222 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



one side, far away, are the tepee peaks of the lodges ; on the other, 

 the solemn, shadowy, snow-wreathed trees, like funeral watchers 

 — watchers of how many brave deaths in a desolate, lonely land 

 where no man raises a cross to him who fought well and died with- 

 out fear ! 



The wolf-pack attacks in two ways. In front, by burying the 

 red-gummed fangs in the victim's throat; in the rear, by snapping 

 at sinews of the runner's legs — called hamstringing. Who taught 

 them this devilish ingenuity of attack ? The same hard master 

 who teaches the Indian to be as merciless as he is brave — hunger ! 



Catching the muzzle of his gun, he beats back the snapping 

 red mouths with the butt of his weapon ; and the foremost beasts 

 roll under. 



But the wolves are fighting from zest of the chase now, as much 

 as from hunger. Leaping over their dead fellows, they dodge 

 the coming sweep of the uplifted arm, and crouch to spring. A 

 great brute is reaching for the forward bound ; but a mean, small 

 wolf sneaks to the rear of the hunter's fighting shadow. When the 

 man swings his arm and draws back to strike, this miserable cur, 

 that could not have worried the trapper's dog, makes a quick 

 snap at the bend of his knees. 



Then the trapper's feet give below him. The wolf has bitten 

 the knee sinews to the bone. The pack leap up, and the man 

 goes down. 



And when the spring thaw came, to carry away the heavy snow 

 that fell over the Northland that night, the Indians travelling to 

 their summer hunting-grounds found the skeleton of a man. 

 Around it were the bones of three dead wolves ; and farther up 

 the hill were the bleaching remains of a fourth. 1 



1 A death almost similar to that on the shores of Hudson Bay occurred in the forests of 

 the Boundary, west of Lake Superior, a few years ago. In this case eight wolves were found 

 round the body of the dead trapper, and eight holes were empty in his cartridge-belt — which 

 tells its own story. 



