The Wolf 329 



much dependent upon them for food during the coldest 

 season of the year." Godman does not say whether his 

 information was got at first hand, or taken from others, 

 but there is no doubt as to the fact that he is wrong. 

 High latitudes do not furnish permanent habitats for game. 

 Reindeer or caribou are not only migratory, but wander 

 constantly ; the latter being, as Charles C. Ward remarks, 

 " a very Ishmaelite " in its habits. The same is true of 

 other animals upon which wolves subsist, and the idea of 

 their living in any numbers upon Eskimo leavings is 

 amusing. 



Milton and Cheadle ("The North-west Passage by 

 Land ") give much the same explanation as Captain Ross 

 for the fact that wolves are so rarely seen in the far north. 

 " Wild animals of any kind," they inform us, " are seldom 

 viewed in the Hudson Bay territories, unless they are care- 

 fully tracked up. They are so constantly hunted, . . . and 

 whenever they encounter man, are so invariably pursued, 

 that they are ever on their guard, and escape without being 

 seen." Forced to range widely because the character of 

 this region involves constant change of place upon the part 

 of their principal game, and made wary to the last degree 

 by perpetual hostilities, it might well be that travellers 

 found them absent from those regions they explored, and 

 scarcely had an opportunity to observe such as were actu- 

 ally in their vicinity. Thus Parry (" Journal "), who was 

 struck by their shyness, says, " it is very extraordinary that 

 no man could succeed in killing or capturing one of these 

 animals, though we were for months almost constantly 

 endeavoring to do so." 



