The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-05

| elk near the confluence Of the Big and Lit
| tie Arkansas rivers. He believes this is
the only one killed in Sedgwick county
He said elks were plentiful on the Walnut
and down in the wooded parts of the terri
tory. but the Arkansas river was never a
| favorite stream with them. The last buff
falo killed anywhere near Wichita was
shot between Wichita and the Cowskin in
| 1872.
! CATCHING WOLVES WITH STRYCHNINE.
Zone of the biggest profits l ever made"
| continued Mr.. Mead, was trip | once
| took down to the Indian territory. 1 OBJ
tanned 500 worth Of wolves hides in two
days. There was something amusing in
this way of ensnaring the beasts, but it
was also business. Our prey was the big
gray wolves which are about the size of a
| Newfoundland dog, and the smaller coy
| otes (By the way, Mr. Mead pronounces
this oft twisted word in three syllables.)
| After we had gone into camp we would
kill lot of buffalo and leave their car
casses about 200 yards from the camp We
would cut these bodies open and distrib-
| ute them around
The first night the wolves would prowl
about and eat from the carcasses. This
was the idea, to let them stuff themselves
undisturbed the first night. The second
night they would appear tenfold Any
| suspicion they might have entertained
had disappeared with the first nights in
diligence and the lank, hungry ferce-eyed
wolves and coyotes came in great num-
bers. But we had prepared for them this
time. We took great number of square
pieces OF meat, about as big as your hand,
and put strychnine upon them. These we
would distribute on the ground between
the bodies of the dead buffolo.
PUTTING THE BAIT OUT.
We had to do this just at dusk on the
evening of the second day. because if we
had put it out sooner, the ravens which
were there in numerous bands would
have devoured it. AS it was the ground
was soon covered with dead ravens. /
have never seen any OF these ravens for
years. They used to be very thick in this
country. They were much larger,
brighter and smarter than the
common crow or vulture. Well, just
at dark, we would put these bats out. A
little after dark the wolves would come in
and commence to eat the carcasses. There
is no telling how many there were. While
some were devouring the meat, others
would hold off and wait. Occasionally
wolf would get piece of that bait. II
paralyzed him almost instantaneously.
Sometimes he would tumble over his
tracks without even so much as howl or
a yelp. 1t took from two to ten minutes
for the poison to take effect. There were
some instances when his wolfship would
get away off from camp and then would
succumb. These were the ones with we'll
filled stomachs. The wolf that had moth
ing in its stomach and then got hold of
the poison, didn't get very far away The
next morning l found seventy dead gray
wolves and fifty coyotes. 1 received on
market three dollars and sixty cents
apiece for the gray wolf furs and one dol
lar and quarter each for the coyotes.
You can see that this Melted me neat
little sum. l repeated the performance,
the following night, with similar success.
EAGLES PLENTIFUL THEN
Among the dead ravens that had eaten
of the poison meat we also found many
ba!d-headed eagles. | see in the late Pro
fessor Goss, the Kansas ornithologist
book, the bald headed eagle is put down
as rare bird in Kansas OF course they
are rare now, but they were not thirty
years ago. Down near Medicine Lodge
and on the Walnut river, there was scarce
ly a tree that did not have an eagles nest
in it. Frequently an eagle would only be
rendered comatose by the strychnine bait
and we would tie him up by a leather
thong around his leg and bring him into
camp, where we quite frequently had a
number of the natural birds for guests.
l remember once had caught one and had
him tied on the top of my wagon He
road with me for over a hundred miles |
and finally firing of my company he pick |
ed the string in two and with the long |
remnant dangling from his foot, made a |
break for liberty and presently was out of |
sight. never saw him afterwards.