284 
AMERICAN GREY WOLF. 
like such a run as did this fellow. Indeed, it is only necessary to look at 
the large leg bone, the strong back, the deep shoulder, and broad chest of 
this wolf, to be satisfied of his superiority to the other, in the qualities I 
have enumerated. I am also inclined to think that he is more resolute, 
and not so easily cowed as the other species ; and in support of this opi- 
nion, I proceed to the adventure that occurred to Lieut. Hoskins, with one 
of this species. 
“ A few weeks after this, Lieutenant Chas. Hoskins, of the 4tli Regt. 
of Infantry, who, being a bold rider and an ardent hunter, was one of the 
chief actors in the scene I have just described, had a severe encounter 
with a giant w'olf, which I will endeavour to relate as he described it to 
me. 
“He had mounted his horse just before sunset, one day in June, to 
breathe for an hour, the fresher air of the prairie, and had ridden at a 
leisurely pace about three quarters of a mile from the fort — his dogs, four 
or five greyhounds, were following listlessly at his heels, dreaming as little 
as himself of seeing a wolf — when on a sudden, from a small clump of shu- 
mach bushes, immediately at his side, there sprang an enormous giant 
wolf. By one of those instinctive impulses which it is difficult to describe, 
horse and dogs were launched upon him before an eye could twinkle. 
The wolf had but a few yards the start ; and under such circumstances, 
although the fleetest of his congeners, he stood no chance of escaping from 
his still fleeter enemies ; in fact, before he had run fifty yards he was 
caught by the flanks and stopped. Here a most furious fight commenced : 
it is a well known fact that the greyhound is sometimes a severe fighter, 
owing to his great activity and his quick, slashing snap, and Hoskins’s dogs 
were, in addition, in the habit of coursing the prairie-wolf during the fall 
and winter months, on which occasions the affair was very generally, after 
a short chase, terminated in about one minute, by the victim having his 
throat and bowels torn into ribands. This, however, was a different 
affair ; they had encountered an ugly customer, and the battle was long 
and of varied aspect. Sometimes the wolf would break entirely clear from 
the dogs, leaving several of them floored ; again, however, within a few 
yards he would be checked, and the battle be resumed ; so that during a 
long struggle there was little change of ground. 
“ The fight was continued in this way, the prospect of victory or of 
defeat frequently changing, until both parties were quite exhausted. 
“ And now, here lay the wolf in the centre, with his tongue hanging 
from his jaws ; and at the distance of a few feet, the dogs around him, 
bleeding and panting for breath. At this juncture, Hoskins, who had not 
even a penknife in his pocket, was unable to terminate the affair ; he sat 
