Live Stock Association at Denver, Col., January 25, 1899, Mr. A. J. Bothwell said: "In central Wyoming my experience has been that these wolves kill from 10 to 20 per cent. of the annual increase of the herds."

Lieut. E. L. Munson, of Chouteau County, Mont., writing in Recreation, says: "It is said that in this country the loss from wolves and coyotes is about 15 per cent. * * * Wolves in this vicinity seldom kill sheep, as the latter are too carefully herded. They get a good many young colts, but prey especially on young cattle."

Mr. J. B. Jennett, of Stanford, Montana, says in Recreation: "A family of wolves will destroy about $3,000 worth of stock per annum."

The loss caused by wolves and coyotes in Big Horn County, Wyo., is estimated at three hundred thousand dollars per year. It has been variously estimated that each grey wolf costs the stockmen from two hundred and fifty to one thousand dollars annually.

Sheep, for some reason, are seldom troubled by timber wolves in the West, but suffer considerably from the attacks of coyotes; in fact, the loss occasioned the sheep men of Wyoming and Montana in this way is enormous. In summer when the sheep are driven up into the mountains, the coyotes migrate to those sections and kill sheep whenever the opportunity is presented. In the fall when the sheep are brought down into the foothills, the coyotes are also to be found in great numbers in those parts. In all probability there is a greater loss occasioned by the depredations of coyotes in the two states mentioned than is caused by wolves and mountain lions combined. Farther south, however, it is the wolf that does the most mischief. Where timber wolves are plentiful and very little stock is raised, as in the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, sheep are not safe from the attacks of wolves, and for that reason few sheep are raised in those parts. It is probably the fact that the western range is very open and the sheep always carefully guarded by herders that they suffer so little from timber wolves in the Western States.

In the swamps of the Southern States, and especially in the lowlands of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, hogs are sometimes killed by wolves. In New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Mexico where large numbers of goats are raised, these animals are frequently killed.

That an immense amount of game is killed in the wilder and less thickly settled portions of the United States and Canada goes without saying. In the West the wild game does not suffer as much as does the domestic animals, but in the heavily timbered portions of the country where little stock is raised as in the states bordering on Lake Superior and in the greater part of Canada large numbers of deer and other game animals fall victims to these fierce creatures. Regarding the killing of game on the western cattle range, Mr. Bailey has the following to say:

"At Big Piney, Wyoming, I examined wolf dung in probably fifty places around dens and along wolf trails. In about nine-tenths of the cases it was composed mainly or entirely of cattle or horse hair; in all other cases but one, of rabbit fur and bones, and in this one case mainly of antelope hair. A herd of 20 or 30 antelope wintered about 5 or 6 miles from this den, and the old wolves frequently visited the herd, but I could find no other evidence that they destroyed antelope, though I followed wolf tracks for many miles among the antelope tracks on the snow. Jack rabbits were killed and eaten along the trails or brought to the den and eaten near it almost every night, and a half eaten cottontail was found in the den with the little pups. While wolves are usually found around antelope herds, they are probably able to kill only the sick, crippled and young. The following note from Wyoming appeared in the Pinedale Roundup of July 4, 1906:

While riding on the outside circle with the late round-up, Nelse Jorgensen chanced to see a wolf making away with a fawn antelope. He gave chase to the animal, but it succeeded in getting away, never letting loose on its catch.

About a den near Cora, the numerous deposits of wolf dung on the crest of the ridge not far away were found to be composed of horse and cattle hair, though fresh elk tracks were abundant over the side hills on all sides of the den, while cattle and horses were then to be found only in the valley, 8 miles distant. Several jack rabbits had been brought in and eaten and the old wolf on her way to the den had laid down her load, evidently a jack rabbit, gone aside some 20 feet and caught a ruffed grouse eaten it on the spot, and then resumed her load and her journey to the waiting pups. One small carpal bone in this den may have been from a deer or small elk, but no other trace of game was found.

Talking with hunters and trappers who spend much time in the mountains when the snow is on the ground brought little positive information on the destruction of elk or deer by wolves. Mr. George Glover, a forest ranger long familiar with the Wind River Mountains in both winter and summer, said that he had found a large blacktail buck which the wolves had eaten, but he suspected that it had been previously shot by hunters. In many winters of trapping where elk were abundant, Mr. Glover has never found any evidence that elk had been killed by wolves. Coyotes constantly follow the elk herds, especially in spring when the calves are being born, and probably destroy many of the young, but wolves apparently do not share this habit. It seems probably, however, that in summer the young of both elk and deer suffer to some extent while the wolves are among them in the mountains."

In the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, wolves are very plentiful and large numbers of deer are killed during the winter months, the remains being found later by hunters, trappers, and lumbermen. The same conditions exist in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, also in parts of Ontario, Canada. In the Rainy River District, wolves have always been abundant and much game has been killed by them. Farther east, they are just making their appearance of late years having followed the deer which are coming into the country from some other section. Farther east, in the eastern portions of New Ontario and in some parts of Quebec wolves are also numerous. One of our friends from Northern Wisconsin writes as follows:

Remains of Deer Killed by Wolves.

"I have trapped and caught five old female wolves since I came to Iron County, Wisconsin, six years ago. Two of them I got in Michigan, Gogebic County, as I live almost on the line. There are times when you can see six or eight wolf tracks all going down the river or coming up at the same time. You can go again for a week and never see a track. I have followed them for a week, in deep snow on snow shoes, and never left their track, and in one week I set traps at 50 different deer that wolves had killed. I might have gotten a few more wolves but the fox, mink, cats, skunk, owls and "porkys" (porcupines) were bound to butt in. At one set I got a wolf, 3 foxes, 1 skunk, 1 mink and 10 porkys till June.

Two wolves caught a buck that would weigh 150 pounds, within 10 rods of my camp one night. The next morning there was not one pound of meat left on the bones.

I had a tent and one shanty in Gogebic County last winter, and I know the wolves killed 500 deer on the snow. How many fawns and does did they kill in summer time when you cannot see their tracks? The wild cats are not so bad, a fawn, rabbit or partridge makes a meal for them."

In the far north where the barren ground caribou is the principal game animal, and where wolves are plentiful, there can be no doubt that they kill large numbers of those animals. Musk oxen are also killed, and farther south the moose is killed by wolves, but it is our belief that the number is comparatively small. The