The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-08-15

The Astoniahing Device That Catches
tho Hungry 1rutes and Makes
Wolf Skins So Cheap.


You eau buy them for g apiece
each consisting of four skins. Very
handsome they are, too.
The answer is q horrible story-s
story of mems fiendish ingenuity
taking advantage Of the ferocious
instinct of the beast.
It is from Alaska that these vol
skins come. They are shipped
thence by tens of thousands, and
it may be imagined that the Eski-
mos who kill the animals get an
extremely small price for the pelts
which are sold at so low q figure
after being cured and made up into
rugs. The secret of it lies in q
scheme by which the wolves are in
duced to destroy each other by the
wholesale.
The method is very simple. The
Eskimo takes q thin blade of flint,
Clipped so as to be sharp as razor
along the edges. This he fastens
securely to the end of q wooden
stake, and drives the latter deep
into the ice, so that the flint blade
projects above. Then he binds a
chunk of seal blubber around the
flint blade with a string of sinew,
thus concealing the sharpened in
strument within.
By and by along comes q big
gray wolf. He is hungry, as wolves
always are. His nose is supernat-
urally keen, and he has scented the
dainty morsel of blubber from aear.
Eagerly he begins to lick the fat,
which is frozen hard. This process
melts the blubber a little, and it
tastes delicious. After q short
time his tongue comes into contact
with the keen edge of the flint and
is cut. The blood flows. All! the
flavor makes him wild-for he does
not know that it is his own blood /!
By this time other wolves had
arrived at the spot. Those animals
always travel in packs, because
only thus can they assail the rein
deer and other large beasts with
success. They likewise lick the
blubber, cut their tongues on the
flint and taste the flavor of blood.
1t maddens them, and in q few
minutes the stake driven into the
ice is the center of crazy mob of
raving wild dogs. They attack
each other and fight to the death.
It is fearful spectacle. They go
on fighting until all are dead or
desperately wounded.
Some hours later the Eskimo
appears on the scene again and sur
veys it with satisfaction. The ice
around the flint-headed stake is
redeemed with blood. All about
are scattered the bodies of dead
wolves, with here and there one in
its last dying throes. The ingenious
hunter calmly proceeds to skin his
four-footed victims, and carries the
pelts away on his sled.
This process Of destruction is
universally practiced by the Alas
kan natives, and is many fold more
efficacious:than any ordinary meth
cd of hunting could be. A party
of hunters can set out, in even a
brief Northern day, an infinite
number of these awful battle
stakes, and the next day and the
next, and the next, will not suffice
for them to gather up the wolf skins
which are the harvest of that stu
pendous slaughter.
The Alaskan plan of wolf hunt
ing has charm peculiarly attrac.
tive to the leisure-loving Eskimo-
it reduces the work to q minimum.
His only objection to it is that, after
the wolf gets himself thoroughly
killed be can't skin himself and
convey his hide to the market town.
His system is q more wholesale
one than that used by the Indians
still further south in driving the
buffalo out of existence.
But the wolves multiply fast
enough to meet any demand.
That is why wolf skin robes are
cheap.-New York Journal.
Clever Feats Of Monkey.