The Number Of Carcasses That By This Time
Were Lying About The Prairie All Around Us Summoned The Wolves From
Every Quarter; The Spot Where Shaw And Henry Had Hunted Together Soon
Became Their Favorite Resort, For Here About A Dozen Dead Buffalo
Were Fermenting Under The Hot Sun.
I used often to go over the river
and watch them at their meal; by lying under the bank it was easy to
get a full view of them.
Three different kinds were present; there
were the white wolves and the gray wolves, both extremely large, and
besides these the small prairie wolves, not much bigger than
spaniels. They would howl and fight in a crowd around a single
carcass, yet they were so watchful, and their senses so acute, that I
never was able to crawl within a fair shooting distance; whenever I
attempted it, they would all scatter at once and glide silently away
through the tall grass. The air above this spot was always full of
buzzards or black vultures; whenever the wolves left a carcass they
would descend upon it, and cover it so densely that a rifle-bullet
shot at random among the gormandizing crowd would generally strike
down two or three of them. These birds would now be sailing by
scores just about our camp, their broad black wings seeming half
transparent as they expanded them against the bright sky. The wolves
and the buzzards thickened about us with every hour, and two or three
eagles also came into the feast.
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