Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-01-22
An Exciting Wolf-Hunt.

| well remember the morning we started
after that wolf. II was an old she-wolf and
she had been doing mischief for more than
year. IL was about the Goth of April
She had been about the farms the fall be-
fore As many as a dozen sheep and one
calf had been found throttled. Deer had
several times come out of the woods and
joined the cattle in the through
fright, it seemed, at having been pursued.
As soon as the snow was off. and the
sheep and cattle had been turned out again,
the wolf renewed its depredations. The
second night when our sheep were out, three
were killed and partly eaten and only two
nights after this, neighboring farmer lost
four. That same afternoon, too, one of Mr..
Murch's-another neighbor's-cows came
to the barn worried and bloody, as if she
had been attacked by some wild animal.
1t is that wolf !" everybody said and
the following morning six of us turned out
to hunt it down.
Besides my cousin George and me, there
were Willis Murch, Ned Wilbur, and young
fellow named Walt Evans. Evans was cousin
of the Murch boys and was up from Port
land to visit them that spring. Al. Churchill,
a boy who worked for us, was in the party.
| remember carrying a double-barreled
uibh gum DDlli DdTGtlS IOdutu MlIn ID. ID.
shot and bullet. George had an old Sharpes
carbine. Walt Evans carried besides his
gun, policeman's chilly" and knife in a
belt Ned and Willis both had guns, but AL.
Churchill had nothing but an axe.
George and | then owned two hounds.
One Of them, "Old Jim was big savage
fellow We took him with us. Willis took
along his iox-hound, too, and Mr.. Wilbur's
big Watchdog, Beave," came on after US.
We went first to the pasture where Mr..
Wilbur's sheep had been killed. The spot
was little hollow beside thicket of cedars
and alders.
The sheep had been lying there to be out
of the cold biting wind, probably In 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 snuffed eagerly about it; them
with loud, fierce challenge, he bounded
OFF on the VOLTS track. The other hound
aud Beave followed.
You may be sure that six more thoroughly
excited boys never set off after hounds. We
ran through the brush after them, down into
swamp, crossed muddy brook aud en-.
tered the oldgrowth woods beyond.
The hounds, of course, soon left us be-
hind. But we followed on, guided by their
loud baying.
The old VOLTS 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 pro-
onged howl. The steady baying had ceased
They've run the old brute into some
edge!" cried Willis.
We hurried on, and came to deep, wooded
gully, between two high hills, down the bed
of which ran a brook, foaming over mossy
shaded rocks. The tracks led up this gully.
George was ahead, and we followed 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 filed the whole gully to the
height of fifteen or twenty feet. Some
heavy freshet had lodged it there. The
brook roared and gurgled beneath it.
The hounds stood at the foot of this Jam
of stumps and brush near hole between
two messy logs. They whined when we
came up and Old Jim gave another long
howl. We looked about the place. There
were many bones, old ones and fresh ones,
with bits of fur and wool scattered around
Here's her den !" exclaimed Ned.
1t was dark, vicious-looking hole under
the old logs. AL. and George climbed over to
the other side, to see if there were more
holes leading under or out
Sand and earth had been washed in from
above. The lower hole was the VOLTS only
door" so far as we could see.
The dogs would go into it few feet,
and bark, but they did not seem over-anx-
ious to come to close quarters with its oc.
cupant. Old Beave charged in once, and
was greeted with savage snar. For
moment, we thought there would be
fight. But the dog backed out, and we
didn't blame him.
We had little doubt but what the old wolf
had whelps in there. George said that we had
better get our axes, and by cutting and drag
ging away the old stuff, work into the den.
But Willis said, No boys; | believe the
jam will burn if once we can get fire into it
and well a-going, and we can roast the old
thief OUT
Al then got some chips and splints, which
he tucked into the further end of the jam,
where it was dryest, and set them on fire with
matches that he had brought along. The
fire was some time in starting, but after
awhile the old stnif got well warmed up, and
thNh ~ bNSiii W tdht ldlllr anu IOdI.
"Capital Wen soon have our game, and
roasted too !" shouted Willis.
And it seemed-as the flames roared and
began to wrap the whole great pile of drift
that we had got the old "torment into
limbo at last, and stood chance of not
only burning her " house " over her head,
but of burning her up with it,
We could hear her growing at the fire.
But she was tough and willy, and not dis
posed to give in without savage fight
for life
Just as the fire seemed to enwrap the whole
jam, the wolf made swift bolt out through
the blaze, and all singed and sparkling with
fire, flew at Old Jim like mad hyena.
Although we were on the lookout, We
were not quite prepared for so sudden a
spring as the old beast had made.
Look outl shrieked AL "Shoot
shoot "
George fired-Wilts fred-AL slung the
axe, aud Ned and were both cooking our
guns-trying to get aim.
But the savage brute flew from Jim across
the brook towards Al. He ran up the side of
the gully, shouting, Shoot Shoot herl"
No wonder he ran, for she was the ugliest
looking creature ever saw.
She got past us all, and secured away
down the hollow. The dogs started after
her, at full cry, down the gully, and off
through the woods to the northeast.
We rallied, too, loaded up again, and fol-
lowed for a mile or more. Then we lost them
from hearing altogether, aud being now pretty
tired and hungry, we went home.
But just as George and Al, and | were
finishing most hearty meal Ned came
running TO the house to say that the hounds
had come around from the northwest within
hearing again. We went into the yard.
They seemed not more than two miles off,
going in full cry towards the "pond woods.