182 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



long period. In the present winter of 1892- 

 '93 big wolves are more plentiful in the neigh- 

 borhood of my ranch than they have been for 

 ten years, and have worked some havoc among 

 the cattle and young horses. The cowboys 

 have been carrying on the usual vindictive 

 campaign against them ; a number have been 

 poisoned, and a number of others have fallen 

 victims to their greediness, the cowboys sur- 

 prising them when gorged to repletion on the 

 carcass of a colt or calf, and, in consequence, 

 unable to run, so that they are easily ridden 

 down, roped, and then dragged to death. 



Yet even the slaughter wrought by man in 

 certain localities does not seem adequate to 

 explain the scarcity or extinction of wolves, 

 throughout the country at large. In most 

 places they are not followed any more eagerly 

 than are the other large beasts of prey, and 

 they are usually followed with less success. Of 

 all animals the wolf is the shyest and hardest to 

 slay. It is almost or quite as difficult to still- 

 hunt as the cougar, and is far more difficult 

 to kill with hounds, traps, or poison ; yet it 

 scarcely holds its own as well as the great cat, 

 and it does not begin to hold its own as well 

 as the bear, a beast certainly more readily 

 killed, and one which produces fewer young 

 at a birth. Throughout the East the black 

 bear is common in many localities from which 

 the wolf has vanished completely. It at pres- 

 ent exists in very scanty numbers in northern 

 . Maine and the Adirondacks ; is almost or 

 quite extinct in Pennsylvania; lingers here 



