CHAPTER XIX.
WOLF CATCHING.
This article by R. H. Winslow was originally contributed to the HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER, but being of special interest is reprinted here:
"It was my misfortune sometime ago to contract a nervous disorder, which quite incapacitated me. After securing the medical advice of one of the world's best specialists, it was apparent that I would find health, if at all, only in a 'journey to nature.' Accordingly I decided to leave New York and spend a year in the West, there to hunt quail, prairie chicken, wild turkey, rabbits, bob cats, wolves, deer and bear.
"At first I went to Oklahoma and from there traveled by easy stages to the Mill Iron Ranch in Northwest Texas, which I have thus far made my headquarters.
"The feathered tribe, rabbits, prairie dogs and bob cats interested me for a while, but soon my thoughts became centered on wolves. Indeed, they are extremely interesting, and I was not long in discovering that it would be necessary to cope with animals of almost human intelligence. Too, they were quite plentiful--could be seen any day while riding over the plains--and night they made hideous with their howls. Would I hunt them with horse an gun, horse an dogs, or attempt to trap them? That was the question confronting me.
"My first experience with horse and gun came about in this way: Two young cowboys, Ernest Edwards and Robert Russell, were with me hunting prairie chicken; we saw a wolf lying in the sage grass about five hundred yards away, and decided that although we had shot guns, we would endeavor to ride up sufficiently close to get a shot. Edwards and I were within about eighty yards of the wolf when he started; both fired, and Russell started immediately in pursuit. Russell ran after him for about three miles, when the chase was taken up by Edwards, who, upon his famous sorrel, 'Playmate,' was soon within a few yards of him and fired with his shot gun. Three shots brought him to the ground.
"After this I saw cowboys try to rope wolves, but seldom with success; and frequently they would attempt to kill them from their mounts with carbine or revolver, but were likewise seldom successful. It was not long, accordingly, before it was evident to me that very little success would attend my efforts with horse and gun.
"The next plan was to try riding to the hounds. There are on the ranch many imported wolf-hounds, two grey hounds and two blood hounds. It comprises about a million acres and these dogs are allowed to roam over it at will; sometimes they are at Estellme; sometimes at Shamrock; sometimes at Aberdeen; sometimes at other places. There is no regular hunting with them by the foremen or cowboys, and none of the owners live on the ranch. These hounds are perfectly trained, though, and understand quite well the ways of a wolf. The following is my first experience with horse and dogs: "The day before my arrival at the Beasley Camp, which included a house of a dozen or so rooms, barns and the like, a beef had been killed and the waste left laying about a hundred yards from the house. We had just gone in to luncheon when one of the boys noticed a large wolf going up to eat upon this waste. Within an incredibly short time we were out of our seats, some yelling for the dogs which were lying around the porch, and others straddling the horses already saddled. The chase was on. It lasted, however, for only about twenty minutes, for the wolf was soon 'picked up.' After this we had several other chases.
"Formerly, hunting with hounds here was practicable and extremely interesting, but now that there are wire fences everywhere it is quite impossible to follow the dogs, and, moreover, when after a wolf they frequently leave the ranch and go upon the premises of some 'nester' (farmer) who has planted poison.
"In a pack of a dozen dogs, say, there are generally two grey hounds used as 'tripping' dogs; that is, they run ahead of the main body and trip or throw the wolf, sometimes twice--so the others have time to come up and jump on. Generally they do no fighting themselves.
"The last plan was to try trapping, and I have found that most successful.
"I found that, first, it was necessary to boil the traps, preferably in blood, so as to kill the odor of steel; secondly, that my gloves and the soles of my boots should be dipped in blood, so as to kill all human scent; thirdly, that I should prepare a large number of round logs, about four feet long and weighing about forty pounds, with a notch in the middle of each, to receive the chain. Then came the consideration of bait.
"At first I used no bait but depended solely upon trail setting and for the following reasons: A trapper who was formerly in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company told me of a setting by which he attained the greatest success, and it is as follows: Take a forked stick the shape of a V, the prongs being about two and a half feet long and with knots or projections on them; fit this V around a mesquit bush so the bush will be pressed closely into the sharp part of the V; place the bait, preferably a rabbit--close against the tree and in the sharp part of the V; then set the trap, completely covered, with springs bent inward, eighteen inches back from the bait and in the V, with the chain covered and fastened to the bush. A wolf will go into a V but will never step over anything two inches high to get bait. I tried this setting but without success. The wolves would go nightly within about ten yards of my traps but no nearer.
"Then I tried staking out a cow's head with the stake driven down so it would not project at all above. But before driving the stake in the ground I had the rings attached to my chains on it and under the head. Around this head I set ten traps in a circle. As before, the wolves would go within about ten yards, but no nearer. I decided, therefore, temporarily, to use no bait, but to try trail setting, for nightly two particular paths were literally covered with wolf tracks.
"My traps, logs, gloves and boots having been prepared, they were taken in a wagon to places for settings; the traps were sunk into the ground so that when leveled there was about a quarter of an inch of dirt on top of the tredles; then the chains were sunk; and finally the logs. About the setting: The center of the tredle should be in the center of the trail; place under the tredle a piece of cotton--over it, a round piece of paper twice its size with a place cut out over the restraining lever; cover very carefully and be quite sure there are no lumps to get caught between the jaws when thrown; and, lastly, leave no loose soil visible so there will be no trace whatever of any disturbance of the earth. Three traps should be set in a row with the jaws, when set, six inches apart. This plan was entirely successful, and I caught wolves nightly. In using a log such as has been described there should always be used with it the two-pronged drag such as is furnished with the No. 4 1/2 Newhouse traps. A wolf may get a few hundred yards away, but he will never break loose, and may be traced quite easily. It is unnecessary but I use a bloodhound on the ranch, 'Red,' for this purpose. With a stationary fastening something may break.
"In time it became my good fortune to drift around to the bull pasture where Curtis Brown, a nice young cowboy, is feeding cotton seed to half a thousand bulls. Here I found trail trapping almost impracticable on account of the bulls following the trails and throwing the traps, and because, seemingly, the wolves would go directly to the carcass of a dead bull without reference to any trail. Accordingly I would watch the carcass closely (about twenty bulls have died) and wherever a wolf had begun to eat on a carcass I would set my traps so as to catch him when he returned to his meal. This plan has been all one could ask.
"Finally, I tried luring wolves to my bait by setting four traps in a row as described in trail setting; but between the second and third I buried a bone or lump of meat which had been allowed to roast and smolder all the night before. Wolves could smell this miles away, would come to it and get in the traps. This, indeed, is the best scheme I know anything about.
"I have noticed that Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton and others say a she wolf or dog staked out in the mating season is an infallible lure; and a captive wolf that will howl is good at any time.' We have a number of female wolves around the camp now and have had them for a long while, one is quite gentle and they howl. They have been staked out frequently with a circle of traps around each, but no wolf has been near.
"Aside from the sport to be obtained in trapping wolves, the pecuniary feature is of interest to the trappers. In New Mexico where they are much more plentiful than in Texas, there is a bounty of twenty dollars each on Lobo wolves (Canislupus) and two and one-half dollars on coyotes. Moreover the trapper does not have to wait for his money for the large ranch owners pay cash for the scalps in order to have him trap on their range, thus decreasing the number of wolves and thereby protecting their cattle and sheep. Too, the trapper is usually furnished a horse or two."