THE WOLF OF MUSKOKA 141 



air. The events of the previous night were 

 marked upon the snow. In some places the 

 ground was red with blood, and here and there, 

 drawn up into strange positions lay the bodies 

 of many dead. These bodies had been bitten 

 and mauled as though in a fight, and flesh rent 

 from the carcase. Imagining these had died 

 fighting among themselves, I examined them, 

 but found in each case a bullet mark." 



The above story would have been unintelligible 

 unless put into my own form of expression, 

 but the facts agree somewhat with Lieutenant 

 Chas. Hoskins's experiences of the savage nature 

 and strength of the grey wolf. 



He had mounted his horse just before sunset, 

 one day in June, to breathe for an hour the 

 fresher air, and had ridden at a leisurely pace 

 about three-quarters of a mile from the fort 

 his dogs, four or five greyhounds, were following 

 listlessly at his heels, dreaming as little as him- 

 self of seeing a wolf when on a sudden, from 

 a small clump of shumach bushes, immediately 

 at his side, there sprang an enormous giant 

 wolf. By one of those instinctive impulses which 

 it is difficult to describe, horse and dogs were 

 launched upon him before an eye could twinkle. 



