Gray-wolf 781 



Captain Dick Craine, of Petoskey, Mich., tells me that he 

 spent 9 years among the train-dogs in Alaska and Yukon; 

 owning and handling in that time 200 dogs. Among these he 

 had 3 full-blooded Wolves also used as train animals. Many 

 half-breeds of course were among the dogs, and all are more 

 or less of Wolf blood. 



The latter, he says, is not so good as a train-dog. It is 

 strong enough but always more or less shy, watching its driver 

 as though cowed, and shrinking from the touch of the hand. 



The only tangible difference between a Husky dog and a 

 wild Wolf is in the tail. A Wolf's tail is rarely above level or 

 curled up; a Husky dog's is always excessively curled. Why ? 

 Perhaps it is a result of the harness toil. In hauling, unusual 

 energy is forced into all the extremities; that in the tail is not 

 specially directed, and therefore causes the tail to curl up, 

 obedient to the strongest muscles, just as a man's teeth clinch 

 under violent effort of the limbs. I doubt not, if the flexor 

 muscles of the tail were strongest, instead of the levators, the 

 train-dog's tail would be permanently curled between his legs. 



Corroboration of this is found in a fact that I have several 

 times observed. A train of half-bred Wolves may set off in the 

 harness with tails down, but the moment they come to a bad 

 place, where they must strain at the traces, their tails fly up 

 into curl. 



The Husky dog's ears are frequently drooped. A wild 

 Wolf's ears are erect, but, according to Captain Craine, the 

 train Wolf at the age of nine or ten is apt to droop his ears. 



Many observers attest the tamableness and dogginess of doggi- 

 this animal. Ross says r' "A full-grown Wolf became, dur- 

 ing the months of July and August, 1857, quite domesticated 

 at Fort Resolution. Though rather shy of the people, it lived 

 in great harmony with the dogs, playing and sleeping with 

 them, and sharing their food. Around the smoke made to 

 keep off the myriads of noxious flies from the cattle, it reposed 

 with the other animals, and, although there was a small calf 



^ Fur-bearing Anim. Mack. R., Can. Nat., January, 1861, p. 11. 



