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and privations endured by the enterprising men who with axe and 

 handspike opened up the blooming glades of civilization in our ancient 

 forests, I may say that this enforced economical fast usually did not 

 terminate until the pigs were killed in December. 



My subject this evening is the wolf. Let me call him, pro tempore, 

 to suit the occasion, Lupus Canadensis, as I shall deal chiefly with the 

 wolf of the Ottawa Valley, perhaps as large, as fierce, as cunning, and 

 as sanguinary an animal of the amiable family to which he belongs, as 

 can be found in any part of the world. 



Apart from the information which I have gathered from the 

 authentic i*ecords of natural history, I have had a somewhat intimate 

 acquaintance ot a personal nature with this voracious bandit of the 

 wilderness— an acquaintance based upon practical observation, supple- 

 mented by the agency of steel traps. 



It is a commonly received opinion that the fox surpasses all other 

 animals in cunning. 1 have had what I consider good and sufficient 

 reasons for doubting the correctness of this conclusion. I do not like to 

 disturb an old popular belief, nevertheless I think that anyone who 

 tries to catch a wolf in a steel trap, will agree with me in the fact, that 

 the wolf is a much more cunning animal than the fox. 



In my younger days, I trapped many foxes and wolves, as well as 

 fishers, minks and muskrats. I used no pungent oils, or other ex- 

 traneous attractions to wile them, but simply matched my own intelli- 

 gence iigainst their cunning, and in the case of the wolf, I have often 

 for many successive days, found myself completely circumvented. 



In proof of the persistent ennning of the wolf, I may relate a cir- 

 cumstance which bears directly upon the point. While out trapping in 

 the month of November, 1840, I fastened a piece of liver upon the 

 knotty spike of a hemlock tree, about three feet from the ground, and 

 set a well concealed trap under it. The wolves frequented the spot 

 every night, and although they trampled a circle in the snow about 

 six feet from the tree, or twelve feet in diameter, their dread of the trap 

 prevented their touching the meat, notwithstanding the fact that it re- 

 mained in its original position until the first clay of April. 



A short distance from the same spot, during the same year, I 

 caught three wolves, twentv-seven foxes, three fishers and a marten. I 



