330 



Wild Beasts 



Something, however, may depend upon local variety. 

 Captain Koldewey (" German Arctic Expedition ") tells 

 us that " the peculiar species, he calls it of wolf met 

 with in other arctic neighborhoods is not found in East 

 Greenland ; neither is the wolf-like dog now dying out 

 from disease." Brown (" Fauna of Greenland ") takes the 

 same view, but whatever the facts may be, dogs and wolves 

 have sometimes been known to treat each other very dif- 

 ferently. Sir Edward Belcher (" The Last of the Arctic 

 Voyages ") saw a wolf, which he at first supposed from its 

 appearance to be one of Sir John Franklin's surviving dogs, 

 come up to his own team on the sledge journey of 1853. 

 " It did not quarrel with them. ... Its habits were cer- 

 tainly very peculiar ; it cared not for us, and frequently 

 approached so near that it might have been shot, but was 

 not disposed to make friends." Even if the tameness of 

 this animal had been due to starvation, that would not have 

 accounted for the friendliness of Belcher's dogs. General 

 A. W. Greely ("Three Years of Arctic Service") reports of 

 his, that " whenever wolves were near they exhibited signs 

 of uneasiness, if not of fear." Captain Ross noticed that 

 his dogs at Boothia Felix " trembled and howled " when- 

 ever wolves approached them. It is well known, however, 

 that in the arctic, as elsewhere, these animals interbreed. 

 Godman gives the following : " Scientia naturali multum 

 versato et fide digno viro Sabina, se canem Terrce-novce cum 

 lupa coire frequenter vidis" Theodore Roosevelt and 

 others speak of the same thing as coming under their per- 

 sonal cognizance. 



In high latitudes of America and Asia the wolf's attitude 



