The Holbrook news., 1912-03-29

knows the game Nine weeks from
 the time Thomas has met Susan on
 the trail she brings forth her young.
 Eighteen out of twenty times, two is
 the number, occasionally three, and
 sometimes four, this last number be-
 ing very rare. having noted 1t but
 once.
 When the old female is training her
 kittens the cat hunter can capture all
 of the young ones he cares to without
 the least danger or trouble. You need
 a slow hound with a clarion voice,
 slow so you can note his actions
 around different trees. The old cat as
 rule, when she hears the dog, gets
 her kittens up a tree. Then she waits
 till the hound is close, and then gives
 him a chase for little while-then
 trees herself. Sometimes she will
 fight a little, then tree near her kit
 tens. A green cat hunter when fol
 lowing his dog on cold cat trail will suddenly hear the hounds open out in long and clear bays that denote the cat iA started. He follows madly after the hounds, who finally tree her. and he kills big female cat on whose breast hangs the milk for her young.
 He has not the remotest idea where those young are, this green cat man; but not so with the man who hunts and studies the game at one and the same time. He notes that his hounds are sometimes trailing 50 to 70 feet apart and all have a good trail, and when they begin to warm up he strains every muscle in his body to keep near. When the final jump-up comes and the woods ring with the music of the hounds on a hot trail, the hunter notes the particular bunch of trees from where the jump took place. He pays no attention to the running hounds, but goes to this grove Often he will find his best hound iB there, paying up Q small. thick tree; but more often he hears them barking .'troed" some dis tance away. He knows that cat is safe that the dogs will keep her there They know their master is attending to business all right. Have they not hunted long enough to know him and trust him to come when game is treed? The hunter looks the trees over very carefully-young cats have a way of getting out on limbs and hiding, a still as death when found. The hunt ar takes 8 forked stick with a noosed line attached. slips it over the kittens body. gives a smart pull, and the kit ten is soon in the canvas bag made for this purpose. After all are secured or (if out of reach) are shot. the hunter then proceeds to do last what MT. Green Man would have done frst-ho goes and shoots the old cat.
 Sometimes dogs will tres Q single ,at, then strike another cat trail and away they go. MT. Green Man follows lis hounds blindly-but not so with a ,at-hunter. He keeps his weather eye peeled. He notes the various changes n the actions of his hounds. their think he has treed"- ,ay-'T am a son-of-a-gun if l know where he is',-bay. The cat man notes he trees all along behind the hounds, or if the cat Is running along run way there are always cats turning up Then, the dogs may be unning two cats; one hops up a tree. he other keeps on with the pack at his leels. These things cat-hunter znows, and he delights to have some hing turn up he was not expecting on cat hunt. To have his hounds run nto family of skunks is another di- 'ersion that sometimes occurs.
 With good voiced and intelligent Iounds there is nothing that beats cat uniting in Washington. There are hree kinds of cats here. The first, which is not very common. is the Can da lynx, the fellow with long whiskers nd tassels on his ears; the next is mailer in size and very plentiful, be- ng called the bob-cat or bay lynx; the ext Is a long-tailed fellow. with tail s long as his body, very spotted. The nest specimen of this animal I have yer seen is owned by MT. Allie Bell, ormerly auditor of Mason county, to whom I presented the pecimen several years ago. I after ard killed several of these animals
 considered them freaks of nature as nose treed by hounds were the first nown of here.
 I may add in conclusion that take o credit for all the cats I killed in ,e past 20 years. heartily give all le honor to my noble hounds, who .eed the cats and made 1t possible for le to kill them. These noble dogs re now dead and gone-I hope to unter's pcradise.