A well-simulated wolf's howl would call forth a response and so inform the lone hunter of the vicinity of the pack.

This forest speech was not only the language of diplomacy in the hunting season; it was the borderer's secret code in war.

Stray Indians put themselves in touch again with the band by turkey calls in the daytime and by owl or wolf notes at night.

The frontiersmen used the same means to trick the Indian band into betraying the place of its ambuscade, or to lure the strays, unwitting, within reach of the knife.
In that age, before the forests had given place to farms and cities and when the sun had but slight acquaintance with the sod, the summers were cool and the winters long and cold in the Back Country.

Sometimes in September severe frosts destroyed the corn.