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the objects of his prey, the just and the vir- promife of the life that now is, and alfo of tuous of his hatred and vengeance. that which is to come."

These are the lamentable effects of enthufiafm and infidelity, where they gain the afcendant over the mind, and become principles of action. They are equally dangerous in their tendency and end; both are fubverfive of virtue, religion, and true happinefs here; and equally unfit it for a participitation with happy fpirits in future blefied. nefs and glory. That religion, which has God for its author, is equally remote from thefe two extremes; its nature is exemplified by its happy effects in the earth. It is indeed profitable unto all things, having the

God hath made us rational beings, and therefore the religion he requires of us muft ever be ftrictly confiftent with reafon and the nature of things, and vifibly tend to the introduction of peace on earth, and goodwill to all men. And it is only the real experience of living under its purifying influence, and being guided by its dictates, that can give mankind a rational hope of that fupreme felicity, which is the ineftimable treature of the virtuous in a future state of existence."

I am, &c. RATIONALIS.

Natural History of the WOLF, with a finely engraved Figure of that

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Animal.

HE wolf is called in Greek únos; in Latin, lupus; in French, loup; in Itaan lupo; in Spanish, lobo; in German, wolff; in swedish, ulf; and in Polish, wilk.

The wolf is one of thofe animals whofe appetite for flesh is exceeding vehement and though, with this relifh, he has received from nature the means for fatisfying it; though the has furnished him with weapons, craft, agility, and frength; in thort, with every thing neceffary for fearching out, attacking, conquaing, feizing, and devouring his prey; yet, he often dies of hunger, because man, having declared war againtt him, and even profcribed him by fetting a price on his head, forces him to keep aloof, to take up his abcde in the woods, where he finds only fome wild animals, which efcape him by the fwiftness of their courfe, and which he cannot furprife but by chance or dint of patience, waiting their coming for a long time, and often in vain, in the places where they are likely to pass. He is naturally dull and cowardly, but becomes ingenious through want, and bold through neceffity. Preffed by hunger, he braves danger, ventures to attack the animals under the protection of man, thofe efpecially which he can eafily carry off with him, as lambs, little dogs, kids; and, when he fucceeds in his marauding, he often returns to the charge, till, having been wounded, or hunted, and maltreated by men and dogs, he mews himfelf up by day in his frong-hold, not leaving it till night, when he fcours the country,'ioves about villages and farm-houses, runs away with animals that are left unguarded, attacks sheep-folds, feratches and digs up the carth under doors, enters furious, and puts all to

death before chufing aud carrying away his prey. When this courting happens to be productive of nothing, he returns to the receffes of the woods, where he fecks out, follows the track of, hunts, and pursues wild animals, in hopes that another wolf may ftop and feize them in their flight, and that the fpoil may be divided between them. In fine, when his wants are extreme, he expofes himfelf to all dangers, attacks women and children, fometimes falls upon men, and becomes furious by thefe exceffes, which ufually end by madness and death.

The wolf, as well externally as internally, bears fo near a resemblance to the dog, that he feems to be modelled on the fame form; however, at most he shews but the reverse, or prefents only the fame characters under an intirely oppofite face. If the form is like, that which refults from it is quite contrary; the natural difpofition is fo different, that not only they are incompatible, but antipathic by nature, and inimical by instinct. A young dog is quite in horrors at the first fight of a wolf; he flies at only smelling him, and this fell, though new and unknown, he conceives fo ftrong a difgust againft, that he comes trembling to feek refuge between his mafter's legs: A maftiff, confcious to himself of his ftrength, brushes up his hair, fwells with indignant emotions, attacks him with courage, ftrives to put him to flight, and exerts his utmost efforts to deliver himself of a prefence that is odious to him: They never meet without flying from, or fighting with one another: The conteft is fierce and defperate, and death only decides it. If the wolf is ftrorger, he tears funder, and devours his prey; the dog, on the contrary, more generous, contents him

felf

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felf with victory, and finds no attractive charm in the body of a dead enemy: He configns him over as food only fit for crows and other wolves; for they devour one another, and when a wolf is grievoufly wounded, others trace him out by his blood and affemble in troops to difpatch him.

The dog, even in a wild ftate, is not of a ferocious difpofition; he is eafily familiarifed, conceives an attachment, and remains faithful to his mafter. The wolf taken young may be tamed, but never fhews an attachment; nature is stronger in him than education ; he refumes with age his character of ferocity, and returns, whenever he can, to his favage ftate. Dogs, even thofe, whofe organs feem groffer, feek the company of other animals; they are naturally inclined to follow them, to accompany them, and it is by inftinƐt alone and not by education that they know how to conduct and keep theep. The wolf, on the contrary, is an enemy to all fociety, not even keeping company with thofe of his fpecies. When many of them are feen together, it is not a fociety of peace, it is a muitering together of their forces for war, which is carried on with a great din of dreadful howlings, and denotes a project for attacking fome large animal, as a ftag, an ox, or for flaying fome dog that has been long a terror to them. When their military expedition is over, they feparate and return in filence to their folitude. There is not likewife any great intimacy between the male and female; they feek one another but once a year, and remain but a fhort time together. It is in winter that the females are m heat. Several males follow the fame female, and this concourfe is still more fanguinary than the former; for they cruelly difpute the prize; they growl, roar, fight, and tear one another; and it often happens that they drag from limb to limb the male fhe has given the preference to. Commonly fhe runs away for a long time, tires out all the competitors, and elopes, whilft they are afleep, with the most alert or best beloved.

The heat lafts but twelve or fif een days, beginning with the oldeft female wolves, for that of the younger comes later. The males have no particular rutting feafon; they may copulate at all times; they pafs fucceffively from females to females according as they are in a condition to receive them; they have the old ones at the end of December, and end by the young in the month of February and the beginning of March. The time of geftation is about three months and a half, and wolf-cubs newly born are found from the end of April to the month of July. This difference of duration in the geitation

of the-wolves,' which go upwards of a 100 days, and of bitches, which hardly exceed 60, proves that the wolf and dog, already fo different in natural difpofition, are so alfo in conftitution, and in one of the principal refults of the functions of the animal economy. Wherefore, the wolf and dog were never taken for the fame animal but by nomenclators in natural hiftory, who, with only a fuperficial knowledge of nature, never confider her to give her her entire extent, but only to contract and reduce her to their method, always faulty, and often falfified by facts. The dog and the-wolf can neither copulate nor produce together; there is no intermediate race between them; they are of a quite oppofite nature and different conftitution. The wolf lives longer than the dog the fhe-wolves bear but once a year, bitches two or three times. Thefe fpecific_differences are more than fufficient to demonftrate that thefe animals are of pretty diftant fpecies: Befides, from a nearer infpection, it appears, even externally, that the wolf differs from the dog by conftant and effential characters. The afpect of the head is different, the form of the bones is fo alfo; the cavity of the wolf's eye lies obliquely, the orbit inclined, and the eyes fparkle and gliften at night: He howls, but cannot bark; his motions are different, his pace more even, more uniform, though more prompt and more precipitate; his body much stronger, but not fo fupple; his limbs more compact and firm; the jaw-bones and teeth larger, and the hair rougher and more thick-fet. But these animals resemble one another much in the conformation of the internal parts: The wolves copulate as dogs, and the virga is bony in them, accompanied in the act with a little tumour, obstructing feparation.

When the female wolves are ready to bring forth, they feek cut, in the depths of woods and forefts, fome close thicket, in the midft of which they clear a pretty confiderable space by cutting and pulling away the thorns with their teeth; they convey there afterwards a large quantity of mofs, and prepare a commodious bed for their young. Their litter confifts commonly of five or fix, fometimes seven, eight, and even nine, and never lefs than three. They are born with their eyes clofed as dogs; the dam fuckles them for fome weeks, and foon teaches them to eat flesh, which the prepares for them by chewing. Sometime after fhe brings them field-mice, leverets, partridges, and other fowls, all alive. The cubs begin by playing with, and end by itrangling thein; the dam then ftrips off their feathers, fkins, tears,

and

and distributes to each a part. They continue in the lodge, where they have been littered, fix weeks or two months; then they follow their dam that leads them to drink in fome trunk of a tree, or fome neighbouring pool of water. She brings them back again to the fame lodge, or obliges them to fecrete themselves elsewhere, when the is apprehenfive of any danger. When they are attacked, the defends them with all her might, and even with fury; though at other times the is, as all females, more timid than the male; when she has young, the becomes intrepid, feems to dread nothing for herself, and expofes herself to all perils for faving them: They therefore do not quit her till they are intirely reared, and perceive that they have ftrength enough to stand in no need of affiftance: This is ufually in ten or twelve months time, when they get a new set of teeth, which firft fall in fix months from the birth, and when they have acquired ftrength, weapons, and talents for rapine.

The males and females are in a state of engendering at the age of about two years. It is probable that the females, as with all other fpecies, are in this refpect more ripe than the males. What is certain is that they are not in heat till the fecond winter of their life, which fuppofes an age of eighteen or twenty months. Hunters affure us that in all litters there are more males than females; and this confirms an obfervation, which appears general, at least in our climates, that in all fpecies, beginning with that of man, nature produces more males than females. They fay also that there are wolves which in the time of heat are attached to their female, and always accompany her till fhe is ready to bring forth: Then the fteals away, and hides carefully her young, for fear the fire fhould devour them in their birth; but, when born, he conceives an affection for them, brings them food, and, if the dam fhould fail, he takes her place, and is as careful of them as the can be. I cannot afcertain thefe facts, which, indeed, seem to me somewhat contradictory. Thefe animals are two or three years in growing, and live fifteen or twenty years. grees with what has been oblerved in regard to many other fpecies, in which the time of growth makes the feventh part of the total duration of life. Wolves become white in old-age, and then all their teeth are worn down. They fleep when they have fatisfied their hunger or are fatigued, but more in the day than night, and always their fleep is light; they drink frequently, and in droughts, when there is no water in the old trunks of trees, they come more than once in the day

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to ponds and rivulets. Though very voracious they easily endure faiting; and may hold out four or five days without eating, provided they do not want water.

The wolf has great ftrength, efpecially in the fore parts of the body, in the muscles of the neck and the jaws. He can carry off a fheep in his mouth, without letting it touch the ground; and at the fame time runs fafter than the shepherds, so that none but the dogs can come up with him, and make him quit hold. He bites cruelly, and always more fiercely, when leaft refifted; for he is cautious in his attacks upon animals that are able to defend themfelves. He is timorous, and fights only through neceffity, and never by an emotion of courage. When shot at, and the ball breaks fome limb, he cries, and yet, when belaboured with cudgels, he does not complain as the dog; he is more hardened, lefs fenfible, and more robuft; he walks, runs, roves about whole days and nights; he is indefatigable, and perhaps of all animals is the moit difficult to force in *running. The dog is gentle and courageous; the wolf, though fierce, is timid. When he falls into a fare or trap, his fright is fo great and long, that one may kill him without his making any defence, or take him alive, without refiftance: A collar may be put about him; he may be chained, muzzled, and afterwards led about wherever one pleafes, without his fhewing the leaft fign of anger or even difcontent. The wolf's lentes and eye are very good, his ear, especially his diftance fmell, he fcents often at a greater than he fees; the odour of carnage attracts him upwards of a league; he smells also living animals from afar, and hunts them for a confiderable time. When he goes out of a wood, he never fails catching the wind, and, finelling about on all fides; he thus receives the emanations of bodies dead or alive which the wind conveys to him. He prefers live to dead flefh, and yet devours the mott infectious ordure. He loves human fleih, and perhaps, if he was the ftronger, he would eat no other. Wolves have been feen to follow armies, to arrive in great numbers at fields of battle, where bodies had been negligently interred; and then unearth and devour them with infatiable avidity; and thefe fame wolves, accuftomed to hu man flesh, would afterwards fall upon men, attack the thepherd rather than the flock, devour women, and carry off children.

There is therefore fometimes a neceffity of arming a whole country to get rid of the wolves. Princes have equipages for the hunt, which is not difagreeable; it is ufefu, indeed, and even necellary. Hunters dub

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