96 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
girl, and one day she “ lay ” for him. He began 
his usual pranks, when she suddenly turned on him, 
striking him hard in the face with a branch of a tree 
in half a dozen places at once, and taking off several 
pieces of skin. He let her alone after that. 
One morning about this time I found tracks in 
the freshly - fallen snow near our house, which 
appeared to be much larger than those of a dog. 
The natives declared them to be tracks of a wolf 
which had come down from the hills during the night. 
After breakfast I took my rifle and followed up the 
track for some miles, but, getting tired of tramping 
through the snow, returned to the house. The 
second mate R. then borrowed my rifle, and started 
on the same quest, returning in the evening fagged 
out. The story he told was this : He had followed 
the tracks for miles over the hills, and finally down 
to a valley, where, amongst some trees, he caught 
sight of the wolf, stalked and shot it, and found it 
was a fine beast, light grey in colour, and weighed 
some 50 or 60 pounds. He slung it across his 
shoulders, intending to bring it to the village; but 
it was a heavy load to pack through the snow, and 
he was tempted many times to abandon it. Eventu¬ 
ally he met some Ainu, who on seeing him broke 
into roars of laughter. He thereupon threw off 
his burden, and discovered that he had not shot 
a wolf at all, but a big Ainu dog belonging to 
a small Ainu settlement some few miles away. I 
saw the dead animal afterwards, and I must confess 
the man could hardly be blamed for mistaking it 
for a wolf. It was a beautiful beast, fat, in splendid 
condition, with a handsome coat of fur. There was 
no trouble about the killing of this dog ; it was looked 
