game they kill from the wolves, if the latter were not as fearful as they are rapacious.
The simple precaution of tying a handkerchief to a branch, or of blowing
up a bladder, and hanging it so as to wave in the wind, is sufficient to keep herds
of Wolves at a distance *. At times, however, they are impelled by hunger to be
more venturous, and they have been known to steal provisions from under a man’s
head in the night, and to come into a traveller’s bivouac, and carry off some of
his dogs. During our residence at Cumberland House in 1820, a wolf, which
had been prowling round the Fort, and was wounded by a musket-ball and driven
off, returned after it became dark, whilst the blood was still flowing from its
wound, and carried off1 a dog from amongst fifty others, that, howled piteously,
but had not courage to unite in an attack on their enemy f. I was told of a
poor Indian woman who was strangled by a Wolf, while her husband, who
saw the attack, was hastening to her assistance; but this was the only instance of
their destroying- human life that came to my knowledge. As the winter advances
and the snow becomes deep, the wolves being no longer able to hunt with success,
suffer from hunger, and in severe seasons many die. In the spring of 1826 a large
gray Wolf was-driven by hunger to prowl amongst the Indian huts which were
erected in the immediate vicinity of Fort Franklin, but not being successful in
picking up aught to eat, it was found a few days afterwards lying dead on the snow
near the Fort. Its extreme emaciation and the emptiness of its intestines shewed
clearly that it died from inanition. The skin and cranium were brought to
England, and presented to the Museum of the Edinburgh University; and a
drawing from it is to be engraved for Mr. Wilson’s beautiful Illustrations of
Zoology.
The American Wolf burrows, and brings forth its young in earths with several
outlets like those of a fox. I saw some of their burrows on the plains of the
Saskatchewan, and also on the banks of the Coppermine River. The number of
young in a litter varies from four or five to eight or nine. In Captain Parry’s and
Captain Franklin’s narratives, instances are recorded of the female Wolves associating
with the domestic dog ; and we were informed that the Indians endeavour
to improve their sledge-dogs by crossing the breed with wolves. The resemblance
between the northern wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so
great, that the size and strength of the Wolf seems to be the only difference. I
* The Wolves in the north of Europe are equally cautious. “ To prevent the Wolves from destroying the reindeer,
the Laplanders tie them to' some tree, and it seldom happens that they are attacked in that situation : for the
Wolf, being a suspicious animal, is afraid that there should be some snare laid for him, and that this is employed for a
bait to draw him thither.”—Regnard.
f The track in the snow shewed that it was the wounded Wolf which had returned.
have more than once mistaken a band of wolves for the dogs of a party of Indians;
and the howl of the animals of both species is prolonged so exactly in the same
key, that even the practised ear of an Indian fails at times to discriminate them.
The following notices, by Captain Lyons, of the wolves of Melville Peninsula,
are good illustrations of the strength and habits of the northern wolves in
general:—“ A fine dog was lost in the afternoon. It had strayed to the hummocks
ahead without its master, and Mr. Elder, who was near to the spot, saw five
wolves rush at, attack, and devour it in an incredibly short space of time : before
he could reach the place the carcase was torn in pieces, and he found only the
lower part of one leg. The boldness of the wolves was altogether astonishing, as
they were almost constantly seen amongst the hummocks, or lying quietly at no
great distance in wait for dogs. From all we observed, I have no reason to
suppose that they would attack a single unarmed man, both English and Esquimaux
frequently passing them without a stick in their hands; the animals, however,
exhibited no symptoms of fear, but rather a kind of tacit agreement not to be the
beginners of a quarrel, even though they might havé been certain of proving
victorious,”— “ The wolves had now grown so bold as to come alongside, and on
this night they broke into a snow-hut, in which a couple of newly purchased
Esquimaux dogs were confined, and carried them off, but not without some
difficulty, for in the day-light we found even the ceiling of the hut sprinkled with
blood and hair. When the alarm was given, and the wolves were fired at, one of
them was observed carrying a dead dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, at a
canter, notwithstanding the animal was of his own weight. Before morning they
tore a quantity of canvass off the observatory, and devoured it.”— The Esquimaux
wolf-trap is made of strong slabs of ice, long and narrow; so that a fox can
with difficulty turn himself in it, but a wolf must actually remain in the position in
which he is taken. The door is a heavy portcullis of ice, sliding in two well-secured
groves of the same substance, and is kept up by a line, which, passing over the top
of the trap, is carried through a hole at the furthest extremity: to the end of the
line is fastened a small hoop of whalebone, and to this any kind of flesh-bait is
attached. From the slab which terminates the trap, a projection of ice, or a peg
of wood or bone, points inwards near the bottom, and under this the hoop is lightly
hooked ; the slightest pull at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and.
the wolf is speared where he lies.”