Northern Trails, Book I.

Northern Trails, Book I.

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Title: Northern Trails, Book I.
Author: William J. Long
Release Date: December 5, 2003 [EBook #10389]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NORTHERN TRAILS
BOOK I
By
William J. Long
WOOD FOLK SERIES BOOK VI
1905

PREFACE

In the original preface to "Northern Trails" the author stated that, with
the solitary exception of the salmon's life in the sea after he vanishes
from human sight, every incident recorded here is founded squarely
upon personal and accurate observation of animal life and habits. I now
repeat and emphasize that statement. Even when the observations are,
for the reader's sake, put into the form of a connected story, there is not
one trait or habit mentioned which is not true to animal life.
Such a statement ought to be enough, especially as I have repeatedly
furnished evidence from reliable eye-witnesses to support every
observation that the critics have challenged; but of late a strenuous
public attack has been made upon the wolf story in this volume by two
men claiming to speak with authority. They take radical exception to
my record of a big white wolf killing a young caribou by snapping at
the chest and heart. They declared this method of killing to be "a
mathematical impossibility" and, by inference, a gross falsehood,
utterly ruinous to true ideas of wolves and of natural history.
As no facts or proofs are given to support this charge, the first thing
which a sensible man naturally does is to examine the fitness of the
critics, in order to ascertain upon what knowledge or experience they
base their dogmatic statements. One of these critics is a man who has
no personal knowledge of wolves or caribou, who asserts that the
animal has no possibility of reason or intelligence, and who has for
years publicly denied the observations of other men which tend to
disprove his ancient theory. It seems hardly worth while to argue about
either wolves or men with such a naturalist, or to point out that
Descartes' idea of animals, as purely mechanical or automatic creatures,
has long since been laid aside and was never considered seriously by
any man who had lived close to either wild or domestic animals. The
second critic's knowledge of wolves consists almost entirely of what he
has happened to see when chasing the creatures with dogs and hunters.
Judging by his own nature books, with their barbaric records of
slaughter, his experience of wild animals was gained while killing them.
Such a man will undoubtedly discover some things about animals, how
they fight and hide and escape their human enemies; but it hardly needs
any argument to show that the man who goes into the woods with dogs
and rifles and the desire to kill can never understand any living animal.
If you examine now any of the little books which he condemns, you

will find a totally different story: no record of chasing and killing, but
only of patient watching, of creeping near to wild animals and winning
their confidence whenever it is possible, of following them day and
night with no motive but the pure love of the thing and no object but to
see exactly what each animal is doing and to understand, so far as a
man can, the mystery of its dumb life.
Naturally a man in this attitude will see many traits of animal life
which are hidden from the game-killer as well as from the scientific
collector of skins. For instance, practically all wild animals are shy and
timid and run away at man's approach. This is the general experience
not only of hunters but of casual observers in the woods. Yet my own
experience has many times shown me exactly the opposite trait: that
when these same shy animals find me unexpectedly close at hand, more
than half the time they show no fear whatever but only an eager
curiosity to know who and what the creature is that sits so quietly near
them. Sometimes, indeed, they seem almost to understand the mental
attitude which has no thought of harm but only of sympathy and
friendly interest. Once I was followed for hours by a young wolf which
acted precisely like a lost dog, too timid to approach and too curious