THE WOLF OF MUSKOKA 177 



hounds were tied in couples, and the beautiful 

 greyhounds loped lightly and gracefully alongside 

 the horses. The country was fine. A mile to 

 our right a small river wound in long curves 

 between banks fringed with cotton-woods. Two 

 or three miles to our left the foothills rose 

 sheer and bare, with clumps of black pine and 

 cedar in their gorges. We rode over gently 

 rolling prairie, with here and there patches of 

 brush at the foot of the slopes around the dry 

 watercourses. 



" At last we reached a somewhat deeper valley, 

 in which the wolves were harboured. Wolves 

 lie close in the daytime and will not leave cover 

 if they can help it ; and as they had both food 

 and water within, we knew it was most unlikely 

 that the couple would have gone. The valley 

 was a couple of hundred yards broad, and three 

 or four times as long, filled with a growth of 

 ash and dwarf elm and cedar, thorny underbush 

 choking the spaces between. Posting the cow- 

 boy, to whom he gave his rifle, with two grey- 

 hounds on one side of the upper end, and old 

 man Prindle with two others on the opposite 

 side, while I was left at the lower end to guard 

 against the possibility of the wolves breaking 



12 



