The Holbrook news., 1912-03-29

roam IOQdy- w nen urSl settled on Totten's Inlet, as this arm
 of the great Puget Sound sea is called.
 there were deer. bear, mink. otter. cats of three kinds, cougar and ducks and birds by the thousands. From my
 home west to the Pacific ocean. an hundred miles away, there was a dense wilderness of great green trees The game of the claw variety had roamed for ages through this wilder ness and the bear and cat trails were as well defined as the streets in our cities Gas were also those of the elk and deer).
 My first experience with our whisk- cred cat came shortly after I began hunting in the blue hills of Mason county. Through the kindness of a friend in Tacoma I secured a white dog, half bull and half hound. One day he ran and treed a large old tom. fired and broke leg. The cat came down a little lame, but full of fight, and Don was a pretty sore dog be fore I killed the cat for him. This dog was about a year old at the time and for twelve long years after he was cat and cougar treer. He would rather run cat than eat; and when your humble servant had an hour to spare it was spent on the trail of the cat. When I look back over the long vista of years I spent hunting. I can truly say that l love cat hunting better than any other sport. and may add that it is the hardest work of any game hunting on the coast. You see, the lynx is a great traveller and he does most of his travelling after nightfall.
 We will suppose you are ready for little cat hunt. You take your dogs and start out in the morning. They hit of on a cat trail and go yelping through the forest. Fresh track" you say. They will put him up soon." Presently there is confused murmur of hound yelps; then none at all. Freed" you think. But no! Here comes old Don. racing on the back trail "Back-tracking." you think. Don's clarion bay calls the other dogs and they so paying the other way. They go a mile or SO, when they lose the track altogether. The last scent was on an old cedar log. Back and forth for half an hour go the dogs. but they cannot hit the trail You look around, and find the cats trail where he had back-tracked, and away they go. This is a fine country to travel in. The underbrush is just little thicker than the hair on bird dogs tail. You run into a big log. It is SO thick you could not see it. You stop to listen. You hear the hounds working over here-the next ridge. The salal brush is higher than your head. Above it is other brush, SO thick you cannot see the sky. The brush is wet and you sweat like a pack horse. Dripping wet, you travel mile after mile and go over hill after hill, and yet old Don talks In a very enticing manner to tired hunter.
 Wanda strikes another cat and trees 1t after a short run. Turk does the same-but Don, Sport, Little Boy and Naida hang onto their first love. You stop on the break of hill. You hear old Don talking loud. long and clear, | about cats in general and this one in | particular. You reach the tree and | at the same time get your first sight | of your game-a big, brown, bulldog | headed animal with long Dundreary | whiskers. You let the dogs shake him when killed, and then you pet them. You gaze on far-off hill and find you are about six miles from home, in a country which Is no skat- Ing rink even if the timber was of. About midnight a hunter and five or six tired hounds lift the latchstring at Home, Sweet Home." vowing never to run another cat Cat least that nightly.
 When morning comes you take your gun; your dogs are eager for the chase (and you are the same). It may be but a short chase or 1t may be as described above. That is lynx hunting in western Washington. a sport which I followed for fifteen years Hardly a week passed in that time that did not take day or two of cat-hunting, and I sometimes hunt ed them every day for months. stud led them from a hunters point of view first; later because became so interested in them that 1t became hobby with me in tracking them with dogs
 Their every move on a hunt could be observed by following the dogs closely. 1 have had as many as six at my home alive at one time-usu- ally young. half-grown kittens. Now and again one that was tame and very sociable would eat from your hand, while others would eat of your hand or foot if you came within reach.
 l well remember one morning an old Indian hunter who came to my home This Indian knew all about wildcats-(tha is. some cats). I had one kitten ct this time that was very tame also had nearly full grown 1 female, mother of the kitten. The h. dian was playing with the kitten,