The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-06-12
WHERE WoLFsKINs COME FROM,
Some People Would Not Buy Them :.
They Knew How They Are Obtained.

Some People Would Not Buy Them u
They Knew How They Are Obtained.
''Where do you suppose these wolf
skins come from that make such pretty
gray rugs, which only cost about So
apiece, although the fur is SO hand
some?' said Prof. Otis T. Mason the
other day. $50 many people would not
buy them if 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
it for killing wolves is sufficiently hor-
rible to discourage me with this partic-
ular sort of peltry.
at is beautifully simple. They take
a 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 a 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 the hunter takes advantage. A
| 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 merci-
less flint is the center of struggling
mass of ferocious combatants. 1t 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 rug.
But that is only one of the diabolical
devices employed for such purposes by
these natives. The hunter takes a long
strip of whalcbone from the head of a
whale he has killed, just such as is used
to stiffen corsets He doubles it up into
the shape of the letter NJ, and fastens
it compactly in that form with bindings
of fine sinew. This he encloses neatly
in wad of fat and leaves it on the ice
to freeze. Pretty soon along comes a
great white bear, shifts at the delicate
morsel so happily thrown in his way,
and bolts it without further considera-
ton. The fatquickly melts in his warm
stomach, and the sinew bindings are
consumed by the action of the digestive
fluids, so that before long the strip of
| VIII "a hnnn &c ra1ancnl frO,,,
shape and springs out at full length
across Mr.. Bears stomach, and he dies
within few hours of lockia in fright
full agonies. Next day the noble pot
hunter comes along and possesses him
self of a big white robe, large enough
to cover a small room and worth several
dollars at first hand, or two or three
gallons of bad whisky.
Nothing better illustrates the SUI
periority of man as an animal over his
competitors in the struggle for exist
ence than the ease with which he is
able to destroy by device the biggest
and the most formidable of the crea-
lures he encounters There are no say
ages so low in the human scale as not
to find ready means for capturing and
killing the largest and most dangerous
beasts. The time is not recorded in the
annals of the world when the natives
of the lands inhabited by the elephant
and the crocodile did not take the for
mer with a loop set Tor him to put his
foot into and the latter with baited
stick sharpened at both ends. Unhesi-
tatingly does the Polynesian attack the
man-eating shark in its own element,
diving beneath it and stabbing it in the
belly with knife There is nothing
which man is afraid of or will not try
to catch. In the primitive traditions of
most races you will find accounts of
the tricks employed by their ancestors
for sharing the sun, the moon, and the
stars. IN. Y. Sun.
DIAMONDS IN POULTRY.
Long ESland COuDle Who FOund One in a