The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-18

take their freight but I couldn't do 1t.
| took most of their passengers, but when
we reached the shoals they had to land
and walk some distance around the
shoals. We finally reached Fort Benton,
but the other boats did not get through.
After waiting as long as they could, and
yet have time to get back to st. Louis be-
fore winter, they put their freight out on
the bank and started back 1t was the
intention to leave it there during the win
ter and to take 1t on to Fort Benton the
following year. The freight, however,
was destroyed by the Indians. and per-
haps some of it by white people, during
the winter. 1t was insured and John j.
Roe had to pay $4,000 for 1t after standing
a law suit.
I'VE made our trip without the loss OF
"A pound and made good money on it. l..
G. Baker reached st. Louis on Christmas
day, coming by way of the Pacific coast
and Panama, TO make a settlement for
the trip.
Mrs George Baker went to the noun,
tains on my boat She lived there ten
years, and was called the Mother of Mon
tana She was one of the most exem
plary women l ever knew. She was re-
ligious and was a power for good in that
country
II had a startling experience while
steamboat ting in the Upper Missouri river
in 1863" continued Captain Massie. Il
left the boat with a companion to go
across the bottom to kill deer We
could kill buffalo whenever we wanted
one, but we got tired of buffalo meat and
bear meat. It's too coarse, so we wanted
to kill a deer The bottom was overgrown
with bushes and we had not gone far
until we ran across about a dozen car
casses of dead wolves They were lying in
nearly the same position, with their
claws up in the air. their mouths open
and their teeth protruding. The sight of
them was horrifying and my companion
wanted to go back to the boat. | told
him not to mind that and we went on in
search of a deer. Neither he nor / could
tell how they came to be there. We first
thought that some ravenous animal must
have killed them, but We could not find a
mark on them any where, nor was there
drop of blood on the grass about them
We'll. when We went back to the boat
we told several of the pioneers of what
we had seen, but none of them could offer
an explanation. The matter remained a
mystery until we made another trip to St
Louis and back. We were on the way
down the river when my old friend Jeff
Smith Che was from ST. LOUIS came
aboard the boat. | said to him: JEFF,
have a puzzle. ] asked lots of people
about 1T, but they can't give a solution
of it I then told him of the dead wolves
we found. and he said: Well, l can tell
all of them in my dry house. We poison
the wolves. It's the easiest way to get
them. We kill a buffalo and put strych-
nine on the carcass. The wolves eat it
and in day or two we can go around and
skin the dead wolves
That was the way they got rid of the
wolves in that country continued Cap
tain Massie. "They never would have got
rid of them except by poisoning them.
There were myriads of them there then
If herd of buffaloes was stampeded YOU
would think that every blade of grass had
turned into a wolf and was following
them. But they were slaughtered by the
wholesale by the use of poison. That is
the reason that wolves appeared in other
parts of the country where they had new
er been known before. They got so smart
that they wouldn't eat carcass and had
to leave that country or starve. You Of
ten heard of wolves appearing in other
parts of the country in droves, where they
had not been known before.
I'm the following year" said Captain
Massie, Il was on the steamer Cora, Cap
tain Kinney's boat. We were on the way
up the river and one night lay up by a
bank that was nearly even in height with
the boats cabin. The pantry was at the
side next the bank and nearly touching it.
Shortly before bedtime some of the lady