456 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



a little stream which empties into the larger, I turned into it 

 to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth 

 met ovei'head, and formed an archway radiant with frost- 

 work. All was dark within ; but I was young and fearless, 

 and, as I peered into an unbroken forest, that reared itself 

 on the borders of the stream, I laughed with very joyous- 

 ness ; my wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I 

 stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again, 

 until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound arose — it seemed to 

 me to come from beneath the ice ; it sounded low and tremu- 

 lous at first, until it ended in one wild yell. I was appalled. 

 Never before had such a noise met my ears. I thought it 

 more than mortal ; so fierce, and amidst such an unbroken 

 solitude, it seemed as though a fiend had blown a blast from 

 an infernal trumpet. Presently I heard the twigs on shore 

 crack as though from the tread of some brute animal, and 

 the blood rushed back to my forehead with a bound that 

 made my skin burn, and I felt relieved that I had to contend 

 with things earthly, and not of spiritual nature — my energies 

 returned, and I looked around me for some means of escape. 



The moon shone through the opening at the mouth of the 

 creek by which I had entered the forest, and considering this 

 the best means of escape, I darted towards it like an arrow. 

 'Twas hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could 

 scarcely excel my desperate flight ; yet, as I turned my head 

 to the shore, I could see two dark objects dashing through 

 the underbrush at a pace nearly double in speed to my own. 

 By this great speed, and the short yells which they 

 occasionally gave, I knew at once that these were the much 

 dreaded gray wolves. 



I had never met with these animals, but from the descrip- 

 tion given of them, I had but little pleasure in making their 

 acquaintance. Their untameable fierceness, and the untiring 

 strength which seems part of their nature, render them 

 objects of dread to every benighted traveller. 



•I^ - 



