-^^K^ 



130 WILD ANIMALS. 



^ In some parts of North America the wolves are very numerous, 

 bands of them used to be seen hanging on the buffalo herds ; for 

 although they rarely ventured to attack the full-grown animal, yet, 

 by preying on the sick and struggling calves, they considerably 

 lessened the number of these useful creatures, and were, if for no 

 other reason, a perfect pest. Many people advocated their ex- 

 termination in consequence, and agreed with Cuvier that : " No 

 nimal so richly merits destruction as the wolf." 

 There is also a species of wolf inhabiting the prairie-lands of 

 the New World called the coyote or cajote, which resembles the 

 fox in shape and appearance. 



The amount of noise that a single wolf is capable of pro- 

 ducing," writes Dr. Meriam," '' is simply astonishing, and many 

 amusing episodes of camp-lore owe their origin to this fact. More 

 than one " lone traveller " has hastily taken to a tree, and remained 

 in the inhospitable shelter of its scrawny branches for an entire 

 night, believing himself surrounded by a pack of at least fifty 

 fierce and hungry wolves, when in reality there was but one, and 

 (as its tracks afterwards proved) it was on the further side of a 

 lake, a couple of miles away." 



G-eneral Grant ® gives an amusing account of a similar experience 

 with wolves while on an excursion with a brother officer during his 

 Mexican campaign : " On the evening of the first day out from 

 Groliad we heard the most unearthly howling of wolves, directly in 

 our front. The prairie grass was tall, and we could not see the 

 beasts, but the sound indicated that they were near. To my ear 

 it appeared that there must have been enough of them to devour 

 our party, horses and all, at a single meal. The part of Ohio that 

 I hailed from was not thickly settled, but wolves had been driven 

 out long before I left. Benjamin was from Indiana, still less 

 populated, where the wolf still roamed over the prairies. He 

 understood the nature of the animal, and the capacity of a few of 

 them to make believe there was an unlimited number of them. 

 He kept on towards the noise, unmoved. I followed on his trail 

 lacking moral courage to turn back and join our sick companion 



' " Transactions of the Linntean Society of New York." 

 8 "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant," 1885. 



