THE ANTARCTIC WOLF S^ 



time the wolves, already fewer in numbers, pro- 

 gressed rapidly downhill. 



About 1839 the hunters employed by Mr. G. Astor, 

 a fur dealer in New York, made a descent on the 

 Falklands with woeful results to the wolves. So 

 assiduously did they slay that they were said to 

 have almost exterminated them : the total disappear- 

 ance of the species from East Falkland, which 

 apparently occurred at this time, may have been due 

 to these men. A great number of pelts brought to 

 New York were seen by Col. Hamilton Smith, the 

 well-known naturalist, in Mr. Astor's store. This, 

 then, was the second act of the drama. 



Third act. The islands now became definitely 

 colonised, while the Gauchos were replaced by keen- 

 witted Scotchmen who engaged actively in stock- 

 farming, undeterred by the driving hailstorms and 

 violent winds of this desolate reo-ion. Althouofh 

 in those early days it cost ^2 to land each sheep, 

 a considerable farming industry was presently 

 established. The new colonists had, so to speak, 

 "no use" for the Antarctic wolf It was practically 

 crowded out ; for it developed a fatal taste for 

 mutton. Two or three of the wolves would round 

 up a flock, and dashing into it, kill their victims by 

 biting them in the back of the neck. These ex- 

 pensive tastes were discouraged by the farmers, 

 who destroyed the wolves by placing dead geese 

 doctored with strychnine in their burrows. When 



