CANIS LUPUS. 
43 
The amount of noise that a single Wolt is capable of producing is 
simply astonishing, and many amusing episodes of camp lore owe 
their origin to this fact. More than one “lone traveller" has hastily 
taken to a tree, and remained in the inhospitable shelter of its scrawny 
branches for an entire night, believing himself surrounded by a pack 
of at least fifty fierce and hungry Wolves, when, in reality, there was 
but one, and (as its tracks afterwards proved) it was on the farther 
side of a lake, a couple of miles away. 
The Wolf is one of the most cowardly and wary of our mammals, 
always taking good care to keep out of sight ; and he is so crafty and 
sagacious that it is almost impossible to allure him into any kind of 
a trap. 
When opportunity affords he is one of the most destructive and 
wasteful of brutes, always killing as much game as possible, regard- 
less of the condition of his appetite, and he used to be the greatest 
enemy that our deer had to contend with. During the deep snows 
a small pack of Wolves would sometimes kill hundreds of deer, tak- 
ing here and there a bite, but leaving the greater number untouched. 
In the year 1871 the State put a bounty* on their scalps, and it is 
a most singular coincidence that a great and sudden decrease in their 
numbers took place about that time. What became of them is a great 
and, to me, inexplicable mystery, for it is known that but few were 
killed. There is but one direction in which they could have es- 
caped, and that is through Clinton County into Lower Canada. In 
so doing they would have been obliged to pass around the north end 
of Lake Champlain and cross the River Richelieu, and before reach- 
ing any extensive forests would have had to travel long distances 
through tolerably well-settled portions of country. And there is no 
evidence that they made any such journey. 
The Wolf makes its nest in rocky caverns, under the upturned 
roots of fallen trees, and in hollow logs ; and where suitable shelter 
* The law granting this bounty has already been given in a foot note under the Panther. See 
pp. 29-30. 
