430 LABRADOR 



Canis occidentahs. The timber wolf of Labrador seems 

 to be deficient in the noble qualities allotted to him else- 

 where. I can find no account of his having courage to 

 attack even an unarmed man, though on several occasions 

 men have been followed by small packs of wolves almost 

 to their doors. I heard of one boy who was attacked by a 

 wolf, but he fired his gun in its face and ran away without 

 waiting to see what happened. It seems certain that they 

 kill defenceless animals merely for the pleasure of killing 

 them. Settlers have many times described to me how 

 they have found carcasses of freshly killed deer within a 

 short distance of one another, only the tongues having been 

 eaten and the windpipe torn out. This method of killing 

 may account for the tongue being eaten, owing to its 

 attachment to the larynx. The wolves have frequently 

 come out and mixed with the Eskimo dogs, killing and eat- 

 ing them. This has been used to their destruction by peg- 

 ging out sluts, and so attracting the wolves within range. 

 One trapper while tailing his traps noticed that he was 

 being followed by three wolves. On his return to the 

 spot where he had left a bag of flour he found that the 

 wolves had been circling round it, but had been afraid to 

 touch it. On stooping to pick it up he heard a growl close 

 to him, and a single wolf stood facing him snarling. With 

 considerable coolness he. stood still and took time to load 

 his muzzle-loading gun. The wolf meanwhile was walking 

 around. The other two wolves did hot show up out of .the 

 thicket. When he was ready he shot and killed the one 

 in sight, whereupon the other two dashed out of the thicket 

 and fled. This man has had a very large experience with 

 our wild animals. The wolf in question was far advanced in 



