Popular Adventure Tales

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  THE BARREN GROUNDS

  The Barren Grounds are not entirely destitute of animal life. Even inwinter--when they are almost covered with snow, and you would supposethat no living creature could procure subsistence upon them--even thenthey have their denizens; and, strange to say, there are many animalsthat choose them for their home. There is no part of the earth's surfaceso sterile but that some animated being can find a living upon it, andsuch a being Nature adapts to its peculiar situation. For instance,there are animals that prefer the very desert itself, and would notthrive were you to place them in a country of mild climate and fertilesoil. In our own species this peculiarity is also found--as theEsquimaux would not be happy were you to transplant him from his icy hutamid the snows of the Arctic regions, and give him a palace under thegenial skies of Italy.

  Among other creatures that remain all winter upon the Barren Grounds arethe wolves. How they exist there is almost a question of thenaturalists. It is true they prey upon other animals found at times inthe same district; but wolves have been met with where not the slightesttraces of other living creatures could be seen!

  There is no animal more generally distributed over the earth's surfacethan the wolf. He exists in nearly every country, and most likely has atone time existed in all. In America there are wolves in its three zones.They are met with from Cape Horn to the farthest point northward thatman has reached. They are common in the tropical forests of Mexico andSouth America. They range over the great prairies of the temperate zonesof both divisions of the continent, and in the colder regions of theHudson's Bay territory they are among the best known of wild animals.They frequent the mountains, they gallop over the plains, they skulkthrough the valleys, they dwell everywhere--everywhere the wolf seemsequally at home.

  In North America two very different kinds are known. One is the"prairie" or "barking" wolf, which we have already met with anddescribed. The other species is the "common" or "large" wolf; but it isnot decided among naturalists that there are not several distinctspecies of the latter. At all events, there are several _varieties_ ofit--distinguished from each other in size, colour, and even to someextent in form. The habits of all, however, appear to be similar, and itis a question, whether any of these varieties be _permanent_ or only_accidental_. Some of them, it is well known, are accidental--as wolvesdiffering in colour have been found in the same litter--but lateexplorers, of the countries around and beyond the Rocky Mountains, havediscovered one or two kinds that appear to be specifically distinct fromthe common wolf of America--one of them, the "dusky wolf," being muchlarger.

  This last is said to resemble the wolf of Europe more than the otherAmerican wolves do--for there is a considerable difference between thewolves of the two continents. Those of the Northern regions of Americahave shorter ears, a broader snout and forehead, and are of a stoutermake, than the European wolves. Their fur, too, is finer, denser, andlonger; their tails more bushy and fox-like; and their feet broader. TheEuropean wolf, on the contrary, is characterized by a gaunt appearance,a pointed snout, long jaws, high ears, long legs, and feet very narrow.It is possible, nothwithstanding these points of difference, that bothmay be of the same species, the difference arising from a want ofsimilitude in the circumstances by which they are surrounded.

  For instance, the dense wool of the Hudson's Bay wolf may be accountedfor by the fact of its colder habitat, and its broader feet may be theresult of its having to run much upon the surface of the snow. Thewriter of this little book believes that this peculiar adaptation ofNature--which may be observed in all her kingdoms--may explain thedifference that exists between the wolves of the Northern parts ofAmerica and those of the South of Europe. He believes, moreover, thatthose of the Southern parts of the American continent approximate morenearly to the Pyrenean wolves, as he has seen in the tropical forest ofMexico some that possessed all that "gaunt" form and "sneaking" aspectthat characterize the latter.

  It would be interesting to inquire whether the wolves of Siberia andLapland, inhabitating a similar climate to that of the Northern parts ofAmerica, do not possess the same peculiarities as the North Americankind--a point which naturalists have not yet considered, and which you,my boy reader, may some day find both amusement and instruction indetermining for yourself.

  With regard to colour the wolves of both continents exhibit manyvarieties. In North America there are more than half-a-dozen colours ofthem, all receiving different names. There is the "grey wolf," the"white," the "brown," the "dusky," the "pied," and the "black." Thesetrivial names will give a good enough idea of the colours of each kind,but there are even varieties in their markings. "Yellow" wolves, too,have been seen, and "red" ones, and some of a "cream colour." Of allthese the grey wolf is the most common, and is _par excellence thewolf_; but there are districts in which individuals of other colourspredominate. Wolves purely black are plenty in many parts, and whitewolves are often seen in large packs.

  Even those of the same colour differ in size, and that to a considerableextent. And what is also strange, large wolves will be found in onedistrict of country, while much smaller ones _of the same colour andspecies_ inhabit another. The largest in size of American wolves areabout six feet in length, the tail included; and about three feet inheight, measuring to the tips of the standing fur. The tail is usuallyabout one-third of the whole length.

  The habits of the American wolf are pretty much like those of hisEuropean cousin. He is a beast of prey, devouring all the smalleranimals he can lay hold of. He pursues and overtakes the deer, and oftenruns down the fox and makes a meal of it. He will kill and eat Indiandogs, although these are so near his own species that the one is oftentaken for the other. But this is not all, for he will even eat his ownkind, on a pinch. He is as cunning as the fox himself, and as cowardly;but at times, when impelled by hunger, he becomes bolder, and has beenknown to attack man. Instances of this kind, however, are rare.

  The American wolves burrow, and, like the fox, have several entrancesto their holes. A litter of young wolves numbers five puppies, but asmany as eight are often produced at one birth.

  During their journey through the Barren Grounds our voyageurs hadfrequently observed wolves. They were mostly grey ones, and of greatsize, for they were travelling through a district where the very largestkind is found. At times they saw a party of five or six together; andthese appeared to be following upon their trail--as each night, whenthey came barking about the camp, our travellers recognised some of themas having been seen before. They made no attempt to shoot any ofthem--partly because they did not want either their skins or flesh, andpartly because their ammunition had been reduced to a small quantity,and they did not wish to spend it unnecessarily.

  The wolves, therefore, were allowed to approach very near the camp, andhowl as much as they liked--which they usually did throughout thelivelong night. What they found to allure them after our travellers, thelatter could not make out; as they had not shot an animal of any kindsince leaving the lake, and scarcely a scrap of anything was ever leftbehind them. Perhaps the wolves were _living upon hope_.

  One evening our travellers had made their camp on the side of aridge--which they had just crossed--and under the shelter of some roughrocks. There was no wood in the neighbourhood wherewith to make a fire;but they had scraped the snow from the place over which their tent waspitched, and under it their skins were spread upon the ground. As thetent was a very small one, Marengo's sledge, with the utensils andpemmican bags, was always left outside close by the opening. Marengohimself slept there, and that was considered sufficient to secure allthese things from wolves, or any other creatures that might be prowlingabout.

  On the evening in question, the sledge was in its usual place--the doghaving been taken from it--and as our voyageurs had not yet had theirsupper, the pemmican bags were lying loosely about, one or two of thembeing open. There was a small rivulet at the foot of the ridge--some twohundred paces distant--and Basil and Francois had gone down to it to g
etwater. One of them took the axe to break the ice with, while the othercarried a vessel. On arriving near the bank of the rivulet, theattention of the boys was attracted to a singular appearance upon thesnow. A fresh shower had fallen that morning, and the surface was stillsoft, and very smooth. Upon this they observed double lines of littledots, running in different directions, which, upon close inspection,appeared to be the tracks of some animal.

  At first, Basil and Francois could hardly believe them to be such, thetracks were so very small. They had never seen so small onesbefore--those of a mouse being quite double the size. But when theylooked more closely at them, the boys could distinguish the marks offive little toes with claws upon them, which left no doubt upon theirminds that some living creature, and that a very diminutive one, musthave passed over the spot. Indeed, had the snow not been bothfine-grained and soft, the feet of such a creature could not have madeany impression upon it.

  The boys stopped and looked around, thinking they might see the animalitself. There was a wide circle of snow around them, and its surfacewas smooth and level; but not a speck upon it betrayed the presence ofany creature.

  "Perhaps it was a bird," said Francois, "and has taken flight."

  "I think not," rejoined Basil. "They are not the tracks of a bird. It issome animal that has gone under the snow, I fancy."

  "But I see no hole," said Francois, "where even a beetle could have gonedown. Let us look for one."

  At Francois' suggestion, they walked on following one of the dottedlines. Presently they came to a place, where a stalk of long grass stoodup through the snow--its seedless panicle just appearing above thesurface. Round this stalk a little hole had been formed--partly by themelting of the snow, and partly by the action of the wind upon thepanicle--and into this hole the tracks led. It was evident that theanimal, whatever it was, must have gone down the culm of the grass inmaking its descent from the surface of the snow!

  They now observed another track going _from_ the hole in an oppositedirection, which showed that the creature had climbed up in the sameway. Curious to know what it might have been, the boys hailed Lucien andNorman, telling them to come down. These, followed by Marengo, soonarrived upon the spot. When Lucien saw the tracks, he pronounced them atonce to be those of the little shrew-mouse, the smallest of all thequadrupeds of America. Several of them had evidently been out upon thesnow--as there were other dotted lines--and the tops of many stalks ofgrass were seen above the surface, each of which had formed a littlehole around it, by which the mice were enabled to get up and down.

  Norman, who had seen these little animals before, cautioned hiscompanions to remain quiet awhile, and perhaps some of them might cometo the surface. They all stopped therefore, and stood some time withoutmoving, or speaking to one another. Presently, a little head not muchbigger than a pea was seen peeping up, and then a body followed, whichin size did not exceed that of a large gooseberry! To this a tail wassuspended, just one inch in length, of a square shape, and tapering fromroot to point, like that of any other mouse. The little creature wascovered with a close smooth fur, of a clove-brown colour above, but moreyellowish upon the belly and sides; and was certainly, as it sat uponthe even surface of the snow, the most diminutive and oddest-lookingquadruped that any of the party had ever beheld.

  They were just whispering to one another what means they should use tocapture it, when Marengo, whom Basil had been holding quiet, all at onceuttered a loud bay; and, springing out of the hands of his master,galloped off towards the camp. All of them looked after, wondering whathad started the dog; but his strange behaviour was at once explained,and to their consternation. Around the tent, and close to its entrance,several large wolves were seen. They were leaping about hurriedly, andworrying some objects that lay upon the ground. What these objects werewas too plain. They were _the bags of pemmican_! Part of their contentswas seen strewed over the snow, and part was already in the stomachs ofthe wolves.

  The boys uttered a simultaneous shout, and ran forward. Marengo was bythis time among the wolves, and had set fiercely upon one of them. Hadhis masters not been at hand, the fierce brutes would soon have settledthe account with Marengo. But the former were now close by, and thewolves, seeing them, ran off; but, to the consternation of the boys,each of them carried off a bag of the pemmican in his mouth with as muchlightness and speed as if nothing encumbered them!

  THE WOLVES AND THE PEMMICAN BAGS.]

  "We are lost!" cried Norman, in a voice of terror. "Our provisions aregone!--all gone!"

  It was true. The next moment the wolves disappeared over the summit ofthe ridge; and although each of the boys had seized his gun, and ranafter, the pursuit proved an idle one. Not a wolf was overtaken.

  Scarce a scrap of the pemmican had been left--only some fragments thathad been gnawed by the ravenous brutes, and scattered over the snow.That night our travellers went to bed supperless; and, what with hunger,and the depression of spirits caused by this incident, one and all ofthem kept awake nearly the whole of the night.