234. 
AMERICAN WOLF. 
tlirongliout the Avild northern regions, being more or less abundant in different districts. " Their 
foot-marks," says Richardson, "may be seen by the side of every stream, and a traveler can rarely 
pass a night in these wilds without hearing them howling around him. They are very numerous 
on the sandy plains which, lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources 
of the Peace and Saskatchewan rivers toward the Missouri. There bands of them hang on the 
skirts of the bison herds, and prey upon the sick and straggling calves. They do not, under 
ordinary circumstances, venture to attack the full-grown animal, for the hunters informed me 
that they often see wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting the least alarm ; and 
the marksmen, when they crawl toward a buffalo for the purpose of shooting it, occasionally wear 
a cap with two ears, in imitation of the head of a wolf, knowing from experience that they will 
be suffered to approach nearer in that guise. On the Barren Grounds through which the Copper- 
mine River floAvs, I had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single wolf in close pursuit of 
a reindeer ; and I witnessed a chase on Point Lake when covered with ice, Avhicli terminated in 
a fine buck reindeer being overtaken by a large white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. 
An Indian, Avho Avas concealed on the borders of the lake, ran in and cut the deer's throat Avith 
his knife : the Avolf at once relinquished his prey and sneaked off. In the chase, the poor deer 
urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of the Avolf ; but it stopped 
so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, that the latter, toiling on at a ' long gallop,' with its 
tongue lolling out of its mouth, gradually came up. After each hasty look the deer redoubled its 
eflbrts to escape ; but, either exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before it 
Avas overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet." 
The same author observes that the Avolves destroy many foxes, Avliich they easily run doAvn if 
they perceive them on a plain at any distance from their hiding-places ; and he relates that in 
January, 182*7, a Avolf Avas seen to catch an Arctic fox Avithin sight of Fort Franklin, and although 
immediately pursued by hunters on snoAV-shoes, it bore off its prey in its mouth without any 
apparent diminution of its speed. The same Avolf continued for some days to prowl in the vicin- 
ity of the fort, and even stole fish from a sledge AA^hich two dogs Avere accustomed to draw home 
from the nets without a driver. As this kind of depredation could not be alloAved to go on, the 
Avolf was Avaylaid and killed. He further states, that the buffalo-hunters Avould be unable to 
preserve the game they kill, from the wolves, if the latter Avere not as timid as they are rapacious. 
The simple precaution of tying a handkerchief to a branch, or of blowing up a bladder and hang- 
ing it to Avave in the Avind, is sufiicient to keep herds of Avolves at a distance. At times, however, 
he says that they are impelled by hunger to be more venturous, and that they have been known 
to steal provisions from under a man's head in the night, and to come into a traveler's bivouac 
and carry off some of his doo-s. "During our residence at Cumberland House in 1820," contin- 
