226 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



ful; nevertheless this danger to the sheep caused them to be 

 very wary and to keep to the high ridges. The wolves seemed 

 to find the caribou at lower levels a more dependable source of 

 food. Just to the north of Mount McKinley, Sheldon found 

 wolves along the upper Toklat River very abundant, always 

 hovering about the feeding herds of caribou and following them 

 as they roamed, usually in a fairly well-defined circuit. Late 

 in September the caribou frequent ridges more than the low 

 country and would be fairly conspicuous to a wolf. He re- 

 marks also on the innate caution of the wolf, which, though 

 rarely pursued in this region, is so wary that he never saw or 

 trapped one. Living as they do, in McKinley National Park, 

 it seems likely that the wolves of this area will continue for a 

 long time to harry the caribou of the outer ranges and less 

 often penetrate the upper slopes for sheep. 



BARREN-GROUND WOLF 

 CANIS LUPUS TUNDRARUM Miller 



Canis tundrarum Miller, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 59, no. 15, p. 1, June 8, 1912 



("Point Barrow, Alaska"). 

 SYNONYM: Canis lupus albus Sabine, Franklin's Narr. Journ. Polar Sea, p. 655, 1823 



(Fort Enterprise, Mackenzie, Canada). (Not Canis lupus albus Kerr, from 



Siberia.) 



The tundra wolf has a narrower palate and slender rostrum 

 in comparison with the Plains wolves and the northern timber 

 wolves. It is decidedly larger than the eastern timber wolf 

 and in color is "said to be frequently white or whitish." It is 

 the form found in the barren-grounds of the Arctic coast region 

 from near Point Barrow eastward toward Hudson Bay, and 

 perhaps too in the Arctic Archipelago north of those shores. 



Little recent information concerning this wolf is at hand. 

 In the middle of the last century and earlier, explorers found 

 them in some numbers about the Isthmus of Boothia, and 

 Back's expedition saw white wolves near Artillery Lake. 

 Preble (1908) has summarized some of these later observations 

 as follows: "Armstrong states that a wolf was seen near Prin- 

 cess Royal Islands in February, 1851 ; and that many were seen 

 at Mercy Bay, Banks Land, during the winter of 1851-52. 

 McDougall states that a pack of wolves was seen on Melville 

 Island near Cape Russell in June, 1853; one was seen on May 

 27, 1854, near Cape Hotham, Cornwallis Island; McClintock 



