228 
TRAVELS 
may not fpare his horfe. But it fometimes happens that the 
■wolves, in the anguifli of famine flock together, lofe their ufual 
timidity, and from the confidence of aflociation become fo intre¬ 
pid as to fet upon the horfes yoked to fledges. In fuch an attack 
it is extremely dangerous to be overturned and left upon the road 
by the horfe : he naturally takes fright, and fometimes makes his 
efcape ; then the wolves perceiving the traveller defencelefs upon 
the ground, fall upon and devour him. Thefe accidents, how¬ 
ever, are not at all to be apprehended by a numerous party like 
©ur’s, as the wolves keep at a diftance, and fly at the noife of 
fledges and the voices of feveral people. We faw abundance of 
their tracks every where on our route, but we did not perceive a 
Angle wolf, nor any ravenous animal except foxes, which ufed to 
look us Readily in the face for a moment, while we amufed our- 
felves by whiffling after them. 
The dreary filence and obfcurity of a thick wood, whofe 
branches forming a vaulted roof, cut off the traveller from a view 
of the fkies, and admit only faint and dubious rays of light, is 
always an impofing objedt to the imagination ; the awful imprefi- 
fion the mind experiences under this majefflc gloom, this difmal 
folitude, this defertion of nature, is not be defcribed. The tem¬ 
perature of the air is much milder in the interior of this wood 
than the external atmolphere; a difference which is extremely 
perceptible to one who like us enters the wood after traverfing a 
lake or open plain. The only noife the traveller hears in this- 
foreft is the burfling of the bark of the trees, from the effedt ot 
the froft, which produces a loud but dull found. 
