184 
POReSt AND STftfiAM. 
[Mahcii 11, i89Q' 
"S-s-sh! There thev are! Loafer wolves— five of them. 
You take the one on 'the left and I'll take the right-hand 
side. Count three and give it to them," T whispered. 
"One, two — crash!" 
The rifles cracked with a sharp, spiteful sound, and a 
moment later the whole valley resounded with a can- 
nonadmg of echoes mixed with snarling growls of pain 
and the snorting of the horses— pandemonium seemed 
to have broken loose in the quiet valle}'. 
"Get the lantern— I'll attend to the horses," I said, as 
I groped mv uncertain way toward the animals, bemg 
still half blinded by the flash of the rifles across the dark- 
ness. ' ■•IT. 
In a few moments the boy came running back wUh the 
light and the trembling horses soon became qiuet again 
and turned to their feeding as we went out to see what 
damage we had inflicted on the wolf pack. 
First a still, shaggj' form came into view, looking 
strangely white in the lantern light, but doi\& lOX", as a 
big, dark patch on the shoulder indicated. 
A little to the right was another, sitting up on his 
haunches with forefeet braced wide apart and Woody 
froth dripping from his fanged jowles. 
If ever an animal looked the demon, it was that wolf 
there in the lamplight. His eyes blazed green and his 
ears were flat against his head, while the curved lips were 
raised in an angrj^ snarl above the red jaw and its shining 
white row of pointed teeth. Bloody froth came from his 
throat, and tlie choking gurgle of a lung-shot beast was 
his defy to us as he half stood there, unable to fight back, 
but with the mental inclination to do so very much ni evi- 
dence. Onlv a moment the savage picture lasted; then 
the muscular front legs trembled, his great head sank 
down, and he settled to the earth ; a few rasping gurgles 
and a few twitches of the great muscles, and he was dead. 
"Gee! here's another one!" shouted the boy. as he 
heard a little noise' in the sage. 
We ran toward this third one, cmtichmg as well »s lie 
was able among the sage. , . i , 
"He's back-shot," said the boy, ,lookmg down at the 
This one showed none of the anger or fight that 
marked the one just dead, but seemed rather to want to 
sHnk away and avoid us, being shot in such a way that his 
whole hinder parts were paralyzed. 
The boy pulled his six-shooter, and advancing to 
within a couple of paces, shot the wolf behind the foreleg 
and finished his miseries. Then, gathering our trophies, 
we returned to camp, trailing them along behind us. 
"Funny how that third one got it." said the boy, "I 
didn't see him. Did you?" , , 
"No, I didn't, either. He must have been a little fur- 
ther back and in the shadow, and lined up with one of 
the others, I guess." 
"Are they dangerous?" asked the boy. 
"Well, no, not very, generally. Of course, if you hap- 
pen to be caught out in a deep snow by a hungry bunch 
of them they would probably make pretty short work of 
you. They do not run in packs much, though, and are 
much more apt to be alone or in pairs than in any other 
way I don't quite understand why they should be to- 
gether here at this time of the year, unless there is a 
carcass somewhere near. They kill a great deal of stock 
and some game and feed on any carcass that they hnd. 
"They are what the old hunters call the buftalo woli, 
because they hung along the flanks of the buffalo herd, 
waiting to pull down the calves or the old creatures. The 
cow men call them loafer wolves, for some rmkn own rea- 
son and the 'wolfers' who roam all over this plains 
country call them loafers, to distinguish them from coy- 
otes and timber wolves." • 
"Now let's turn in, and we can take the pelts ott in 
the morning." El Comanctio. 
Winter in the Rockies. 
I AM just back from a month's trip on ski through the 
Big Gros Ventre and Jackson's Hole countries. Three of 
us, Will Hill, Ed. Hill and myself, with eleven dogs, 
started just before Christmas; the , trip was partly to 
hunt cougars, partly to see how the elk were getting along, 
and also to have a good time. Going over the divide 
between Green River and Gros Ventre we only found 
about ift. of snow, and kicked ourselves because we had 
not come on horseback. On top it began to snow hard, 
the wind coming right in our faces. Here Frank Mich- 
ols of Jackson's Hole, who was with us, broke a snow- 
shoe, which is always a good thing to do. But he patched 
it up and 'we kept on. On the Gros Ventre side there 
was only about 6in. of snow, and, as what of the surface 
did not have rocks sticking up was all pawed up by the 
elk, the snowshoeing was not first class. So we got to 
Lloyd & Robinson's ranch that night plenty tn-ed. Uicl 
not see any elk that day, as the snow Avas not deep 
enough to keep them out of the timber during the day. 
The next day we went down to Fred Keener s trap- 
ping cabin on Crystal Creek, and on the way saw sev- 
eral hundred, maybe a thousand elk along the Gros 
Ventre Fred was not at home, so we ate up all of his 
grub that we could, and the next morning pulled out 
down the Gros Ventre. Soon we began to hit cougar 
cracks, and about lo o'clock, a track headmg the same 
way we were was too much of a temptaion, and we turned 
the hounds loose. We didn't have a gun m the uulhl. 
calculating to knock the cougar otit Qt his tree willi 
rocks and let the dogs finish it. 
To make a long story short, about 2 o clock he -iogs 
had the cougar bayed on a ledge of rocks nbout sin 
miles below where we turned loose. The dogs could not 
o-et at him and in going around the ledge to find a way 
to o-et up picked up the fresh trail of another cougar 
and°went after that one down the creek. The first cou- 
o-ar went away close to Will Hill, who was on top of the 
fedo-e but as he had no gun the big cat got away safely. 
S°o'we lit out after the dogs, and just at sunset came 
to where they had the second cougar tip a tree in the 
cliffs on the north side of the Gros Ventre, just above 
the Devil's Elbow. We had lots of fun with that cou- 
o-ar Lloyd who was with us, belted Felis concolor with 
big rocks till he jumped, but the ground was so rough 
that the dogs could not catch him. Hector, the half- 
bred staghound, got his favorite quartering dash and 
tail hold, but went headlong into a tree before he could 
throw the cougar. We repeated the rock-throwing act 
twice, when the cougar got in a big spruce, and the more 
rocks we threw the higher he went. By this time it was 
dark, so Ed. and I built some fires and went into camp, 
while the rest of the boys went down to Albert Nelson's 
four miles below, Will Hill saying that after supper he 
would come baok with a gun and some lunch. This 
was Christmas Eve, and I will bet that not many hunters 
in the United States had one like it. We had 'three big 
fires going, one at the foot of the tree up which the 
cougar was. Ed. and I sat on the big roots; overhead 
the cougar lay on a limb and w-atched us; the dogs lay 
around in beds they had dug at the foot of trees, and the 
blazing fires lighted up the dark cliffs overhead. 
Along about 10 o'clock Will got back with a quart of 
coffee, a lot of sandwiches and a No. 12 shotgun. The 
coffee and lunch was all right, but the gun was not. 
The right firing pin was gone and the left one was 
broken, so tliat the gun had to be held muzzle no when 
loading or the pin would drop out. After we had filled 
up. I took the artillery, the cartridges being loaded whh 
No. 4, and tried to spot that cougar. 1 want to remark 
right here that shining a cougar's eyes is not what it is 
cracked uo to be. The moon was up, but nary cougar 
could I see. At last I figured where he ought to be, and 
a charge of shot brought forth a great spitting and 
thrashing of branches. So I kept the gun going as fast 
as I could, and at the fifth shot down he came. We 
could not tell whether he Avas dead or not when he hit 
the ground, but he was dead enough when we got the 
dogs away. When we took the skin off, talk about pep- 
per-boxes'; five loads of No. 4 at tSyds- make a whole lot 
of holes in a cougar. Will took the skin in his pack' 
sack and we got into Nelson's at 12:30, but feeling O. K. 
The next day we went down to Frank Peterson's, who 
was one of the' party to climb the Grand Teton last sum- 
mer,. Frank tells a very interesting story of the top, 
and I am free to confess that my head is too soft for that 
kind of work. 
The next day w6 went down to Will Simpson's get- 
ling there in trim for the Christmas bah of the Jackson's 
Hole Gun Club, which was held at their club house. 
We had to take in the ball in snowshoe dress, sweaters, 
overalls and moccasins, because when a fellow is snow- 
shoeing he does not carry any extra clothes along. 
Nearly every one in the Hole is pretty well stirred up 
over the proposed extension of the Yellowstone Park, 
which would not only take in about half of the agricul- 
tural land of the valley, but all the grazing land border- 
ing the Hole. A mass meeting was held Jan. 26, and 
by a unanimous vote resolutions were adopted pro- 
testing against any enlargement of the Park or the for- 
mation of a new park. Jackson's Hole proper is neariy 
all farming land, with very little grazing or timber land, 
and if the settlers are deprived of the use of the grazmg 
and timber land north and east of the valley, it will 
be an almost fatal blow at the stock-raising iiiterest, 
which is becoming an important one. The same is true 
of the valley of the Upper Green River, and the Stat;e 
of Wyoming will make a great mistake if it allows this 
project to go through. 
As regards the game question, and especially the elk, 
the situation is this. There are in northwestern Wyom- 
ing and the Park between 50,000 and 60,000 elk, perhaps 
more. I understand that there are about 10,000 elk in 
the Park this winter. There are about 20,000 on the Big 
Gros Ventre, 10,000 in Jackson's Hole, and 10,000 on 
Green River and the desert. Nearly half of these elk 
summer in the Park, and the balance are practically un- 
disturbed during the breeding season. This means that 
somewhere between 5,000 and - 10,000 calves are raised 
every year. This is enough to supply all legitimate de- 
mands. • At present these elk are well protected. The 
Jackson's Hole people are doing all in their power to 
stop all violations of the' law. On Green River the state 
of affairs is not so good. The elk that go to the desert 
to winter will not last long, as the people down there 
make no effort to protect them. Below Rock Creek, 
what with the Rock Springs Lumber Company, which 
has been feeding a couple of hundred men on elk meat 
all the fall, and the slaughter of elk by the ranchmen, the 
elk have been going pretty fast. On the upper river, be- 
tween Rock Creek stream and the lakes, the elk are 
wintering well and have not been disturbed, as we gave 
the lumber company's hunter to understand that any 
hunting in that section meant trouble. 
As matters stand now, the elk ought to hold then- 
own. Of course, the Bannocks and Shoshones still come 
over and kill cow and calf elk by the hundreds every 
fall but a row like the trouble in Colorado in '87 and '97, 
and Jackson's Hole in '95, is breeding, and that will 
clear the air in that direction. Last year the Indians 
drove off one game warden by show of force, but that 
will not happen again. 
Now. if the Park is enlarged, this is what will happen. 
The elk will be protected on all their summer range. 
No one will be able to get any elk hunting, as the elk 
will not be out of the Park during the open season. 
Result, the elk will increase very rapidly; they will soon 
eat up all the feed, and the first hard winter the bulk of 
them will starve. 1 do not see the use of stopping elk 
hunting, which benefits many, in order that esery four 
or five years 30,000 or 40,000 elk may starvfe to death. 
The elk' lierds are now as large as the range can sup- 
port, and [ fullv expect to see a big loss the first hard 
winter What we want is not a big park to protect the 
elk, but a reasonable effort to enforce what laws we now 
liave. 
When we came back the elk herds were down 011 the 
Big Gros Ventre, and it was a sight worth seeing. For 
forty miles elk were in sight as far as one could see. The 
bands numbered from 100 to r.ooo elk, and one herd, 
on the ridge between the Gros Ventre an ' Fish Creek, 
covered a tract of country one mile by two. We esti- 
mated 5,000 elk in that herd alone. Many of the elk 
were so tame that they would hardly get out of our way, 
and all the elk that we saw looked well, as there was not 
much snow and grass was plentiful. There is no fear 
that the elk are going to disappear very soon, and a 1 
that Wyoming wants is a just game law, fairiy enforced, 
and we will have elk hunting for all time. 
I forgot to mention that we only got four lions on 
the entire trip, so it was not much of a success^ m^that 
line. 
"Forest and Stream*' Contributors. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the pleasant reminiscent- letter of your contributoTv 
Bristol Hill, the names of .some old contributors are- 
omitted whose articles were always eagerly looked for 
by your readers. 
Among them was Maj. Sarasota, who wrote some ver\'- 
entertaining descriptions of hunting in Florida. I espe- 
cially remember one in which he told of a man-eating 
shark following his canoe for miles, trailing it by the 
blood of a deer that dripped overboard. Poor Sarasota 
went long ago to his final rest, but he is not forgotten. 
Then there was H. P. U.. whose "Bear that treed 
Jimmy O'Brien" was, it seems to me, enough to im- 
mortalize any writer. He was as tenderly poetic as he 
was humorous, as his contributions attest. 
There was also O. O. S., always bright and interesting 
and vividly descriptive of all his observant eyes beheld. 
Who has forgotten his inimitable panther story, told so 
circumstantially that it made the chills creep up one's 
back. Alas, they are gone, and there are none left like 
them. They were my dear friends, though I never met 
them, and the death of each came to. me as a personal 
loss. Ufford, Smith, the Editor and I used to carry on 
an absurd roundabout correspondence, in which all man- 
ner of imaginary adventures were related and momentous 
questions settled. Ufford, in his last days, wrote a let- 
ter to Antoine from a Cajan relative, and two days be- 
fore Smith's disappearance he wrote me most cheer- 
fully and affectionately, though he was silently suffer- 
ing mortal agony, and a little while before had sent me 
a beautiful collection of sea mosses from Hood Canal, 
beneath whose waters, perhaps, he sleeps. Fie was al- 
ways doing something to lighten the gloom that en- 
compassed his blind friend, and these last mementoes 
of his unselfish love are very touching, as are a handful 
of wild flowers, spring beauties, that Nesmuk crept forth 
to gather for me the last April he ever .saw. 
He was a unique character, this old woods loafer as 
he called himself. Sometimes one wonders if Nature 
does not miss and grieve for such lovers as these men 
were. But she has not lost them; only drawn them a 
little closer to her heart, and they know her secrets, that 
to us are a sealed book. 
I greatly miss the quaint, racy wood notes of old Jock 
Darling, and I wish that some of the living contributors, 
wrote oftener. Kelpie, Kingfisher, Piseco, Tarpon, Dr. 
Morris, Manly Hardy, Orrin Belknap and the veteran 
Von W., and many others, close observers and prac- 
tical men, who never write but to instruct and enter- 
tain. They should not let their secrets die with them. 
AWAHSOOSE. 
Wm. Wblls. 
Reason and Instinct. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Although Mr. Fred Mather will not get the Donny- 
brook out of me that he seems to hanker for, still I feel 
forced into disputing his views, as both erroneous and 
mischievous; for if my contention that none of the lower 
animals reason in kind, as man does, is correct, then 
great injustice is inflicted on those animals by claiming 
reason for them. Had the owmer of the mastiff Blank 
Boy clearly recognized the limitations of the dog's in- 
teMigence he would not have trained the dog to keep 
all strangers away from his child's perambulator, and 
the mastiff would not have attacked another child who 
persisted in coming to the perambttlator after repeated 
warnings from the dog. The poor dog was but a dog. 
after all, ar.d did his duty as he saw it. 
Now, I hardly feel that Mr. Mather has a right to set 
up a definition of his own for reason, and it is only fair 
to take accepted ones. Webster's seems just and fair — "to 
deduce inferences justly from premises." Now, the first 
and most conclusive proof that animals do not reason 
as man does, either in degree or in kind, is the fact that 
there are many acts of reasoning, so simple that the low- 
est savage comprehends them, that no animal has ever 
shown ability to carry out. Animals will hover around! 
an expiring fire, enjoying its warmth, but never at- 
tempting to keep up the source of their enjoyment by 
pushing the expiring brands on the fire. The co-w ii.s 
consoled for the loss of her calf by its hide, stuffed with 
hay, being given her to snuff at (and will eat the stuf- 
fing out of the hide). The bitch will accept yellow fos- 
ter-pups among her jet black ones, if they have been 
cuddled up with her own long enough to get their smell. 
I think it will be admitted that human reason of the 
very lowest order is infinitely beyond the mentality 
shown by animals in these points. 
Now let us consider the acts Mr. Mather cites as- 
evincing reason in the animals — the fice dog calling as- 
sistance to his injured master will answer as well as 
any. Let tis admit for illustration's sake that the act of 
the dog proceeded from reasoning Then the mental 
process of the dog would be. "My master is hurt; he 
cannot help hitnself; L cannot help; men can help him; 
I must go and get men here." On meeting the men: 
"T must behave so a? to attraci their attention, and by 
running from thenl, induce them to follow me to my 
master." Is this not a very much more complicated 
chain of reasoning than the one that might have induced 
the dog to keep himself warm by pushing the ends oi 
unbtirnt embers into the fire, or the still simpler matter 
of how the female could effectually defend herself? 
Therefore, if the dog, most unquestionably is incapable 
of an act requiring much less reasoning power than in- 
volved in the course Mr. Mather claims as a result of 
reason why infer reason as the source until other ex- 
planations have failed? Dogs certainly— and other ani- 
mals probably— possess sympathy; the dog sympathized 
with its master; that sympathy made it anxious and dis- 
tressed- its distress led it to go away from its master, and 
its own desire for sympathy led it to the spot where meit 
were- then its anxiety caused it to behave as it did. and 
in its mixed feelings it adopted the course of conduct 
that led Mr. Mather and his companion to the help of 
the dog's master, Which of the two explanation.s is the- 
