1912 AND FISHEEIES COMMISSION. 215 



furs in possession sihould he for any reason be desirous of so doing. It 

 would •seem that the local magistrates might well be constituted the 

 authority to deal with such cases at their discretion under the general 

 instructions of the Department of Fish and G^ame. 



Wolves. 



Attention has been called in previous sections of the report to the 

 diminution of game in the Province and to various causes therefor, but 

 it must be acknowledged that as -a destructive agency in so far as four- 

 footed creatures are concerned the wolf must be accorded no small dis- 

 tinction. Unfortunately, almost throughout the forest areas the timber 

 wolf is to be found in greater or less abundance laaid the depredations 

 of this animal on the ranks of the deer are annually enormous. It is a 

 natural and inveterate hunter, and not satisfied with killing that which 

 it requires for food, will hunt and slay for the mere pleasure of so 

 doing. In general it operates in pairs or small bands, following up its 

 quarry at a leisurely trot by the sense of smell with a persistency that 

 but seldom is thwarted, but the greatest of its opportunities to work 

 damage and destruction occur in the winter months when the snow drifts 

 are deep and the deer yarded. Then, with its prey, helpless and at its 

 mercy the wolf approaches and kills to its heart's content. Wherever 

 the deer are to be found in the Province, there will the wolf also be 

 found, and if for one reason or another the deer migrates from any area 

 into another, the wolf will follow suit, as was well instanced in the 

 Eainy River district, where the deer were practically unknown until 

 recent years and the wolf comparatively scarce, but where no sooner 

 did the deer commence to appear in numbers, driven northward in all 

 probability from Minnesota by the forest fires raging in that State, than 

 the wolf arrived also, and its numbers are now, apparently, steadily 

 increasing. When each adult wolf will kill in« all probability one or two 

 deer each week of the year, it becomes at once apparent what an enor- 

 mous drain on the deer supply there must be from this cause where 

 wolves become at all numerous. The extent of the damage wrought to 

 moose and caribou is less certain, but at least it would appear more than 

 probable that some destruction of these animals is effected by wolves, 

 more particularly in regard to the calves. In the western portions of 

 the Province there is also to be found the brush-wolf, which prey largely 

 on the smaller fur-bearing animals, such as the fisher and marten, in 

 addition to other game, and is consequently the cause of no small loss 

 to t/he Province. 



The wolf is by nature one of the most cunning of animals, and it 

 is but rarely that he will afford the hunter an opportunity 

 of shooting him or will suffer himself to be caught in an 

 ordinary form of trap. The most usual and effective method for 

 the destruction of this harmful creature would appear to be poisoning. 



