The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-04-29

as we could. The wind drowned every
noise. We could not hear any bowling,
but through the mist, a hundred and
fifty or two hundred yards away,
we discerned a small black
point which we certainly had not OBJ
served before, and then others, which
we decided could only be wolves or else
dwarf shrubs cleared of snow by the
| driving blast. We watched them close
ly. They seemed to move. We de-
termined to give them a volley. We
fired. The black spots were still there.
Either we had made very lucky shots
a most improbable thing-or the points
were only shrubs planted by the road
side to guide the sledge drivers over
the snowy wastes. Which they were 1
I'M quite. unable to say, although my in
terpreter, who had for three years been
q dweller in Siberia, insisted on making
wolves out of them. All that / know Is
that at last, weary and chilled, care
less whether wolves came OR not, we
| got into our sledge, buried ourselves in
our furs and waited for deliverance. 1t
was a long, anxious wait, and it was
only after five hours had elapsed that
we heard the welcome jingle of har-
ness bells. We were saved. But in the
meantime We had slept soundly. The
wolves were, I am afraid, nothing but
| bushes.
Altogether my EXPERIENCES of Siberian
wolves were not exciting, and 1 am COM
steppes are not in the habit of attacking
travellers. They are arrant towards; they
may follow solitary travellers, but as a
rt,Ia fhou n0nGn4 kha.~ ofto11rg - Al.
farm-yards of the villages or watch their
opportunity during the day to get at a
young, juicy, but indiscreet horse that
has wandered away from the drove or a
sheep that has strayed away from the
flock and their nomadic shepherds. Dur
ing all my long journeys I saw, asI said,
only fourteen, besides the imaginary
ones in the Urals. One evening. three
days after the above adventure, while
watching the dreary snow landscape, my
companion suddenly shouted out:
There they are!' Sure enough, there
were the wolves. ! looked out of the
sled and saw eleven of the brutes.
They were as big again as good-sized
foxes, and were passing quite across
the road in front of us in a very leisurely
manner. After we had passed they
stopped and calmly looked at US. 1 Or
dered the yemshik to stop the team,
and, getting out of the sled, we had
time to take put our rifles, load them
and fire before they ever attempted to
move. Even then they only went away
in a most dignified and insulting man.
ner, as if they were not quite sure what
was best to be done under the circum-
stances-whether to remain in the line
of fire, where they were comparatively
safe, or by running away, put them
selves incautiously in the way of acct
dental and sudden death. Another
time two wolves crossed the road and
waited for us to have a shot at them be-
fore they thought of Looping off to safer
quarters.
To prove how little danger the ma.
tives and jewellers of the Orenburg
steppes consider they are in from wolves
I may say that the drivers scarcely ever
notice their presence. The Kirghese
and Cossacks who dwell on the Oren.
burg plains have much of their best
sport in wolf-hunting. Whenever they
want to chastise the brutes for robbine
them of their stock and devouring a fal
lamb or two, they mount their feei
little horses, and armed with a heavy
club, set out to hunt down the marau.
ders on the steppes. This they car
easily do when the snow is deep and mo-
yet firmly frozen over, since the vol
sinks through the snow at every steI
and becomes exhausted, until final
ly he sits down on his launches il
the nov and quietly awaits for the
hunter to knock him on the head will
his club. In summer the Kirghes,
hunt the wolves down in a similar man
ner on the steppes, using a lasso in
stead of a club. The high, prick,
growth of the p~rairies prevents thu
brutes from running far, and they
fall an easy prey to the hunter
As for wolves following the sleds 1 an
inclined to doubt that they do this OF
the great post-roads. 1t is the one alb
sorbing task of a traveller in Siberia t,
tell when he gets home of the wild rae
before tho pursuing wolves, to describ'
how he shot the one that approached
nearest the sledge, how the brute's com
panions stopped to devour their lat
leader, while the yemshik whipped u
his horses at terrific speed until tn
danger was past and the traveller wa
safely deposited at the MISREPRESENTATION
, These stories are capital reading il
books, but the facts are quite different
At every stanzia or post-house there ar
, a number of good-natured dogs, pets c
the yemshiks, who dearly love to folio,
their master or friend to the next sta
ton and back. Most frequently
couple of dogs will take it into thei
: heads to journey in company. havin
nothing else in the wide world to dc
t But the expedition may prove danger
. Gus to them if undertaken at night, fo
the traveller, if he happen to look out {
his sled, is very apt to mistake them fo
+ wolves and shoot n of them before th
yemshik has time to stop him. And
. dead dog is quite as useful as a dea
, wolf for the story book of the Siberia
a traveller.
f On the Kirghese steppes, where in
t mense droves of horses are kept. an
where kumiss is an article of expor
+ the wolves have to be looked after, e
p~ecially in spring time, when they seel
to indemnify themselves for the sever
fast of the winter, and are very desirou
to get themselves into good conditio
9 again. Foals are then in their prim'
and the wolf is constantly prowlin
> about the taboon. The horses ar
however, always prepared to take ca
o of themselves and to defend the young,
" members of the community. The wolv,
d are wary creatures. They do not mai
e the attack openly. They wait till a goo
d ly number are together and the taboo
! gets q little scattered. Then they som