SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 631 



nals inform us, that, as a public diligence was passing along 

 the road, the conductor heard the loud cries of a man for 

 assistance. The man stated that he had been for some time 

 followed by a wolf, which he had had the utmost difficulty in 

 keeping off. The man was taken into the diligence, and car- 

 ried on for ten or twelve miles. He then got out to pursue 

 the rest of his journey on foot, but he had scarcely left the 

 vehicle when the passengers were again alarmed by his cries 

 for assistance. The insatiable wolf, it appears, was once 

 more by his side. But generally, when wolves have enemies 

 capable of resisting their attack, they assemble in bands. 

 When the Spanish shepherds, aided by innumerable dogs, 

 are conveying their great flocks of sheep from the southern 

 to the northern provinces, the wolves prowl in the distance 

 all around, prepared to take every opportunity to seize upon 

 the stragglers. The muleteers of the same country, when 

 crossing the denies of the Pyrenees, as night approaches' 

 have sometimes difficulty in saving the mules from the fero- 

 city of these enemies. The wolves are to be seen in the dusk, 

 stealing from bush to bush as the cavalcade moves on, ready 

 to spring upon the first unguarded mule. In the progress of 

 armies through wild countries, wolves are often seen to fol- 

 low their march in bands, ready to seize the straggling horses 

 and other animals, and to feast, it must be believed, on the 

 bodies of the wounded and dying. In the memorable re- 

 treat of the French from Moscow, the northern wolves 

 continually hung in the rear of the two armies. Many of 

 them, of a more shaggy and ferocious aspect than had before 

 been seen in the same parts, reached the banks of the Rhine, 

 and were killed by the country people. When wolves are 

 pressed by long famine, they not unfrequently combine in 

 large numbers to enter the neighbouring hamlets and vil- 

 lages. The pack rushing suddenly in, tear to pieces the do- 

 mestic dogs, and, entering the outhouses, kill every animal 

 they meet. Sometimes even they force themselves into dwell- 

 ing-houses, and spring upon the people. 



