364: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



"I immediately acted ""upon this plan. The wolves 

 having regained their feet, sprang directly toward me. 

 The race was renewed for twenty yards up the stream : 

 they were already close at my back, when I glided 

 round and dashed directly past my pursuers. A fierce 

 yell greeted my evolution, and the wolves, slipping upon 

 their haunches, sailed onward, presenting a perfect pic- 

 ture of helplessness and baffled rage. Thus I gained 

 nearly a hundred yards at each turning. This was 

 repeated two or three times, every moment the animals 

 getting more excited and baffled. 



" At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my 

 antagonists came so near that they threw the white 

 foam over my dress as they sprang to seize me, and 

 their teeth clashed together like the spring of a fox-trap. 

 Had my skates failed for one instant, had I tripped on a 

 stick, or caught my foot in a fissure in the ice, the story 

 I am now telling would never have been told. I thought 

 all the chances over ; I knew where they would first take 

 hold of me if I fell ; I thought now long it would be 

 before I died, and when there would be a search for the 

 body that would already have its tomb ; for oh ! how 

 fast man's mind traces out all the dead colors of death's 

 picture, only those who have been near the grim origi- 

 nal can tell. 



" But soon I came opposite the house, and my hounds 

 I knew their deep voices roused by the noise, bayed 

 furiously from the kennels. I heard their chains rattle ; 

 how I wished they would break them, and then I would 



