OF WILD ANIMALS 253 



wolves, the bulls and adult cows herd the calves and young 

 stock into a compact group, then take their places shoulder 

 to shoulder around them in a perfect circle, and with lowered 

 heads await the onset. The sharp down-and-up curved horn 

 of the musk-ox is a deadly weapon against all the dangerous 

 animals of the North, except man. 



When a wolf approaches near and endeavors to make a 

 breach in the circle, the musk-ox nearest him tries to get him, 

 and will even rush out of the line for a short and brief pursuit. 

 But the bull does not pursue more than twenty yards or so, for 

 fear of being surrounded alone and cut off. At the end of his 

 usually futile run, back he goes and carefully backs into his 

 place in the first line of defense. A charging bull does not 

 rush out far enough that the wolves can cut him off and kill 

 him. He is much too wise for that. 



Mr. Stefansson says that the impregnability of the musk-ox 

 defense is so well recognized by the wolves of the North that 

 often a pack will march past a herd in close proximity without 

 offering to attack it, and without even troubling the herd to 

 form the hollow circle. 



A Savage Wild Boar. I once had a "fight" with a 

 captive Japanese wild boar, under conditions both absurd and 

 tragic, and from it I learned the courage and fury of such 

 animals. The animal was large, powerful, fearfully savage 

 toward every living thing, and insanely courageous. It was 

 confined in a yard enclosed by a strong wire fence, and while we 

 were all very sure that the fence would hold it, I became uneasy. 

 In mid-afternoon I went alone to the spot, passing hundreds 

 of school children on the way, to study the situation. When 

 I reached the front of the corral and stood still to look at the 

 fence, the boar immediately rushed for me. He came straight 

 on, angry and terrible, and charged the wire like a living batter- 

 ing-ram. He repeated these charges until I became fearful of 

 an outbreak, and decided to try to make him afraid to 

 repeat them. 



