332 Wild Beasts 



that there was any particular change in their tenor. 

 Enough have been already presented to show how utterly 

 valueless are those sweeping conclusions upon the charac- 

 ter and habits of wolves, which we are too much accustomed 

 to see. The widest generalization on this subject that can 

 be made with any approach to certainty, is that these 

 animals, over and above their specific traits, are what their 

 situations and the experiences connected with ordinary 

 and every-day life make them. It is a well-attested fact 

 that the wolf may be domesticated, and instances of this 

 kind are not uncommon. Audubon, for example, saw them 

 drawing the small carts in which Assiniboin Indians 

 brought their peltries into Fort Union. Samuel Hearne 

 ("A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson Bay, 

 to the Northern Ocean ") gives an account of certain things 

 seen by himself, which seem to indicate that these ani- 

 mals occasionally bear like relations to savages with 

 those which must have subsisted when they were first 

 reclaimed. "Wolves," he says, "are very frequently 

 met with in those countries west of Hudson's Bay, 

 both on the barren grounds and among the woods ; but 

 they are not numerous. It is very uncommon to see 

 more than three or four of them in a herd. . . . All 

 the wolves in Hudson's Bay are very shy of the human 

 race. . . . They are great enemies to the Indian dogs, 

 and constantly kill and eat those that are heavy loaded 

 and cannot keep up with the main body. . . . The 

 females are much swifter than males, for which reason, 

 the Indians, both northern and southern, are of opinion 

 that they kill the greatest part of the game." This, how- 



