Trail and Camp-Fire 



so much sharper and more difficult to catch 

 than coyotes, as some people say, how does it 

 happen that they are very scarce in the whole 

 West, while coyotes seem to be more numer- 

 ous than they were in the old times?" 



Conditions have changed for the wolf. In 

 early days he was disregarded, but now a very 

 large class of people in the West take an 

 active interest in wolves. As these animals 

 began to be troublesome, and to prey on the 

 stock of the cattlemen, people who had heard 

 of the old-time industry of wolfing took to 

 poisoning them, since, as a rule, the work of 

 trapping them called for more patience and 

 skill than the average ranchman possessed, 

 and they were too wary to be shot. At last, 

 however, the wolves refused to take the 

 poison; refused to eat any meat, in fact, ex- 

 cept a carcass freshly killed by themselves. 

 This, of course, put an end to the poisoning, 

 and recourse was had again to steel traps. 

 With these, trappers have had some success. 

 I know of a case last winter where six wolves 

 were trapped in a very limited area, and, curi- 

 ously enough, all of these were she wolves. 

 After people had become discouraged with 



their lack of success in poisoning, a great 



164 



