THE WOLl^ "233 



of wrestling, with a number of men. Chardin tells 

 lis, that a Wolf well educated in dancing is sold 

 for five hundred French crov\ns. The Comte de 

 ButFon brought up several of them. — When voimg, 

 or during the first year, (he inlbrn^is us,) they are 

 very docile, and even caressing ; and if well fed, 

 will neither disturb the poultry, nor any other ani- 

 mals : but, at the ajre of eig;hteen months, or two 

 veiirs, their natural ferocity begins to appear, and 

 they must be chained to prevent them from running 

 off and doino; mischief. He brought up one till it 

 was eighteen or nineteen months old, in a court 

 along \\ ith fowls, none of which it ever attacked ; 

 but, for its first essay, it killed the whole in one 

 night, without eating any of them. Another, having 

 broken his chain, ran oif, afier killing a Dog w^th 

 whom he had lived in 2;reat familiaritv *. 



Wolves, sometimes in the Northern parts of the 

 world, get on the ice of the sea, during the spring, 

 in quest of the young Seals, which they catch 

 asleep there. But this repast frequentlv proves fatal 

 to them; for the. ice^ detached from the shore, car- 

 ries them to a great distance from the land before 

 they are sensible of it. It is said that, in some years, 

 a large district is, by this means, delivered from 

 these pernicious beasts ; which are then heard hovel- 

 ing in a most dreadful manner far out at sea. 



Their time of gestation is about three months 

 and a iialf; and when the females are about to 

 bring forth, they search for some concealed place 



* EuH aucid. 



