WHITE AMERICAN WOLF. 
161 
reader will perceive from the following account. On the 16th of July 
1843, whilst we M^ere on a Buffalo hunt near the banks of the Yel- 
low Stone river, and all eyes were bent upon the hills and the prairie’ 
which is very broad, we saw a wolf about a quarter of a mile from 
our encampment, and Mr. Owem McKenzie was sent after it. The wolf 
however ran very swiftly and was not overtaken and shot until it had 
ran several miles. It dodged about in various directions, and at one 
time got out of sight beliind the hills. This wolf was captured, and 
a piece of its flesh was boiled for supper; but as we had in the mean 
time caught about eighteen or twenty Cat-fish, we had an abundant 
meal and did not judge for ourselves whether the wolf was good eating 
or not, or if its flesh was like that of the Indian dogs, which we have 
had several opportunities of tasting. 
Wolves are frequently deterred from feeding on animals shot by 
the hunters on the prairies, who, aware of the cautious and timid cha- 
racter of these rapacious beasts, attach to the game they are obliged 
to leave behind them a paid of their clothing, a handkerchief, &c., or scat- 
ter gun powder around the carcass, which the cowardly animals dare not 
approach although they will watch it for hours at a time, and as soon as 
the hunter returns and takes out the entrails of the game he had left 
thus protected, and carries off the pieces he wishes, leaving the coarser 
parts for the benefit of these hungry animals, they come forward and 
enjoy the feast. The hunters who occasionally assisted us when we 
were at Port Union, related numerous stratagems of this kind to which 
they had resorted to keep off the wolves when on a hunt. 
The wolves of the prairies form burrows, wherein they bring forth 
their young, and which have more than one entrance ; they produce 
from six to eleven at a birth, of which there are very seldom two 
alike in colour. The wolf lives to a great age and does not change 
its colour with increase of years. 
GEOGEAFHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
This variety of wolf is found as far. north in the Arctic regions of 
America as they have been traversed by man. The journals of Hearnb, 
Franklin, Sabine Richardson, and others, abound with accounts of their 
presence amid the snows of the polar regions. They exist in the colder 
parts of Canada, in the Russian possessions on the western coast of 
America, in Oregon, and along both sides of the Rocky Mountains, to 
California on the west side and Arkansas on the east. We examined 
a specimen of the White Wolf killed in Erie county, N. Y., about forty 
VOL.II. 21. 
