The Wolf 331 



towards man is inconstant to a marked degree. Much dif- 

 ference is doubtless due to influences both general and 

 local, permanent and temporary, which it is impossible to 

 ascertain from any accounts. The packs C. A. Hall 

 {"Arctic Researches") met with near " Frobishers' Far- 

 thest," and at J. K. Smith's Island, manifested none of 

 that timidity which has been remarked upon as the conse- 

 quence of constant persecution. On the contrary, "they 

 were bold," says Hall, " approaching quite near, watching 

 our movements, opening their mouths, snapping their 

 teeth, and smacking their chops, as if already feasting on 

 human flesh and blood." Similarly, " eleven big fellows 

 crossed the path " of O. W. Wahl (" Land of the Czar ") 

 " one winter day, near Stavropol." They merely inspected 

 the travellers and went on. Colonel N. Prejevalsky 

 ("From Kulja across the Tian Shan to Lob-nor") saw but 

 few wolves, and in his report upon the fauna of the Tarim 

 valley, he remarks that they " are unfrequent, if not rare." 

 During his expedition ("Mongolia"), however, the Tibetan 

 wolf, Lupus chauco, the same animal he thinks that 

 the Mongols of Kan-su call tsobr, but really the common 

 species under one of its many changes of color, was found 

 to be " savage and impudent." Captain William Gill (" The 

 River of Golden Sand ") saw " here and there " on the 

 broken and undulating plains of Mongolia near the Chinese 

 frontier, " small villages surrounded by a wall to protect 

 them from the troops of wolves that in the desolate winter 

 scour the barrens of San-Tai." 



Nothing would be gained by multiplying references, 

 which might easily be given ad nauseam without finding 



