AMERICAN GREY WOLF. 
283 
abated, and the hounds and horsemen within sight, behind him — when 
he entered a large field that lay between him and the thicket he wished to 
gain. The field he soon crossed ; and a good cover, with running water, 
was within a few yards of him. He knew the grounds well ; but he did 
not calculate accurately the amount of strength necessary to clear the 
fence, which here was much higher than on the side where he had 
entered. Without pause, therefore, he boldly dashed at the obstacle which 
now alone separated him from all he stood so much in need of ; but as he 
made the leap his head struck the topmost rail, and he rolled backwards, 
heavily, upon the ground. Here a shout of triumph from the hunters, who 
were within view and had witnessed his fall, broke upon his ear ■ and now 
he aroused all his remaining energies for one prodigious effort to effect his 
escape ; nature, however, was too nearly exhausted to meet the call, and 
he fell prostrate upon the ground. Horses and hounds were the next 
moment closing around him, he gained the fence corner, and then turned 
upon his pursuers. 
“ A desperate fight ensued — one or two large and powerful half-hound 
half-cur dogs, in quick succession, rolled away before him, as he dashed 
against them with his heavy chest and shoulders. Time after time they 
returned to the charge, for the dogs had their mettle well aroused and 
were confident of victory, although each moment seemed to diminish the 
chances in their favour. With each successive round, dog after dog 
recoiled more or less injured by a quick and violent snap of the giant's 
jaws here, on the right, sat a poor, inoffensive looking hound, whose 
excitement had led him into the depth of a contest for which nature had 
never intended him, now writhing in agony, and howling most piteously, 
his long twisted ears drooping lower than ever, while he cast a furtive 
glance at his lacerated back and shoulders, just released from the jaws of 
the giant wolf — there, on the left, lay sprawling, another, whose case 
seemed even more hopeless than the first. 
“ During the melee several pistols had been drawn, to despatch the wolf 
and save the dogs ; but such was the intricacy of the affair, such the inces- 
sant change of position of the combatants, constantly interlocked, that the 
chances of killing the dogs by a shot were greater than of saving them ; 
and this continued until dogs and wolf, both, were exhausted, when the 
latter was knocked on the head with a heavy club. And thus fell the 
giant wolf, after a run of five hours and a half. 
“ In this description I have gone much into detail ; but my only desire 
was to illustrate what I fully believe to be the fact, viz. that the strength, 
fleetness, and endurance of this wolf are much greater than those of the 
common wolf, which was never known, in that country, to make anything 
