I have heard of wolves attacking persons in the woods of the Northeastern States; I have no reason to doubt this — they may be a different wolf from our grey wolf, or buffalo wolf, as they are often called. I have seen them in the Panhandle country of Northwest Texas, in Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana and Canada and they are all the same, as far as I could see, in looks, size and habits, and I have never heard of them molesting anyone in the above mentioned places. Of course, there is the coyote, he is everywhere I have ever been and some call him a wolf. Fur dealers call him prairie wolf; frequently some fellow will tell me about a black wolf, or a big white one, but I just let him run it over me; I don't tell him he is a prevaricator, neither do I get angry and try to kill him. I permit him to think he is telling me something and try to look unconcerned and solemn, but I think he has looked down on the back of a grey wolf from high ground and he looked dark and the more he thought about it, the darker it became, until he became almost too black for anything. The same wolf standing on a hill above you, will show the white and yellow on his breast and belly and that always looks so much like that big white wolf. I do not doubt but that there is an occasional black wolf, but I have never seen one.
I want to see every wolf and coyote in the country with his hide nailed up to dry. I did not encourage others to trap when I was wolfing, as I wanted to know how to work my range to the best advantage, and beginners often make them hard to catch; their work is too coarse and the wolves get wise. To the boys who inquired in the July number about methods of setting and baiting for wolves, I will say I will give you the best I've got. While an experienced wolfer can give you some good pointers, he can do you no good, unless you are an early riser and an energetic worker with lots of patience, for successful wolfing is not a lazy man's job. Of course, I do not know anything about trapping in the woods or in the country east of the Missouri. No. 4 Newhouse traps are the best where you are trapping wolves and coyotes both.
A prairie dog town is a good place, especially if the country is rough around it, as wolves come to catch the dogs. Make a blind set on some smooth mound, set about three traps close together. Kinsey stakes all three to one pin, probably to save time, but I always stake them so that they can't quite pull them together but it takes more work. The wind generally blows from the northwest and wolves generally come to a setting facing the wind, and you will see the advantage in having your traps set on the "windward" side or set them in a triangle with bait in center — a prairie dog cut in several pieces and then put together to look natural. In picking the pieces up, he is liable to step around some. If the dog is whole, he may carry it away without being caught. It is not always necessary to bait after you have caught one, as he leaves scent that will attract others. Get traps in bare ground, don't chop out places in the grass. In trapping along trails and creeks always remember the wind; this is important. Roll up a bunch of wool to put under the pan and cover the whole trap with dry dirt, especially in winter.
If you have been covering your traps with paper, cut it out — wool is more convenient and the mice do not uncover your trap and the wind does not uncover it so much. If you are bothered by having cattle spring your traps at a carcass, set your trap under the edge of the carcass where stock will miss them but when the coyote rears back to pull off a bite, it is right where he will put his front feet. I have often killed "Big Jaws," old horses and cripples and then set traps on the trails they follow to feed on the carcass, but seldom set the trap at the carcass. Good strychnine is good if one knows how to use it. If you want to make drop baits, cut up small pieces of the paunch and roll the poison up in it. They like that part of an animal and if they swallow it while it is frozen, it will unroll in the stomach and give the poison a chance to act quickly.
I often use a light wagon in setting traps and sometimes carry dirt to cover with. I throw a wagon sheet out to stand on and do all the work without stepping on the ground, as one should always leave as little scent as possible. I think that most kinds of scent are good or anything that smells rotten enough, but the old grey is certainly cunning and hard to trap, especially if he has lost a few toes. There are grey wolves that do not kill cattle; when I commenced to hunt wolves, I studied them very carefully. I opened and examined the stomach of all I caught and instead of finding them loaded with fresh meat, I found over half without anything in the stomach at all; others had pieces of bones, grass and old pieces of hide stripped from old dry carcasses and I found rabbits, mice and gophers and this was in the lower Musselshell Country where there were thousands of cattle.
I have tried hounds, and have had some of the best that I could get but they were never successful. I never had hounds that would kill a grown wolf, but they often stopped the wolf until I could shoot it and I never knew them to make a good fight more than once, besides dogs knock their toe nails off on rocks and get crippled up with cactus and often a whole pack will almost ruin themselves by killing porcupines, the quills getting in the throat and sometimes will work through the head and into the eyes and blind them. I can take traps and beat any bunch of dogs I ever tried for both wolves and coyotes.
A wolf hound is often very stupid and does some very laughable things. I had six good ones on a trip in Canada. I was going down the Medicine Lodge Valley, had team and the hounds; on each side of the road about three hundred yards ahead were a bunch of cattle, near each bunch there was a coyote. I tried to send the dogs after them but they could not see them, as they were sitting still. Just then the dogs saw a badger about a quarter of a mile down the road, and they were not long getting there. As they passed the cattle, both coyotes started after the dogs and followed them to within a few steps of the scene of battle, where the six dogs were tearing at the tough skin of the badger. The coyotes seemed to think it was "heap fun" and then one coyote jumped into the fight and out again and then the other and they repeated it several times, when at last a young dog discovered one of the coyotes and started him over a hill and the other coyote following at the heels of the dog.
Finally the hound found that he was out-numbered and went back; the other five never knew that there had been a coyote in the valley, but were still tearing away at the dead badger as I drove up. Well, I felt like saying something, but I didn't.