32 
FOREST AND STREAM 
strict vegetarian, I learned that he is not such, 
and that he will not only eat meat, hut that he 
will, in the midst of plenty, turn cannibal. Every 
time I shot one, I saw other gophers feeding on 
his dead body within a few minutes, and that, 
too, though there was a superabundance of other 
provender all about. 
Near the cabin ran a branch of the Gros Ven¬ 
tre river, in which small trrut were very plenti¬ 
ful even in November. How they managed to 
survive the bitter cold, I could never surmise. 
The little brook had rather a swift descent, and 
was seldom frozen over except on the level 
reaches. Even when the mercury dropped be¬ 
low zero, the fish did not run downstream into 
the deep holes, but in the severest weather were 
plentiful in water not over a foot deep, and often 
much shallower, and so far from being dormant 
or sluggish, were as lively as in summer. A tem- 
A White Man’s Burden in Pinehurst. 
perature approximating zero in the atmosphere 
must be conducted to a large extent through a 
foot of water, even though the water be run¬ 
ning too swiftly to permit of its congealing. 
How they stood it was always a puzzle to me. 
The country was infested with wolves, and I 
saw their tracks wherever I went by day and 
their howling I heard by night—not the coy¬ 
ote’s, whose evening concert, given at dusk, when 
he leaves his lair, for the night’s foraging, I love 
to hear. That curious barking and yapping is 
rather a pleasant sound than otherwise. Not so 
the howling of a pack of wolves. I never hear 
it, far or near, but it makes my flesh creep and 
my hair bristle- It is a gruesome thing—like a 
chant of lost souls, without time or melody, 
wails of unspeakable trouble, and anguish and 
despair. The deep, hoarse, full-throated bass of 
the elders, while it does not harmonize with the 
shrill, clear, strident peals of the young fry, 
does in a measure blend into a sort of chorus. 
And they keep it up for an hour or more, al¬ 
ways in the middle of the night, and often close 
to camp. 1 'have never known anybody to ven¬ 
ture out to disperse them. Probably they would 
turn tail and run away, perhaps not. 
I have often wondered why they do it; some 
say they make the noise to call together scatter¬ 
ed members of the pack, preliminary to the 
nightly killing, which is nearly always made 
just before or at dawn. Mowgli’s foster-broth¬ 
ers had a different plan but then that was in 
India. A barbarous killer the gray wolf is. No 
one who has seen his work wants ever to see it 
again, or needs any additional incentive to 
slaughter the brute on sight. 
The onslaught is made usually by the leader 
of the pack, and is not killing at all. The vic- 
time is attacked from behind, hamstrung and 
dragged to the ground. Then the padk eat out 
his hams, and seldom touch anything else, going 
away leaving their victim to die a lingering and 
horrible death. 
While their natural prey is wild game, they 
prefer cattle, of which there were not a few, 
ranging for the summer about the cabin, and be¬ 
longing to ranchmen living in Jackson’s Hole 
They were in charge of an old time Montana 
cow puncher, whose imprecations upon finding 
a fine calf so maltreated, but still alive, are bet¬ 
ter imagined than described. The killings con¬ 
tinuing, he “laid for” that pack early and late 
until one morning, when it was still so dark that 
he could barely see the sights of the gun, he 
got the leader, and the pack then turned its at¬ 
tention to the elk. 
It was quite a feather in M.’s cap, to have bag¬ 
ged the big dog wolf, for they are a wary, crafty 
beast, nocturnal in habits, seldom seen even bj 
those who are much in the mountains. Riding 
thousands of miles on horseback, in the Rockies, 
of several different states, I have seen but three. 
The cattlemen say that five full-grown wolves 
will average a killing every night, and so the 
bounties on the wolf’s head rise sometimes to 
nearly $100. Yet as he covers a wide territory, 
killing here to-night and perhaps miles away to¬ 
morrow, he manages to survive, and seems ac¬ 
tually to increase in numbers for some time after 
the advent of the setler. This was the rule 
with the coyote, which now is a tremendously 
destructive pest in regions where he was unknown 
prior to the settlement of man. It is my 
positive conviction that the practical extermina¬ 
tion of the white-and black-tail deer in large 
parts of Wyoming and Colorado, was due more 
to the destruction brought by the coyote than to 
all other causes combined. 
Long association with my furred and finned 
and feathered friends has taught me something 
of the hard conditions which they have to com¬ 
bat. It is a relentless struggle with them even 
to exist, to keep bare life in their bodies. So 
I have come, as all must whose nature has in it 
any milk of human kindness, to deal gently with 
all helpless wild creatures and never to take life, 
except from the predacious, if it can be avoided. 
One does not need to be sanctimonious to be¬ 
lieve that “he prayeth best, who loveth best, all 
things, both great and small.” 
UNITED ANGLERS LEAGUE. 
We have perused a booklet from United Ang¬ 
lers League, in which, interestingly, is outlined the 
policy and workings of the organization. Its ob¬ 
jects are to promote and protect the interests of 
all anglers by uniting them in a progressive body, 
to see that the laws are enforced and in promot¬ 
ing laws beneficial to the angling fraternity. One 
important Object in view: A demand on behalf 
of salt water fishermen for as much recognition 
by the state, and union, as are given fresh water 
anglers, without curtailing theirs. Meetings are 
held first Thursday in each month at 302 Madi¬ 
son avenue, New York City, third Thursday ai 
671 Bush wick avenue, Brooklyn. Salt water an¬ 
glers would do well to drop in and get acquainted 
with these briny linemen. 
SPORTSMEN OF PENNSYLVANIA TO FORM 
NEW ORGANIZATION. 
Hunters, fishermen, nature lovers, canoeists 
and persons interested in the welfare of the 
forests, streams and birds and wild life gener¬ 
ally in Pennsylvania are back of the plan to 
form an entirely new organization to cover the 
state and provide actual live-working bodies in 
every community. There are several existing or¬ 
ganizations, but their form of government lacks 
ties between the individual members and the 
state organizations, and thus has greatly hamper¬ 
ed the usefulness of the organizations. 
The new organization, to start 'with, is ex¬ 
pected to enlist at once practically the entire 
strength of the United Sportsmen west of the 
mountains, and this is estimated at twenty-three 
organizations, with a total membership of close 
to 1,300. 
It is understood that the new organization will 
be launched formally within the next 30 days. 
While the name, the Out-Door League of Penn¬ 
sylvania, has been suggested and met with favor, 
the title has not yet been selected. The plan of 
organization will be based on the established * 
civic divisions of the state, namely community, 
county and state leagues, closely affiliated with 
the representatives to the county governing bod¬ 
ies elected by the local clubs or organizations, 
and those of the state governing body elected by 
the county organizations. The work of the new 
association will be broad enough to attract more 
than hunters and fishermen, covering the whole 
field of wild life conservation and recreation. 
Demand More Reserve Here. 
In view of the immense amount of practical 
conservation legislation that is to be considered 
by the coming Legiis|lature, /the necessity of 
guarding the great resident hunter’s license fund 
of almost $600,000 from being used for other 
purposes than those for which it was contribut¬ 
ed, the crying demand for a synchronous small 
game season and the proposed increase of the 
state’s game and fish propagation and planting, 
it is regarded as essential that strong local or¬ 
ganizations be formed in every town and coun¬ 
ty in order that the necessities of each region 
may be given proper consideration and the state 
be enabled to furnish facilities for outdoor re¬ 
creation without discrimination in favor of cer¬ 
tain sections. 
The forestry department is also planning to 
greatly extend the forest reserve system, and 
as Western Pennsylvania now has only 9,000 of 
the 1,000,000 acres of forest reserve, the lovers 
of wild life in this section demand that most 
of this extension be made in this end of the 
state, which will require some additional legis- 
('Continued on page 41.) 
