l86 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



preferred to prey on young animals, or on the 

 weak and disabled. They rarely molested a 

 full-grown cow or steer, still less a full-grown 

 buffalo, and, if they did attack such an animal, 

 it was only when emboldened by numbers. In 

 the plains of the upper Missouri and Saskatch- 

 ewan the wolf was, and is, more dangerous, 

 while in the northern Rockies his courage and 

 ferocity attain their highest pitch. Near my 

 own ranch the wolves have sometimes com- 

 mitted great depredations on cattle, but they 

 seem to have queer freaks of slaughter. Us- 

 ually they prey only upon calves and sickly 

 animals ; but in midwinter I have known one 

 single-handed to attack and kill a well-grown 

 steer or cow, disabling its quarry by rapid 

 snaps at the hams or flanks. Only rarely have 

 I known it to seize by the throat. Colts are 

 likewise a favorite prey, but with us wolves 

 rarely attack full-grown horses. They are 

 sometimes very bold in their assaults, falling 

 on the stock while immediately around the 

 ranch houses. They even venture into the 

 hamlet of Medora itself at night as the coy- 

 otes sometimes do by day. In the spring of 

 '92 we put on some eastern two-year-old steers ; 

 they arrived, and were turned loose from the 

 stock-yards, in a snowstorm, though it was in 

 early May. Next morning we found that one 

 had been seized, slain, and partially devoured 

 by a big wolf at the very gate of the stockyard ; 

 probably the beast had seen it standing near 

 the yard after nightfall, feeling miserable after 

 its journey, in the storm and its unaccustomed 



