476 CHASE ON SKIDOR. 



the country is more open, and but little intersected by 

 paths. 



The Lapps, when thus pursuing the wolf, have frequently 

 no other weapon than a stout staff of about six feet in 

 length, armed at one end with a pike, which staff serves to 

 expedite or retard their own progress, and also to deal 

 destruction to their worst enemy. So the wolf, with every 

 propriety may be called ; for night and day, summer and 

 winter, he hangs with the tenacity of the night-mare on the 

 rear of the rein-deer, ever and anon picking up a straggler, 

 and in one instance, we are told, as many as forty out of a 

 single herd. Several individuals usually take part in these 

 hunts ; and as the wolf often holds out a day or two, the men 

 are provided with a good supply of provisions. When the 

 beast finds himself pursued, he, like the bear, takes to 

 broken ground and the most tangled thickets, from whence 

 at times there is difficulty in dislodging him. When hard 

 pressed, and that he begins to tire, he makes for a beaten 

 path if one is to be found, where, as the footing is hard, 

 he for a time has it all his own way. Sooner or later, 

 however, he is necessitated to quit the " vantage-ground," 

 and betake himself once more to the forest or the fjall, as 

 the case may be. Thus the chase may continue for a day 

 or two, until the beast is fairly worn out with hunger and 

 fatigue, when his pursuers are enabled to close with him 

 generally on the long slope of a hill and to put an end 

 to his miseries and his life. 



Though many wolves are thus annually killed in Lapland, it 

 is not often that a regular slaughter takes place amongst those 

 beasts. But such at times do occur. " Several merchants 



