214 Natural History of the Wolf, 



chase the poor deer urged its flight by great bounds, which for a tiiiic 

 exceeded the speed of the wolf; but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its 

 relentless enemy, that the latter, toiling on at a * long gallop' with its tonguo 

 lolling out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hasty look the poor 

 deer redoubled its efforts to escape ; but, cither 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 easi'y 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 moutli 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 handherchief to a branch, or of blowing up a bladder and hanging 

 it so as to wave with 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 in the night, and to come into a traveller's bivouac and 

 carry off some of his dogs. " During our residence in Cumberland House in 

 1820," continues Sir John, '' a wolf, which had been prowling round the fort, 

 and was wounded by a rausket-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 hasten- 

 ing to her assistance ; but this 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 

 gi'ay wolf was driven 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 Y^olf 

 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 Coppermine River. The 

 number in a litter he states to vary from four or live to eight cr nine. Aftei- 



