The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-07-16
AN EXCITING WOLF-HUNT

AN EXCITING WOLF-HUNT.
I we'll remember the morning we start
ed after that wolf. It was an old she
volt, and she had been doing mischie
tor more than year. 1t was about the
Goth of April.
She had been about the farms the fall
before. AS many as dozen sheep ano
one calf had been found throttled Dee,
had several times come out of the GODS
and joined the cattle in the pastures
through fright, it seemed, at having been
pursued.
During the winter large gray wolf
had been seen three or four times near
the logglng5-camps, ten miles above. One
night man shot at it from his camp
door as 1t was snatching at some meat
scraps that had been thrown out.
AS soon as the snow was off, and the
sheep and cattle had been tuned out
again, the wolf renewed its dep1cdations
The second nj ght our sheep were out,
three were killed and partly eaten; and
only nights after this, neighboring
farmer lost four. That same afternoon.
too, one of Mr.. Murch another neigh
W. ~ So"O OeAAA1O w CllC UdIu " OcrlCO
and bloody, as if she had been attacked
by some wild animal.
'It is that wolf" every body said; and
the following morning six of us turned
out to hunt 1t down.
Besides my cousin George and me.
there ere Wilt Murch, Ned Wilbur, and
young fellow named Walt Evans.
Evans was a cousin of the Murch bows.
and was up from Portland to visit them
that spring. AL Churchill, boy no
worked for us, was another of the party
Grandfather was too old for such a
chase; Mr.. Wilbur was sick, and Wits
father was not living. The business of
the farm fell largely to US boys, and we
thought it belonged to us to rid the neigh
2borhood of that wolf, :,
VI : remember carrying double-har
relied duck-gun, both barrels loaded with
Il. 3. shot and bullet. George had an
old Sharp's carbine. Walt Evans carried,
besides his gun, policeman "billy''
'and knife in a belt. Ned and Wits
both had guns, but AL Churchill had
nothing but an axe. We were warlike
party, so far as weapons went, and we
We're determined to hunt the wolf down.
George AMI then owned t O bounds
One of them, "Old Jim," was a bio saw
age fellow. We took him Wit US. Willis
took along his fox-hound, too, and Mr..
Wilbur's big watchdog, s'Beave," came
on after u.s.
We went first to the pasture where Mr..
Wllbur's sheep had been killed. Til
spot was little hollow beside thicket
OF cedars and elders. sThe sheep had
been lying there to be out of the cold
biting wind, probably. n the dark the
wolf had throttled one after another of
them; for sheep when attacked in the
night, will rarely run far, but stand
huddled together
One OF the sheep had been dragged
into the thicket and partially eaten. Old
Jim snuted eagerly about it; then. with
loud, fierce challenge, he bounded off
on the wolf s track. The other hound
and Beave followed.
You may be sure that six more thor
oughly excited boys never set off after
hounds. We ran through the brush after
them, down into swamp, crossed a.
muddy brook, and entered the sld-erowth
woods beyond. And it was not till Ned's
gun went off from accidentally hitting the
hammer against stub, and came near
shooting AL in the legs, that we settled
down to a more cautious and steady
pace.
The hounds, of course, soon left us be-
hind. But we followed on, guided bv
their loud baying. The old wolf s lair
was nearer than we had supposed it to
be. We had not gone much more than
mile through the thick forest when we
heard Old Jim give prolonged howl.
The steady baylng had ceased.
"They've run the old brute into some
ledge!'' cried Wits.
We hurried on, and came to a deem
wooded gully, between two high hills,
DON the bed of which ran a brook.
toaming over messy, shaded rocks. The
tracks led up this gully. George was
ahead, and we all folio ed as fast as we
could run. The hollow grew narrower.
With sleeper sides, and fifty rods farther
up we came to what looked to be huge
jam of old stumps, logs and brush, that
filled the whole gully to the height OF
fifteen or twenty feet. Some heavy fresh
ct had lodged it there. The brook
roared and gurgled beneath it.
The hounds stood at the foot of the
Jam OF the stumps and brush, near hole
between two messy logs. They whined
when we came up, and Old Jim gave an
other long howl. We looked about the
pace: There was many bones, old ones
ana fresh ones. with bits of fur and wool
scattered round.
"Here's her dcn!'' exclaimed Ned