64 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
game they kill from the wolves, if the latter were not as fearful as they are rapa- 
cious, The simple precaution of tying a handkerchief to a branch, or of blowing 
up a bladder, and hanging it so as to wave in the wind, is sufficient to keep herds 
of Wolves at a distance *, At times, however, they are impelled by hunger to be 
more venturous, and they have been known to steal provisions from under a man’s 
head in the night, and to come into a traveller’s bivouac, and carry off some of 
his dogs. During our residence at Cumberland House in 1820, a wolf, which 
had been prowling round the Fort, and was wounded by a musket-ball and driven 
off, returned after it became dark, whilst the blood was still flowing from its 
wound, and carried off a dog from amongst fifty others, that howled piteously, 
but had not courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. I was told of a 
poor Indian woman who was strangled by a Wolf, while her husband, who 
saw the attack, was hastening to her assistance; but this was the only instance of 
their destroying human life that came to my knowledge. As the winter advances 
and the snow becomes deep, the wolves being no longer able to hunt with success, 
suffer from hunger, and in severe seasons many die, In the spring of 1826 a large 
gray Wolf was driven by hunger to prowl amongst the Indian huts which were 
erected in the immediate vicinity of Fort Franklin, but not being successful in 
picking up aught to eat, it was found a few days afterwards lying dead on the snow 
near the Fort. Its extreme emaciation and the emptiness of its intestines shewed 
clearly that it died from inanition. The skin and cranium were brought to 
England, and presented to the Museum of the Edinburgh University; and a 
drawing from it is to be engraved for Mr. Wilson’s beautiful Illustrations of 
Zoology. 
The American Wolf burrows, and brings forth its young in earths with several 
outlets like those of a fox. I saw some of their burrows on the plains of the 
Saskatchewan, and also on the banks of the Coppermine River. The number of 
young in a litter varies from four or five to eight or nine. In Captain Parry’s and 
Captain Franklin’s narratives, instances are recorded of the female Wolves asso- 
ciating with the domestic dog ; and we were informed that the Indians endeavour 
to improve their sledge-dogs by crossing the breed with wolves. ‘The resem- 
blance between the northern wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so 
great, that the size and strength of the Wolf seems to be the only difference. I 
* The Wolves in the north of Europe are equally cautious. ‘‘ To prevent hs Wolves from destroying the rein- 
deer, the Laplanders tie them to some tree, and it seldom happens that they are attacked in that situation: for the 
Wolf, being a suspicious animal, is afraid that there should be some snare laid for him, and that this is employed for a 
bait to draw him thither.””— Regnard. : 
+ The track in the snow shewed that it was the wounded Wolf which had returned. 
