1939-02-26 In wake of Splinter Cats - Part 1

© U. S. Forest Service. United States foresters from the Northwest have co me to Connecticut to salvage, store and convert 55,000,000 feet of hurricane-blasted timber. But these veteran timbermen bring weird tales and legends with them to account for devastation. In Wake of Splinter Cats into marketable lumber--these men whose job includes freeing this state of a several million dollar fire hazard tell tall tales of awesome beasts rivaling anything from the imagination of Paul Bunyan. The ed Another frightfully destructive animal, as depicted by Coert DuBois, is the splinter cat, which dives at trees and shatters them as if they had been struck by lightning. Veteran Lumbermen Insist Strange Legendary Creatures, Not Hurricane, Laid Low State's Trees By EDWARD C. BANFIELD, JR. Splinter cats, a good sized family of them; a tote-road shagamaw, and perhaps a couple of hodags, are responsible for Connecticut's tragedy of September 21, according to the lumbermen of the "big woods" who have been detailed by the United States Forest Service to pick up the wreckage in this state. "We came here from the northwest woods after that so-called hurricane and what did we find. Splinter cats!" There is disgust in the voice of the speaker. He is H. Phil Brandner who in his earlier days was a forest ranger in Michigan and is now director of the New England Forest Emergency Project in Connecticut and Rhode Island. *Of course we didn't actually find splinter cats," amends Grover Conzet, former state forester in Minnesota and now in charge of the timber salvage program in this state. "What we found were unmistakable traces of splinter cats and hodags in the form of about 120,000,000 board feet of timber flat on the ground. Understand, please, that we are not criticizing Connecticut people for not knowing how to deal with the invasion; we merely say this talk of a hurricane is nonsense." "Connecticut hunters would have merry chase trying to bag a splinter cat if they can't even trail a glawackus," says A. B. Everts, U. S. Forester in charge of the tire hazard aspects of the Forest Emergency Project. The glawackus is one solitary noncomformist pussy-cat, according to Mr. Everts. Splinter cats are a race- a tradition--an institution; they are an unforgettable part of the experience and lore of every lumberman and logger who has sat by a campfire in Vancouver Island, driven logs on the upper Mississippi, or mixed with the lumber jacks in the redwood forests of Humbolt Bay. The United States Foresters who came to Hartford from the Northwest in November to salvage, store, and convert 55,000,000 feet of hurricane-blasted Connecticut timber that of a rhinoceros and somewhat resembling that animal in gentral make-up. "The creature is slow in motion, deliberate and unlike the rhinoceros, very intelligent. Its hairless body is mottled, striped, and checked in a striking manner, suggestive of the origin of the patterns upon mackinaw clothing, now used in the lumber woods. On the hodag's nose, instead of a horn there is a large spade-shaped bony growth, with peculiar phalanges, extending up in front of the eye, so that he can see only straight up. This probably accounts for the deliberate disposition of the animal, which wanders through the spruce woods looking for suitable food. "About the only living creature which the hodag can catch is the porcupine; indeed, it would appear that the porcupine is its natural food. Upon sighting one rolled up in the branches of a spruce the hodag begins to blink his eyes, lick his chops, and spade around the tree, cutting all the roots until the tree begins to totter. "He then backs off, and with a rush rams his shovel nose under the roots and over goes the tree knocking the breath out of the porcupine in its fall. The hodag then straddies the fallen log, follows it out to the top, where the huge pointed hoofs of its front feet crush the he pless porcupine, and then deliberately swallows him head first." Mr. Conzet, who is in charge of the salvage and storing of hurricane-thrown timber until it is marketed by the Government, warns that timber owners who fail to take steps to clear their land are courting disaster. "'There's nothing like scattered logs to attract squonks, cactus cats, and wapaloosies," he says. "You see, all these noisesome beasts feed on the under side of the bark. They are equipped with tongues like upside-down planeblades and are very dangerous. The only precaution the timber owners need take is an interview with a U. S. Forest Service representative, who will tell how to get the logs out of harm's way." The roperite (Rhynchoropus flagelliformis) is apparently a favorite in the Northwest. Although no one has the slightest idea of its life-history it is known to be one of the most highly specialized and yarns are the common inheritance? of all lumbermen, and every scaler, straw-boss and ranking forester has his own favorite versions. Some of the most dreadful and fascinating of these creatures have been described by William T. Cox in a book titled "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber-woods," illustrated by Coert DuBois. Mr. Cox, himself a former ranger in Minnesota studled his subject carefully and his remarks are recommended as authoritative by the U. S. Foresters here. The splinter cat (Felynx arbordiffsus) Mr. Cox describes as follows: "A widely distributed and frightfully destructive animal is the splinter cat. It is found from the Great Lakes to the Gulf and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. It climbs one tree, and from the uppermost branches bounds down and across toward the tree it wishes to destroy. Striking squarely with its hard face, the splinter cat passes right on, leaving the tree broken and shattered as though struck by lightning or snapped off by the wind. Appalling destruction has been wrought by this animal in the Gulf states, where its work in the shape of a wrecked forest is often ascribed to windstorms." "There now, you see?" says a forester, "That accounts for your 'hurricane.' Multiply that creature by five or six and add in a Nasobatilus Hystrivoratus, commonly called a "hodag." The hodag, it seems, is the beast responsible for the thousands of trees which fell over from the root without being broken. Obviously the splinter cat cannot be held accountable for their downfall. Hodag is to blame beyond a shadow of a doubt. While Mr. Brandner, director of the Emergency Project tells about the likelihood of a hodag's being in company with Connecticut's splinter cats, an old timer, dressed in the conventional mackinaw, shifts uncomfortably. "Look here," he says. From William T. Cox's book "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwood," illustrated by Coert DuBois, comes knowledge of the hodag, which spades around trees, cutting the roots with its shovel-like nose. "I never heard of a hodag traveling with a splinter cat. Up in Kennebec there was one that went around with a slide-rock bolter for a while, but I doubt if you could get one to be seen with a rock-nosed feline.' The logger's contribution was received with the respect which one competent authority always shows for another. It seemed that the hodag couldn't very well be gregarious because of the very nature of the beast. Here is Mr. Cox' description of this second destroyer of Connecticut's woodland. "Opinions differ greatly as to the appearance of the beast. some claiming it to be covered with horns and spines and having a maniacal disposition. The description which seems most. authentic and from which the sketch of the animal has been made is as follows: Size, about purposeful of American animals. Its outstanding feature is a marvelous rope-like beak with which it snares luckless beasts and drags them to death along the thorny ground growth of the desert. According to Cox "No man or animal can hope to out-run it. It steps upon road runners or kicks them out of the way, and no obstacke appears sufficient to stop its progress or even slacken its speed, as it seemingly half flies, half bounds across the rugged country which it inhabits. Its leathery skin is impervious to thorn and its flipper -legs uninjured by the sharpest rocks. The animal has a large set of rattles on its tail, which it vibrates when in pursuit, thus producing a whirring sound like that of a giant rattler. The effect of this (Concluded On Page 15)

Hartford Courant

1939-02-26 In wake of Splinter Cats - Part 1

1939-02-26 In wake of Splinter Cats - Part 1

Hartford Courant