34 December Boars and Wolves. 



rather for sport than observation. Few incidents of 

 importance occurred to us during these wintry weeks. 

 The neighborhood of our own valley was ffequently 

 visited by wild boars, which of late years had been 

 more numerous than ever, whilst the wolves were be- 

 coming rarer. The peasants affirm that this is an 

 inevitable law, that the wolf and the wild boar always 

 increase or diminish inversely. Why this is so I have 

 not yet been able to ascertain, for these animals do not 

 make war upon each other ; but there may be a mutual 

 jealousy or dislike. However, although the wolves may 

 be rarer in this forest than they have been in former 

 years, there are still quite enough of them to occupy the 

 attention of the shepherds on its outskirts. About the 

 middle of December I happened to witness an incident 

 which is not very rare. A few sheep were grazing 

 quietly in a little sloping pasture along the wood's edge, 

 when an animal first crept out cautiously and then 

 rushed at the nearest sheep. That animal was a wolf, 

 and his immense strength was proved by his manner 

 of dealing with his victim. He got his head under the 

 sheep's belly and threw her weight upon his own neck, 

 her four feet beating the air. Holding her quite firmly 

 in this position with his teeth, the wolf had strength 

 enough to gallop very rapidly up the steep slope back 

 to the impenetrable density of the copsewood, where it 

 was of no use trying to follow him. Now the wolf in 

 this country is not a very large animal, and a feat like 

 this implies a degree of muscular and constitutional 

 power which is relatively enormous. I could not help 



