Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

 

Reading [Pa.] Eagle.

     Bradford is now one of the largest and most populous counties in Pennsylvania. The Bucks are a ruling family here. When the Buck’s, the grandfathers of the present generation, came here the place was literally a howling wilderness. Wolves in great droves hunted almost every other living thing.

     About seventy years ago, said old Mr. Buck, we had a great hunt here-a circular hunt, taking in the country round for thirty miles. It is said that over 600 men were engaged in it, and that was a great many for those days. There was a captain over every ten men to see that they did not shoot one another in the excitement. The place of meeting, or rather the centre of the circular hunt, was a round hill near Le Raysville, on the head waters of the Wyalusing. The hunt lasted three days, the first to drive in the game, and the next two to kill and divide it. On the morning of the second day the round mountain was covered with all kinds of game, and the growls of bears and howls of wolves, and the rushing of deer in every direction, made the men, many of whom had not hunted much before, nearly crazy. At daylight the firing began. The ring closed in until the men stood eight deep around the circle. The great elk and deer would make a rush from the centre of this frightened group and leap over the heads of men and get away. The panthers had to be chased from tree to tree; the wolves would sneak behind with grinning jaws. They were the strong, wiry, Northern kind of wolves, and had claws as long as a man’s fingers, and as sharp as needles. They could tear a dog to pieces in a twinkling, but their great offence had been the killing of sheep and calves.

     The firing continued all day. Toward evening it was tremendous. As it grew dark the men gathered together, and, at the word, all fired together. The night was spent in dividing the game. The result was 600 deer, thirteen great wolves, ten bears, and three immence panthers. There were no more calves killed by the wolves in that part of the country.