i 9 4 WOLF-HUNTING. 



is duly registered; and, thus instructed, the police, the gen- 

 darmes, and the gardes-champetres, in " correspondance " with 

 every station from one end of the country to the other, are able 

 to trace and recover a dog, whether stolen or strayed, on almost 

 every occurrence of such a misadventure. Of course early notice 

 must be given of the loss, or a thief in possession of a valuable 

 animal may take ship, or cross the frontier, and then there is an 

 end of the " correspondance." 



In Lower Brittany, however, a single dog on stray has little 

 or no chance of escaping the wolves in the winter season ; for, as 

 already stated, throughout the ancient region of Cornouaille, 

 comprising a large portion of Morbihan and Finisterre a region 

 of broom, heather, and forest the inhabitants of the small towns 

 are compelled to keep fires burning during a heavy fall of snow, 

 to save their dogs at night from the prowling wolves. And not 

 only by night do they commit these raids, but, when pinched by 

 hunger, they venture on them even by day. During my stay at 

 Carhaix an instance of it occurred at Quimper, and created no 

 little sensation among the quiet, picturesque inhabitants of that 

 old-fashioned town. An English lady, long resident in that 

 vicinity, was walking on the high road in the suburbs of the 

 town in company with a favourite spaniel, when a wolf, dashing 

 out of a neighbouring thicket, seized poor Fido across the back, 

 and, notwithstanding the lady's energetic screams, carried him, 

 crunched in his jaws, to the adjoining forest. This, however, 

 must have been a bold brigand, a kind of Dick Turpin among 

 the wolves ; for certain it is, that such a highway robbery by day- 

 light rarely occurs even in the severest weather. 



The Bretons of that country, a people of serious demeanour 

 and primitive habits, retire early to bed as a general rule ; but, as 

 on the present occasion, if anything is going on in the way of 

 hunting, especially that most popular sport the chase of the wild 

 boar, no matter at what hour they seek their couches, they are sure 



