Hunted by Wolves. Many terrible stories are told of the depredations caused by packs of wolves, especially in Russia, and of the desperate adventures travellers have met with when attacked by them. The story of the Russian peasant, who, to save his master's family, leaped out of the sledge and faced the pack alone, thus delaying the wolves by his own self-sacrifice, while the sledge proceeded on its journey, is one of these. In contrast to this is the story of the Russian woman, given by Mr. Lloyd in the work already quoted.
A Terrible Alternative. A woman, accompanied by three of her children, was one day in a sledge, when they were pursued by a number of wolves. She put the horse into a gallop, and drove towards her home with the utmost speed. She was not far from it; but the ferocious animals gained upon her, and were on the point of rushing on to the sledge. For the preservation of her own life and that of the remaining children, the poor, frantic creature cast one of them to her bloodthirsty pursuers. This stopped their career for a moment; but, after devouring the poor child, they renewed the pursuit, and a second time came up with the vehicle. The mother, driven to desperation, resorted to the same horrible expedient, and threw another of her offspring to her ferocious assailants. The third child was also sacrificed in the same way, and soon after the wretched being reached her home in safety. Here she related what had happened, and endeavoured to palliate her own conduct by describing the dreadful alternative to which she had been, reduced. A peasant, however, who was among the bystanders, and heard the recital, took up an axe, and with one blow cleft her skull in two, saying at the same time, "that a mother who could thus sacrifice her children for the preservation of her own life, was no longer fit to live." The man was committed to prison, but the Emperor subsequently granted him a pardon.
A Marvellous Escape. Equally terrible and more marvellous is the story of the adventure of a Russian family which took place as recently as the winter of 1894-5. A peasant was riding in a sleigh in company with his wife and child, when he became aware that they were being pursued by wolves. He urged the horses to their utmost speed but it soon became evident that the wolves would overtake them before they could reach a place of safety. Urged to desperation, the peasant ordered his wife to throw the child to the wolves, hoping thereby to gain time and thus escape. The wife refused to part with her little one, whereupon an altercation ensued, during which the peasant tried to drag the child from her arms with a view to throwing it to the wolves himself. In the struggle both mother and child fell from the vehicle, and with a lightened load the horses dashed forward at an even greater speed. For some apparently unaccountable reason, however, the wolves took no notice of the mother and child and continued to pursue the sleigh, possibly anticipating the larger meal that the horses would supply. In this they were not disappointed, for they succeeded in overtaking the sleigh, and the peasant and the horses fell victims to their ravage. In the meantime the mother and child found their way to a farm house where they were sheltered until danger was past.
Tame Wolves. Notwithstanding his natural fierceness, the wolf becomes tame under kindly treatment, and shows much affection for those who cherish him. Instances are common in which wolves have remembered their benefactors, after years of absence, and have shown every demonstration of joy on recognition. They have even been harnessed and taught to draw carriages and to fulfil other useful offices. With wolves, as with many other animals, hunger and thirst are apparently the principal causes of savagery and the struggle for existence the main cause of rapacity and cruelty.
The Cunning of the Fox. The cunning of the fox is proverbial and if only one half of the stories told about him are true, there are quite sufficient to invest him with a degree of artfulness which is apparently unique. The extraordinary way in which he will feign himself dead, whether when hunting or being hunted, is a proof of this, as are also the various tricks he will resort to, to throw his pursuers off the scent. Captain Brown tells a story of a fox who leapt a high wall and crouched under it on the further side until the hounds had passed over, and then quietly returned, giving them the slip. Another fox who suddenly baffled two blood hounds who were in hot pursuit, was discovered lying full length upon a log of wood from which at first it was difficult to distinguish him. When feigning death he is said sometimes to hold his breath and hang out his tongue. He will sometimes baffle his pursuers by hanging on to a branch of a tree.
The Fox as a Hunter. Mr. St. John tells the following story of the fox as a hunter:—"Just after it was daylight I saw a large fox come very quietly along the edge of the plantation. He looked with great care over the turf wall into the field, and seemed to long very much to get hold of some of the hares that were feeding in it, but apparently knew that he had no chance of catching one by dint of running. After considering a short time, he seemed to have formed his plans, examined the different gaps in the wall, fixed upon one which appeared to be most frequented, and laid himself down close to it in an attitude like that of a cat at a mouse hole. In the meantime I watched all his plans. He then with great care and silence scraped a small hollow in the ground, throwing up the sand as a kind of screen. Every now and then, however, he stopped to listen, and sometimes to take a most cautious peep into the field. When he had done this, he laid himself down in a convenient posture for springing on his prey, and remained perfectly motionless, with the exception of an occasional reconnoitre of the feeding hares. When the sun began to rise, they came, one by one, from the field to the plantation: three had already come without passing by his ambush, one within twenty yards of him; but he made no movement beyond crouching still more flatly to the ground. Presently two came directly towards him, and though he did not venture to look up, I saw, by an involuntary motion of his ear, that those quick organs had already warned him of their approach. The two hares came through the gap together and the fox, springing with the quickness of lightning, caught one and killed her immediately; he then lifted up his booty and was carrying it off, when my rifle-ball stopped his course."
A Fox Hunt. Captain Brown tells an amusing story of the resource shown by a fox who was hard pressed near Tamary, Ireland, which is as follows. "After a short chase, Reynard disappeared, having cunningly mounted a turf stack, on the top of which he lay down flat. Finding himself, at last, perceived by one of the hounds, he left his retreat, closely pursued by the pack, ran up a stone wall, from which he sprang on the roof of an adjoining cabin, and mounted to the chimney-top. From that elevated situation he looked all around him, as if carefully reconnoitring the coming enemy. A cunning old hound approached, and, having gained the summit of the roof, had already seized the fox in imagination, when, lo! Reynard dropped down the chimney, like a fallen star into a draw-well. The dog looked wistfully down the dark opening, but dared not pursue the fugitive. Meantime, whilst the hound was eagerly inspecting the smoky orifice of the chimney, Reynard, half enrobed in soot, had fallen into the lap of an old woman, who, surrounded by a number of children, was gravely smoking her pipe, not at all expecting the entrance of this abrupt visitor. 'Emiladh deouil!' said the affrighted female, as she threw from her the black and red quadruped: Reynard grinned, growled, and showed his fangs; and when the sportsmen, who had secured the door, entered, they found him in possession of the kitchen, the old woman and the children having retired, in terror of the invader, to a corner of the room. The fox was taken alive."
The Arctic Fox. The Arctic Fox, which is of a beautiful white colour, is found, according to Captain James Ross, in the highest northern latitudes, even in the winter. In the late autumn the younger generation make their way south and congregate in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, returning north in the early spring of the following year. They are gregarious, living in companies in burrows in sandy places.
Wild Dogs. Wild dogs abound in various parts of the world, of which the Dingos of Australia, the Dholes of India and the Aguaras of South America are examples. The wild dogs of the East are familiar to all readers of Eastern travels. A writer in the Times newspaper describes the dogs of Constantinople, as "omnipresent, lawless, yet perfectly harmless dogs," which perform valuable but ill requited service as scavengers of the city. He says:—"In shape, in countenance, in language, in their bandy legs, pointed noses, pricked up ears, dirty yellow coats, and bushy tails, they could be hunted as foxes in Gloucestershire. They are," he continues, "up and doing from sunset to sunrise, and enjoy the refreshment of well-earned, profound sleep almost throughout the day. They are not only homeless and masterless but have also a sovereign contempt for bed or shelter. There is a time it would seem, when sleep comes upon them—all of them—like sudden death; when all squat down, coil themselves up, nose to tail, wherever they chance to be—on the footpath, in the carriage way, in the gutter—and there lie in the sunshine, in the pelting rain, yellow bundles, hardly distinguishable from the mud. The Constantinople dog never learns to wag his tail; he never makes up, never looks up to a human being, never encourages or even notices men's advances. He is not exactly sullen, or cowed, or mistrustful; he is simply cold and distant as an Englishman is said to be when not introduced."
"The Dingo, the wild dog of Australia," says Mrs. Bowdich "roams in packs through that vast country; has a broad head; fierce oblique eyes; acute muzzle; short, pointed, erect ears; tail bushy, and never raised to more than a horizontal position. He does not bark, but howls fearfully; is extremely sagacious, and has a remarkable power of bearing pain. When beaten so severely as to be left for dead, he has been seen to get up and run away. A man proceeded to skin one, not doubting that life was extinct, and after proceeding a little way with the operation, he left the hut to sharpen his knife. When he returned, the poor animal was sitting up, with the loose skin hanging over one side of his face." The Dhole of India, similarly hunts in packs, attacking and destroying even the tiger. Their sense of smell is very acute, their bark similar to that of a hound, their colour red or sandy. They have long heads, oblique eyes, long erect ears; and very powerful limbs. The Aguaras of South America, says Mrs. Bowdich, resemble foxes. "They are silent if not dumb, and appear to congregate in families rather than packs. They have a peculiar propensity to steal and secrete without any apparent object in so doing."