164 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



state not mifrequently display sagacity worthy of the 

 dog; while the larger wolf becomes sullen and trea- 

 cherous with age, ever evincing an unconquerable dis- 

 like to his domesticated relation, the dog, and if at 

 any time able to recover his liberty will at once return 

 to the modes of life of his ancestry. 



In courage the grey wolf of America materially 

 differs from the old world race, it being of very rare 

 occurrence for them to attack human beings still 

 such have happened, but never I believe in the 

 powerful bands trooped together, that scour the 

 steppes of Western Siberia and Eastern European 

 Kussia. It may be that game being more abundant in 

 North America the animals do not get reduced to the 

 same straits from hunger, but this I doubt, for travel- 

 lers of authority generally advance the opinion that 

 finer hunting grounds than those that margin the Ural 

 range are nowhere to be found. No, the ferocity of 

 those of the old world is in my belief attributable to 

 this : Europe and Asia have ever been the scenes of in- 

 testine wars, dead and wounded have been deserted 

 and left to perish naturally, the wild animals have 

 preyed upon them, and thus become so familiar with 

 our race as to know their helplessness and want of 

 powers of resistance. Of course the Indians have 

 carried on wars among themselves, and the white man 

 has constantly been in the habit of invading the terri- 

 tories of the aborigines, but the slaughter in these 

 forays has been trifling, the victims on either side 

 seldom left without interment, thus depriving the car- 

 nivorse of an intimacy with the human family, which 

 leads to contempt of our powers of resistance or pos- 

 sibly a relish for our flesh. 



