dnced on the same plane with the forehead* Its ears are higher and .somewhat nearer to each
other; their length exceeds the distance between the anditory opening, and the eye. Its loins
are more slender, its legs longer, feet narrower, and its tail is more thinly clothed with fur.
The shorter ears, broader forehead, and thicker muzzle of the American Wolf, with the*
bushiness of the hair behind the cheek, give it a physiognomy more like the social visage of
an Esquimaux dog than the sneaking aspect of an European Wolf. Buffon' enumerates black,
tawny-gray and white, as the colours exhibited by the-fur of the European Wolves, In the
American northern Wolves the gray colour predominates, and there is very little- of the
tawny hue. The general arrangement of the patches of colour is, however, nearly the same
in both races*
Notwithstanding the above enumeration of the peculiarities of the American
Wolf, I do not mean to assert that the differences existing between it and its
European congener are sufficiently permanent to constitute them, in the eye of the
naturalist, distinct species. The same kind of differences may be traced between
the foxes and native races of the domestic dog of the new world and those of the
old; the former possessing finer, denser, and longer fur, and broader feet, well
calculated for running on the snow. These remarks have been elicited by a comparison
of live specimens of American and Pyrenean Wolves; but I have not
had an opportunity of ascertaining whether the Lapland and Siberian Wolves,
inhabiting a similar climate with the American'ones, have similar peculiarities
of form, or whether they differ in physiognomy from the Wolf of the south of
Europe. I have, therefore, in the present state of our knowledge, considered it
unadvisable to designate the northern Wolf of America by a distinct specific
appellation, lest I should unnecessarily add to the list of synonyms, which have
already overburthened the science of Zoology. The word occidentalis, which I
have affixed to the Linnean name of Cams lupus, is to be considered as merely
marking the geographical position of the peculiar race of Wolf which forms the
subject of this article. I have avoided adopting, as a specific name, any of the
appellations founded on colour, because they could not with propriety be used to
denote more than casual varieties of a species, in which the individuals shew such a
variety in their markings.
Wolves are found in greater or less abundance in different districts, but they
may be said to be very common throughout the northern regions; their footmarks
may he seen by the side of every stream, and a traveller 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 towards the
Ma.MMAI.IA. ■63
Missouri. There hands of them hang on the skirts of the buffalo 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 towards 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 iibat they will be suffered to approach .nearer in that guise. On
the Barren-grounds through which the Coppermine River flows, I had more than
once an opportunity of seeing a single wolf in close pursuit of a rein-deer; and I
witnessed a chaee on Point Lake when covered with ice, which terminated in a fine
-buck rein-deer being overtaken by a large white wolf, and disabled by a bite in
the flank. An Indian, who was concealed on the borders of the lake, ran in and
-out the deers throat with his knife, the wolf at once relinquishing his prey, and
sneaking off. In the chase the poor,deer urged its flight by great bounds, which for
a time exceeded the speed of the wolf; 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 poor deer
redoubled its efforts to escape ; but either exhausted by fatigue, or enervated by fear,
.it became, just before it was .overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet. The Wolves
destroy many foxes, which they easily run down if they perceive them on a plain at
any distance from their hiding places. In January, 1827, a wolf was seen to
catch an Arctic fox within sight of Fort Franklin, and although immediately pursued
by hunters on snow-shoes, it bore off its prey in its mouth without any apparent
diminution of its speed f . The buffalo-hunters would be unable to preserve tke
•* ^ord Byron’s description of a chase by Wolves isrso characteristic, that no apology is requisite for the insertion of
the passage from whence this expression is borrowed:__
“ We rustled through the leaves like wind,
Left shrubs and trees and wolves behind ;
By night I heard them-on the track,
Their .tropp .came hard upon our back,
'With their long gallop which can tire
The hound's*deep-note and hunter’s fire:
Where’er,we flew they followed on,
-Not left us with the .morning-sun ;
Behind .1 saw them scarce a rood,
At day-break winding through the wood;
And through the night .had heard :their feet,
Their stealing, rustling step repeat.”
M a ZEPPA.
+ The.same wolf continued for some days ,to prowl in the .vicinity of the For.t, and even .stole ifish from .a sledge,
whioh two dogs were.accuslomed .to draw home from the nets .without .a driver. As this kind of depredation could not
be permitted to go on, the wolf was waylaid and killed. I t proved to be a female, , whioh accounted for the sledge-dogs
not having been molested.