75 



THE WOLF (CANIS LUPUS). 



By William Pittman Lett. 



The present, according to the Ontario Game Act, is what is known 

 to sportsmen as the "close season," that pax vobiscum interval, during 

 tbe continuance of which the wild birds and wild animals of the forests, 

 the rivers and the lakes are supposed to be allowed to rest in undisturbed 

 tranquility, unawed by the presence of man, unstartled by the deadly 

 reverberations of the rifle oi the shotgun. 



Next to the matchless and magnificent surroundings of a happy 

 sojourn in a tent, in the lonely and beautiful solitudes of the wilder- 

 ness — next to a successful hunt with congenial companions, skilled in 

 the mysteries of wood and water craft — may be classed the enjoyment 

 of telling your experience, what you know, what you have learned, amid 

 the solemn, sublime and illimitable glories of nature. The pleasureof 

 the situation is enhanced, when the detonating story of the camp fire 

 is told to kindred spirits, to sportsmen, to naturalists, to reading and 

 thinking men, who are certain to appreciate the attractions of the nar- 

 rative if it has any, sure to comprehend all, and pei'haps much more 

 than you are able to tell them. 



I need scarcely say that I am delighted to find myself standing 

 once more before the Field-Naturalists' Club of the City of Ottawa. 

 Perhaps I have said as much before. Very likely I have. " Out of 

 the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketb." In whatever I attempt 

 I am ever and always an enthusiast. If I place myself in a lowly rank 

 in that frequently misjudged and misunderstood band, nevertheless, 

 under the light of history, I come to the conclusion that at appointed 

 times — in favourable crises — enthusiasts have been the men who in 

 various eras in the past, have created religious, moral, social, political 

 and scientific earthquakes in the world. I have accidently stumbled 

 upon an interesting and practically inexhaustible subject. I can't pur- 

 sue it now. I just leave it, by simply saying, that in my opinion, one 

 hour of enthusiastic energy in any cause, is worth a whole year of cold, 

 calculating induction. Enthusiasm is tbe electricity of intellect, it is. 

 the sweeping flame of earnest endeavour. It is the strong, soaring wing 



