256 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
Mountain, and always attracted by ponds and 
sloughs, in which they wallow, and by berry 
pastures, among which they feed. The foot- 
prints we saw — in which the claws, by the way, 
were to be clearly distinguished — were near a 
large patch of wild raspberries. Wolves are 
pretty well exterminated from this whole re- 
gion. The last report of one was several years 
ago, when some unknown animal devastated 
the sheepfolds. A mighty hunter from beyond 
the mountain was offered forty dollars by the 
farmers, in addition to the legal bounty of half 
that sum, for the destruction of the wolf. He 
brought in the head, as by law required, and 
received the money; but avowed, a year or two 
later, that he had only exhibited the head of a 
harmless dog, peculiarly wolf-like in appearance, 
which he had bought for a dollar in a distant 
hamlet. However, the sheepfolds were thence- 
forth left unmolested, though the unseen enemy 
was never trapped. 
Many of our guide’s facts were before known 
to us, but some were wholly new, as when he 
told us that a deer, if forced into water too 
shallow for his long legs, will swim easily on his 
side, instead of wading. There is always plea- 
sure in listening to the simplest woodcraft from 
those who habitually live by its pursuit, — those 
who know nothing of books, but supply obser- 
