THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 483 



now come to a portion of the river more crooked than 

 any we have passed; the shores on both sides are evi- 

 dently lower, the hills that curtain the distance are 

 further from the shores, and the intervening space is 

 mostly prairie, more or less overflowed. We have seen 

 one Wolf on a sand-bar, seeking for food, perhaps dead 

 fish. The actions were precisely those of a cur dog with 

 a long tail, and the bellowing sound of the engine did not 

 seem to disturb him. He trotted on parallel to the boat 

 for about one mile, when we landed to cut drift-wood. 

 Bell, Harris, and I went on shore to try to have a shot at 

 him. He was what is called a brindle-colored Wolf,i of 

 the common size. One hundred trappers, however, with 

 their axes at work, in a few moments rather stopped his 

 progress, and when he saw us coming, he turned back on 

 his track, and trotted off, but Bell shot a very small load 

 in the air to see the effect it would produce. The fellow 

 took two or three leaps, stopped, looked at us for a mo- 

 ment, and then started on a gentle gallop. When I over- 

 took his tracks they appeared small, and more rounded 

 than usual. I saw several tracks at the same time, there- 

 fore more than one had travelled over this great sandy 

 and muddy bar last night, if not this morning. I lost 

 sight of him behind some large piles of drift-wood, and 

 could see him no more. Turkey-buzzards were on the 

 bar, and I thought that I should have found some dead 



1 This Wolf is to be distinguished from the Prairie Wolf, Canis latrans, 

 which Audubon has already mentioned. It is the common large Wolf of 

 North America, of which Audubon has much to say in the sequel ; and 

 wherever he speaks of " Wolves " without specification, we are to under- 

 stand that this is the animal meant. It occurs in several different color- 

 variations, from quite blackish through different reddish and brindled 

 grayish shades to nearly white. The variety above mentioned is that 

 named by Dr. Richardson ^/j-^iMj/iaj, commonly known in the West as the 

 Buffalo Wolf and the Timber Wolf. Mr. Thomas Say named one of 

 the dark varieties Catiis nubilus in 1823; and naturalists who consider 

 the American Wolf to be specifically distinct from Canis lupus of Europe 

 now generally name the brindled variety C. nubilus griseo-albus. — E. C. 



