NAT. DIST. DIV. VOL. I.
of wolfish blood have an antipathy to those that have, and worry them whenever they meet. The wolf-breed act only defensively, and, with his tail between his legs, endeavours to evade the other's fury. The wolves in Carolina are very numerous, and more destructive than any other animal. They go in droves by night, and hunt deer like hounds, with dismal yelling cries." Sir John Richardson gives a minute description of the Canis Lupus occidentalis, American Wolf, the Missouri Wolf of Lewis and Clark, and states that he does not mean to assert that the differences exiating between it and its European congener are sufficiently permanent to constitute them, in the eye of the naturalist, distinct species. The same kind of differences, he observes, may be traced between the foxes and native races of the domestic dog of the New World and those of the Old ; the former possessing finer, denser, and longer fur, and broader feet, well calculated for running on the snow. These remarks were elicited by a comparison of living specimens of American and Pyrenean wolves ; but he had not an opportunity of ascertaining whether the Lapland and Siberian wolves, inhabiting a similar climate with those of America, had similar peculiarities of form, or whether they differed in physiognomy from the wolf of the south of Europe. He therefore considered it unadvisable to designate the northern wolf of America by a distinct specific appellation, lest he should unneces sarily add to the list of synonyms. The word occidentalis, which is affixed to the Linuman name of Canis Lupus, is, he tells us, to be considered as merely marking the geographical position of that peculiar race of Wol£ This animal is very common throughout the northern regions of America, but more or less abundant in different districts. " Their foot-marks," says Richardson, "may be seen by the side of every stream, and a traveller can rarely pass a night in these wilds without hearing them howling around him. They are very numerous ou the sandy plains which, lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources of the Peace and Saskatchewan rivers towards the Missouri. There bands of them hang on the skirts of the buffalo (bison) herds, and prey upon the sick and straggling calves. They do not, under ordinary circumstances, venture to attack the full-grown animal ; for the hunters informed me that they often see wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting the least alarm ; and the marksmen, when they crawl towards a bufthlo for the purpose of shooting it, occasionally wear a cap with two ears, in imi tation of the head of a wolf, knowing from experience that they will be suffered to approach nearer in that guise. On the Barren-Crounds through which the Coppermine River flows I had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single wolf in close pursuit of a rein-deer; and I witnessed a chace on Point Lake when covered with ice, which terminated in a fine buck rein-deer being overtaken by a large white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. An Indian, who was con cealed on the borders of the lake, ran in and cut the deer's throat with his knife, the wolf at once relinquished his prey and sneaked off In the chase the poor deer urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of the wolf; but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentlesa enemy, that the latter, toiling on at a long gallop' with its tongue lolling out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hasty look the poor deer redoubled its efforts to escape ; but, either exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet." The same author observes that the wolves destroy many foxes, which they easily run down if they perceive them on a plain at any distance from their hiding-places; and he relates that in January 1827 a wolf was seen to catch an Arctic Fox within sight of Fort Franklin, and although immediately pursued by hunters on snow-shoes, it bore off its prey in its mouth without any apparent diminution of its speed.
The same wolf, he adds, continued for some days to prowl in the vicinity of the fort, and even stole fish from a sledge which two dogs were accustomed to draw home from the nets without a driver. As this kind of depredation could not be allowed to go on, the wolf was waylaid and killed. It proved to be a female, which accounted for the sledge-dogs not having been molested. He further states that the buffalo-hunters would be unable to preserve the game they kill from the wolves if the latter were not as fearful as they are rapacious. The simple precaution of tying a handkerchief to a branch, or of blowing up a bladder and hanging it ao as to wave in the wind, is sufficient to keep herds of wolves at a distance. At times, however, he says that they are impelled by hunger to be more venturous, and that they have been known to steal provisions from under a man's head iu the night, and to come into a traveller's bivouac and carry off some of his dogs. " During our residence at Cumberland House in 1820," continues Sir John, " a wolf, which had been prowling round the fort, and was wounded by a musket-ball and driven off, returned after it became dark, whilst the blood was still flowing from its wound, and carried off a dog from amongst fifty others, that howled piteously, but had not courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. I was told of a poor Indian woman who was strangled by a wolf, while her husband, who saw the attack, was hastening to her assistance; but thia was the only instance of their attacking human life that came to my knowledge. As the winter advances and the snow becomes deep, the wolves, being no longer able to hunt with success, suffer from hunger, and in severe seasons many die. In the spring of 1826 a large gray wolf was driven 3c by hunger to prowl amongst the Indian huts which were erected in the immediate vicinity of Fort Franklin, but not being successful in picking up aught to eat, it was found a few days afterwards lying dead on the snow near the fort Its extreme emaciation and the emptiness of its intestines showed clearly that it died from inanition." We learn from the same excellent authority that the American Wolf burrows, and brings forth its young in earths with several outlets, like those of a fox. Sir John Richardson saw some of their burrows on the plains of the Saskatchewan, and also on the banks of the Copper-mine River. The number in a litter he states to vary from four or five to eight or nine. After referring to the instances recorded In the narratives of Captain Parry and Captain Franklin of the association of the female wolves with the domestic dog, he relates that he was informed that the Indiana endeavour to improve their sledge-dogs by crossing the breed with wolves, and he adds, that the resemblance between the northern wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so great, that the size and strength of the wolf seem to be the only difference. " I have more than once," says he, "mistaken a band of wolves for the dogs of a party of Indians ; and the howl of the animals of both species is prolonged so exactly in the same key, that even the practised ear of an Indian fails at times to discri minate them." Captain Lyon gives the following account of the Esquirnaux wolf trap. It is made of strong slabs of ice, long and narrow, so that a fox can with difficnity turn himself in it, but a wolf must actually remain in the position in which he is taken. The door is a heavy portcullis of ice, sliding in two well-secured grooves of the same substance, and is kept up by a line, which, passing over the top of the trap, is carried through a bole at the furthest extremity ; to the end of the line is fastened a small hoop of whalebone, and to this any kind of flesh-bait is attached. From the slab which terminates the trap, a projection of ice, or a peg of wood or bone, points inwards near the bottom, and under this the hoop is lightly hooked ; the slightest pull at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and the wolf is speared where he lies.