136 
that is, in Texas and along the Rio Grande. We 
are glad to be able to give the observations of 
two such competent men. 
The Wolves in the North. 
As already said, Mr. MacFarlane entered the 
service of the Hudson’s Bay Cotmpany fiity- 
three years ago.. The collections which he sent 
to Washington came chiefly from the northern 
section of the McKenzie River District, a coun- 
try bounded on the north by the Polar Sea, on 
the west by the McKenzie River, on the south 
by the 67th parallel of north latitude, and on the 
east by the coast of Franklin Bay from Cape 
Bathurst to its depth in Langton Harbor. The 
collections and observations. were made from 
the beginning of the year 1861 to July, 1866. 
Fort Anderson, which is the principal point of 
observation, was on the Anderson River, where, 
in June, 1862, Mr. MacFarlane performed im- 
portant services for the Arctic explorations by 
recovering and forwarding to Europe the dis- 
patches delivered to the Eskimo by Capt. Rob- 
ert McClure, of the Arctic Search Expedition 
ship Investigator twelve years before. The big 
wolves of the north bear various names in 
science. Mr. MacFarlane below speaks of Canis 
albus, and Canis griseus, and may include Canis 
pambasileus. The nomenclature of these wolves 
is as yet uncertain. Of the northern big wolf 
he says: 
“The white is the most abundant variety of 
the wolf in the far north; next comes the gray, 
and the black is the rarest. These wolves yearly 
succeed in killing as prey quite a large number 
of reindeer and not a few moose. On one oc~ 
casion, while traveling upon the ice between 
Forts Liard and Nelson, in the Mackenzie River 
district, we came across a patch of hard-packed 
snow on the Liard River, where a large buck 
moose had evidently been surrounded, and no 
doubt overpowered, after a most gallant fight 
for life, by perhaps a score of ferocious and 
cowardly wolves. A few well-picked bones and 
the skull were the only. relics left. At a short 
distance, however, we perceived a full-grown 
gray wolf, which was at once shot. It had one 
of its hindlegs shattered by a kick from a moose, 
which so disabled it that it could scarcely crawl. 
Had its companions not been fully gorged, they 
would doubtless have fallen upon and eaten it 
too. 
“Although the old saying ‘mad as a March 
wolf?’ may not apply generally, yet there are 
seasons when many of them undoubtedly suffer 
from distemper similar to that which some 
years attacks Indian and Eskimo dogs, and are 
then more or less dangerous. In the month of 
March, 1868, large numbers of northern wolves 
were thus affected, and several Indians and one 
ot two servants of the company were attacked 
and narrowly escaped being bitten, while it was 
currently reported that an elderly native woman 
had been killed about that time in the forest at a 
distance of several miles from Fort Rae, Great 
Slave Lake. Instances have also occurred where 
they have carried off dogs from the vicinity of 
the posts, and also from the winter night en- 
campments of northern travelers. 
“In some seasons, the woodland wolf is more 
abundant than usual at certain points through- 
out the north. It is naturally more numerous 
in sections where reindeer abound. It breeds 
male has from three to five, 
and occasionally as many as six at a birth. The 
eyes of the young are closed, and they are as 
helpless as dog pups for some days after they 
are born. The male is believed to assist his 
mate in rearing the offspring. Copulation of 
the sexes takes place during the months of Feb- 
ruary and March. 
“Wolves of this kind have been observed and 
some captured on many of the large islands to 
the north of the American arctic. COasta it, 
Armstrong noticed a number on Baring Island 
and elsewhere, while Sir James Clark Ross 
states that considerable numbers of them col- 
lected on the narrow portion of the Isthmus of 
Boothia Felix in order to intercept the reindeer 
on their. annual spring migrations. He also 
mentions that a single wolf ‘will go among any 
number of Eskimo dogs and carry off one from 
among them without the others attempting to 

FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JAN. 27, 1906. 


attack. General Greely’s party obtained six ex- 
amples at or near their winter quarters at Fort 
Conger, in Lady Franklin Bay, and he gives lat- 
itude 82° 50’ as the northern limit of this ani- 
mal, which is there indigenous. Sir Edward 
Parry records its presence on Melville and the 
other North Georgian Islands. 
“In the sketch of ‘North Western America 
(1868),’ Archbishop Taché, of St. Boniface, 
Manitoba, recounts a remarkable instance of 
persevering fortitude exhibited by a large dark 
wolf caught in a steel trap at Isle a la Crosse 
many years ago. A month afterward, it was 
killed near Green Lake, ninety miles distant, 
with the trap and connecting wood block still 
attached to one of its hindlegs. It had evidently 

JOHN B. BURNHAM IN ALASKA, 
With gray wolf killed by him. 
dragged both around in the snow for many a 
mile, during a period of intense cold, and it was 
therefore not surprising that he was a “walk- 
ing skeleton” when finally secured. 
“From the statement 1853-1877, inclusive, the 
company sold in London as many as 171,770 
wolf skins, or an average of nearly 6,871 a year. 
I think more than half of them must have: be- 
longed to the smaller variety (Canis latrans) of 
the prairies and British Columbia. The three 
best sales were in 1855, with 15,419 (the maxi- 
mum), 12,659 in 1859, and 12,616 in 1866; the 
three lowest, 2,802 in 1872, 2,083 in 1876 and 
1,865 (the minimum) in 1877. In 1902 they sold 
1,340 and in 1903, 1,790 skins. From 1858 to 
1884, Athabasca District contributed 2,119 skins 
of the woodland (black, gray and white) wolf 
to the London sales. For the outfits of 1885 to 
1889, it made a further addition of 339 skins. Be- 
tween 1863 and 1884, inclusive, the district of 
Mackenzie River supplied a total of 1 880 skins 
of this animal. Its quota in 1889 was only forty- 
nine skins. From 1862 to 1887, Fort Resolu- 
tion, Great Slave Lake, gave 193, and in 1884 
ten skins. The posts of the Upper Peace River, 
with its lake stations transferred from Edmon- 
ton, sent in forty-eight woodland wolves in 1889. 
“The Eskimos use the fur of the different 
varieties of wolves for trimming the hood or 
other portions of their deer skin capotes or 
tunics.” 
The Coyote. 
“This smaller prairie wolf is not found much 
to the north of the northern branch of the 
Saskatchewan River; but on the west side of 
the Rocky Mountains it is, in sOme seasons, 
fairly numerous as far as latitude 55° north. 
Mr. Moberly, an intelligent and experienced 
observer, writes: | 
“*The prairie wolf seldom attacks any large 
animal except when led on by a woodland ex- 
ample. After a time, however, he will learn to 
kill domestic sheep without any assistance. They 
generally live on mice, gophers, musquash, ber- 
ries, and carrion. I think the wood wolf in- 
habiting the plains country is much smaller 
than the kind found further north, and also 
lighter in color, and may possibly be a cross 
between both species. It is more cowardly 
than the true woodland wolf.’ 
‘He further states that the male renders no 
assistance whatever to the female in providing 
food for the young, which number from three 
to five, and occasionally six. Indians have 
known of instances where both kinds of wolves 
and some of their dogs have mated, and they 
have always found that the resulting offspring 
were not only prolific, but also better and 
stronger as beasts of burden. Parry records an 
instance—the first authentic one known to him 
—where a setter dog had intercourse with a 
female wolf (Canis griseus). It was soon after- 
ward killed by a male of the same species. 
New Caledonia District, British Columbia, 
usually sends in from forty to one hundred and 
twenty skins annually, fully three- fourths of 
which belong to Canis latrans.” 
[To BE CONCLUDED. ] 
Note on the Blacksnake. 
I have never seen a blacksnake over seven 
feet long, and much doubt if they grow to a 
greater length. They are not hard to catch, 
though in an open field they can run about as 
fast as a man can. When caught they struggle 
desperately until they find there is no opportu- 
nity to escape, when they will give up fighting 
and may be handled with impunity. Last spring, 
while I was walking over the Brandywine hills, 
a blacksnake stuck his head out of a hole in an 
old apple tree about six feet from the ground. 
He dodged back out of sight when he saw me. 
Then I lighted a little piece of newspaper and 
dropped it into the hole. In just about a second 
the snake started out again, and just as he poked 
his head through the hole my companion grabbed 
him around the neck. I took hold of the tail as 
it appeared, and we stretched him out to full 
length and measured him—five feet and a half. 
He did not fight much, but this may have been 
caused by his just having shed his skin. He was 
turned loose and went wriggling off into the 
swamp. Farmers in this part of the country do 
not like to have the blacksnakes killed. 
One day a few weeks later I was walking 
through a laurel thicket and heard a great com- 
motion in the leaves. A blacksnake had been 
disturbed by the noise I made. He rushed to- 
ward me until he saw me fix my feet to stop 
him when he turned and ran off in the other di- 
rection into a clump of chestnut sprouts. Up 
these he climbed for about twenty feet, gliding 
from one branch to another, but not at any time 
encircling the trunk or a limb. As I went to- 
ward him he would go off from the top of one 
tree to another, stopping now and then to look 
back at me. I brought his skin home and it 
measured just six feet. 
I have never found these snakes to be vicious; 
they can be handled easily, and their bite is 
harmless. They can squeeze pretty hard if they 
get a turn around your waist, but not hard 
enough to break a bone. P. SHARPLES. 
Woodcock Carrying its Young. 
BuFFa_o, N. Y., Jan. 14.—I wish to congratu- 
late you on the improved appearance of the 
ForEST AND STREAM. In your issue of Jan. 6 you 
speak of woodccck carrying their young. In 
April, 1903, I was shooting snipe near Angola, 
N. Y., with Ralph West, of that place. The dog 
made a point in a bunch of popple in one corner ~ 
of the snipe ground. On our going up to him 
a woodcock flushed with a young bird about the 
size of a sparrow between its legs and flew about 
thirty yards in plain view. On looking in ahead 
of the dog we found a nest with another young 
one in it. Tonebaris 
