One day, two of the hunters killed a brace of very fat deer close to camp, and when the animals were dressed and their carcasses hung up to a huge limb, the viscera and other offal attracted a band of hungry wolves.  Not less than twenty of the impudent, famishing brutes battened in luxurious frenzy on the inviting entrails and feet of the slaughtered deer.  The wolves were of all sizes and colours; those that were the largest kept their smaller congeners away from the feast until they were themselves gorged, and then allowed the little ones to gather up the fragments.  While the latter were waiting their turn with a constant whining and growling, the dogs of the expedition barked an accompaniment to the howls of the impatient animals, and soon made a break for the pack.  They chased them around the trees and out on the open prairie, when they turned upon the dogs and drove them back to camp.  One of the most plucky of the dogs made a bold stand, but was seized by as many of the wolves as could get hold of him, and he was torn to shreds almost instantly.

The trappers did not want to waste any lead on the worthless animals, but in the darkness set some of their beaver-traps, which they baited with pieces of venison suspended just above them on a projecting limb of a tree.  In the morning, when the trappers went out to look for their supposed victims, both the meat and the traps were gone.  They had, in their inexperience, forgotten to fasten the traps to anything, and if any of the wolves were caught, they had walked off, traps and all!

While all were at breakfast, one of the mortified hunters, disgusted at the loss of his trap, went off with the intention of tracking the wolf that had carried it away, thinking perhaps if the animal had got rid of it he would find it on its trail.  Sure enough, a wolf had been caught by this man’s trap, and in dragging it along had left in the grass a very distinct trail, by which he was easily followed.  He was tracked into a thicket of hazel, entrance to which was almost impossible, so rank and tangled was its growth.  No doubt the wolf was alive, but how to recover his trap was an enigma to the hunter.  He called the dogs and endeavoured to get them to go in, but, after their experience of the night before, they, with the most terrible howls, declined to make the attempt.  Then it was observed that near the clump of hazel was a large oak-tree, from whose limbs an extended view of the centre of the thicket could be had.  One of the hunters, at the suggestion of Captain Williams, climbed the tree, and shot the wolf with his rifle.  The danger having passed, the wolf was dragged from his retreat, and it was discovered that one of his forefeet had been caught in the trap.  He was an immense fellow, and nearly black in colour.