wyo- ming. He came to Washington four years ago, with the expectation of going into Siberia over the Siberian railroad, but the opening of the Russo-Japanese war forced him to remain In this state. Peterson has had all kinds of hair raising experiences and numerous narrow escapes from death, but what would be thrilling to the average hunter has be- come commonplace with him. Recently, he faced a cougar which was crouched within four feet of him In tree top but his only regret was he did not have 8 camera to shoot the big cat at close range. This is his story of the incident:
 ''The dogs treed the animal in the middle fork of the Snoquamie river after dark. The beast was so far up the tree and the foliage was so thick that I could not get a bead on it's eyes to get a shot. did not want to lose the animal, so l stationed the dogs at the base of the tree and climbed a nearby tree. l got up high enough so that I finally caught sight of the cougars eye from behind the tree trunk and fired. With pierc- ing howl the animal sprang out on a branch that extended to where 1 was standing at the trunk of the small tree, and glared at me four feet away. It wanted to spring on me. but kept shoot ing as fast as I could with my 25-2O rifle, and four bullets lodged in the beasts neck That was enough, and it turned and jumped on lower limb My posi- ton to shoot from was not good. as the little tree swayed with my weight and I was afraid it might break any time. But when the cougar got on the lower limb, I drove bullet behind its ear and scored.
 ''Cougars are treacherous They will often allow a hunter to pass under the tree in which they are located before jumping down and making their escape. It takes from three to five years to train a dog properly to hunt for them. It has to be a good dog in the first place. Any dog will trail a cougar to the tree 1t first ascend after leaving the ground, but it takes a good one to follow 1t to the particular tree where it makes final lodg ment. The reason is that cougars will sometimes go as far as a quarter of mile by jumping from the branches of one tree to another. Another of their tricks is to turn around and trail the hunter who is tracking them.
 Cats are, of course, not so dangerous. I had a funny experience With one last spring on the north fork of the Snoqual- mic. I had only one dog with me, and it tackled the cat before I arrived. The eat got the dog by the neck and was having the better of the fray. I could not shoot for fear of hitting the dog, so l dug in and kicked the cat with my hobnailed boots In the tussle I fell over backward and the two animals rolled on top of me. We had lively time of 1t there for a few minutes, with the cat trying to kill the dog the dog trying to kill the cat. and myself kicking wildly with both feet at the fighting mass of fur to keep the combatants off my face. The dog won the day, however
 Another wildcat gave me a scare last summer. The dogs drove 1t Into cave in the mountainside. The entrance was so small they could not follow the animal. I pulled away few of the rocks to make a little more room, and then, armed with revolver, wrggled my body, head first, part of the way into the cave. lighted candle in the hope of getting a sight of the animal. l succeeded, but I could not turn my head to take aim, so I fired without aiming, taking a chance at hitting the cat. I missed and the con- cussion extinguished the candle.
 q was wedged in the entrance tightly, and the dogs made it still more difficult for me to back out. because they tried to crowd in when they heard the shot. The cat, which was only two feet from my face, growled ferociously, and I thought it might spring upon me as lay there helpless, but it did not l lighted the candle again and went in and took another chance shot. This time l was successful.
 "A peculiar fact about wildcats is that, thick as they are on the west side of the Cascade mountains all the way to the summit of the range, not one is to be found on the other side. On the contrary, lynxes are found on the east side, but they never cross the divide. No one knows the reason. and the only way I can account for it is the difference in moisture.
 Henry Rief, state game warden. was with me last summer when I had pecu- liar experience with my horse at Car mack Falls, above Snoqualmie JFalis. We missed tfTe animal. after l had dismount- ad and were surprised to discover it