228 Hunting the Grisly 



into the habit of wandering from home is 

 surely lost. 



Though I have never known wolves to at- 

 tack a man, yet in the wilder portion of the 

 far Northwest I have heard them come around 

 camp very close, growling so savagely as to 

 make one almost reluctant to leave the camp 

 fire and go out into the darkness unarmed. 

 Once I was camped in the fall near a lonely 

 little lake in the mountains, by the edge of 

 quite a broad stream. Soon after nightfall 

 three or four wolves came around camp and 

 kept me awake by their sinister and dismal 

 howling. Two or three times they came 

 so close to the fire that I could hear them 

 snap their jaws and growl, and at one time I 

 positively thought that they intended to try 

 to get into camp, so excited were they by the 

 smell of the fresh meat. After a while they 

 stopped howling; and then all was silent for 

 an hour or so. I let the fire go out and was 

 turning into bed when I suddenly heard some 

 animal of considerable size come down to the 

 stream nearly opposite me and begin to splash 

 across, first wading, then swimming. It was 

 pitch dark and I could not possibly see, but 

 I felt sure it was a wolf. However after com- 

 ing half-way over it changed its mind and 



