The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-07-09
WHERE woLFsKlNs COME FROM.
Some People Would Not Buy Them 1
They Knew How They Ara nht .sneA

"e "S-VS NuSS INVITE SuN"s
Some People Would Not Buy Them II
They Knew How They Are Obtained.
"Wherc do You suppose these wolf
skins come from that make such pretty
gray rugs, which only cost about 81
apiece, although the fur is 50 hand
some?" said Prof. Otis T. Mason the
other day. 80 many people would not
buy them II they knew, fancy. They
are obtained from the animals by the
northern Indians, particularly in the
Hudson Bay region, and by the Esqui.
maux. These savages possess fiend-
ish ingenuity in their methods of cap
turing game, and their way Of applying
1t for killing wolves Is sufficiently hor-
rible to discourage me with this partic-
ular sort Of peltry.
ut is beautifully simple. They take
fiat piece of flint foot or SO long and
Clipped to extreme sharpness at the
edges. This they fasten to a wooden
stake, which they drive into the ground
firmly, SO as to leave the blade Of flint
projecting above the surface. Then
they cover the blade all over with a
good sized hunk of fat from q seal or
other such animal, which quickly
freezes. Now the wolf-catching appara-
tus is complete. so that the person who
sets the trap has only to come back in a
day or two and gather in his prey with
out trouble.
"The wolf has a mastering appetite
for blood, and it is of this weakness
that thu hsn %ulr al
little while after the trap described has
been set, along comes the wolf He is
hungry, and he ticks the hunk of frozen
fat. All, it is good! So he ticks it some
more, and as it is thawed by the warmth
, OF his tongue is tastes better and better
Presently his tongue comes into con-
tact with the sharp edge of the flint and
is cut. He tastes the blood, not know
ing that it is his own, and the flavor
sets him wild. Eagerly he ticks it and
ticks it, decorating his mouth and be-
coming more frenzied in his desire for
his own life fluid.
Meanwhile other wolves have come
up and have begun to lick at the fat,
cutting their own tongues and becoming
/ in their turn wild at the taste So pres
emily the bait is surrounded by pack
of ravenous and crazy creatures, who
soon turn Upon One another and fall to
devouring each other, until the mcrci-
less flint is the center of a struggling
mass of fcrocious combatants. It is
like the struggle that followed the
planting of the dragons teeth of old,
only that none Of those who participate
lives long after the fight is over, the
last survivor bleeding to death. At his
leisure the hunter appears upon the
scene and skins the dead beasts for mar
ket. The pelts cost him nothing, save
the trouble of removing them and the
value of the hunk of fat; the stake with
the flint blade is ready to be set again
for victims. That is the reason why
gray wolf rugs only cost three dollars
each, with three skins to a rug.
but that is only one of the diabolical
devices employed for such purposes by
these natives. The hunter takes long
strip of whalcbone from the head of q
whale he has killed, just such as is used
to stiffen corsets. lie doubles it up into
the shape of the letter M. and fastens
it compactly in that form with binding,
of fine sinew. This he encloses neatly
in a wad of fat, and leaves it on the ics
to freeze. Pretty soon along comes {
great white bear, shifts at the delicats
morsel SO happily thrown in his way
and bolts it without further considers
ton. The fatquiclsly melts in his warn
stomach, and the sinew bindings ar,
consumed by the action Of the digcstiv,
fluids, so that before long the strip o
whalebonc is released from its ben
shape and springs out ut full length
across Mr.. Bears stomach, and he die
within few hours of lockjaw in fright
full agonies. Next day the noble pc
hunter comes along and possesses him
self Of big white robe, large enough
to cover a small room and worth severa
dollars at first hand, or two or thre
gallons of bad whisky.
Nothing better illustrates the su
periority of man as an animal over hi
competitors in the struggle for exis,
ence than the ease with which he
able to destroy by device the bigges
and the most formidable of the crea
lures he encounters There are no sa,
ages so low in the human scale as nc
to find ready means for capturing IN
killing the largest and most dangerou
beasts. The time is not recorded in tn
annals of the world when the native
of the lands inhabited by the elephan
and the crocodile did not take the FOL
mer with loop set for him to put hi
foot into and the latter with q bate
stick sharpened ut both ends. Unhes
tatingly does the Polyncsian attack tn
man-eating shark in its own elemen
diving beneath it and stabbing it in til
belly with knife. There is nothin
which man is afraid of or will not tr
to catch. In the primitive traditions I
most races you will find accounts {
the tricks employed by their ancestor
for sharing the sun, the moon, and til
stars. IN. Y. Sun.