In North- West Canada. 87 



night, with the general result of the disappearance of a lamb 

 or young sheep. So one night my collector and his father 

 and brother laid ready with guns for the appearance of Mr. 

 Wolf. They tied a sheep to a fence, and erected a screen of 

 timber close to the sheep, and behind this they waited the 

 approach of the wolf. They were not disappointed, for they 

 at last saw his form approaching cautiously. The sheep be- 

 gan to bleat and tried to break away from the cord, and just 

 as the wolf was about to seize its prey, the father and two 

 brothers poured a volley of shot into the carcass of the wolf, 

 which caused him to bite the ground in agony. Then loading 

 their guns again they gave him another dose, which stretched 

 him lifeless on the ground. After this they were not troubled 

 with wolves again. The grey wolf sometimes chases deer, 

 Sir John Richardson saw one at Point Lake chasing a fine 

 buck reindeer. The wolf ran down the deer and disabled it 

 by a bite on the flank. An Indian, who was concealed on the 

 borders of the lake, ran out and cut the deer's throat with his 

 knife, when the wolf at once relinquished his prey and sneaked 

 off. In the chase the poor deer urged its flight by great 

 bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of the wolf, 

 but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, 

 that the latter, toiling on at a long gallop, with its tongue 

 lolling out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hast} 7 

 look, the poor deer redoubled its efforts to escape ; but eitlier 

 exhausted by fatigue, or enervated by fear, it became, just 

 before it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet. The" 

 grey wolves destroy many foxes, which they run down if 

 they perceive them on the prairie at a distance from their 

 burrows ; they carry them off in their mouths, as easily as a 

 terrier does a rat. When buffaloes were plentiful on the 

 prairies, bands of wolves were always found hanging on 

 the skirts of the bison herds, preying on the young and sickly 

 calves, or on any old buffalo, which could not keep up with 

 the herd. Wolves never attacked the full-grown animals, for 

 hunters state they often used to see wolves walking through 

 a herd of bulls without exciting the least alarm, and the, 



