148 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



bring a solemn, at times an eerie, charm, that I would gladly go 

 miles to renew. Though much of the wolf -howling has been of 

 little appeal, I have heard wolf concerts that held me spell- 

 bound. On some occasions but always at night they lasted 

 without scarcely any intermission for three or four hours. The 

 first part of the programme was usually rendered according 

 to the sound of their voices by the youngest of the pack; later 

 the middle-aged seemed to take the stage; but of all the 

 performance, nothing equalled in greatness of volume or in rich- 

 ness of tone the closing numbers, and they were always ren- 

 dered by what seemed to be some mighty veteran, the patriarch 

 of the pack, for his effort was so thrilling and awe-inspiring 

 that it always sent the gooseflesh rushing up and down my 

 back. Many a time, night after night, beneath the Northern 

 Lights, I have gone out to the edge of a lake to listen to 

 them. 



When hunting big game, such as deer, wolves assist one an- 

 other and display a fine sense of the value of team-work in 

 running down their prey. Though the wolf is a shy and cau- 

 tious animal, he is no coward, as the way he will slash into a 

 pack of dogs goes far to prove. In the North the stories of the 

 wolf's courage are endless; here, for example, is one: "During 

 our residence at Cumberland House in 1820," says Richardson, 

 "a wolf, which had been prowling and was wounded by a 

 musket ball and driven off, returned after it became dark, 

 whilst the blood was still flowing from its wound, and carried 

 off a dog, from amongst fifty others, that howled piteously, 

 but had no courage to unite in an attack on their enemy." 



Nevertheless, wolves rarely attack man, in fact, only when 

 they are afflicted with rabies or hydrophobia. No doubt every- 

 one has read, at one time or another, harrowing stories of the 

 great timber-wolves of our northern forest forming themselves 

 into huge packs and pursuing people all over the wilderness 

 until there is nothing left of the unfortunate community save 



