Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1909-05-14
TOM PUMPS LETTER TO THE
HERALD.

The wolf and the dog are possessed
with the most downright good COM
mon sense which tends towards the
preservation of life, Of any animal
that has ever come under my 0bseva-
ton. They are of the same family
and it would be quite hard to
determine whether the dog is tanned
wolf, or the wolf wild dog. They
have good eyes, good hearing, and
excellent scent. With the exception of
the honey bee, they certainly have the
most God given instinct of any animal
or insect known to man.
Since dogs licked the sores of
Laszarus, they have been considered
mans best friends and doubtless be.
fore that too. No living animal IS so
devoter to his master, for as the song
said, "he is faithful and he is kind,
and you Will never find better friend
than old dog Tray. -
It was not dogs that started in to
write of, it was the wolf. The wolf is
cunning and is not only annoying, but
mutually he destroys thousands of
dollars worth of property. In some
states bounty is paid for his destruc-
tlOn.
It IS useless to pay a small bounty
on wolves, for the reason that his
persistent work to destroy HIM in
numbers sufficient to keep his tribe
from increasing.
It is no easy matter to destroy the
wolf IN any great numbers. Of course
a systematic line of poisoning
persistently followed would for time
keep down the wolf, but such a
method is destructive to domestic
animals and cannot be followed. He
Is here one week and the next week
he may be- one hundred miles away.
There IS contingent fund of them in
Alaska, British Columbia, and the
far north to draw from, and Mr.. Wolf
multiplies very fast. Such rivers as
the Mississippi, the Columbia or the
Snake have no terrors for coyote, and
he would put into any of them and
swl II a-ross for the chance of catching
one '-on f Q was little hungry,
and he is ~ -lvays hungry.
The long range rifle In the hands OF
a good marksman IS terror to the
coyote in tho hills in the western
states. The best coyote hunter drives
pair of gentle horses, and goes all
through hills and valleys, and when
he sees a coyote. circles him, until he
gets up in reach OF the unsuspecting
prey, then he silently stops the team.
and shoots from his buggy seat, and IT
he does his part we'll, adds another
scalp to his belt. A coyote IS not
afraid OF a team of horses, but he is
very much afraid of f0otman who
carries gun.
There are few things that can out
run coyote compared with the many
things that he can outrun. A hucarew
on fast horse can outrun and rope
a wolf If the land is level, but will
fail if the ground is billy.
A greyhound can Outrun a wolf, and
will stop him, but he won kill him.
The trapper catches a great many
wolves, and he must have great
patience and some knowledge, or he
will make a failure instead of a
success after them. The wolf has a
great sense of smell and that makes 1t
hard to catch him. Of course a trap
can be set in any old way and catch
young inexperienced wolf, but the
older ones are educated and strateogy
must be resorted to to fool them and
get them tangled up In trap.
There are times that smoke from a
chimney goes to the ground, then is
the time an old wolf is as easily caught
as a young one, if the trap IS covered
IN the right way. A wolf goes up to
bait with his smeller towards the
wind. Of course the trapper does not
know what direction the wind will be
from on any particular night, but we
will say, set your trap on the south
east OF the bait. that attracts the
wolf. Cover trap in the proper
manner, and put another trap or piece
of iron or steel directly across on the
opposite side Of the bait, leaving the
piece OF Iron or steel in plain sight.
Then 1t matters not about the way the
wind is blowing, the wolf will see the
iron that is put there as a decoy, and
will think that is what he smells,
even il he dose smell the trap. After
the trap IS located as he thinks) he
will approach the bait over the trap,
If he approached it at all.
Mrs. Plump says she would like to
know if there is another woman on
earth, who goes with her better halt
to the trapping lands, so if there be,
she can condole with her.
TOM PLUMP.