22 Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



wolf, and only rarely a coyote. The coyotes kill sheep 

 and occasionally very young calves, but never meddle with 

 any thing larger. The stockman fears only the large 

 wolves. 



According to my experience, the wolf is rather soli- 

 tary. A single one or a pair will be found by themselves, 

 or possibly with one or more well-grown young ones, and 

 will then hunt over a large tract where no other wolves 

 will be found ; and as they wander very far, and as their 

 melancholy howlings have a most ventriloquial effect, they 

 are often thought to be much more plentiful than they 

 are. During the daytime they lie hid in caves or in some 

 patch of bush, and will let a man pass right by them 

 without betraying their presence. Occasionally some- 

 body runs across them by accident. A neighboring ranch- 

 man to me once stumbled, while riding an unshod pony, 

 right into the midst of four wolves who were lying in 

 some tall, rank grass, and shot one with his revolver and 

 crippled another before they could get away. But such 

 an accident as this is very rare ; and when, by any chance, 

 the wolf is himself abroad in the daytime he keeps such 

 a sharp look-out, and is so wary, that it is almost impos- 

 sible to get near him, and he gives every human being a 

 wide berth. At night it is different. The wolves then 

 wander far and wide, often coming up round the out- 

 buildings of the ranches ; I have seen in light Snow the 

 tracks of two that had walked round the house within 

 fifty feet of it. I have never heard of an instance where 

 a man was attacked or threatened by them, but they will 

 at times kill every kind of domestic animal. They are 



