196 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



and near the Jura Mountains, there are societies for 

 the destruction of wolves. 



In the Vaudois Jura the societies have regular 

 meetings, officers and laws. Part of the society 

 serve as beaters, while others carry guns ; it is an 

 honour to belong to them, and as no one is eligible 

 as a member until he has assisted at three successful 

 hunts, children in arms are sometimes carried a short 

 distance in the beat in order to qualify as members 

 when grown up. The bear is hunted in this can- 

 tonal fashion in Russia ; and only the vastness of the 

 forests and mountain ranges of Northern and Central 

 Europe enable him to escape the extermination which 

 overtook the lion. As things are, they do escape, and 

 both bears and wolves maintain their numbers with- 

 out decrease beyond a certain point. It was noted 

 that after the disarmament of the Poles by the 

 Russians, after their first rebellion, the number of 

 wolves much increased, and human beings were 

 attacked by them even in summer. Wolves are 

 daring travellers, and will journey hundreds of miles 

 in search of food. Consequently, their numbers in 

 Switzerland, the Italian Alps, the Ardennes, and 

 the minor forests of France are replenished every 

 severe winter by immigrants from the east, whose 

 place is again taken by Russian wolves moving west- 

 wards. 



