332 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



will travel in pairs, often going twenty-five miles in a 

 night to make a kill, and return to their dens before day- 

 light. A pair of wolves located in the breaks along the 

 Red River in northern New Mexico some years ago and 

 raided on the cattle for twenty-five miles in every direc- 

 tion. At first from the damage done it was supposed 

 there was a large band of them, but eventually by the 

 trails it was determined that there could not be more 

 than four of them at the most. Every stockman in the 

 region was on the lookout. The orders given to the cow- 

 boys were to drop everything, no matter how important 

 it might be, and go after that bunch of wolves, if ever 

 they were sighted. Besides the territorial reward of $20 

 the stockmen offered $100 extra for each grown wolf 

 scalp taken in that country, with $10 for every pup. 



Poison was scattered over the whole country until 

 about all the dogs within reach had been killed. Traps 

 were set in every trail and wash wherever the wolves 

 had left a footprint, and the few dogs not poisoned were 

 some of them caught in the many traps which decorated 

 the landscape. Finally one of the most experienced 

 "wolfers" in the whole region was called from, some dis- 

 tance to try his hand. He spent a week studying the 

 country, sitting for hours on top of the high peaks watch- 

 ing with a powerful glass every moving thing below 

 him. The first peep of daylight found him up on some 

 cliff or peak listening for the howl of a wolf. Finally 

 one day about sunset he drove a burro down into a small 

 flat below a cliff and shot it, then he rode up to the body 

 of the burro and dropping a piece of dry rawhide on the 

 ground stepped with the utmost care from his horse to 

 the hide. He drew on his hands a pair of new buckskin 

 gloves and with his knife cut from the burro's hind 



