NaUtral History of the Wolf, 2 IS 



yeferrrag 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 Indians endeavom' 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 differ- 

 ence. " I have more than once," says he, " mistaken a band of wolves for 

 tlie 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 tlie practised ear of an 

 Indian fails at times to discriminate them." 



"■ Captain Lyon gives the following account of the Esquimaux wolf trap. 

 It is made of strong slabs of ice, long and narrow, so that a fox can with 

 difficulty 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 hole 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 puli at 



the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and the wolf is speared where 

 ihe lies." 



Fossil Cani(J(e. 



" The remains of the Dog and Wolf have been found in Great Britain. 

 If there were no historical records to prove that tl-^ wolf was once an 

 inhabitant of these islands, its abundant remains would testify to the fact. — 

 They were not present in any considerable number in the Bone- Caves of 

 Kirkdale, which were so diligently examined by Dr. Buckland, but they have 

 been found at Pavilaud in Glamorganshire, and at Overton near Plymouth. 

 After alluding to the difficulty which was more particularly expressed by 

 Cuvier of distinguishing between the Wolf and the Dog, Professor Owen 

 referring to some specimens from Kent's Hole says : — " The more important 

 points of concordance between the skull from Kent's Hole and those of the 

 existing wolf leave no reasonable ground for doubting their specific identity ; 

 and the naturalist who does not admit that the dog and the wolf are of the 

 same species, and who might be disposed to question the reference of the 

 British Fossils described in the present section to the wolf must in that case 

 resort to the hypothesis tliat there formerly existed in England a wild variety 

 of dog having the low and contrr.^ted forehead of the wolf, and which had 

 become extinct before the records of the human race. The conclusion 

 however to which my comparison of the fossil and recent bones of the large 

 Canidoz have led me is, tb.;t the wolves which our ancestors extirpated were 

 of the same species as those Avhich, at a much more remote period, left their 

 bones in the limestone caverns by the side of the extinct bears and hyaenas." 



" Recognisable remains of the Dog have however been obtained from 

 Bone-Caves. Dr. Schmerling has described and figured an almost entire 

 skull, two right rami of lower jaws, a humerus, ulna, radius, and some smaller 

 bones, .mdicating two varieties of the domestic dog, from some Bone-Caves 

 near Liege." 



