SEOKOO OF THE BLACK WIND

Fascinated by the habits and instincts of wild animals, Joseph Chipperfield has written many books on this subject- among them -- Wolf of Badenoch (1959, 227 J-187) and Petrus. Dog of the Hill Country (1960, p. 620 J-234). Now he turns his attention to the great black wolf of the Canadian Arctic in this unusual story of Seokoo, whose savagery is tempered by his part canine ancestry. Rescued from starvation as a cub by a regional prospector, Seokoo submits to care but remains mistrustful. Once on the trail, he becomes the ferocious leader of a pack, employing all the fiendish brutality common to his species. The pack's cunning and bloody defeat of the hated gray wolf is a crowning achievement. But in a struggle with a lynx, Seekoo is badly injured and once again enters an oddly familiar relationship with man and tame beast. This time Gaston Brackaw and his dog Laika save his life. Well again, Seokoo embarks on the trail, prepared to rejoin his pack, when an odd conflict occurs. The canine strain, dormant for so long, finally dominates and Seekoo turns around in search of Gaston and Laika. Despite the controversial aspects of such an ending and the imposition of such phenomena as dreams on a wolf, the reader never doubts the authenticity of this tale. The narrative moves along at a pace swift enough to challenge the wolf's own relentlessness and the author's sensitivity subtly convinces the reader.