RE- 



MAUK- 



AHl.IC 



WOl.VliS 



774 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



SOME Just as there arc jfcniuses and heroes among men, so 



there are wonderful individuals among Wolves. These have 

 always interested me, and 1 have endeavoured to make records 

 of their lives. One of the first of them that I met was the 

 Winnipeg Wolf. In March, 1882, while coming to Winnipeg 

 from St. Paul, 1 saw a sight that stirred my blood. As the 

 train Hashed through an opening of the poplar woods south of 

 St. Boniface, there stood a big Gray-wolf, erect and defiant, 

 surrounded by a motley pack of town dogs, big and small. 

 He was holding all at bay. A small dog was lying in the snow 

 near him, and a big dog was bounding about doing some splen- 

 did barking, but keeping his safe distance. The train passed 

 and 1 saw no more. 



A dog-driver was killed next winter on the ice of the Red 

 River while bound for Fort Alexander. The team were big 

 fierce Huskies, and he was a strange driver. It was thought 

 that he had struck at one of them with the whip, it had snapped 

 back, and he, in retreating, had fallen, whereupon the four 

 savage creatures had set on him and ended by devouring him. 

 The counter theory was that he had been killed by a Wolf or 

 Wolves, of which the dogs are notoriously afraid. The latter 

 explanation found favour only with the dogs' owner, for the rea- 

 son, people said, that he did not wish to lose his valuable team. 



A large Wolf was seen several times afterwards about the 

 city, and at length was killed near the slaughter-house, some 

 said, by poison, dogs, guns, or all three. This was a male and 

 weighed 104 pounds. It was mounted by W. R. Hine, the 

 taxidermist, and shown at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. 

 This interesting relic was one of the valuable specimens lost 

 in the IMulvey Grammar School when the building was 

 destroyed by fire in i8i;6. 



1 ha\e, ot course, no evidence that in each case it was 

 throughout the same Wolf, but in writing the story of "The 

 Winnipeg Wolf" I took a w ritcr's liberty in making them so. 

 The other adxentures ascribcil to him really belonged to other 

 Wohes in distant regions. 



In the story ot " Lobo," I assumed a similar freedom. I as- 



