The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-13

or ROCKY MOUNTAINS nous, Out tney neyt
succeed in killing colt without battle
with the horses, and often the wolves
and lions are kicked and beaten badly
that they have TO beat retreat without
securing their prey. The stations are
regular Mormons and get all the mares
they can. They cross and recross the
country looking for mares and even
proseIyting for horses to enter their
band. II cow ponies stray too far from
the cattle or camp the first thing they
know they are rounded up by am old
stallion and driven off into the hills.
Often a wild herd will discover tame
band of horses grazing quietly in the
valley with no intention OF leaving their
range, but the band of wild
horses led by their stations. dash down
into the valley. capture them and carry
them away. The wild stations are shot
without mercy by the ranchmen. Ii
one is seen grazing ON a hill he Is sneaked
up upon and dropped in his tracks
They are very alert and difficult to APP
proach, but like the tame horse are cas-
lily killed. A bullet in almost any part
of the body will cause the horse To drop
on the plain.
The Indians are the best wild horse
hunters. bur they do not like to be out
in stormy weather and they cannot
stand cold of winter as well as white
men. In a storm is the best time to hunt
wild horses, for then they bunch and
cannot see any one approaching until 1t
is too late to get out of the way of the
bullets. 1t is generally useless for
hunter to run down a wild horse with a
tame one. The tame horse, weighted
down by the burden of the hunter S
body, soon tires and the wild horse easily
escapes. Sometimes the hunters dis
co yer the tracks of wild horses near a
stream and they hunt for their watering
place. The band always waters at the
| same place and although right on the
| stream, the horses will go up or down
| it for mile or more in order to drink
| at their accustomed watering place. Hid
/ ing in the brush or crawling to a bluff
the hunter lies in wait until the horses
| come to the water, and then shoots
i them. 1t is difficult to catch them as
they seem to know instinctiveIy when
hunters are about and If they even sus-
pect danger they will at once leave the
locality. A smoke or anything unusual
| Will stampede them and they Will run
forty or fifty miles before letting up.
Their sense of smell is very acute and
on the wind side about a mile is as close
as a hunter can get before being discov-
cred by his odor, and the horses are off
in jiffy.
| The winter is the best season for wild
horse hunting in Wyoming. The ami
mails get discouraged by the deep SHOWS,
and become hungry and poor. They are
apt at such times to bunch in the cot
tonwood groves, where they eat the bark
off the trees and chew up all the small
limbs they can reach. In winter, too,
the horse hunters can unite with it tine
business of 'wolting. Perhaps some
people do not know what .'wolting Is
Well, a ''wolfer" is simply wolf hun
ter, or a man who kills wolves for their
hides and the reward offered for their
destruction. In earlier years wolves on
the plains were killed only for their
pelts, but now they are killed TO save
the game and sheep as well as for their
| pelts. Next to man, the wolf is the
greatest destroyer of game. The gray
wolf Is dangerous, too, and will attack
anything from a chipmunk to a man.
They used to hunt in gangs and DESTROY
great many buffaloes. They would
follow an old bull, biting him until they
had hamstrung him and then they would
kill and eat him. The buffalo being
gone, the sheep, cattle and small game
of all kinds suffer annually great loss
from wolves Some counties offer as
much as So per head for wolf scalps. \
wolfer goes out into the section of coun-
| try where the wolves are thIckest and
builds him cabin. He will then kill
one or two antelopes, skin them and
drag the bloody carcass in pieces all
| ".
poisoned with strychnine and left near
his cabin. The wolves get ON the bloody
trails and follow them up until they
come to the meat, of which they eat
heartily, and of course that is the last of
them. The wolfer has his bats in all
parts of the country and goes from one
place to another ''skinning up" a
wolf pelt is worth from 81 to 50, and
some large gray wolf skins bring as
1 z
many different ways of setting wolf
bats, but the poisoned carcass of an an
telope, deer, elk or COW is the most pop
ular method. Sometimes wolf bait is
set in candles; the wick is pulled out
the hole filled with strychnine, and then
the candle is cut up in pieces two or
three inches long and the ends sealed or
plugged up. This bait is set by putting
bit of stick in the ground, splitting it
at the top and putting the piece of can
die between the split portions OF the
| stick. A wolf is fond of candles, and
when he comes along he jerks the bait
out of the stick and swallows it. When
the candle melts in his stomach, which
is in few minutes, the released strych-
nine takes hold on the VOLTS vitals, and
| then there is music. The wolf always
blames his trouble on his tail, and he
will spin round and round trying to
catch his tail in his mouth, as have
seen dog do when at play. He will
next stand up ON his hind legs and walk
about and dance, but it all does no good.
His shrieks and cries of pain are terri
BILE to hear, and about the last thing he
l'does is to turn two or three somersaults
| in the air and fall dead. The strych-
nine kills them every time. Indians do
/ not like to kill wolves; they think it is
| ''bad medicine" but 1 never knew an
Indian yet to object to ''skin up" and
they will generally skin wolf wherever
he is found dead and bring the pelt to
the wolfers.
1 The Metla.<ahtll Indians.