188 ON THE FEONTIER. 



course continued for a couple of hundred yards, and then 

 turned abruptly down the steep side of it, which was 

 thickly covered with scrub trees and brush, rising to a 

 height of about twelve feet. Making myself as small as 

 possible, and shutting my eyes to keep from being blinded, 

 I headed my mule straight down the steep descent. Then 

 giving him the steel, and trusting to luck, I tore my way 

 down through the thicket. 



Had I been clothed in any other material than buck-skin 

 I should have emerged an animated bundle of rags ; as it 

 was, a severe switching was all the damage sustained. 



When I opened my eyes again the chase was in full view. 

 On the plain, about a quarter of a mile off, was the wolf, 

 doing his "level best." Behind him, within a couple of 

 hundred yards, were the two dogs, flying over the ground, 

 Nip as usual beginning to draw slightly ahead. 



I indulged myself with a yell, and got the last inch to the 

 hour out of my mule. I was a hundred yards behind when 

 the dogs closed with the wolf. Seeing they " had the heels 

 of him," he had turned suddenly at bay. The dogs, making 

 no effort to check themselves, struck him one after the other 

 like battering-rams, and wolf and dogs rolled over together, 

 enveloped in a cloud of snow-dust. 



As I pulled up all three recovered themselves and jumped 

 to their feet, and the high-couraged dogs, nothing daunted 

 by the superior size and strength of their antagonist, 

 sprang at and seized him by the neck just behind his 

 ears ; then, laying themselves back close to his sides, they, 

 bulldog-like, shut their eyes and held on, trying their 

 best to shake him. Braced on outstretched legs, planted 



