Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — WILD BEASTS GROW BOLD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WILD BEASTS GROW BOLD.

They Are Troublesome to the Wisconsin Lumber Camps. The lumber camps in Northern Wisconsin are considerably annoyed this winter by the depredations of wild animals, more particularly the wildcat and the lynx. It has come to be impossible to leave a shoulder of beef outside the cook-shanty over night without its being attacked by the fierce animals which have become so numerous that the woodsmen furnish am-

munition to any man who wants to take a gun and wait for the appearance of the brutes. These is a bounty for the delivery of scalps of the lynx, wildcat and wolf in the State, and it is expected that there will be many claimants for it this winter. The wolves and wildcats are much more numerous than they havd been for years past and have encroached upon the limits’of civilization; Timber wolves ar di frequently seen on the outskirts of South Superior. A settler from Eyman Lake, Gustave Peterson by name, reports that the pests are unusually numerous in. that vicinity. Peterson brought to town with him a big wildcat, which weighed thirty-five pounds, and two lynxes of the “booted” variety, the larger breed. Peterson shot the wild cat about a week ago. One night after he had turned in there was a hurried knock at his door and a much frightened lumber camp hand told him that he ha’d been visiting a neighboring camp, and on the way back had been followed by a couple of wild cats. The man was in considerable fright, but Peterson took down his # rifle and went out.. He saw a glaring pair of eyes and fired, bringing down his game. Tho other animal got away. The next night Peterson shot the lynxes, which were prowling about the clearing. The wild cat was of unusual size. It is very seldom that they will follow man, but it is reported from the more ’remote districts that the lumber jacks will not venture out in the woods after night unarmed.

READY FOR A SHOT.