Gray-wolf 783 



It was reported to me by Dr. D. A. Stewart, of Winnipeg. A 

 half-breed dog-driver was taking his team and his little boy to 

 a distant post. He left the boy in charge of the team while 

 he went after a Deer. On his return he found the dogs curled 

 up asleep and nothing left of his son, except fragments of his 

 clothes. The half-breed was a devout Catholic; he drove the 

 dogs to the Trading Post, shot the four brutes, and gave them 

 Christian burial. 



The diseases that have been observed to torment the dis- 

 Gray-wolf are mange, scab, and rabies. I have several times 

 heard of mange removing all of a Wolf's hair except a ridge 

 along the spine, and in consequence have arisen many rumours 

 of strange beasts in the land. 



Warburton Pike says:"" "There was some sort of disease 

 resembling mange among them [Gray-wolves] in the winter of 

 1889-90, which had the effect of taking off all their hair, and 

 judging from the number of dead that were lying about, must 

 have considerably thinned their numbers." 



Henry in his Journal makes frequent mention of scab. 

 Thusr' 



" March 3. A large Wolf came into my tent three times, 

 and always escaped a shot. Next day while hunting I found 

 him dead about a mile from the Fort; he was very lean and 

 covered with scabs." 



Rabies or hydrophobia seems to break out among them 

 at times. Although Wolves do not ordinarily attack man in 

 America, there are one or two recent cases on record, from the 

 western United States, but there is also evidence that in each 

 case the Wolf was rabid. 



Even as early as 1800 it appears to have been considered 

 evidence of madness for a Wolf to attack a man, as Henry 

 thus makes record at Park River :^'* 



November 2. "Last night the Wolves were very trouble- 

 some; they kept up a terrible howling about the Fort, and 



'^ Barren Grounds, N. Canada, 1892, p. 53. 



"Journal, A. Henry, 1779-1814, pub. 1897, p. 194. '"Ibid., p. 133. 



