Farley Mowat

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Amber Eyes in the Arctic

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Farley Mowat, official biologist for the Canadian government, plane hitch-hiked far to the Canadian north into the heart of the Keewatin Barren Lands to find out how wolves lived.

While his new book ["Never Cry Wolf"] seems to start slowly, it quickens considerably when a decrepit and creaky airplane, resuscitated by an ex-R.A.F. pilot, flew Mr. Mowat and a mountain of supplies out of Churchill onto a Barrens frozen lake the exact location of which neither the pilot, nor Mr. Mowat knew.

But the biologist, by a quirk of good fortune, had arrived safely at his "base." He was on his own. Now to find some wolves to see what they were up to. In the course of events, this took an Arctic summer….

Eventually, Mr. Mowat found a den of wolves—four young ones and the parents and right where he could conveniently observe them with power glasses and telescope….

From here on the narrative, touched with humor, takes Mr. Mowat through the lives of a wolf family. He started calling the male "George" and the female "Angeline." Later on a single male baby-sitter for the four mischievous cubs, "Uncle Albert" came into the family.

With a lively sense of story, Mr. Mowat unravels the complex tactics of the wolves slowly but factually. He learned to nap when they napped, ate the summertime wolf diet—mice—fished the way they fish.

He learned something of their language and how they conveyed "news" over great distances. He found out the meaning behind the Eskimo saying, "The wolf keeps the caribou strong," rather than the common belief that the wolf destroys herds of caribou. He observed the strong family ties among wolves and he ended up his long assignment by having great compassion toward them. And he concluded with the realization that the wolf in fact is very different from the wolf of legend.

"Never Cry Wolf" delightfully and instructively lifts one into a captivating animal kingdom.

Harry C. Kenney, "Amber Eyes in the Arctic," in The Christian Science Monitor (reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor; © 1963 The Christian Science Publishing Society; all rights reserved), October 3, 1963, p. 11.

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