THE DOGS 273 



the other. Settlers have succeeded in getting good skins 

 by pegging out a female dog in heat, and shooting the wolves 

 that come down after her. 



The wolves themselves are larger than the dogs. They 

 may measure in length as much as seven feet eight inches, 

 from nose to tail. They are very bold; on one occasion 

 wolves lurked around a solitary house in Big Bay till they 

 had carried off the four dogs, one by one, and left only after 

 capturing the cat. The dogs retain these same ancestral 

 habits. Some summer settlers at Batteau have goats at 

 their small shacks. About ten miles away at Red Point 

 lived a hungry team of dogs. One night a goat was missing. 

 The crime was traced to the dogs. Men with guns waited 

 their return, with no result except much loss of time. The 

 dogs never came near the settlement by day. Yet, before 

 the people left, the dogs had successfully carried off every 

 goat without suffering any losses. 



On another occasion my own leading dog, a black bitch 

 from Cape Chidley, ran away from the hospital in early 

 spring. She was seen near a neighbouring village, killing 

 sheep. Three had been slaughtered by her on land, and she 

 had driven two more out on to a rocky island, where she 

 swam off and slew them. With a long shot the sheep-owner 

 wounded her, and she fled into the woods, but still did not 

 return home. He hauled the carcass near the edge of the 

 woods, and sat up for her. True to her wolfish instinct, 

 she returned to her quarry by night, and so met her fate. 



Our dogs know little or no fear, and, unlike the wolves, 

 will unhesitatingly attack even the largest polar bear. 

 On one occasion a man's dogs, travelling along smooth sea 

 ice, scented a white bear and started off like the wind. 



