22 DOGS. Chap. I. 



when hungry they will attack even their masters. According 

 to Kane they readily become feral. Their affinity is so close 

 with wolves that they frequently cross with them, and the 

 Indians take the whelps [of wolves " to improve the breed of 

 their dogs." The half-bred wolves sometimes (Lamare-Picquot) 

 cannot be tamed, " though this case is rare ; " but they do not 

 become thoroughly well broken in till the second or third 

 generation. These facts show that there can be but little, if 

 any, sterility between the Esquimaux dog and the wolf, for 

 otherwise they would not be used to improve the breed. As 

 Dr. Hayes says of these dogs, " reclaimed wolves they doubtless 

 are." 14 



North America is inhabited by a second kind of wolf, the 

 prairie-wolf (Canis latrans), which is now looked at by all 

 naturalists as specifically distinct from the common wolf; and 

 is, according to Mr. J. K. Lord, in some respects intermediate 

 in habits between a wolf and a fox. Sir J. Richardson, after 

 describing the Hare Indian dog, which differs in many respects 

 from the Esquimaux dog, says, " It bears the same relation to 

 the prairie-wolf that the Esquimaux dog does to the great 

 grey wolf." He could, in fact, detect no marked difference 

 between them ; and Messrs. Nott and Gliddon give additional 

 details showing their close resemblance. The dogs derived from 

 the above two aboriginal sources cross together and with the 

 wild wolves, at least with the C. occiclentalis, and with European 

 dogs. In Florida, according to Bartram, the black wolf-dog 

 of the Indians differs in nothing from the wolves of that country 

 except in barking. 15 



14 The authorities for the foregoing the wolf is often caught by the Esqui- 



statements are as follow : — Eichardson, maux for the purpose of crossing with 



in ' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' 1829, pp. their clogs, and thus adding to their 



64, 75 ; Dr. Kane, ' Arctic Explorations,' size and strength. M. Lamare-Picquot, 



1856, vol. i. pp. 398, 455 ; Dr. Hayes, in ' Bull, de la Soc. d'Acclimat.,' torn. 



• Arctic Boat Journey,' 1860, p. 167. vii., 1860, p. 148, gives a good account 



Franklin's ' Narrative,' vol. i. p. 269, of the half-bred Esquimaux dogs, 

 gives the case of three whelps of a black 15 ' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' 1829, 



wolf being carried away by the Indians. pp. 73, 78, 80. Nott and Gliddon, 



Parry, Eichardson, and others, give • Types of Mankind/ p. 383. The na- 



accounts of wolves and dogs naturally turalist and traveller Bartram is quoted 



crossing in the eastern parts of North by Hamilton Smith, in ' Nat. Hist. Lib.,' 



America. Seeman, in his ' Voyage of vol. x. p. 156. A Mexican domestic 



H.M.S. Herald,' 1853, vol. ii. p. 26, says dog seems also to resemble a wild dog 



