nany of us, as we curse the road, the 
cause of broken springs, loss of time 
and temper, give a thought to those 
who, for our pleasure, endeavor to keep 
this little road in condition. 
A regular appropriation has been 
found to be out of the question, so the 
little box on the barn and the sign over 
it requesting donations; should we not 
be a little bit ashamed of ourselves as 
we remember our small contributions 
or entire lack of any. Just to show you, 
I have before me a statement of what 
was collected by the Coast Guard boys 
last season for the upkeep of this road. 
It AVERAGED ABOUT 50 CENTS A 
DAY and they are in debt $6.50 for hay 
used in padding this same road. 
Now are we thoughtless or are we 
merely tightwads ? Remembering the 
many kindnesses on the part of the 
Coast Guard fellows and remembering 
the state of the roadway last season, 
perhaps the little sign on the barn ask¬ 
ing for contributions for the upkeep of 
the road may appeal a little more 
strongly to us this coming season. If 
each and every one of us adds his bit 
we may consider ourselves sportsmen 
in fact as well as name. 
A. F. YVestervelt, New York. 
THE “LAST ADIRONDACK 
WOLF” IS NOT YET 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
MEWS will “break” with odd coin- 
f ^ cidences at times. The writer had 
just read in Forest and Stream for 
February about Reuben Cary and the 
last Adirondack wolf which was killed 
some thirty years ago at Brandreth Lake 
in the Adirondacks, when the startling 
information came that Carl Lawrence 
had just killed a gray timber wolf about 
a mile outside of Wilmington in the 
deep snow near Whiteface Mountain. 
It is probably certain that Reuben 
Cary’s wolf can be truthfully called the 
last of the Adirondack packs, for all 
authorities agree that this latest wolf is 
undoubtedly a stray from Canada. The 
Canadian border is less than a hundred 
miles north of the spot where Carl Law¬ 
rence made his kill. It has also been re¬ 
ported frequently during the current 
winter that the Canadian wolves were 
active and adventurous. 
The wolf near Wilmington had been 
hunted for several weeks in the belief 
that it was a silver fox. Some of the 
woodsmen had got a glimpse of it in the 
distance and ’naturally presumed that it 
was a fine specimen of large fox. Of 
course, all the local men were keyed to 
a high pitch in the hope of capturing the 
animal. The man who made the kill be¬ 
lieved that he had a silver fox until he 
came close to it. His doubts were soon 
dispelled, however, for it proved that the 
first shot had only injured the wolf’s 
spine in such a manner that his hind 
quarters were paralyzed; but as Law¬ 
rence came near, the wolf put ferocious 
strength into his front legs and pro¬ 
pelled himself toward the hunter in a 
vicious charge, his jaws wide open and 
his long fangs almost terrifying. It re¬ 
quired a second shot to bring him to bay. 
Carl Lawrence and George Marshall 
were hunting foxes with dogs at the 
time that the wolf’s trail was found. 
They had come to a spot where some 
spoiled meat had been placed as bait. 
The dogs found the tracks and became 
highly excited. Lawrence took up a post 
at the side of a mountain and the other 
man went off with the dogs. Three 
wide circles were made and it was nearly 
four hours before the wolf was discov¬ 
ered. He was finally driven in the direc¬ 
tion of Lawrence, with the result that a 
well placed rifle-shot broke the animal’s 
back. 
At first there were a number of doubt¬ 
ing Thomases among spectators who wit¬ 
nessed the exhibit. “There hain’t no 
sech animal in these here parts,” they 
said, and therefore the kill could not be 
a wolf. But then authorities were con¬ 
sulted, including a zoological book of 
standards, and the classification of the 
Wolf killed in the Adirondacks 
animal was fixed beyond doubt. His 
weight was forty-one pounds, and his 
measurement fully five feet from nose 
to tail tip. 
It happened, too, that a representative 
of the State Forest Conservation Com¬ 
mission hurried to the scene of the kill¬ 
ing within a few days. His story seems to 
prove that there are indeed more wolves 
in the Adirondacks. It seems that the 
Conservation Commission has heard 
several reports concerning the presence 
of wolves and for that reason is anxious 
to authenticate them. The representative 
of the commission made a report in 
which he recorded the kill and the cir¬ 
cumstances and also established the 
identity of the animal as a gray timber 
wolf. He informed the hunter, however, 
that this was the first authenticated in¬ 
stance of a wolf’s capture in the Adiron¬ 
dacks in recent years. 
Thomas F. Moffett, 
Saranac Lake, N. Y. 
A SLY OLD ’COON 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
P\ URING the season of the year when 
fur-bearing animals are being taken 
for their fur, two classes of people are 
constantly pursuing them, namely, the 
trapper and the hound-man, sometimes 
called night-hunter. Although I have 
always belonged to the former class, 
preferring to study the habits of the 
animals and to take them by strategy, 
I have often spent the greater part of a 
night with friends who were following 
the hounds that were on the trail of 
some wily ’coon. The raccoon is by far 
the most sagacious animal with which 
the night-hunter has to deal. While 
many sportsmen place the fox ahead of 
the ’coon in this respect, I am sure if 
they lived in a country where both of 
these animals could be trailed, the hon¬ 
ors would soon go to the raccoon. The 
average hunter is well acquainted with 
the usual tricks played by the ’coon, such 
as crossing through interlaced limbs 
from one tree to another, back-tracking 
and swimming in streams. 
I was trapping in the vicinity of Dun¬ 
bar, a small town in eastern Nebraska, 
when the following incident happened: 
Several boys in the village owned trained 
’coon dogs and had been successful in 
running down most of the young and 
less sly animals in that section during 
the early part of the season, but had met 
their match in an “old-timer” that 
roamed the territory along a small 
stream below the town. The boys, hear¬ 
ing that I was an old hunter, asked me 
to assist them in capturing the animal 
that was leading their dogs so many 
fruitless chases. Upon inquiry as to the 
manner in which the ’coon would elude 
the dogs, I was told that the animal, 
after leading the dogs a long chase, 
would take to one of several wild cherry 
trees that grew along the stream. Here 
the trail would end and although the 
boys would search the tree from top to 
bottom, no ’coon could be found nor 
could the dogs again pick up the scent 
in the neighborhood. Upon closer in¬ 
quiry I found that, with the exception of 
one tree which had been climbed twice, 
the coon had no choice of trees as long 
as it was a wild cherry. 
The first night out the usual occur¬ 
rence was repeated. The chase ended 
several miles from where we had 
started the ’coon at a medium-sized, 
wild-cherry tree. Climbing the tree I 
searched every nook and corner that 
might hide an animal but no ’coon could 
be found. Descending to the ground 
I told the boys to lead the dogs in circles 
quite a distance from the tree in hopes 
that they would again pick up the trail 
but with no better success. It was get¬ 
ting late so we returned to town. I 
spent considerable time that night in 
deep study, hoping that I might solve 
the secret of the animal’s mysterious dis¬ 
appearance. I decided that I would not 
leave that section until I had learned 
more about the ’coon, so the next day I 
had one of the boys show me the tree 
that the ’coon had chosen to climb a 
second time. 
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