Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/237

 drowsy sleep from which no man awakens, was beginning to creep over him, while below sat the ring of wolves waiting for the body to fall.

An hour later a riderless horse, foaming at the mouth, galloped into the outpost. The story it told was clear enough, and in a short while a large, strongly-armed party went forth on the trail and fought it out with the pack. At length the wolves were driven away and the unfortunate courier was brought down from the tree and hastily carried to the fort, where the warmth of a fire soon revived him.

The list of men however that go to their death while performing their duty in the lonely land of Russia is a large one. The world never hears of their deeds, and in the official lists they are simply recorded as "missing."

Wolves can be checked in their run for a short while by throwing a a rolled-up rug in their path. They stop at once, and tare the rug to pieces until they discover that there is nothing to eat in it.

The winter months are the dangerous times with the wolves, because their boldness increases with their hunger. Before now small outlying, unprotected villages have actually been raided by a hungry pack and the results were truly dreadful. In summer time, when food is plentiful wolves are not nearly as fierce. One day a hunter shot a stag and while he went for help to bring in the body he tied a red and blue handkerchief to the horns. This fluttering in the wind, was quite sufficient to keep the wolves away, for they are very suspicious creatures and will not go near anything that they do not understand, or suspect is a trap. In winter time however they cannot be scared off so easily.

Bounties are offered by the goverments for wolve's heads, and slowly the packs are disappearing. Pit-falls, snap-traps, guns and poison are making serious havoc in their ranks. Before now a small pack has been entirely wiped out through eating the dead body of a horse that had been thoroughly saturated with poison.

The wolf isn't worth much commerically. Its fur is beautiful in winter time, but the risk of getting it is too great. In our western states it is thought good fun to hunt the wolf from horseback with a pack of hounds. Again, wolves are sometimes stuck with a spear, in much the same way as "pig-sticking," is carried on in India. The wolf is found all over the world, but from Europe it has almost vanished; the price on its head proving too much for it.

Wolves in captivity are sometimes crossed with big dogs and the puppies are terribly strong and savage.