WOLF CATCHING. 445 



In the month of January, when hunger is felt most keenly 

 by them, they associate together and hunt in packs : so that 

 travelling in some districts in France (if the weather is severe) 

 becomes dangerous ; and in Russia, they will gallop for miles 

 after the drosky of him who ventures at dusk to cross its 

 wide steppes. Lord Byron, in his poem of "Mazeppa," has 

 finely described a pack of them on the track of a fugitive. 



" We rustled through the leaves like wind, 

 Left shrubs, and trees, and wolves behind ; 

 By night I heard them on the track, 

 Their troop came hard upon our back, 

 With their long 1 gallop which can tire 

 The hound's deep hate, and hunter's fire; 

 Where'er we flew they follow'd on, 

 Nor left us with the morning's sun ; 

 Behind I saw them scarce a rood, 

 At day-break winding through the wood, 

 And through the night had heard their feet, 

 Their stealing, rustling step repeat. 

 Oh ! how I wish'd for spear or sword, 

 At least to die amidst the horde, 

 And perish if it must be so 

 At bay destroying many a foe." V 



On the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, the wolf is so 

 much like the Esquimaux dogs, that by travellers it is often 

 confounded with it. It is destitute of much of that ferocity 

 which marks the European wolf; and even when grouped in 

 packs, may sometimes be passed by an unarmed man without 

 danger. During the long northern winter of those polar re- 

 gions, they grow more bold, and will even dare to seize a dog 

 before the face of its master ; and have been known to dig 

 up from the feet of the wearied and sleeping hunters, the 

 carcass which for security they had buried there. 



The wolf of North America uses great cunning in attacking 

 the deer and other animals that exceed them in speed : a 

 number of them unite and hem in their prey, and sometimes 



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