Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 49

i Mm SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1939. SIXTEEN PAGES Veteran Lumbermen that of a rhinoceros and somewhat resembling that animal in general make-up. w( ZSZZZr 4 l4f frit 1 hi lr-r, 4 Ml Insist Strange Leg- endary Not Hurricane, Laid Low State's Trees By EDWARD C. BANFIELD, JK. Splinter cats, a good sized family of them; a tote-road shaga-maw, and perhaps a couple of 1 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 the voice of the speaker. He is 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 Gxover Con-zei, 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 fiat 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 a 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 lire hazard 1 aspects of the Forest Emergency Project.The glawackus Is one soli- I tary noncomformist pussy-cat, ac-; cording 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 i came to Hartford from the North west November to salvage, store, and convert 55,000.000 feet of hur- 1 ricane-blasfed Connecticut timber Northwest have co me to Connecticut these veteran titnbe rmen bring weird U. S. Forest Service.

to salvage, store and convert 55,000,003 tales and legend with them to account "The creature is slow in motion, deliberate and unlike the rhinoceros, very intelligent. Its hairless tody is mottled, and checked in a striking manner, suggestive of the origin of the patterns upon macki-naw clothing, now used in the lumber woods. On the hodags nose, instead of a horn there is a large i-pade-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 tha 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 straddles the fallen log, follows it out to the top, where the huge pointed hoofs of its front feet crush the helpless 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 plane-blades 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 lots out of harm's way." The roperite (Rhynchoropua flagelliformis) is apparently a favorite in the Northwest, Although no one has the slightest 'dP of its I life-hutory it ts known to be one 1 of the most highly specialized and steps upon road runners or kicks them out of the way, and no obstacle 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) ii, i t'n 1 Htm--' o-k Splint at ats United Statej foretr from the feet of hurricane-blasted timber. But for devastation.

Dn Wake Into marketable lumber these men i whose job includes freeing this i state of a several million dollar fire beasts rivaling anything from the imagination of Paul Bunyan. The Jitm Mi ip H-vmwfM wmmmlM yarns are the common inheritance of all lumbermen, and every scaier, fVw vvOW own iavonte versions. i of th most dreadfui and S'SToiTto a book titled "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber-woods," illustrated by Coert DuBois. Mr. Cox, himseu n.

former ranaer in Minnesota stud- ied his subject carefully and his re marks are recommended as authon- I tative by the TJ. S. Foresters here. TVi a erVHrvtr nut CTJVvlvnv a r-hnrrti fus) 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 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 els, an old timer, dressed in the conventional mackinaw, shifts uncomfortably. "Look here," he says.

From William T. Cox's book "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber ood," illustrated by Coert DuBois, comes knowledge of the hodag, which spade around trees, cutting the roots with its shovel-like nose. ii-. wg Vfe- 1 "I never heard of a hodag traveling purposef ul of American animals. Its with a splinter cat.

Up in Kenne- outstanding feature is a marvelous bee there was one that went around i rope-like beak with which it snare with a slide-rock bolter for a while, luckless beasts and drags them to but I doubt if you could get one to death along the thorny ground be seen with a rock-nosed feline." growth of the desert. The logger's contribution was re- According to Cox "No man or a received with the respect which one mal can hope to out-run it. It 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 made is as follows: Size, about Another frightfully destructive animal, as depicted by Coert DuBois, is the splinter cat, which dives at trees and shatters them as if they bad been struck by lightning..