i6 
Northern Trails. Book I 
and indeed like most wild male animals, have an atro¬ 
cious way of killing their own young when they find 
them unprotected ; so the mother animal searches out a 
den by herself and rarely allows the male to come near 
it. Spite of this beastly habit it must be said honestly 
of the old he-wolf that he shows a marvelous gentleness 
towards his mate. He runs at the slightest show of 
teeth from a mother wolf half his size, and will stand 
meekly a snap of the jaws or a cruel gash of the terrible 
fangs in his flank without defending himself. Even our 
hounds seem to have inherited something of this primi¬ 
tive wolf trait, for there are seasons when, unless urged 
on by men, they will not trouble a mother wolf or fox. 
Many times, in the early spring, when foxes are mating, 
and again later when they are heavy with young and 
incapable of a hard run, I haye caught my hounds trot¬ 
ting meekly after a mother fox, sniffing her trail indiffer¬ 
ently and sitting down with heads turned aside when 
she stops for a moment to watch and yap at them dis¬ 
dainfully. And when you call them they come shame¬ 
faced ; though in winter-time, when running the same 
fox to death, they pay no more heed to your call than to 
the crows clamoring over them. But we must return to 
Wayeeses, sitting over her den on a great gray rock, 
trying every breeze, searching every movement, harking 
to every chirp and rustle before bringing her cubs out 
into the world. 
