Quadrupeds. 3225 



farm where sufficient help can be obtained, he has little chance of es- 

 cape from the most horrible of deaths, should the wolves pursue him 

 on his journey. So fierce, savage, and destructive, the wolf has no 

 claims upon the forbearance of man : he has none of the noble cou- 

 rage aud intrepidity of the bear ; but unless urged on by dire hunger 

 (which changes his everyday nature) and backed up by numbers, he 

 will fly or rather skulk from the presence of man : though were his 

 boldness equal to his cruelty and strength, the destruction caused by 

 him would know no bonnds. There are no warmer furs than the win- 

 ter skins of the wolves, and for their sake, as well as to rid themselves 

 of such savage foes, the inhabitants attack them whenever an oppor- 

 tunity presents itself. In a letter lately received from a Norwegian 

 friend to whom I had sent an English setter, he says : — "lam espe- 

 cially delighted with the dog you have sent me, as I lost my best 

 hound most miserably last winter. I was shooting black-cock in the 

 forest, when on a sudden I heard a piercing yell ; I at once guessed 

 the cause and hurried to the spot whence the sound came, and there I 

 saw my poor dog in the fangs of a wolf. I managed to kill the wolf, 

 but the dog was so severely wounded, that I was obliged to shoot him 

 too on the spot." Such are the vicissitudes to which the Norwegian 

 sportsman is constantly exposed. 



The Glutton {Vrsus Gulo). In addition to those I have mentioned, 

 Norway numbers amongst its quadrupeds the cruel glutton, which, 

 concealing itself in a tree, and lying along an overhanging branch, 

 drops upon the back of some unhappy animal passing below, and 

 sucks its blood until it falls from exhaustion. Though no larger than 

 the badger, the glutton is said in this manner to destroy reindeer and 

 horses and the largest animals of the North. 



The Common Lynx, {Felis Lynx). What I have said of the man- 

 ner in which the glutton takes its prey, refers no less to another fierce 

 inhabitant of Norway, the common lynx ; which, vigilant and active, 

 adopts the same method of lying in ambush in a tree, and leaping on 

 the back of some unsuspecting victim, as he wanders beneath : but 

 the lynx also condescends to hunt in open field, and prey upon such 

 lemmings, ermines, squirrels, &c, as he can catch in open chase or 

 by stratagem. 



The Beaver, {Castor fiber). It is not only the cruel and the blood- 

 thirsty, as those animals I have last described, that are to be met with 

 in Norway; there too may be seen occasionally the sagacious, socia- 

 ble, water-loving beavers, building their huts, and making their dikes, 

 and astonishing man by their intelligence and skill. But I could not 

 ix. 2 1 



