The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-17
WOLVES IN PENNsYLVANIA.
An Old Trapper Proves 1t to the
Doubling Commissioners.

DQuDtluE com nlISSlOheESs
Chambersburg Letter to the Philadelphia
Times.
you said that wolves were extinct in
Pennsylvania, and you wouldn't pay me $40
bounty for the scalp I sent you, so here's
the whole of a gray rascal that came
over into Pennsylvania from West Nlr-
gina and got caught by monkeying with
my bear trap, said Josiah Poole the old
est trapper in Southern Pennsylvania, n
the county commissioners office here a
few DAYS ago, and threw down before the
eyes of the astonished commissioners the
Delt of the biggest gray wolf killed IN the
Cumberland valley for fifty years or more.
Then the 74-year-old trapper ana back
woodsman told the story of the capture
Last winter was a very severe one. me
SHOWS lay deep and many wild animals
were driven from their Businesses by hun
ger From the mountains of West Virginia
a pack of wolves game over into western
PENNSYLVANIA and We're seen by hunters.
Several Somerset county hunters chased
them with hounds, anxious for the $40 each
scalp bounty which Pennsylvania pays,
with disastrous results to the hounds.
Some of the dogs came back manned and
others never returned from the noun
tains. Some hounds belonging to SOM
erset county man chased the wolves across
mountain and stream through Fayette,
Somerset Bedford, Blair Perry and Hunt
ingdon counties clear to the Susquehanna.
They lost the wolves somewhere near the
Cumberland valley. The Somerset man af-
terward recovered his dogs near Harris
burg. He sent word in January last to
his trapper friend Poole that the wolves
had probably come this way and that he
should look out for them. Poole's friend
and neighbor Ed Gilbert, also told him
rs-= tFr.ac-
valley but the old trapper shook his head
and said It couldn't be possible
Poole lives in the lower end of Path val
lev tWenty-one miles across the noun
tains from here. He was trapping last
winter in Bear valley, seven miles nearer
Chambersburg aud every few days took a
fourteen-mile tramp across the mountains
to look at his traps. Bear valley is very
wild region, with only few inhabitants,
and with plenty of wild animals, from
squirrels up 20 wildcats, deer, and bears.
The old trapper had made big bear trap
there of hickory sapliugs, very strong ana
ingenious. He had baited it inside with
half side of good bacon and had hung a
similar bait mp ON a tree near the trap, It
being Joe s theory that if a bear once gets
a good taste of bacon he'll not be salts
fed until he gets more, hence the outside
free lunch.
Poole had good luck all during February
except with his big bear trap. rms ne VS.
tied four or five times and was astonished
to find the outside bait gone, the ground
clawed up and the bark torn from the
tree 1t was not until the first day of
March, that he found out who had been
stealing his bacon Upon looking through
the bars of the trap he was astonished to
see glaring at him the hungry eyes of a
big wolf. blow from his hunters ak
stunned the fierce fellow, and couple of
revolver bullets did the rest. Poole took
his pelt home and sent the scalp TO Cham
bersburg last spring, with the proper at
fidavits, but the commissioners would not
pay the bounty, so the old fellow walked
twenty-one miles to the court house the
other day to prove his story to the county
officials that wolves still existed in the
Cumberland valley.
THE oldest trapper in Southern Pennsyl-
vania" is a title which rghtfuly belongs
to Josiah Poole, and a wonderfully inter-
esting figure he is. He carries his "a
years lightly. and his tall figure, over six
feet is yet erect and wiry. His hair and
beard are white, and out from under shay
Ky eyebrows peer a pair of marveously
keen eyes. His frame is toughened and
hardened by years of outdoor life and he
can easily stand a tramp of fifty miles or
over He is a trapper pure and simple a