20 ' AVOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Clinton County, states that these wolves destroyed 

 many deer " crusted " in the snow near Pen- 

 field, about 1870. In the Seven J^Iountains only 

 one pack survived — the celebrated Black Avengers, 

 as they were called by some, or the ScJvivartzcgeist by 

 others. This pack always contained twenty black 

 wolves and held its numbers until after 1880. It made 

 its headquarters in Treaster A'alley, Mifflin County, 

 but ranged through the entire Seven ]\Iountains coun- 

 try. There is no record that they ever did any great 

 amount of damage to live stock or game, although Dr. 

 J. T. Rothrock says that they were one of the causes 

 for the scarcity of deer in Treaster Valley. Very few 

 of them were ever captured by hunters or trappers. 

 Dan Treaster, of Treaster A'alley, trapped a few each 

 winter, but followed the old Indian policy of keeping 

 the breeding stock alive. Forest fires and lumbering, 

 as well as diminishment of food supply after the Seven 

 ?iIountains became a noted hunters' rendezvous caused 

 their numbers to grow less. Clem Herlacher, who 

 camped in Treaster A'alley in 1892 and. 1893, says that 

 the pack mmibered about a dozen during those years. 

 In 1898 the beds of thirteen wolves were discovered by 

 fishermen in Detwiler Hollow, in the Seven ;\Ioun- 

 tains, evidently this same pack of "black boys." In 

 February, 1902, George Grenoble was followed by 

 three black wolves in a wood between jMillheim and 

 Aaronsburg, in Penn's A'alley. ^YoIves singly and in 

 pairs were tracked in the Seven ^lountains during the 

 winters of 1903, 1901 and 1905. P. F. Conser, a Mill- 



