230 Notes on Sport and Travel i 



dam, and mad with rage occasioned by the cries of 

 her young, close to the mouth of the cavern, which 

 she approached unobserved among the rocky inequal- 

 ities of the place, and which she attempted to enter 

 at one bound, from the spot where she was first seen, 

 before Poison could reflect how he should act in this 

 emergency. He instinctively threw himself forward 

 after the wolf, and succeeded in catching a firm hold 

 of the animal's long and bushy tail, just as the fore 

 part of the body was within the narrow entrance to 

 the cavern, and her hind legs still on the outside of 

 it. In the extreme hurry into which Poison was 

 thrown, he omitted to take up his gun, which he had 

 placed against a rock when aiding the boys to enter 

 the opening, and probably he could not have used it 

 with effect at the moment, if it had been in his hands. 

 Without apprising the persons in the cavern of the 

 danger to which they were exposed. Poison kept a 

 firm hold of the wolfs tail which he rolled round his 

 left arm, and while the animal pulled, and pressed, 

 and scrambled, and twisted, in order to get down to 

 the rescue of her cubs, Poison managed, but with 

 great difficulty, and by pulling the tail towards him 

 with all his strength, to keep her from going forward. 

 This struggle continued for a few moments. Poison, 

 getting the command in his right hand of a large 

 knife or dirk which he carried with him, wounded the 

 wolf with it in the most vital parts he could reach. 

 She made another vigorous effort to move forward, 

 but Poison's strength, and his secure hold of her tail, 



