Trail and Camp-Fire 



Indians caught wolves for their skins, but they did not 

 pursue them, that is to say, they did not^-or very sel- 

 dom — shoot at them or chase them. They caught them 

 in traps and snares, and the wcTlves, being usually full fed 

 and seldom or never frightened by the Indians, were ex- 

 ceedingly tame. Note, in confirmation of this view, a 

 statement in "Lewis and Clark's Travels," page 172 

 (Longman, London, 1814), where the wolves about a 

 buffalo trap are said to have been very fat, and so "gentle 

 that one of them was killed with an esponton." 



When Mr. Grinnell makes a general statement about 

 how wolves and Indians regard each other, he confesses 

 that he is generalizing about all Indians and all wolves 

 from those Indians and those wolves that he has known. 

 Very likely he may be wrong as to certain sections of 

 the country, but he is convinced that he is right so far as 

 the plains country and the buffalo Indians were con- 

 cerned. On the other hand, in one of the old books 

 about British Columbia, where there were no buffalo, 

 wolves are said to be always hungry, and mention is 

 made of the havoc these animals wrought among horses, 

 and of the fact that they occasionally attacked men, so 

 that the Indians stood in dread of them. Statements 

 about hungry wolves, and wolves attacking men, must, 

 however, be accepted with caution. 



No fact in natural history «s better ascertained than 

 that wild animals adapt themselves with extraordinary 

 rapidity to the new conditions which they have to face 

 on the settling up of a country. This fact will often 

 explain the conflicting statements made by observers in 

 different places and at different times. 



The Editors. 



222 



