LV THE FAR WEST. 125 



When hunted or startled by foes she does not desert her 

 young 1 until the last moment, and she leaves them then 

 apparently more for the purpose of protecting them than of 

 saving- her own life. She has the greatest fear of man ; and 

 he is probably the only enemy she will not face in defence of 

 her young; yet, if they are able to run at all, she depends 

 more on flight than fight for saving them. She will not, in 

 fact, engage in combat if she can avoid it, unless it is with 

 some animal she thinks she can overpower. She hunts much 

 during the maternal period, and while her cubs are in the 

 nest keeps them well supplied with edibles. The young join 

 the pack as soon as they are able to run about well, and at 

 the end of six months take part in the hunts and forays 

 organized by their elders, and often acquit themselves credit- 

 ably, especially in stealing from camps and in coursing hares 

 and ground-squirrels. At the end of twelve months they are 

 trained hunters, and able to hold their own in cunning with 

 any fox that ever lived. He also said that wolves were 

 attacked by hydrophobia sometimes, and on such occasions 

 they rushed madly about, biting and snapping at everything. 

 They lose all fear of man then, and boldly enter an Indian 

 encampment aud fly at any person they meet. Any one bitten 

 by them is said to be almost sure to die of hydrophobia, so his 

 friends make preparations for his death at once, and see that he 

 is tied in such a manner that he cannot injure others. An 

 Indian has been known to escape the effects of a bite, however, 

 by merely drinking a decoction of some herbs known to his 

 tribe and bathing the wound in warm water. AVhat this 

 most potential herb was I could not learn, nor did my mentor 

 ever hear its name even in the Indian vernacular. 



Having returned to the cubs and tied them up in the bags, we 

 started for home ; but before we got out of the woods a young 

 dog-wolf broke cover almost under our nose. How on earth he 

 remained there undisturbed after the previous scouring of the 

 region we could not understand ; nor could we determine how 

 his presence escaped the keen nose of the hounds. A look 

 into his lair revealed the latter reason very promptly, for 

 that contained some dead hares, one of which was scarce! v 



