The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-25

wolves, they would be killed, where at
present they are spared by wolf hunters
out Of consideration for the revenue they
bring in the shape of young ones In the
past nine years Corbn has kept an ac-
count of five Old wolves in the territory
over which he has hunted, and he says
ne mas received nearly $1,000 in the shape
OF bounty on the young they have pro-
uuced. This he calls reducing the wolf
bounty business TO a science
CorplnS method of catching young
wolves is one which he devised himself
ana which, so far as known, is EMPLOYED
by no other wolf hunter in the state The
ordinary methods of killing the animals is
by shooting them, by poisoning them. and
by hunting them with dogs But all of
these methods are open to objections. Poi
son Is no longer favorite method, for the
reason that the wolves after a time be-
come suspicious and refuse to touch the
poison that as set out for them There is
also the objection that the poison becomes
scattered over the grass by the rain and
Wlho and cattle eat of the poisoned grass
ana die, Shooting the wolves is difficult.
Tor the reason that the animals are wary
hunting them with dogs is excellent snort
out improbable occupation for the profess
slonal wolf hunter for the reason that the
catches average at best only one or two
wolves Cay. Corbin's method overcomes
all these difficulties and objections. and is
as simple as 4 p c. He catches the Young
wolves with fishhooks and a steel line
ana mas Eeen known to land eight young
wolves on the same line in one night.
The wolves live in dens in the earth. af-
ter the Kramer of badgers. except that
the dens are larger. When Corbin locates
a den ne waits until night and then brings
ms hshing line and hooks into play. The
steer lne is fastened to a stout stake driv-
en- INTO the ground and is then carried be-
meath the soil through the region imme-
diately about the den. From the main wire
are numerous smaller wires projecting in
all directions, to the end of each of which
Is a spring fishhook. These hooks are bait
Ell with Sood-slzed pieces of chicken breast
or other tempting morsels of meat, and the
plant is then left over night
w men the young wolves leave the den at
night to prowl about in search of food the
hfst thing they encounter are those scat
tered bits of meat. The wolf is a rayenous
animal, and bolts small bits of meat
whole The young one attack these bits
of meat and swallow them. snap goes the
bolted spring hook and the wolf is fast
every effort made by the wolf to get
away adds to the pain inflicted by the
nook, which has found Judgement in his
stomach or throat, and he soon learns that
absolute quiet is the best method under
the circumstances. Not infrequently Cor
bin returns TO the den in the morning to
find every one of the young wolves caught
on the spring hooks. The steel wire pre-
vents their biting it in two and escaping
in this fashion, and as the animals are all
securely fastened, 1t is no difficult task to
knock them on the head with a club, take
their scalps and leave the bodies for the
buzzards.
This process is repeated at every den
which may be discovered by the hunter
and seldom without success. Hundreds of
young wolves are caught every season.
and their scalps brought in for the boun-
ty. The same ground is gone over every
season, with the same results, and Cor
bin annually pockets hundreds of dollars
as the result of his ingenuity. He has en-
deavored TO have the fishhook and line
patented as a means of catching wolves.
but the patent Office does not consider an
old device patentable as applied to a new
end, and he has been unable TO secure a
patent.
Corbin makes some calculations of the
number of wolves in the western part of
the state which are startling TO stockmeu
lie claims that, from the number of
wolves he has caught on twenty-five
square miles of territory. If the same num-
Der exists on every other equal section of
territory, and it is reasonable to suppose
there is, there are 100000 wolves in the
western part of the state, and the annual
damage they do to cattle and all stock in
forests is enormous But so long as the
bounty is the same on old wolves as on
young, he says the wolf hunters will con-
tent themselves with killing as many
young wolves as they can, without HARM
ing the old ones, and there will be no per-
ceptble advance made in the diminution
of the original number of wolves.