LXXXVIII.—THE SKATER AND THE WOLVES.

1. DURING the winter of 1844, I had much leisure to devote to the sports of a new country. To none of these was I more passionately addicted than to skating. The deep and sequestered lakes of North America, frozen by the intense cold, present a wide field to the lover of this pastime. Often would I bind on my skates and glide away up some glittering river, over the smooth untrodden ice. Sometimes I would follow the track of a fox or otter, and run my skates along the mark he had left with his dragging tail, until the trail would enter the woods. Not rarely these excursions were made by moonlight; and it was on one of these latter occasions that I had a rencounter which even now, with kind faces around me, I cannot recall without a nervous feeling.

2. I had left my friend's house one evening just before dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up the noble river which glided directly before the door. The night was beautifully clear. A peerless moon rode through an occasional fleecy cloud, and stars twinkled from the sky and from every frost-covered tree in millions. Light also came glinting from ice and snow-wreaths and incrusted branches, as the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the river that, like a jeweled zone, swept between the mighty forests on its banks. And yet all was still. The cold seemed to have frozen tree and air and water and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness, and the crackle of the ice, as I passed over it in my course, seemed to follow the tide of the river with lightning speed.

3. I had gone up the river nearly two miles when, coming to a little stream which empties into the larger, I turned into it to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met overhead and formed an archway radiant with frost-work. All was dark within; but I was young and fearless, and as I peered into the unbroken forest, I laughed with very joyousness. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated

again and again until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound arose; it seemed to me to come from beneath the ice; it was low and tremulous at first, but ended in one long wild yell. I was appalled. Never before had I heard such a noise. Presently there was a crash amid the brushwood on shore, as though from the tread of some animal. The blood rushed to my forehead. My energies returned and I looked around me for means of escape.

4. The moon shone through the opening at the mouth of the creek by which I had entered the forest, and considering this the best way of escape, I darted toward it like an arrow. It was hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could scarcely have excelled me in fleetness; yet, as I turned my head to the shore, I could see two dark objects dashing through the brushwood at a pace nearly double as fast as my own. By their great speed and the short yells which they occasionally gave, I knew at once that these were the much dreaded gray wolves.

5. I had never met with these animals, but from the description of them I had little pleasure, I confess, in making their acquaintance. Their untamable fierceness and untiring strength render them objects of dread to every benighted traveler. With their long gallop they pursue their prey, never straying from the track; and though, perhaps, the wearied hunter may think he has at last outstripped them, he will often find that they have but waited till evening to seize their victim. The bushes that skirted the shore flew past with the velocity of lightning as I dashed on in my flight to pass the narrow opening. The outlet was nearly gained-a few seconds more and I would be comparatively safe; but in a moment my pursuers appeared on the bank above me, which here rose to the height of ten feet. There was no time for thought; I bent my head and dashed madly forward. The wolves sprang, but, miscalculating my speed, fell behind, while their intended prey glided out upon the river.

6. Instinct turned me toward home, and I was some distance from my pursuers when their fierce howl told me I was

LI

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDA FUNDAS

still their fugitive. I did not look back; I did not feel afraid or sorry or glad-one thought of home, of the bright faces awaiting my return, and of their tears if they never should see me, and then all the energies of body and mind were exerted for escape. I was an expert on the ice. Many were the days that I had spent on my good skates, never thinking that they would thus prove my only means of safety. Every half minute a furious yelp from my fierce attendants made me but too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer and nearer they came at last I heard their feet pattering on the ice-I even heard their very panting and felt their snuffing breath! Every nerve and muscle in my frame was stretched to the utmost tension.

7. The trees along the shore seemed to dance in an uncertain light, and my brain turned with my own breathless speed; yet still my pursuers kept close at my heels, till an involuntary motion on my part turned me out of my course. The wolves, unable to stop, and as unable to turn on the smooth ice, slipped and fell, still going on far ahead. Their tongues were lolling out; their white tusks were gleaming from their bloody mouths; their dark shaggy breasts were fleeced with congealed foam and, as they passed me, their eyes glared and they howled with fury. The thought flashed on my mind that by this trick of turning aside whenever they came too near, I might avoid them, for, by the formation of their feet, they are unable to run on ice except in a straight line.

8. I immediately acted upon this plan. The wolves having regained their feet sprang directly toward me. The race was renewed for twenty yards up the stream; they were already close on my back, when I glided round and dashed directly past them. A fierce yell greeted my evolution, and the wolves, slipping on their haunches, slid onward, presenting a perfect picture of helplessness and baffled rage. Thus I gained nearly a hundred yards at each turning. This was repeated two or three times, every moment the animals becoming more excited the more they were baffled.

9. At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my san