THE FERAL DOGS. 119 



country, and several seamen. A troop of these 

 dogs came down, and were recognised by the 

 country people, who Avarned the young officers not 

 to fire at them ; but midshipmen are not so easily 

 baulked, one fired and missed his object, when 

 the whole pack immediately came bounding down 

 towards them, and the party found it necessary to 

 run for the shore, whither the feral dogs, being 

 satisfied with their victory, pm-sued them no fur- 

 ther. 



Feral Dog of Russia. — This race may be of the 

 same stock as the first mentioned. They are very 

 wolf-Hke in appearance and colours, but smaller, 

 and far less audacious than the Turkish. How they 

 maintain themselves in the open country we have 

 not leamt ; but, subsisting like the street-dogs of 

 Turkish cities, they make burrows in the ramparts, 

 on the glacis, and other banks of earth on the skirts 

 of towns, and even at St. Petersburgh, are prowl- 

 ing about in the night for carrion, and, in winter, 

 inclined to molest the defenceless. We were told 

 by a friend, long resident in the Imperial capital, 

 that one evening he, and another British merchant, 

 were obliged to go out to the rescue of a boy, sent 

 with a message across the ice of the Neva, who was 

 observed by the gentlemen to be beset by these 

 animals. More recently, the government ordered 

 the police to extirpate them about the city ; but 

 with what success is not known. It is possible that 

 the dog-wolves of the Canopian Gulph, on the 

 Palus Mseotis, which molested the fishermen, before 



