82 



to follow me any farther, but with one blow of a heavy stick which I 

 carried for the purpose, I laid him out, as doubtless in his time he had 

 laid out many a beautiful deer preparatory to devouring him. 



The three wolves I had killed formed part of a pack which bad, a 

 few weeks before their tragical departure for " the happy hunting 

 grounds," committed serious deprecations. I put the succeeding two, 

 each of which was equal in size to the first, through a like process of 

 investigation, but failed to elicit anything new. 



I had frequently heard the pack in full cry at night. Had it been 

 close at hand, the sound might have proved terrifying to persons not 

 gifted with an ear capable of appreciating nature's majestic harmonies. 

 To me, however, the nocturnal chorus of those wolves, seemed the clear- 

 est and most melodious musical effort I had ever listened to. Since 

 then I have heard wolves frequently, but nothing in their tones has 

 caused me to change my opinion. 



The Madawaska River, so far as unrivalled natural beauty could 

 make it so, was once the foaming Queen of the Ottawa's magnificent 

 tributaries — has along its turbulent course many rapids and chutes 

 of marvellous grandeur and beauty. One of these chutes, situated 

 about one hundred miles from Ottawa, is called " Wolf Portage." 

 It was so named on account of deer being chased by wolves into the 

 constantly open water at that point. In winter time the hunted deer 

 were in the habit of plunging into the rapids to escape the fangs of 

 their sanguinary pursuers. In catching their prey at the foot of the 

 portage the wolves displayed much cunning. When a deer took the 

 water at the head of the chute, it was quickly carried over the rough 

 rapid into the gradually narrowing ice-enclosed glade or channel at the 

 foot. Just, at the spot where the current drove it against the ice, 

 under which it would immediately be whirled, a number of wolves 

 stood on the ice, and the instant the deer touched its edge, it was 

 seized, dragged out on the ice and devoured. 



On the Madawaska Paver, in the early lumbering times, the skele- 

 tons of wolves could always be seen in winter lying on the ice at the 

 foot of the Wolf Portage. 



So numerous were the wolves in the woods on the Madawaska, 

 that during the years 1840 and 1841, the deer were driven completely 





