THE ^VOLF. 



AMONG the most rapacious and most dan- 

 gerous animals of North America, the Wolf 

 (commonly called the Cayeute in some of the 

 Southern States) is one with which the hunters 

 consider an encounter to be as formidable as with 

 a Panther or a Grisly Bear. Wolves, far more nu- 

 merous in North America than in Europe, are 

 perhaps more horrible to the sight than they are 

 in the old continent. Everywhere along the tracks 

 of the dreary wilderness, as well as in inhabited 

 localities, in the environs of farms and villages, 

 in the prairies or in the woods, the Wolf — the 

 ghoul of the animal race — bursts , upon the 

 traveler with foaming jaws and glaring eyes, and 

 with a deep harsh growl, which betrays the min- 

 gled feelings of cowardice and audacity. 



It is very difficult to ensnare the Cayeutes, but 

 they are frequently hunted with Dogs and Horses. 

 Their skin is of a dull reddish color, mixed with 

 white and gray hairs. Such is their ordinary 

 color ; but, as in other animals, the varieties are 

 numerous. Their bushy tail, black at the tip, is 

 nearly as long as one-third of their whole body. 

 They closely resemble the Dogs which one sees 

 in the Indian wigwams, and which are certainly 



descended from the same species. We meet 

 with them in the regions between the Mississippi 

 and the Pacific, and to the south of Mexico. 

 They hunt in troops, like Jackals, and pursue 

 Goats and Bisons, and such other animals as 

 they think they can master. They do not dare 

 to attack a herd of Bisons, but follow them in 

 numerous bands until some straggler falls off 

 from the main body — a young Calf, for example, 

 or an old male — then they pounce upon him, 

 and rend him in pieces. They accompany cara- 

 vans of travelers or parties of hunters, take pos- 

 session of the camps which they abandon, and 

 devour the fragments of the morning or evening 

 meal. Sometimes they steal into the encamp- 

 ment during the night, and seize the rations put 

 aside by the emigrants for the raorrows's break- 

 fast. These thefts sometimes exasperate their 

 victims, and, growing less greedy of powder and 

 shot, they pursue them with resolute anger until 

 several of the depredators have bit the dust. 



This species of Wolf is the most numerous of 

 all the American carnivora, and hence the Ca- 

 yeutes are not infrequently decimated by famine. 

 Then, but only then, they feed upon fruits, roots, 

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