176 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



the jackal does to the Old. They are essentially prairie an- 

 imals, and invariably live in burrows, while the larger race, 

 although found in the open country, is partial to forest, and 

 generally sleeps in a nest or den upon the surface of the 

 soil or in a crevice of the rocks. The prairie-wolves and 

 coyotes are timid little fellows, living and hunting in com- 

 munities, and if captured young are easily tamed, becoming 

 much attached to their owner, and when in that state not 

 unfrequently display sagacity worthy of the dog ; while the 

 larger wolf becomes sullen and treacherous with age, ever 

 evincing an unconquerable dislike to his domesticated re- 

 lation, the dog, and if at any time able to recover his liber- 

 ty will at once return to the modes of life of his ancestry. 



In courage the gray wolf of America materially differs 

 from the Old World race, it being of very rare occurrence 

 for them to attack human beings ; still such have happen- 

 ed, but never, I believe, in the powerful bands trooped to- 

 gether that scour the steppes of Western Siberia and East- 

 ern European Russia. It may be that game being more 

 abundant in North America the animals do not get reduced 

 to the same straits from hunger ; but this I doubt, for trav- 

 elers of authority generally advance the opinion that finer 

 hunting-grounds than those that margin the Ural range are 

 nowhere to be found. No, the ferocity of those of the Old 

 World is in my belief attributable to this : Europe and Asia 

 have ever been the scenes of intestine wars, dead and wound- 

 ed have been deserted and left to perish naturally, the 

 wild animals have preyed upon them, and thus become so 

 familiar with our race as to know their helplessness and 

 want of powers of resistance. Of course the Indians have 

 carried on wars among themselves, and the white man has 

 constantly been in the habit of invading the territories of 

 the aborigines, but the slaughter in these forays has been 

 trifling, the victims on either side seldom left without inter- 



