CHAPTER XXXIV 



WILD OXEN. 



I read in one of the May issues of Forest 

 and Stream of a dog that joined a band of 

 wolves and became as savage and fleet of foot 

 as the best of them, and brought to my mind a 

 circumstance that came under my own observa- 

 tion, of a pair of steers that threw off all tram- 

 mels of restraint and took to the bush. 



I think it is worth recording, for it shows 

 that even horned cattle brought up w T ith care, 

 and fed at regular intervals can support them- 

 selves, even through the rigor of a northern win- 

 ter in the wild bush country. 



In my early days on the Labrador we were 

 in the habit of getting our winter beef on the 

 hoof from the villages on the south shore. The 

 cattle were sent over by schooner, late in the 

 fall, and stall-fed until the cold weather set in, 

 when they were killed and the carcasses hung 

 up to freeze. As we had no wharf accommo- 

 dation, the cattle were unloaded in a primitive 

 and unceremonious way. The schooner an- 

 chored two or three hundred yards from the 



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