The Wolf 321 



is able to put himself in this animal's place so completely 

 as to appreciate those motives by which it is actuated. 



Wolves differ with their geographical position, with the 

 peoples that come in contact with them, and in virtue of 

 individual peculiarities. What has been done by them 

 anywhere, might undoubtedly occur again if the condi- 

 tions remained unaltered. Dr. Henry Lansdell (" Russian 

 Central Asia ") knew of Tartars on the steppes who rode 

 down the wolf and beat it to death with their heavy whips. 

 He likewise learned that shepherds in the Caucasus pro- 

 tected their flocks by means of dogs. Yet his native 

 attendants, as he reports with some surprise, actually 

 allowed themselves to become alarmed at the threatened 

 attack of a pack on the road from Kabakli to Petro-Alexan- 

 drovsk. 



T. W. Atkinson's views (" Oriental and Western 

 Siberia ") were not so decided, and his experiences in 

 these latitudes had been different. He saw plenty of 

 wolves in the valley of the Ouba, and they had followed 

 his party on the plains of Mongolia. Cossacks assured 

 him ("Travels in the Region of the Amoor") that trav- 

 ellers upon the steppe were often devoured, and bands of 

 these grim beasts frequently gathered about his camp by 

 night. On one occasion while hunting he observed a fine 

 maral — the large stag of high altitudes in the Ac-tan, 

 Ale-tan, and Mus-tan regions — run into by three of these 

 brutes. " The ravenous beasts were tearing the noble 

 creature to pieces while yet breathing," when two bear- 

 coots — black Tartar eagles — sailed over the spot, and 

 one swooped. " The wolves caught sight of them in an 



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