206 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



was standing by the side of a small lake formed by the River 

 Exploits, when he saw an old wolf coming toward him on the 

 ice, to be followed presently by five or six more. The Indian 

 ran for his "tilt" and his gun, but the wolves, following him, 

 gained so rapidly that he sought safety by climbing into a tree 

 beyond their reach; otherwise, he felt certain, they would have 

 attacked and killed him. But after remaining about for nearly 

 an hour they departed. The skin of a white wolf killed north 

 of Grand Lake, Newfoundland, about 1896, by Dr. El wood 

 Worcester, was presented by him to the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology. It was shot as it came over the side of a hill 

 where Dr. Worcester was waiting, gun in hand, for a chance at 

 a caribou. Two others, which he saw at about the same time, 

 were running along the shore of a lake above River of Ponds 

 in pursuit of a caribou. One of these looked very dark in 

 color. Bangs (1913) wrote that when Doane was collecting for 

 him about 1894 one was killed, but neither Millais, writing 

 about 1906, nor Dugmore in his book on the Newfoundland 

 caribou in 1913, mentions seeing anything of the wolf, which 

 by that time must have been greatly reduced in numbers. 

 The last record known to me is of one reported to have been 

 killed about 1911. The late Dr. John C. Phillips, who con- 

 tributed this note, endeavored to obtain the specimen but was 

 unsuccessful. 



While Newfoundland at its nearest point is hardly 10 miles 

 distant from the mainland of Labrador, it seems that this wolf, 

 like so many other animals of the island, must have been 

 isolated here for a long period and gradually developed the 

 slight cranial differences that distinguish it. At the present 

 time the Newfoundland wolf is believed to be extinct. 



VANCOUVER ISLAND WOLF 

 CANIS LUPUS CRASSODON Hall 



Canis occidentalis crassodon Hall, Univ. California Publ. Zool., vol. 38, p. 420, Nov. 

 8, 1932 ("Tahsis Canal, Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia"). 



Skulls of the Vancouver Island wolf differ from those of the 

 adjacent mainland and southern Alaska in their smaller size, 

 shortened preorbital region, less elevated tip of rostrum, and 

 greater shallowness of the lower jaw through the coronoid 

 process. The color is gray to black. Condylobasal length of 

 skull, 240 mm. 



