THE WOLF-DRIVE
For a century after the first settlers came to the Northern Neck the forest was still alive with wolves. In the evenings they could be heard hunting and they sounded "like a pack of beagles."
These wolves were small, not much larger than a fox, but so ravenous that if a traveler was forced to spend the night in the woods he could hardly keep his horse from being devoured even though tied close to him and to the light of the fire.
The scattered sheepfolds and grazing pastures had to be guarded. Wolves were such a nuisance to the planters that authorities sought ways to destroy them. Rewards were offered for any person killing a wolf "provided the said wolf shall not be so young that it is not of age to do mischief."
The planters caught the wolves in various ways—in wolf-pits, log-pens and log-traps. Several mackerel hooks were fastened together and then dipped in melted tallow which hardened and concealed them. These were fastened to a chain so that after the wolf had swallowed the hooks he could not wander away in the forest and his head be lost for bounty.
In 1674, John Mottrom, II of Coan was rewarded with fourteen hundred pounds of tobacco for "killing seven wolves in a pitt." The settlers often paid their public dues in the skins of wolves.
As late as 1691 the county court of Northumberland made public arrangements for an annual wolf-drive. The wolves were hunted on horseback with dogs, very much in the manner of fox-hunting. Early writers state that it was possible while going at full speed to run down a wolf.
The wolf-drive was somewhat like the old English "drift of the forest," where a ring of men and boys with guns surrounded a large tract of woods. The wolves scenting them would retreat to the center of the circle, where the hunters would close in on them. Many were killed in this way. "Wolf-driving" was considered great sport.
Wolf-Trap Light, in Chesapeake Bay, is said to have been named because ashore near there was a famous place for catching the last of the wolves.