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HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SI P. 



into Norway and back. They are favoured also by 

 the nature of the country, over whose unsheltered 

 plateaus the winds sweep with a force which com- 

 presses the snow, so that it gives firm footing to the 

 wolf, and thus precludes the possibility of over- 

 taking it on snovv-^kates. Also the Lapps are 

 accounted incompetent marksmen and their rifles 

 equally inefficient. 



Encouraged by such conditions, and also, it appears, 

 by the apathy and neglect of the Lapps, in 1879 the 

 number of wolves on this tract, or part of it, had so 

 greatly increased that, as stated by Herr Hederstrom, 

 they ran in packs from fifteen to forty, and destroyed 

 thousands of reindeer, as they had done during the 

 previous two years— packs more numerous and de- 

 struction greater than had been heard of for some 

 years before. The report of enquiry respecting the 

 prevalence of wolves in Enontekis, made about 

 the same time at the instance of the Jagtmaster, 

 supplies some interesting particulars on the subject 

 of these ravenous animals. Six years before few 

 wolves were found there, but they had since greatly 

 increased, and it was estimated that at least a hun- 

 dred prowled over the parish ; packs of three to 

 fifteen had been seen since the middle of September. 



They remain within the parish all the year 

 through, following the reindeer herds on their way 

 to Norway up to the mountain ridge, but not over it ; 

 supporting themselves bounteously during summer on 

 <sther prey, in the valley of Kumajoki, close under 

 the ridge ; forming quite distinct footpaths there, and 

 extending themselves along the banks of Konkama 

 river quite down to Xellotijarvi, a lake about sixteen 

 miles above Enontekis church. It is said that lairs 

 of wolves are sometimes found burrowed in the 

 sandhills, like those of the fox. 



During the three preceding years it was calculated 

 that each year over a thousand reindeer had been 

 killed in the parish by wolves. The flesh of a deer 

 thus killed acquires a taste so very disagreeable that 

 people are very reluctant to eat it. Yet it is said by 

 Castren, quoted in Diiben's work, that the Fjell- 

 lapps of Finland have no need through all the winter 

 to slaughter deer for their own use ; they eat only 

 the reindeer killed and in part eaten by the wolves, 

 which choose the daintiest portions, and especially 

 the blood, which those Lapps, like the wolves them- 

 selves, prefer to drink raw. 



When the wolf, says the writer of the report, on 

 giving chase has overtaken a reindeer, he seizes it by 

 the thigh, and soon as its speed slackens, grips it in 

 a twinkling by the throat, presently causing its 

 death, and consequent fall. He then tears out and 

 eats its tongue ; next he strips the flesh from the 

 loins nearest the root of the tail, and after eating that 

 continues his repast on the rest. If very hungry, 

 and undisturbed, he gorges the whole deer, its horns 

 included. 



The reindeer, as stated by DUben, has the worst 



chance of escape from the wolf on dark autumn 

 nights when the surface of the snow is sufficiently 

 frozen to bear the weight of the wolf, but not of the 

 deer. The assailant, however, instead of flight, some- 

 times meets with resistance and a repulse ; examples 

 being given of stags, and especially does with calves, 

 goring a wolf to death ; or even successfully defending 

 themselves with horns and hoofs against a couple of 

 bloodthirsty foes. Indeed it is said that the wolf 

 seldom ventures to rush upon a compact herd, but 

 when fear has dispersed it, pursues a deer that has 

 separated from the rest. 



Wolves do not always remain continuously in the 

 same locality, but in many cases remove at 

 intervals from one tract to another, so that the 

 Lapps may sometimes, in certain parts, relax con- 

 srderably the constant watch of their herds. Ost- 

 gaard, a Norwegian writer, says that wolves some- 

 times flock together in great numbers, and especially 

 when about to migrate to another forest tract. Such 

 a gathering is there called a wolf-skred. 



Except under the pinch of hunger, the wolf is 

 cowardly ; as Bishop Pontoppidan remarks, he is like 

 the arch-enemy of mankind, resist the brute and he 

 will flee from you ; a cow or even a goat, by such 

 action has put him to flight. It is very rarely, 

 therefore, that he ventures to attack a man ; but it is 

 recorded that a soldier, when returning from parade 

 across the ice over the great lake Storsjo, in Jemtland, 

 was killed and eaten by wolves, his skeleton being 

 found several days afterwards. Previous to that 

 occurrence, namely in 1821, nine or ten children 

 suffered the same fate in Dalecarlia and Gestrictland, 

 which adjoins it, from one and the same wolf, which 

 it was believed had been kept tame. Cases of 

 children being killed by wolves appear to be more 

 frequent in Finland ; two were reported by the 

 newspapers in 1881, as occurring within the province 

 of Abo ; the one, that of a boy ten years of age, who 

 had been sent to fetch a horse from an enclosure 

 within a forest adjacent to the cottage where he 

 dwelt. 



Much superstition has been associated with the 

 wolf by Scandinavians as well as Lapps. The 

 malign glare of his eyes, his grin of rage and fear, 

 ' his reputed habit of tearing the dead from their 

 graves, his revels on battle-fields, and the strange, 

 unearthly bowlings to which he gives utterance on 

 dark winter nights, all suggest the idea of a fiendish 

 nature, a being pertaining to the nether world. In 

 the old Norse mythology, he played, in accordance 

 with this character, a conspicuous part. Odin, the 

 god of battles, was attended by two wolves, and 

 doomed at length to be devoured by the great Fenris- 

 wolf (offspring of Loki, the Evil One), when the 

 flames of Ragniirok consumed the world. Two 

 ravenous wolves, personifications of the dark side of 

 nature, born of a hag who dwelt in Iron-wood, the 

 abode of witches, constantly pursued the sun and 



