WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 29 



settlers used this method of trapping Pennsylvania 

 black wolves. i''aniel Karstetter, who was born near 

 the Blue Rock, on the Karoondinha (John Penn's 

 Creek) in 1824, and died in Sugar Valley in 1907, 

 maintained several of these pits near his hunting 

 camp at Greenbriar Knob. A haunch of venison or a 

 dead sheep was usually placed in the pits, which were 

 eight feet deep, broadest at the bottom so as to render 

 it impossible for the most active animals to escape from 

 them. The mouth of each pit was covered with a re- 

 volving platform of boughs and twigs, and attached to 

 a cross piece of timber, which served as an axle. When 

 the hungry animals scented the bait and sprang on the 

 covering, it revolved, hurling the brutes, sometimes two 

 or three at a time, into the pit below. Often Karstet- 

 ter's cabin was entirely "weather-boarded" with wolf 

 hides obtained in this way. Susquehanna County, 

 where "animal drives" were practiced to rid the section 

 of wolves and other more or less troublesome animals, 

 was also the scene of much "pitfall" hunting. An 

 aged German hunter from the Schzvarzwald in the Old 

 Country, was a leader in this pastime. Josiah Lord, a 

 Susquehanna County pioneer, in describing the antics 

 of a pack of wolves who descended on a dead cow near 

 his home, is quoted in Blackman's History of that 

 County as follows : "About two o'clock in the morn- 

 ing we were waked up by a sudden yell of the 

 wolves; and they yelled without intermission until day- 

 light. As they continued howling, the fine yelp of the 

 pups increased the roar which seemed to shake the 

 earth like thunder." Another Susquehanna County 



