WOLF. 293 



The Wolf is sometimes affected with madness, 

 attended with similar appearances to those exhi- 

 bited in that state by the Dog, and productive of 

 the same symptoms in consequence of its bite: 

 this disease is said to happen to them in the depth 

 of winter, and, therefore, as Mr. Pennant ob- 

 serves, can never be attributed to the rage of the 

 dog-days. Wolves, in the northern parts of the 

 world, sometimes, during the spring, get on the 

 ice of the sea, in order to prey on young seals, 

 which they catch asleep; but this repast some- 

 times proves fatal to them ; for the ice, detached 

 from the shore, carries them to a great distance 

 from the land, before they are sensible of it. It 

 is said that in some years a large district is by 

 this means delivered from these pernicious beasts, 

 which are heard howling in a most dreadful man- 

 ner far in the sea. 



" The Wolf (says Buffon) is one of those ani- 

 mals whose carnivorous appetite is the strongest. 

 Though he has received from Nature the means 

 of gratifying his taste, though she has bestowed 

 on him arms, craftiness, strength, agility, and 

 every thing necessary for discovering, seizing, 

 conquering, and devouring his prey, yet he often 

 dies of hunger; because men have declared war 

 against him, put a price on his head, and forced 

 him to fly to the forests, where he finds only a 

 few species of wild animals, who escape from him 

 by the swiftness of their course, and whom he 

 cannot surprise but by chance, or by a patient 

 and often fruitless attendance at those places to 



