158 
WHITE AMERICAN WOLF. 
the beast, and although the hills were gained by the fugitive, he had not 
time to make for the broken ground and deep ravines, which he would have 
reached in few minutes, when we heard the crack of the gun again, and 
Mr. Culbertson galloping along dexterously picked up the slain Wolf with- 
out dismounting li-om his horse, threw him across the pummel of his sad- 
dle, wheeled round and rode back to the Fort, as fast as he had gone 
forth, a hard shower of rain being an additional motive for quickening 
his pace, and triumphantly placed the trophy of his chase at our disposal. 
The time occupied, from the start of the hunter, until his return with his 
prize did not exceed twenty minutes. The jaws of the animal had 
become fixed, and it was quite dead. Its teeth had scarified one of 
Mr. Culbertson’s fingers considerably, but we were assured that this 
was of no importance, and that such feats as the capture of this wolf were 
so very common, that no one considered it worthy of being called an 
exploit. 
Immediately after this real wolf .hunt, a sham Buffalo chase took 
place, a prize of a suit of clothes being provided for the rider who 
should load and shoot the greatest number of times in a given distance. 
The horses were mounted, and the riders started with their guns empty- 
loaded in a trice, while at speed, and fired first on one side and then 
on the other, as if after Buffaloes. Mr. Culbertson fired eleven times 
in less than half a mile’s run, the others fired less rapidly, and one of 
them snapped several times, but as a snap never brings down a Buf- 
falo, these mishaps did not count. We were all well pleased to see 
these feats performed with much ease and grace. None of the riders 
were thrown, although they suffered their bridles to drop on their 
horses necks, and plied the whip all the time. Mr. Culbertson’s mare, 
which was of the full, black foot Indian breed, about five years old, 
was highly valued by that gentleman, and could not have been pur- 
chased of him for less than four hundred dollars. 
To return to the wolves. — These animals were in the habit of 
coming at almost every hour of the night, to feed in the troughs 
where the offal from the Fort was deposited for the hogs. On one 
occasion, a wolf killed by our party was devoured during the night, 
probably by other prowlers of the same species. 
The white wolves are generally fond of sitting on the tops of the 
eminences, or small hills in the prairies, from which points of vantage 
they can easily discover any passing object on the plain at a consider- 
able distance. 
We subjoin a few notes on wolves generally, taken from our journals, 
made during our voyage up the Missouri in 1843. 
