272 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



plainly showed ; and Jake could tell a story of a wolf 

 breaking a gun-barrel by a sudden snap of the jaws. 



The spring-traps, made like a huge rat-trap, must be 

 concealed, and very craftily too ; indeed the cage- traps 

 were also covered with grass and small branches, but 

 without avail, as I have shown. The spring- traps were 

 disposed around the others in the hopes that the wolves 

 would step into them while prowling about. This only 

 happened in a single instance. We found the fore-paw 

 of a wolf in one of the traps. The spring was very 

 strong, and it having cut through the bone, the animal 

 had either gnawed or dragged itself free not at all an 

 uncommon occurrence with foxes and wolves. After a 

 short search we found the body of the wolf not far off 

 among some bushes. It had bled to death. 



Afterwards I lay in wait several nights near the traps 

 hoping to get a shot, but in this I was disappointed. We 

 ascertained that these cunning brutes always came up 

 against the wind, and consequently scented the presence 

 of an enemy. My own opinion is that dogs are necessary 

 to make wolf-stalking successful; but it is only really 

 good dogs that will face a wolf; and the old school of 

 trappers have a prejudice against dogs, holding that they 

 often do more harm than good in tracking the majority 

 of wild animals ; as, indeed, I believe they do. In deer 

 and moose stalking profound silence is necessary ; and it 

 is only with highly trained dogs that this can be ensured ; 

 while the scent of dogs causes the smaller mammals to 

 be very shy and cautious of showing themselves. 



Of the pack of wolves we really never got a sight, 

 though we were often quite close to them. They numbered 

 about twenty ; and though it is no longer a mystery how 

 savages and hunters follow the trails of wild animals and 

 men, I may mention that it was quite easy to perceive 

 when the wolves had recently passed, not only by the 

 disturbance of the dead leaves on the ground, but also 

 by many other little circumstances, particularly the drop- 



