The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-06
KILLING WOLVES.
MAN PITS NERVE AND INGENU-
 ITY AGAINST THE PEST.

 WoIfer Jim and His Work on the Wy-
 oming Ranges--His Secret for Com
 ceallng the Scent of the Trap--Dis-
 advantages in Use of POisOns--
 Coyote BOunties.
 A meeting of stockmen was held in Big Horn Basin of Wyoming the other day, to consider the question of in- creasing the bounty on wolves, says the Denver Republican. These ami mals have been increasing so rapidly in northern Wyoming in recent years that it is said they are killing calves and carrying off sheep in broad daylight
 Wyoming pays bounty of five dol lars head on wolves, but this is not enough to pay for the trouble of killing them. The stockmen propose to sub scribe a fund, increasing the wolf bounty to twenty dollars a scalp, and this, it is anticipated, will set the "wolfers' at work again ridding the range of its greatest pest.
 In Montana, which pays heavy wolf bounty there are several wolfers so expert that they are known all over the northwest. On the Crow Indian reservation, in the southwestern part of the state, are two wolfers who are probably the most skilled of their class. One of them is Lee Parish, and the other is known simply as Jim Of the two Jim is probably the more skilled. He is able to catch wolves when, in the vernacular of the country there ain't anything but coyote tracks in sight"
 His outfit is up to date in every par ticular. The traps form Jim's most ef- fective way of disposing of wolves. A trap may be skillfully planted near a "bait," but unless the odor is killed the chances are the wolf will keep at a safe distance from the lure. A coyote may be caught in the trap, but not a wolf, for the more savage of these prairie marauders is also the most shrewd.
 Until I found a secret compound" " said Jim the wolfer, T used to poison the wolves. have lost thousands of dollars by having the wolves eat the poison and then get away and die where I couldn't find the bodies. There is no poison that will act quick enough l to kill wolf right away. He has a l chance to run for it, and then it is up to you to find the body and get your pelt. I tried all the poisons that man ever invented, I guess, but nothing would get MT. Wolf in an instant. I "So I tried fixing up my traps. I 1 tried all sorts of methods of burying them, but that wouldn't work as a wolf can smell trap far underground. Then I thought of getting something that would kill that smell of steel. So I worked and worked, and finally got i it. Now just smear 1t over my traps, l and plant them, and MT. Wolf, if he happens to be in the neighborhood of the bait, blunders into the steel and his peit is mine.'
 Next to trapping the wolves comes trailing them to their dsns and staying them literally in their own castles.
 T don't take any firearms into the den with me-" said Jim. Why, man, it would kill you to fire a revolver in a 1 little place like that. take hatchet to enlarge the sides of the den as SC along, and carry a long rod to kill the wolf. If Mr. Wolf shows fight I sim ply jam that rod down his throat and l then finieh him with the hatchet
 Sometimes if I forget the rod I just jam the hatchet down the wolfs jaws until I can get in a good blod with it But wolf hardly ever shows fight, un- 1 less it is to snap at you once or twice Generally there is a little recess at the end of the den, and the wolf will stick ! it's head in this. Thinks If its head is l reach into the den when I have got tc the end of the passage, and grab tht wolf by the hind leg and yank it out and kill it. Or maybe I tie rope to it's hind leg, if It is big fellow ant then pull it back up to the mouth o1 the den and shoot 1t.
 Jim is noted as the best shot ir southern Montana. He carries heavy old style Winchester and a similarly ancient Colt 5 at his hip. He looks with disfavor on the new automatici and other styles-not that they will no' soot all right, but he simply figures that there is no use going back or weapons that he has tried and known to be true. And, as he has killed sil' vertips with his revolver, owing to the fact that he knows just where to plant his shots perhaps there is good deal to Jim's philosophy.
 The stoclkmen who have huge bands of sheep on the Crow reservation con tribute to Jim's exchequer Not onl! does he receive the states liberal boun ty, but he gets big pay from the stock owners for his wolf pelts, and he sells the best of the wolf skins at pretty fig ures. Coyotes bring him no small in come also, as there is a bounty on eacl coyote slain.