234 



VERTED HAT A. 



AMERICAN WOLF. 



throughout the wild northern regions, being more or less abundant in different districts. " Their 

 foot-marks" says Richardson, "may be seen by the side of every stream, and a traveler can rarely 

 pass a night in these wilds without hearing them howling around him. They are very numerous 

 on the Bandy plains which, lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources 

 of the Peace and Saskatchewan rivers toward the Missouri. There bands of them hang on the 

 skirts of the bison herds, and prey upon the sick and straggling calves. They do not, under 

 ordinary circumstances, venture to attack the full-grown animal, for the hunters informed me 

 that they often see wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting- the least alarm ; and 

 the marksmen, when they crawl toward a buffalo for the purpose of shooting it, occasionally wear 

 a cap with two ears, in imitation of the head of a wolf, knowing from experience that they will 

 be suffered to approach nearer in that guise. On the Barren Grounds through which the Copper- 

 mine River flows, I had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single wolf in close pursuit of 

 a reindeer; and I witnessed a chase on Point Lake when covered with ice, which terminated in 

 a fine buck reindeer being overtaken by a large white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. 

 An Indian, who was concealed on the borders of the lake, ran in and cut the deer's throat with 

 his knife : the wolf at once relinquished his prey and sneaked off. In the chase, the poor deei 

 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 hasty look the deer redoubled its 

 efforts to escape ; but, cither exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before it 

 was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet." 



The same author observes that the wolves destroy many foxes, which they easily run down if 

 they perceive them on a plain at any distance from their hiding-places ; and he relates that in 

 January, 1827, a wolf was seen to catch an Arctic fox within sight of Fort Franklin, and although 

 immediately pursued by hunters on snow-shoes, it bore off its prey in its mouth without any 

 apparent diminution of its speed. The same wolf continued for some days to prowl in the vicin- 

 ity of the fort, and even stole fish from a sledge which two dogs were accustomed to draw home 

 from the nets without a driver. As this kind of depredation could not be allowed to go on, the 

 wolf was waylaid and killed. lie further states, that the buffalo-hunters w r ould be unable to 

 preserve the game they kili, from the wolves, if the latter were not as timid as they are rapacious. 

 The simple precaution of tying a handkerchief to a branch, or of blowing up a bladder and hang- 

 ing it to wave in the wind, is sufficient to keep herds of wolves at a distance. At times, however,"' 

 he says that they are impelled by hunger to be more venturous, and that they have been known 

 to steal provisions from under a man's head in the night, and to come into a traveler's bivouac 

 and carry off some of his dogs. "During our residence at Cumberland House in 1820," contin- 



