3i8 Wild Beasts 



mestic virtues cannot in fairness be withheld from him. He 

 hunts diligently and disinterestedly for the support of his 

 mate and young, and when these (which are at first nearly 

 black and look like foxes, except that they have not a white 

 tip to their tails) are able to travel, both parents carefully 

 supervise their education. Various diseases are prevalent 

 among wolves, and many die of sickness ; but if it be true 

 that hydrophobia is unknown among those of North- 

 western Europe, their exemption from a disorder which 

 afflicts this species in all cold, and even temperate climates 

 elsewhere, must be looked upon as an unexplained fact. 

 During the rigorous and prolonged winters of high lati- 

 tudes large numbers starve to death. Men shoot, trap, 

 and poison them at every opportunity ; they often kill 

 one another, and when the ice breaks up in the greater 

 inlets of the north Atlantic and Baltic, multitudes of 

 wolves that have been hunting the young of seals upon 

 their frozen surfaces perish. 



Buffon seems to have furnished the wolf's character 

 ready made for use by subsequent writers, since these ap- 

 pear to have done little more than copy or comment upon 

 his text. "// est natitrelloncnt grassier et poltron,'' he says, 

 " mais il devient inghiieiix par besoin, et hardi par necessity ; 

 presse par la famine, il brave le danger'' — that is, it will 

 come out of the depths of forests, and attack domestic ani- 

 mals. " Enfin, lorsqne le besoiti est extreme, il s' expose a 

 tout, attague les femmes et les enfans, se jettefnem,e quelque- 

 fois stir les hommes ; devient fnrieiix par ccs exce's, qui 

 fiiiissent ordinairement par la rage et la mort." 



Now if one reads, not all, for that would be impossible, 



