the ground, apparently dead, with a wolf lying dead by his side: the man, however, was only in a swoon, and soon recovered on being raised up. As soon as he was able to give an account of himself, it appeared, that on the first alarm he had run out of the house with a large stick in his hand, and had been immediately attacked by the wolf, which so terrified him, that aiming one instinctive blow at his enemy, he had fallen down in the senseless state in which he was found: the single blow of his heavy stick had, however, by an extraordinary accident, hit the wolf on the head and killed him.

When seven or eight of these animals are collected together in the winter, they are often sufficiently dangerous, and it is said that a single wolf, on meeting with a man in a lonely place, will sometimes commence howling, until his friends around assemble as at the sound of a dinner bell, in sufficient numbers to venture on the attack. They will sometimes even assail travellers on the high-road; a friend of mine told me that once, between Moscow and Petersburg, he was journeying in an open sledge, it being excessively cold, and he was pursued for some miles by a pack of wolves who ran by the side of the sledge, jumping up at it, and so close, that his valet, who was sitting by his side, stabbed at the brutes with a dagger and wounded some of them; but the wolves did not give up the pursuit till they met a long string of sledges, which alarmed them.

The wolf prefers living in small brushwood covers near a village, to inhabiting the large forests; these, however, are the fastnesses of his race, and the existence of these immense tracts of wood and desert in Russia would perhaps defeat any attempt to rid the country of those ferocious beasts. It is, however, difficult to believe, that such a pest might not be in some measure put down if exertion were systematically made; without combination, however, the thing is impossible, and in most parts of the country the wolves are rarely molested; indeed, the peasants often have a prejudice against so doing, as they think it only exasperates the animals and makes them more fierce and dangerous: I need not say that this is a most absurd notion, and that where it prevails, the beasts become only more daring by impunity. They often show themselves in broad day-light, but I have never seen one since I have been in the country.

There are various ways of destroying wolves; sometimes this is done by poison, the best being nux vomica, since it does not, like arsenic, injure the fur, which is some consideration, for a wolf's skin raw is worth from eight to ten shillings. A calf, or some other dead animal, is well impregnated with nux vomica, and laid in a retired spot in a wood; the wolves find it, and feast on it, and the effect of the poison is very rapid. I have heard of six wolves being destroyed in this manner in one night; four

were found dead on the spot, and two others were discovered afterwards at a little distance.

Every one has heard of the mode of catching these animals in pitfalls, by placing a lamb or a pig as a bait, on the top of a post rising out of the pit: they have in Russia a kind of trap, which is exceedingly simple, but which I never heard of before I came into the country. A small circle is inclosed with a palisade or some other fence, too high for a wolf to leap or climb over; this fence is again surrounded by another of the same kind, leaving a narrow space between the two: the outer fence has a door, which opens inwards, so as to fill up the space between the two palisades when it is set open. A lamb or a pig is placed at night in the inner circle, and being alone and cold, it naturally bleats, or grunts and squeals; the noise attracts the wolf, who enters the door which is open, and finding the inner fence still between him and his prey, prowls round it in hopes of discovering an opening. When he arrives at the door, having made the circuit of the place, he pushes against it, and thus shuts it to, and imprisons himself; for the space in which he is, being narrow, and his back-bone very inflexible, he cannot turn, and the door is of course so hung as to shut from a very light pressure.

You have heard of the plan of shooting wolves on a moonlight night in winter, when two or three sportsmen place themselves, well-armed, in a sledge, and are driven through the roads and tracks in the woods.

As they go along, they pull the ears of a young pig which they take with them, and make it squeal, while behind the sledge trails a long rope, with a wisp of straw at the end of it. The wolf hears the pig squeal, and seeing the bundle of straw dancing along over the snow in the moonlight, makes a dash at it, mistaking it for his prey, and thus presents a fair mark to the guns in the sledge. This sport, like all others, has its vicissitudes; sometimes the disappointment is incurred of a blank night, and sometimes, on the other hand, too much game is started, and the amusement becomes somewhat dangerous. If the sportsmen have not time to pick up the wolves they kill, the others tear the bodies of their dead companions, and, becoming furious, will attack the sledges. A gentleman who lives near here, and whom we often see, met with an adventure of this kind some time ago, and after making his pig squeal for some hours in vain, at length unexpectedly attracted such a troop of wolves, that he was obliged to fly for safety and trust to his horses' heels, and he was pursued by twelve or fourteen of the beasts even into the village.

The peasants sometimes build a hut in a wood, and throw the carcases of dead horses, and other animals near the spot, to attract the wolves; they then go before night, and ensconce themselves in the hut, in hopes of getting a shot at a wolf, through loop-holes which they leave in the walls of their sheltering

place. Unless, however, they make the hut very firm and strong, they occasionally run some risk. I have been told a story of a man, whose baits drew around him one night an unusual number of wolves; he kept firing away from his lurking place, sometimes killing, sometimes wounding, and sometimes missing, till at last he had expended all his ammunition-still he was surrounded by enemies, who, becoming enfuriated, attacked his fortress, and tried to make their way in. The garrison was defenceless, but the building was strong and resisted the assault, nor did the wolves succeed better by attempting to mine and work a way under the walls; strong stakes, which had been providently driven in on every side, frustrated their endeavours: the besiegers, therefore, changed their tactics, and converted the assault into a close blockade, hoping to starve out the enemy. Through whichever of his loop-holes the poor man looked out, his eyes encountered those of a wolf seated like a dog on his haunches, and keeping patient watch. When morning came he expected these sentinels to depart; but, no, they were far too inveterate, and though some went away, some still remained, and kept close guard all day. All that night he was imprisoned, and it was not till the following day that he was released; whether the wolves got tired of waiting, or whether his friends, knowing the expedition on which he had set out, came in search of him, I do not remember.