Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-03-13
A Tragedy of Siberia.
A Caravan Pursued and Devoured by
Wolves.

Wolves.
There is nothing in fiction surpasses the
grim reality of the tragic drama whose out
lines we're given in a despatch from Irk-
utsk, Siberia, to a Moscow paper few
days ago. A caravan crossing the Sibe-
rian desert was destroyed by wolves, whom
hunger and the awful cold had driven from
the forests out upon the plain along the
great caravan road which travorses Siberia
from east to west.
The deteails of tie tragedy can only be
surmised, for there is no one left alive to
tell the tale. 1t is known that there were
a score or so of travellers and traders in the
party, divided among six or seven sedges.
There were in the baggage of each sledge
several axes, and few of the party car
ried rifles, but as it is extremely rare for
wolves to attack so large a body of men,
no thought of such danger ever entered
their minds.
Travelling in Siberia during the long po-
lar winter is at best fraught with risk, for
the stations where horses may be procured
are many versts apart, and there is the
ever-present danger of wandering from the
road in the fierce storms that come down
without warning from the north. A thick
crust of snow covers the ground, giving it
the appearance of a lmitless white sea.
The pale sun shows itself but few hours
during the short winter day, but at night
the vast eXpanse of whiteness is lit by
moon of cold and brilliant splendor, and at
times the snow grows yellow or blood red
with the flames of the aurora boTealis.
The cold is always intense, and the earth
seems like vast block of ice.
The caravan which was to be so tragi-
cally wiped out of existence appears to
have travelled westward many days and
nights from IIkutsk before it met its fate.
1t is supposed that the party was attacked
at night, when all but the drivers were
asleep, and that they were benumbed by
| the piercing cold as they sped over the
snow. The sky was overcast, yet there
must have been light enough to have per-
ceived far away along the track which the
sledges made, a dark mass drawing rapidly
near, moving with the silent swiftness of a
shadow across the snow.
AS it drew near the driver of the rear
most sledge might have heard above the
| tinkling of his sleighbells the hoarse pant
ing of the army of wolves which were in
pursuit The next moment, and score
of black, shadowy forms were springing at
| the horses throats and overwhelming the
sledges like an avalanche.
One after the other, each sledge was at
tackled, and it was hardly a moment after
the first horse went down before the blood
of the last was being Tapped by the myr-
lads of snarling wolves. The men fought
for their lives with guns and axes, but the
onslaught was so fierce and sudden that
they were unprepared, and they, too, were
soon borne down by the Irresistible rush of
the countless savage beasts. Could the
travellers have united, there might have
been some hope, but attacked as they were,
without warning, the battle was lost from
the beginning.
And soon the vast cold silence was un-
broken save by the angry growls of the
wolves as they disputed with each other
for morsels of human flesh. When the
misty sun rose next morning it looked
down upon the glistening bones of men
and horses half-buried in the trampled,
blood-stained snow.
Three days later another party of trav-
elers passing over the same route came up
on the mute evidences of the awful TRACE
dy. Scattered about were broken sledges,
the skeletons of men and horses picked
clean of every vestige of flesh and the
bones of more than so wolves which had
fallen beneath the axes of the Inflated
travellers before they themselves had been
crushed beneath the tawny, noisome weight
of wild beasts and torn to pieces.
Even the clothing of the travellers was
literally torn to shreds, and the identity of
but one of them has been only imperfect
ly established. From some scraps of pa
per which were gathered up it appears that
one of the party was French engineer
named Lodier or Vodier He seems to
have been a resident of Paris and to have
been travelling on some mission of inn
portance, for most of the fragments of
documents which apparently had belonged
to him were written in cipher.
The Siberian wolf so travellers say, sur
passes in size its European relative. In
the far north its coat is white, bat it grad
ually changes to gray or brown in more
southern ATTITUDES.
These animals usually wander about in
packs, and their habits are similar to those
of the European species. Hunger make:
them aggressive and induces them to attack
other animals, but man is their last resort
-NelU York World.