The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19
WILD DOGS OF THE WEST.
THEIR DESCENT FROM AN ELOPING
PAIR IN MONTANA.


in Resenting the Intrusion of
Tame Dogs WanderIngs of the
| Pack or Packs In Search of Prey.
Many stories Told of Their Doings.
From the New York Sun.
Nearly twenty years ago. a black shay
/ gy haired shepherd dog, with small. shift
| " eyes, disappeared from its owner S
ranch just south of the national line which
| divides Montana from Assiniboia. The
| owner, VIII Carlton, remarked after two
weeks that he guessed the coyotes had
| got it, but when he learned from Bull
Hench, trapper, that the trapper's dog
was also missing, he concluded that the
two had eIoped, which seemed possible,
though improbable, since the dogs had
| lived miles apart. Cartoons jest is re-
membered now, and there is scarcely a
man in the whole region from Wyoming
north to the south branch of the Saskat-
chewan river, In Canada, who has not
heard of it and talked about the dogs. for
the two were for several years the lead
ers of a gang of canine bandits which
wandered here and there through Assini-
boia and Alberta, in Canada, and south to
Wyoming.
The two dogs were not heard of for a
year. The trapper's dog was half bull
half foxhound, and had been a fierce ami
mai to all but its master. 1t had been at
Cartons ranch several times with it's
master, and there had been surly and al
most unmanageabe, showing it's teeth
without due provocation, and nearly los
ing It's life because cowboys did not like
such an animal. The last time 1t came TO
the ranch it skulked about the ranch
houses and crept out of sight at every Cd
portunlty, getting wild, as the COWBOYS
SAID Within two weeks after Hench got
70 MS camp again the dog had gone, and
the ranch dog had gone, too.
Nearly fourteen months later Carlton,
Bull Hench and several others made a
trip north to the Red Deer river. What
their object was no one has stated, but if
may have been to round up horse thieves
that were robbing the scattered ranches
only one incident of the trip was told and
that was how, early on the morning of
the day after they crossed the border. 40
miles from the Carlton ranch. lust AT
sunrise, one of the men, looking to the
southeast, saw two dogs standing on a.
rock, with their noses in the air seeming
the carp. The man pointed them out to
the rest, and Carlton said:
mats my Queen sures you're born"
AAShOh 4SCOSIlHeO the Otner as his dog,
On the ground before the rock there were
three young dogs, lank as wolves. but
playful. Carlton and Hench called 10
their dogs, and the next instant the five
We're off at full speed and quickly got out
of sight
In the next seven or eight years not
much was heard of the dogs. Three or
four ranches lost dogs, but not much was
thought of the matter Two or three times
trappers told of catching beasts which
were not wolves, and didn't seem like
dogs, which had fought like furies and
tried vainly to break the stout wolf trans
that mad taken them. The hair was
rough and as Tar as the trappers were
concerned, fit only for cabin rugs. These
skins were variously marked but all the
colors were shaded. There was no white
nor black. The brown was mottled and
the gray shaded. At that time there was
a marked difference in the ears and the
size of the brutes There were cock-ear-
ed ones that had fabby lips, while others
had pointed noses coming out between two
hanging ears 1t was evident that the
runaway dogs We're breeding.
These animals are now roaming through
the vast region which they nave taken to
as their natural home. When last heard
from they were to the east of Lake Koote-
nay, in the northern part of the Bitter
Root mountains having crossed the main
ridge Of the rockies from over 200 miles TO
the eastward since last spring Manv
stories are told of the pack and its doings
White Wilson, who shot one a year ago in
January, said that the whole pack did not
number more than forty. The skin he
showed was almost white and he said
that the rest of the pack were of a. similar
color-a color that rendered them difficult
to see on the snow. Last summer while
they were going westward in a winding
line hunters and others who happened to
meet with them said that they were
broWnish-red, tinged with gray shading
One that French trapper shot in late
| July had such a skin. From these facts
| it is believed that their color varies with
| the seasons.
| Only rarely do the animals interfere with
! ranches. But when they do each one of
! them kills enough for six, and the result
is bad from the ranchmans point of view.
| The dogs which raided Col Bromer's
| range in Montana, east of the mountains
and south of the line, two years ago, could
not have numbered over six or eight. ac-
| cordiug to the stories of those who saw
them, but inside of half an hour they kill
| ed twelve to fourteen lambs, besides
woundlng four lambs badly The time
they took is estimated at ten to twenty
! minutes.
That the wild dogs want no more addi-
! lions to their number has been shown bv
! two incidents. William Kenzie. who has
a ranch sixty miles west of Cartoons
brought four blooded settlers out to hunt
birds, and two of the dogs took to the re-
| giOn as to an old home. They romped
| about, chased into the thickets, and. as
! far as hunting was concerned, became un-
manageable. Within two months after
the dogs arrival, rumors to the effect that
the wild pack was coming northeast after
a trip through Middle Montana began to
be heard and ranchmen feared an on
! slaught by the whole pack. One day in
| August Kenzie rode out after meat on
horseback with his rifle, followed by the
| two frisky settlers, which had, taken to
| following black-tail deer rather than nos
| ing about for birds. The dogs routed out
a jack rabbit and away they went fun
| speed and yelping like mongrel hounds
Kenzie next saw the dogs two weeks later.
Perhaps they got lost and couldn't get
back. The chances are they wanted a
wild life living on such game as they
| could capture, and in a region where prai-
RE chickens are thicker than grasshop-
pers this food was easily obtained. In
early September the wild dog pack had got
to the hills west of Kennels ranch and
Kennels first view of them was coupled