WOLVES. 225 



three of us have often pursued from fifty to one hundred, 

 driving them before us as quickly as our horses could 

 charge. 



Their skins are of no value, and we do not therefore 

 waste much powder and ball in shooting them. The In- 

 dians, who are obliged to pay dear for their ammunition, 

 are equally careful not to throw it away on objects that 

 bring no remunerating value. The natural consequence 

 is, that the wolves are allowed to multiply ; and some 

 parts of the country are completely overrun by them. 

 The Indians catch numbers of them in traps, which they 

 set in the vicinity of those places where their tame horses 

 are sent to graze. The traps are merely excavations 

 covered over with slight switches and hay, and baited 

 with meat, &c., into which the wolves fall, and being un- 

 able to extricate themselves, they perish by famine, or 

 the knife of the Indian. These destructive animals an- 

 nually destroy numbers of horses ; particularly during 

 the winter season, when the latter get entangled in the 

 snow ; in which situation they become an easy prey to 

 their light-footed pursuers, ten or fifteen of which will 

 often fasten on one animal, and with their long fangs in 

 a few minutes separate the head from the body. If, 

 however, the horses are not prevented from using their 

 legs, they sometimes punish the enemy severely; as an 

 instance of this, I saw one morning the bodies of two of 

 our horses which had been killed the night before, and 

 around were lying eight dead and maimed wolves ; some 

 with their brains scattered about, and others with their 



limbs and ribs broken by the hoofs of the furious animals 

 15 



