MAMMALS OF XORTHEEN CANADA 181 



naturally more numerous in sections where reindeer abound. 

 It breeds once a year — the female has from three to five, and 

 occasionally as many as six, at a birth. The eyes of the 

 young are closed, and they are as helpless ^as dog pups for 

 some days after they are born. The male is believed to 

 assist his mate in rearing the offspring. Copulation of the 

 sexes takes place during the months of February and March. 



Wolves of this kind have been observed and some cap- 

 tured on many of the large islands to the north of the 

 American Arctic coast. Doctor Armstrong noticed a number 

 on Baring Island and elsewhere, while Sir James Clark Ross 

 states that considerable numbers of them collected on the 

 narrow portion of the Isthmus of Boothia Felix in order to 

 intercept the reindeer on their annual spring migrations. He 

 also mentions that a single wolf will go among any number 

 of Eskimo dogs and carry off one from among them without 

 the others attempting to attack. General Greely's party 

 obtained six examples at or near their winter quarters at 

 Fort Conger, in Lady Franklin Bay, and he gives latitude 

 82° 50' as the northern limit of this animal, which is there 

 indigenous. Sir Edward Parry records its presence on Mel- 

 ville and the other North Georgian islands 



In the sketch of "North- Western America" (1868) Arch- 

 bishop Tache, of St. Boniface, Manitoba, recounts a remark- 

 able instance of persevering fortitude exhibited by a large 

 dark wolf caught in a steel trap at Isle a la Crosse many 

 years ago. A month afterwards it was killed near Green 

 Lake, 90 miles distant, with the trap and connecting wood 

 block still attached to one of its hind legs. It had evidently 

 dragged both around in the snow for many a mile, during a 

 period of intense cold, and it is therefore not surprising 

 that it was a " walking skeleton " when finally secured. 



From the Statement 1853-1877, inclusive, the Company 

 sold in London as many as 171,770 wolf skins, or an average 

 of nearly 6,871 a year. I think more than half of them must 

 hiive belonged to the smaller variety, Canis latrans, of the 



