NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 203 



be expected that the numbers of caribou in the region would 

 attract a small permanent population of wolves, it seems 

 strange that they should be so rarely observed. Peary, who 

 was familiar with the region from his various polar expeditions, 

 wrote ("The North Pole," p. 61, 1910) that in the northern 

 part of the island there might be "perhaps once in a generation 

 a stray wolf," implying that it was almost unknown a genera- 

 tion ago. Had it been of regular occurrence following the 

 caribou herds, the Eskimo would surely have reported it. 

 Possibly these stray Arctic wolves may have come from farther 

 south on rare occasions. However, the more recent testimony 

 of Macmillan is rather at variance with Peary's statements. 

 In his book "Four Years in the White North" (1918) he has a 

 good deal to say about the Arctic wolves met with in Ellesmere 

 Land and Axel Heiberg Land. Late in March, 1916, two were 

 started at Bay Fiord, near Etah, but they dashed away and 

 finally disappeared over the rough ice of Smith Sound; later 

 one was killed near Eureka Sound, and another was started 

 from the ice foot and also ran off over the ice. "Axel Heiberg 

 Land is infested with them," he^wrote, after seeing a pack of 12, 

 all white. In April of that year two others appeared and when 

 pursued by the sledge dogs ran off over the sea ice toward 

 North Cornwall. In October, 1916, the local Eskimos returned 

 from their annual caribou hunt, which covers the region from 

 Etah to the Humboldt Glacier on the Greenland coast. They 

 reported no young caribou, but tracks of wolves everywhere, 

 implying that the young caribou find it difficult to survive on 

 account of the wolves. Macmillan believes that a large band of 

 white wolves had crossed Smith Sound and was following the 

 herds on the North Greenland coast. They also probably 

 capture a few seals along the ice foot, which would account for 

 their presence in that place, while muskoxen too must fre- 

 quently fall a prey. If this explorer is correct in his belief that 

 wolves cross Smith Sound, from Ellesmere Land to North 

 Greenland, as seems likely, there appears no reason to suppose 

 that their wanderings in search of game might not take them 

 across the northern part of that country or even to the east 

 coast, so that the supposed distinction of the wolves of the 

 two regions may prove to be unfounded. 



