VISIT FROM THE WOLVES. 4.61 



the people were set down to a feast, consisting 

 of a preparation of meat and fat fried in batter 

 (i.e. flour and water), with cakes sweetened with 

 treacle ; after which they sang and danced, and, 

 to use their own expression, " had grog to their 

 hearts' content." In fact, they were all tho- 

 roughly happy, and I was scarcely less happy in 

 seeing them so. In a few days they returned to 

 their several stations, and left us to our former 

 solitude. 



Our next visitors were of a more lean and 

 hungry kind, being a troop of eighteen white 

 wolves, which obliged us to secure the dogs 

 by keeping them within the house during the 

 night. They would come when every thing 

 was quiet, prowling about the door; and fre- 

 quently as we went to observe the needle at 

 midnight, they were within sixty paces of us on 

 the border of the lake, or sneaking about the 

 woods, but always retreated to a short distance 

 when they saw any one move. Two were 

 caught in traps, and one was shot by a spring 

 gun, but they were immediately devoured by 

 the others, the onlv remains found in the morn- 

 ing being the heads and legs. One of their 

 decoys was as follows : two or three would lie 

 down on the ice a few hundred yards in front of 

 the house, in order to entice the dogs, which 

 sometimes ventured a little way towards them \ 



