788 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June 22, 1912 
as a visitor, but my two battlers would not per¬ 
mit the familiarity and made immediate attack 
on the friendly canine. It took laborious work 
to separate the combatants, but peace finally re¬ 
stored, I resumed my performance at the fire 
until the meal was consummated. 
Knowing the moon would rise at 10 o’clock, 
I cast a blanket on the knoll, covered my head 
to prevent invasion by the numerous mosquitoes 
and prepared to sleep. 
To the northeast, just as the earth was wrap¬ 
ped in its dark covering of night, I heard the 
baying of coarse-toned hounds; at least, so I 
imagined it to be. At the distance it appeared 
like the treed-note of a pack, for in the swamps 
sounds are magnified beyond comprehension. 
Evidently no one came to the treed signal. The 
dogs opened up again, this time apparently on a 
hot trail, which lasted ten minutes, then sud¬ 
denly ceased in a storm of belligerent growlings. 
(Afterward I learned that a yearling had been 
killed the same night back of the Duprez shack.) 
The pack began again, swinging in a wide circle 
around us. There was something strange, some¬ 
thing unfathomably sinister in their tonguing ex¬ 
pressions that puzzled me. The sounds were 
more prolonged, deeper and far more piercing 
than I had ever noticed in any pack, but I at¬ 
tributed it to the swamps and the heavy night air. 
They began to shorten their circles as the 
moon shot over the tops of the cypress and 
silvered the sands of the bottoms. I could dis¬ 
tinctly hear the movements of the pack as they 
suddenly stopped 200 yards from my fire. They 
opened up once more, my horses became restless, 
and instead of Clo and Prince pouncing into an 
engagement as I expected, the reverse happened. 
Clo’s hair bristled on her back, she gave a fright¬ 
ened yelp and with Prince in the lead leaped on 
the wagon seat. 
For the first time that night I realized that 
my pack of hounds were timber wolves. I was 
not afraid, knowing there was no danger or 
mischief from them. Still I had the old feel¬ 
ing which inevitably comes to everybody when 
alone in a wild country when he senses that for 
the nonce he is the subject of cynosure for a 
pack of wolves. I leaped to the seat, uncovered 
the shotgun and slipped in two shells loaded 
with BB’s. 
I confess I remained in my lofty position un¬ 
determined what to do, and perfectly satisfied 
of the improbability of a display against me by 
the wild creatures. Nevertheless a creepy sensa¬ 
tion took possession of me, which the gun in 
hand only comforted slightly. The moon had 
climbed straight overhead and illumined a dim 
lizard road through the timber, the pack had 
hushed, and I thought I heard them stealthily 
sneaking away. Unexpectedly, in the center of 
the road and in the full moonlight, not thirty 
steps from my fire, I saw a wolf move from the 
cover, then stop and lift a sorrowful wailing 
plaint directly at the moon. 
Letting the ivory sight repose full on the 
head of the beast, as it was the most conspicu¬ 
ous part, I pulled the trigger. The reverbera¬ 
tions of the animal’s voice far back in the over¬ 
flow died with the report of the gun. I saw the 
animal whirl in a' circle, snapping like a dog in 
a fit, then it sank in the broad shadow of a 
tupelo-gum. The forest was silent for the in¬ 
stant; Clo and Prince gained courage as I 
lighted the lantern and followed me to where 
I had fired at the wolf. I found the beast 
stretched dead in a bed of soft sand at the foot 
of the gum. The lower jaw was almost entirely 
torn from its head by the charge; it was a 
female and possibly would have weighed seventy 
pounds. I robbed her of her scalp and dragged 
the remains far back into the drouth-stunted 
switch cane, for I had doubts of ever getting 
the team past it. 
Angling in Southern California. 
BY SENOR X. 
The angling season in Southern California 
is on in full force. 
The outlook for sea angling on the Coast is 
promising. Gifford Pinchot and Chas. F. 
Holder, of the Tuna Club, make a killing at 
Santa Catalina Island that gave the angling 
community a thrill. With Dr. Holder they 
started for “Ship Rock,’’ off the town of Cabrillo 
in the west end of Santa Catalina. Dr. Holder 
had written to Mexican Joe to have some fifty 
pounds of white sea bass “tied up” for the party, 
but Joe made a mistake and evidently substituted 
yellowtail, as no sooner had they reached the 
rock, which is an extraordinary likeness to a 
ship, than Pinchot struck a 33-pound yellowtail 
on his nine-ounce rod, and the fight was on. The 
fish fought like demons and at the strike the 
boatman was forced to tow them two hundred 
feet into deep water where they were played. 
Mr. Pinchot gave some fine illustrations of 
the handling of big fish with light tackle, ex¬ 
perimenting with all the Tuna Club tackle—(i) 
tuna tackle; (2) nine-ounce rod and No. 9 line; 
(3) six-ounce rods and No. 6 line. On the latter 
he landed thirty-pound fighters in thirty minutes. 
On the second it took fifteen and on the heavy 
tackle eight or ten minutes. The marvelous 
strength of the fish was shown on the heavy 
tackle, and they could have broken it easily in 
unskilled hands. 
On the first day Mr. Pinchot landed nine 
yellowtail, all over twenty pounds, ranging up 
to thirty-three pounds. On the second day he 
took thirteen, all on rod and reel, not to speak 
of numerous bass and whitefish. This was the 
virtual opening of the season of the Tuna Club 
tournament, and the catches created great ex¬ 
citement among the tourists who were anxious 
to see the conservationist angle. Pinchot crossed 
the Santa Catalina channel with Mexican Joe 
in a search after swordfish and tuna and re¬ 
turns to the islands in late summer. Colonel 
John F. Stearns, vice-president of the Tuna 
Club, attracted much attention this week in the 
channel fishing with a tuna plane or kite for 
tuna, coming down before the wind with the 
“plane” a hundred feet in air ahead of the 
launch and manipulated by its inventor. Captain 
George Farnsworth. The idea is to imitate the 
leap of the flying fish and keep the bait away 
from the boat. 
Colonel Stearns has made many notable 
catches and last year, among the tunas and 
As I came by the Duprez home the following 
day they hailed me: “Vous avez attendu les 
loups ?” 
Then I pulled the scalp from under my seat 
cushion and held it out to them for answer. 
And while for many years I have heard the tim¬ 
ber wolves at their nightly swamp rabbit hunts, 
none impressed me so much as on the night I 
killed my first timber wolf. 
swordfish, he landed a bottle-nosed dolphin 
weighing 600 or 700 pounds. 
Many famous Eastern anglers are at the 
island, among them Mr, Hooper, president of the 
Tarpon Club of Texas; Mr. Conn, whose yacht 
is being made ready at Avalon for cruises after 
tuna; Sir H. Blosse and Lady Blosse, and many 
more. Leaping tunas have been seen, and at 
the present writing a large school has been 
sighted off the southeast end of Santa Catalina, 
promising good sport in smooth or dead calm 
water. Swordfish have also been seen, and it 
is expected that the rod record of 1911 (thirty- 
four) will be exceeded. In August and Sep¬ 
tember last year there were schools of thousands 
of little fishes which were so ravenous that they 
bit at every thing. 
The mainland sea anglers, who frequent the 
beaches of Long Beach, Redondo, San Pedro, 
Ocean Side, Del Mar and Venice, are having 
fine sport with surf, roncador and spot fin, and 
those who go out into mid channel get albacore, 
bonita and other game in water nearly a mile 
deep, taken by trolling. At Newport yellowtails 
are often taken. The large and influential Los 
Angeles Rod and Reel Club, of which Max Loen- 
thal is president, does much of its fishing at 
these places, surf angling from the beach having 
many charms. Among the experts are Mr. 
Max Loenthal, Mr. Chas. V. Barton, of Los 
Angeles; Mr. T. McD. Potter, Mr. Henry Loen¬ 
thal and Mr. Cox. 
Trout fishing has not been overpoweringly 
fine, but some good catches have been made by 
anglers in the Sespe, Dr. Page, of Pasadena, 
taking the limit on this beautiful stream. On 
the San Gabriel, T. McDonald Potter has made 
some fine catches of rainbow near Pincon, and 
Dr. George E. Hale tried the main stream with 
the dry fly with general satisfaction. One of 
the finest baskets taken in the San Gabriel this 
year was by Ormsby Phillips, of Pasadena, who 
took some large steelheads and rainbows. Mr. 
Phillips had a record last year for second big¬ 
gest steelhead, a fine photograph of which graces 
the Tuna Club. 
The season for trout at Bear Valley and in 
the headwaters of the Santa Ana, 5,000 feet 
above the sea, in San Bernardino county, was 
opened by Mr. Thad. Lowe, of the Valley Hunt 
Club, with one of the finest catches ever taken 
from this water since snow was on the ground, 
but the anglers had remarkable sport and took 
out the limit of trout, running up to six and 
seven pounds. Bear Valley Lake is a big reser¬ 
voir and high enough to keep cool during the 
