We also had great fun this winter in destroying the wolves, which we pursued in every possible way, as they were very dangerous to my cattle. The easiest way of killing them is poisoning with strychnine, but I did not employ it near my house through fear of hurting my dogs. For this object we always rode some miles away, threw a fresh deer-paunch on the ground, and trailed it after us by a long rope. Thus we rode past the wood out into the prairie, where we pulled up the paunch at a spot which displayed little grass, and then scattered the little lumps of poisoned meat. This was always done in the evening, and on the next morning we rode back to the spot, where we found the dead wolves lying about, which rarely went a hundred yards from the spot where they devoured the meat. It caused us greater pleasure, however, to capture them in traps, a quantity of which we always had set round the fort. They were made in the following way:--Four stout posts were driven into the ground, forming a square of about four feet, and inside of them other longer posts were laid till they formed walls about three feet in height: we then drove four more posts into the angles of the walls, and fastened them securely to those outside. In these chests we placed a flooring, so that the captured animal could not escape by scratching up the ground, and on the top of the cage a cover, weighed down in front by large stones. The other end of the cover was fastened to the trap with very strong withes, and the forepart was raised, a prop was placed under it, which fell at a slight touch, and caused the cover to shut. At night we trailed a fresh deer-paunch from a long distance to the trap, threw meat in, then dragged it to the next trap, and so on till all were baited. We caught a great many wolves in this way, which we often took home alive and let the dogs hunt them to death on the prairie. In order to take them alive out of the trap we used an iron fork, which we struck into the ground over the wolf's neck, and then pressed its head down till we had fastened its feet. It is remarkable what an innate dislike dogs entertain for these animals. Frequently when I had killed one of them, whose skin was not worth taking home, I merely cut off its nose and threw it on the ground near the fort, upon which all my dogs gathered round and kept up the most fearful barking for hours.