, 1886-03-27
WINTER WOIR-HUNTING.
MEN WHO HUNT WITH STRYcHNlNE
.IaI AND PURELY FOR BUsINEsS.1
Professional "wolfers" That scour the
Big Horn Country-seiectinE Territory
The Cabin Provisions n Real
Business Of the winter-Results.

1@bb 1I 49,
Business of the winter-Results.
-There is a class Of hunters out In the
Yellowstone BASIN said J. 5. Williamson,
formerly In charge OF Rufus Hatch's Vel
lowstone Park hotel, "whose only nmniuni-
ton Is strychnine, and who hunt from No
yember until April without taking Il day
OF. They hunt for the money they can
make, and they make a lot OF il. II they
mnde ten times as much nobody would be
grudge them q cent Of 1t, for the only game
they hunt Is wolves, and the wolf hasn't
got many friends out there. ] guess there
must be at least 800 professional wolfers
that scour the Big Horn country in the
Yellowstone basin above the Bad Lands,
and probably IA many more work the Mix
River region. They are known as w~olfers,
and they are different from any other class
of hunters or trappers.
PLENrY oF sTRYcHNIsE TAKEN ALoNa.
AIn the autumn of the year the wolfers
begin to gather at the frontier posts where
they do their trading. They dispose OF all
the furs they may have on hand, and then
At themselves out for the winters cam
paign against the wolves. They take sup
plies enough to last them n long time, for
they seldom returnf from the wilderness
before spring. The principal item In their
outfit Is strychnine. The wolfers always
travel in parties OF half a dozen or so, and
before they 90 into the wilderness they
divide up the entire territory into sections,
the boundaries Of which they know as
well as II they were run out and staked
by a surveyor. Each party is assigned
or draws a section, and on that alone he
hunts, One party Of wolfers would no
more think of working on another party's
= a - a.. -....Il Ult-N ~ .at
ting ~strychnine In a comrades mess.
They are enabled to keep within their
bounds by landmarks which years OF sue
cessive hunting in the same territory
ave made as familiar as their own names.
One party. for hat matter, hasn't much
excuse for getting over on another's terri
tory, for a wolfng section will cover as
much ground as the biggest county in the
United States.
"The first thing a party Of wolfers do on
reaching their section is TO put up their
cabin, or repair their old one. These
cabins are chinked with mud, and their
sites ARE always in the center Of a good
'wooding-up' locality, so that there will
be no danger of a scarcity Of fuel, for one
such winter as they have out there can
make one good, able-bodiod fireplace eat
MP an area Of forest that would keep q
whole eastern town in fire wood for a year.
Every cabin has a stone fireplace hat win
take in a log ten feet long, and SO you can
imagine how much OF a fire can be built
In one of them. Bonanza Mackay's palnce
couldn't house a wolfer for the winter
more comfortably than one OF these mud
daubed cabins in the very heart Of the
Bad Lands. There Is 10 eNclusiveness
about these wilderness shelters, either.
Every mans cabin is free to his neighbor.
It often happens that n wolfer in n days
tramp may find himself at night nearer
some other party's cabin than his own,
and he seeks its shelter Just as freely and
with no more hesitation than he would go
TO his own, But he never asks more than
shelter. 1t is wolfer etiquette to always
carry plenty of provisions and to draw Cd
your own store wherever you may be.
THE BUSINESS OF II INTER
"A good saddle horse and q pack horse
or two goes with every wolfer's outfit. II
he does not care to use them for the time,
they are turned out on the range, where
they know how to provide for themselves,
no matter how deep the snow is. A large
store of the general provisions Of the
wolfers of an entire territory is always
cached, and the location is known to all.
Everything for the welfare and safety Of
the wolfers having been done, the real
business Of the winter begins. Each party
is provided with hundreds of long, slender
pine sticks, sharpened on the ends. An
elk, or as many as are needed, is killed,
and the carcass cut up into small pieces.
These are poisoned with the. strychnine,
and each wolfer fills a small sack with
them. After zach snowfall the wolfers
start out. They make a circuit of miles,
and at intervals sink one Of the pine sticks
in the snow, a piece of the poisoned meat
being placed on the upper end, so that il is
temptingly exposed above the snow. Two
days later the wolfers go over the route
again with pack horses, skin the wolf car
cases that they pick up by the hundred,
and fetch them in to the cabins and pre-
pare them for market. r.l
"How many thousands Of wolves are thus
gathered in the Bad Lands by these per-
sistent hunters in the course of a single
season it is difficult to estimate, but the
wolfcrs make from $50 to $500 a month
apiece in the sale OF the pelts they secure.
Yet. so rapidly do the wolves increase,
there is no perceptible diminution in their
numbers. A wolfer never hunts anything
else unless he needs game to supply his
cabin. A dozen elk, deer, antelope, or any
other game animal might pass within gun
shot of him every hour and he would pay
no more attention to hem than If they
were so many crows. He is out after
wolves, for business. That Is all he thinks
OF, and all he wants New York Sun.