CHAPTER XI. 



HOW TO HUNT AND TRAP THE WOLF. 



There are several yarieties of wolves in tlie United 

 States. The prairie wolf, of two or three different kinds, 

 is but small, and is easily trapped or shot. He is not so 

 destructive among sheep as the large gray wolf of the 

 timbered country, and it is about these that I shall have 

 the most to say. They are confined to no particular loca- 

 tion, but travel about from one place to another. Still 

 they have their particular routes, as from one swamp to 

 another, and where their course brings them near a settle- 

 ment, they sally forth at night to steal a sheep, if these are 

 kept out and are not penned. Killing sheep is a business 

 they understand, and they will cut the throat of one about 

 as slick as a knife can do it. They are greedy creatures, 

 and always w^ant to kill the whole flock. I have known 

 as many as thirty to be killed in a single night by one 

 wolf, — nothing done but to cut their throats. When the 

 she-wolf can find an old bear's den, she will take posses- 

 sion of it to have her puppies, usually about the last of 

 April or the first of May. These follow her all the sum- 

 mer and fall, when they start off on their own hook to see 

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