198 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar 15 



and ?10.00 for wildcats. That year I killed 38 

 wolves and ten cats. The next year the county 

 dropped the bounty to $5.00; the State also 

 dropped the bounty to ?5.00, providing the 

 county paid five; if the county paid no bounty, 

 then the State paid nothing; so in my county 

 the boimties amounted to .f 10.00 for young or 

 old; so I went to hunting young wolves. I 

 found that a different job from what it was to 

 trap old ones. 



There were about 40 days, commencing April 

 5th, when the litter of young ones would be 

 likely to be found together, and could be captur- 

 ed in a bunch. The average litter was about 

 six. For several years I caught from 22 to 40, 

 average about 30, most of them young. But 

 sometimes the old one would be in a den of 

 rocks with the young ones, and she would be 

 very likely to make it lively for the hunter 

 to get them out. Very few haa their young in 

 dens. They would more often be found in a 

 thicket of brush or a hollow log, orin the grass, 

 strawstacks, or almost any place, like a litter of 

 pigs. But I found several litters in rock dens. 



I had a hard fight with one in a den once. I 

 found them just at night, about sundown. I 

 stopped up the hole, or entrance, of the den, so 

 the old wolf would not move the pups, as she 

 would be very likely to do if she found that 

 some man had been there. After stopping up 

 the hole I went off to a farmhouse to get some 

 supper. After supper I went back to watch the 

 den until daylight the next morning. Two 

 farmer boys went with me. They said they 

 would stay all night, but they got cold and 

 went home at two o'clock. I stayed. There 

 was a little cave up the hill, about 15 rods 

 away, where I could keep out of the wind. I 

 stayed there most of the time. About once an 

 hour I heard something stepping around, and 

 would hear little stones rolling down the steep 

 side hill. I supposed it was the mother wolf, 

 and I was afraid she would dig the young ones 

 out and carry them off. So I would go to the 

 den, and feel to see that the hole was stopoed 

 up yet. At such times I would listen at the 

 den, and could hear the pups whimpering. 



When it came daylight I went to work en- 

 larging the hole so I could crawl in. I worked 

 about two hours with a hoe that I was work- 

 ing with. It was dark in there, as I made the 

 hole only large enough for me to crawl in, my 

 body nearly filling the drift that I made. 

 When I got to the end of the den I pulled one 

 of the pups to me with the hoe. I took it out 

 and killed it, then went back for more. I 

 hauled another one to me, took it by the leg, 

 and then hauled another one to me; but in get- 

 ting it so I could reach it with my hand I hurt 

 it with my hoe, and it cried out. Then in an 

 instant I found out that the mother was at 

 home. She came for me; but the hole was 

 pretty small, and I kept pounding back with 



the hoe; but she gained on me until I had the 

 hoe by the ferrule, just at the neck of the hoe, 

 and the wolf biting the blade of the hoe. I felt 

 her hot tongue on my fingers. 1 kept chopping 

 down on her toes and nose so fast that she gave 

 up the fight and went back to the nest again. 

 Then I crawled out, with the two pups that I 

 was holding with my other hand. Then I 

 walled up the den again, and made ready to get 

 the " old gal " out. I had a set of tools of my 

 own make— the head of a carpenter's brace, 

 with a hoe-socket welded on so that I could 

 fasten a pole to it. I had some spears, hooks, 

 twisters, etc., I could put in one at a time, the 

 same as we use carpenter's bits. I cut a handle 

 for my tools, and put in a long ugly-looking 

 spear. I lighted a candle (I always carried a 

 candle), then opened the den and went in with 

 my spear in one hand and candle in the other. 

 Mrs. Wolf was waiting for me, with her head 

 toward me. I instantly speared her in the 

 throat, killing her the first jab. I drew her out, 

 and then got out the rest of the young ones. A 

 spear is better than a gun for that work, as the 

 gun fills the den with smoke; and, if you don't 

 make a dead shot, you are in danger. With a 

 spear there is no smoke; and if the first jab 

 doesn't kill, you are pretty sure to have the 

 spear anchored in the beast strong enough to 

 hold the animal away. 



ONE MORE DANGER. 



I was hunting one spring along the Mississip- 

 pi River bluffs for young wolves. I found a 

 place where I was pretty sure there was a lit- 

 ter. About 150 feet up a perpendicular bluff of 

 rocks there was a narrow shelf of rock about 

 two feet wide the most of the way But there 

 was a part of the way where the shelf was only 

 a foot wide. The rocks above hung over the 

 shelf, so ihat one could not stand up; in fact, 

 I lay down and crept along the shelf for 

 50 feet or more. At the further end of the 

 shelf the space widened out and formed a cave 

 under the overhanging rock, big enough for a 

 a good-sized bed-room. In there lay seven 

 young wolves — seventy dollars' worth— too 

 young to fight or run away; old one not at 

 home. I killed and scalped the pups, and the 

 next thing was to get back safely. When I 

 looked back over that narrow shelf of rock, 

 and the ragged pile of rocks 1,50 feet below, I 

 would gladly have given up the seventy dollars' 

 bounty to be safely out of there. But the only 

 way was to go back the way that I came. 

 True, I had gone over the place once, and could 

 I not go back just as easily? In going over 

 the shelf to get there, at the narrowest place 

 there was a rock in the shelf that projected out 

 a little further than the rest of the shelf. After 

 I had got my body past I put my foot against 

 that rock to push myself along. I broke it off 

 and it fell below. That lessened my safety in 

 going back. I took a good rest, took off my coat 



