The Wolf 331 



towards man is inconstant to a marked degree. Much dif- 

 ference is doubtless due to influences both general and 

 local, permanent and temporary, which it is impossible to 

 ascertain from any accounts. The packs C. A. Hall 

 (" Arctic Researches ") met with near " Frobishers' Far- 

 thest," and at J. K. Smith's Island, manifested none of 

 that timidity which has been remarked upon as the conse- 

 quence of constant persecution. On the contrary, "they 

 were bold," says Hall, " approaching quite near, watching 

 our movements, opening their mouths, snapping their 

 teeth, and smacking their chops, as if already feasting on 

 human flesh and blood." Similarly, "eleven big fellows 

 crossed the path " of O. W. Wahl (" Land of the Czar ") 

 " one winter day, near Stavropol." They merely inspected 

 the travellers and went on. Colonel N. Prejevalsky 

 (" From Kulja across the Tian Shan to Lob-nor ") saw but 

 few wolves, and in his report upon the fauna of the Tarim 

 valley, he remarks that they " are unfrequent, if not rare." 

 During his expedition ("Mongolia"), however, the Tibetan 

 wolf, Lupus chanco, the same animal he thinks that 

 the Mongols of Kan-su call tsobr, but really the common 

 species under one of its many changes of color, was found 

 to be " savage and impudent." Captain William Gill (" The 

 River of Golden Sand ") saw " here and there " on the 

 broken and undulating plains of Mongolia near the Chinese 

 frontier, "small villages surrounded by a wall to protect 

 them from the troops of wolves that in the desolate winter 

 scour the barrens of San-Tai." 



Nothing would be gained by multiplying references, 

 which might easily be given ad nauseam without finding 



