Gray-wolf TO.O 



The range of the Cray-wolf has a known history. When history 

 the Buffalo swarmed over Western America from the Allegha- 

 nies to the Rockies, and from Great Slave Lake to Central 

 Mexico, their herds were followed by troops of Buffalo-wolves 

 that preyed on the weak and helpless. As the Buffalo disaj)- 

 peared the Wolves were harder put for a living. When the 

 last great Buffalo herds were destroyed and the Wolves were 

 left without their usual support, they naturally turned their 

 attention to the cattle on the ranges. 



The ranchmen declared vigorous war against them: 

 traps and poison were imported in vast (juantities, a bounty 

 was offered for each Wolf scalp, and every inducement Ik Id 

 out to wolf-hunters. 



In those days the Wolves were comparatively unsus|)i( ious, 

 and it was easy to trap or poison them. The result was that 

 enormous numbers were killed in the early days of iHHo to iHHH 

 or 1889; so many, indeed, that the species seemed on the 

 verge of extinction. The remnant of the race continued on the 

 foothills of the Rockies or the Badlands, but they were so rare 

 as to be no longer a factor in the cattle question. Then new 

 knowledge, a better comprehension of the modern dangers, 

 seemed to spread among the Wolves. They learned how to 

 detect and defy the traps and poison, and in some way the 

 knowledge was passed from one to another, till all Wolves 

 were fully possessed of the information. How this is done is 

 not easy to say. It is easier to prove that it is done, lew 

 Wolves ever get into a trap, fewer still get into a trap and out 

 again, and thus learn that a steel-trap is a thing to be feared. 

 And yet all Wolves have that knowledge, as every trapper 

 knows, and since they could not get it at hrst-hand, they must 

 have got it second-hand; that is, the information was com- 

 municated to them by others of their kind. 



It is well known among hunters that a piece of iron is 

 enough to protect any carcass from the Wolves. If a Deer or 

 Anteloj)e has been shot and is to be left out over night, all that 

 is needed for its protection is an old horseshoe, a spur, or even 

 any part of the hunter's dress. No wolf will go near such 



