THE DOGS 273 
the other. Settlers have succeeded in getting good skins 
by pegging out a female dog in heat, and shooting the wolves 
that come down after her. 
The wolves themselves are larger than the dogs. They 
may measure in length as much as seven feet eight inches, 
from nose to tail. They are very bold; on one occasion 
wolves lurked around a solitary house in Big Bay till they 
had carried off the four dogs, one by one, and left only after 
capturing the cat. The dogs retain these same ancestral 
habits. Some summer settlers at Batteau have goats at 
their small shacks. About ten miles away at Red Point 
lived a hungry team of dogs. One night a goat was missing. 
The crime was traced to the dogs. Men with guns waited 
their return, with no result except much loss of time. The 
dogs never came near the settlement by day. Yet, before 
the people left, the dogs had successfully carried off every 
goat without suffering any losses. 
On another occasion my own leading dog, a black bitch 
from Cape Chidley, ran away from the hospital in early 
spring. She was seen near a neighbouring village, killing 
sheep. Three had been slaughtered by her on land, and she 
had driven two more out on to a rocky island, where she 
swam off and slewthem. Witha long shot the sheep-owner 
wounded her, and she fled into the woods, but still did not 
return home. He hauled the carcass near the edge of the 
woods, and sat up for her. True to her wolfish instinct, 
she returned to her quarry by night, and so met her fate. 
Our dogs know little or no fear, and, unlike the wolves, 
will unhesitatingly attack even the largest polar bear. 
On one occasion a man’s dogs, travelling along smooth sea 
ice, scented a white bear and started off like the wind. 
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