The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1908-02-27

The wolves in the arctic prey upon
the barren ground caribou, and are
born and grow up on the tanks Of
the wandering herds. The gaunt moth
er wolves single out and pull down
sucking calves that their own baby
wolves may grow big and strong, and
capture for themselves and their on
spring other calves In the years to
come. From ages of this kind OF liy-
ing the wolves have grown to regard
tlhs caribou as belonging to them In
summer they follow the herds north
through the barren grounds to the
shores of the polar ocean, and in win
ter they retreat with the caribou to
the shelter Of the pine and spruce Tor
ests just below the arctic circle.
Once in while a few wolves be-
come separated, through sickness or
injury, from the particular herd that
has been their inheritance, and some
of these recover health and strength;
but their lot is a hard one, especially
In seasons when rabbits are scarce.
Such wolves, desperate from hunger
rush into Indian camps, and carry on
dogs from under their masters very
eyes. Sometimes they fall upon the
Indians themselves, SO that It Is by
no means safe for children or unarmed
persons to wander alone in the forest
Donald McKercher and had an ex-
perience with a pair of these stray
wolves last winter, while camped on
the Yukon, Just below the mouth Of
the Pelly. We had selected a cabin
site in thick spruce growth at one
extremity Of a little arena-like nat,
and were engaged in shedding supplies
form our boats, which lay wrecked on
a bar In the ice-locked channel of the
river between two islands a little more
than quarter Of a mile away. At the
time we were living in tent on the
island nearest the boats The day we
began our work Mac, on his return
from short reconnoltering trip. said
to me;
Down at yon point there's an old
sheep camp, and the place is all trod-
den up with wolves and wild crea-
lures. They've been digging in the
snow and roofing out bones. We'd bet
ter put out some poison for the
beasts
AS we were greatly in need Of furs
for bedding and storm clothing, and
had some stryehnin with us, assent
ed to Macs proposition. He CROPPED
deep IN his clothing sack, and present.
" drew forth a roll Of red flannel,
from the center Of which he produced
tiny bottle. containing the strychn'n
Mon, butts dangerous stuff to han
dlel" he said. TITS death in mustard
seed, as you might say. I'm going over
to the next island to mix It. It would
not be safe to have II SO near where
we cook and eat"
Half an hour later he returned, hold
ing at arms length a tin lard can COW
er. on which were a dozen or more
cubes Of poisoned grease about the
size Of caramels The gloom Of the
sunless day was already deepening In
to night, but we could not afford to
lose time IN the matter, and 80 we
started down the river TO put the
poison out for the wolves
At the old sheep camp the place was
SO tracked up by wolf trails that Il
would be next TO impossible to single
out and follow the TRAN Of any parti-
cular animal taking our poison.
1--WE can't DO anything here tonight
said Mac, ruefuliy We viii take the
poison out on the river. away from
this tangle, and hide It, and tomorrow
We can come back and select good
places and put out the bats.
We dug a hole IN the snow IN the
center of the channel between the
mainland and an island, and buried
the poison where the ravens could not
and and devour II.
The following morning we were con-
Hderabiy surprised to nnd the evenly
punctuated footprints Of a watkins
wolf parallelins ours Of the previous
afternoon. and leading directly % the
poison. There the wolf had paved
away the snow. and NE TN I'D end
rs contents were lying on the surface
exposed plainly to view We could