The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-12
WOLF HUNTING STORY
Tale of an Exciting Chase with a
Terribly Tragic Ending.
After the Hunt the Avengers Felt More
Like Wolves Themselves Than
Big-Hearted Mountaineers.

New York Sun.
zone season, three or four years ago, a
pack Of white wolves laid siege to my
ranch and some of the neighboring ranches
around the head of Wind river" said Miles
Holden, of Montana, to a reporter, ''and
played hob with our cattle and sheep. The
white wolf is bigger and more aggressive
yet than the black timber wolf. He grows
to be almost as big as a yearling calf. His
strength is most extraordinary. AS fleet as
the wind. he defies all pursuit. and even if
he were not so swift afoot. his remarkable
cunning would amply serve him in eluding
his pursuers. This big and fierce beast of
prey will kill a cow with ease, and a pack
of them proving about the range will soon
make alarming inroads on the size of a
mans herd
"This is Just what this pack was doing
the season 1 speak of. and my n~eighbor and
myself had spent much time and ridden
many miles in ~fruitless efforts to hunt the
marauders down. They had inflicted hun
dreos OF dollars loss upon us, and the way
they were keeping up their raids they
threatened to break us all up in business
before the war was out. More than once
We started out TO follow the trail of these
wolves, determined to bring them to bay
before we let up, only. to come back foiled
and TO find that while we supposed we were
pressing IN their wake they had been back
TO the ranch of some one of us and de-
spoiled IL of several head more of fat cattle.
They actually laughed at our efforts to
trap, snare or poison them, and l after
ward learned that no one ever knew a
white wolf TO be caught or killed by either
OF those methods.
last, after a more than usually de-
structive and comprehensive raid on the
ranches around US, a half-dozen of us got
together and resolved to take the warpath
against the pack and To remain on 1t night
and day until we either wiped it's members
off the face Of the earth or drove them out
OF the country. We started out thoroughly
equipped for the crusade. We called our
selves wolf hunters, but, from the way the
hunt ended. we should nave Deen called
wolves instead of hunters, Tor we were
guilty OF a most bloodthirsty act at its
close. We deserved TO be hunted down
like wolves ourselves for it. Until my dy-
ing day L will be ashamed for having had
part In IT.
I'VE struck the trail while 1t was fresh.
il led ussa wild and tortuous chase all day,
and when we had to camp for the night we
didn't suppose we were any nearer the sly
marauders than we were when We started.
We halted In a narrow valley, which was
closed at one end by a border of thickly
growing bushes and had its head at the
foot OF a high cliff. A little stream flowed
through IL We camped on one edge OF this
valley. We were astir at daybreak, eager
To start On the chase. While we were eat
ing a hasty breakfast we felt a curious
trembling OF the ground. One OF our party,
an old hunter, said that IL was caused by
a herd OF animals OF some kind that were
coming TO the creek for water. We hid I'm
the bushes to see what they might be. We
had hardly done so when a pair of great
antlers parted the bushes at the lower end
OF the vale. only a few rods away, and fol-
lowing them a magnificent bull elk stepped
cautiously through into the open. He held
his head high Ia the air, sniffed suspiciously
In every direction. and then. as II satisfied