A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE 335 



ago, in the Tourilli, caribou were far more 

 plentiful than moose. Moose have steadily 

 increased in numbers. But some seven years 

 ago wolves, of which none had been seen in 

 these woods for half a century, made their ap- 

 pearance. They did not seriously molest the 

 full-grown moose (nor the black bears), although 

 they occasionally killed moose calves, and very 

 rarely, when in a pack, an adult, but they warred 

 on all the other animals, including the lucivees 

 when they could catch them on the ice in winter. 

 They followed the caribou unceasingly, killing 

 many, and in consequence the caribou are now 

 far less common. Barthelmy Lirette, the most 

 experienced hunter and best observer among 

 the guides — even better than his brother 

 Arthur — told me that the wolves usually made 

 no effort to assail the moose, and that never 

 but once had he heard of their killing a grown 

 moose. But they followed any caribou they 

 came across, big or little. Once on snow-shoes 

 he had tracked such a chase all day long. A 

 single wolf had followed a caribou for twenty- 

 five miles before killing it. Evidently the 

 wolf deliberately set about tiring his victim 

 so that it could not resist. In the snow the 

 caribou sank deep. The wolf ran lightly. His 

 tracks showed that he had galloped whenever 



