AN UNCOMFORTABLE FELLOWPASSENGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15005, 29 May 1912, Page 10

AN UNCOMFORTABLE FELLOWPASSENGER.

Tire grey wolf is generally believed to be j ; extinct in Michigan, but according to Dr. ' M. A. Leach, who tells in the Wide World ] : Magazine Ids experience with an animal of : , the" specie*, there was one there no longer Ithan two wars ago. The doctor was in ' a fishing hut on the frozen surface of : Like- Michigan, fishing through the ice. One afternoon, iu the midst of a tierce : snowstorm, there came a sudden report, . like a sharp clan of thunder. The ice i' was breaking. I rushed outside, but the ] snow was blinding, and I could not oven I see the shore-Sine- All round the thun- : derous reports were sounding, and the ice | was quivering' strangely. 1 was fright- • ened. but as I had no compass there was : nothing I could do but keep warm and | trust to luck. So I went back to the hut, | and started to- fry some fish. In a few j moments the place was tilled with a most appetising odour, which I presume, had something to do with what followed. I heard a series of low whines outside; then something scratched at the door. I opened it, thinking that some dog lost on the ice had found my hut. To my surprise, however, a great unkempt animal entered and fawned about my feet. Although I had never seen a groy wolf, I I knew that this was one. The animal I seemed terrified 'beyond measure by the I splitting ice and the storm, for he kept | casting fearful glances at the door, and showed no signs of wildness. \ I could hardly put him out without endangering myself more than by letting hinT alone, so we spent the night quite peacefully together. The next morning I awoke to find the sun up, the day bright and clear, and the land four or five miles west of us. AH round floated cakes of ice, going the same way as ourselves in the current. The wolf and I went out into the sunshine and now the animal grew surly, and no longer welcomed my approaches. Two hours later I caught a glimpse of a dot moving r.mong the ice-cake';, and as it neared saw that it was a fishing boat. The boat was about half a mile distant when the occupants, having seen me, started to make their way through the floating ice. The,wolf watched them with bristling hair, and suddenly ho turned towards me with a low growl. I offered aim a bit of fish, but he took no notice; then, 'with a quick movement, he sprang at me. "i I bad no weapon except a short knife, and that was closed. All I could do was .to jump aside, hitting him with ray fist as he nrisesd me—an old boxing trick. But I had not: counted on that savage sideslash of the great teeth, and when the animal gained his feet and turned to fly at me again my hand was streaming with blood. ;'''' ."••:.' '.'.--I'; Getting his balance, the wolf came at me again, and sprang. This time I was really frightened, and with a wild idea of holding him away till my friends could assist me I met him half-way, grasped bis throat in both hands, and fell with him to the snow. I hung to his throat, but I could not hold his feet. He struck at me savagely with his hind paws, the sharp j claws of which tore through my coat like ! knives, and I realised my danger just in time to cast myself backward. Instantly the wolf returned to the attack, and the look in his face frightened me so that I did not wait for him. I whipped my coat off and threw it in his face ; then, turning ran to the side of the ice-cake and leaped into the water- '■ lam a good swimmer, and the boat was I only 100 ft distant. I was soon aboard and getting into warm clothes. The engine j was stopped, and we lay there watching | the wolf. He seemed puzzled at my disappearance, for he ran backward and for- { ward on the ice; then. lie looked at the I boat and howled dismally. None of the ! men liked to attack him with knives as | their only weapons, and so they soon turned | the boat about and threaded their way out from the.ice into the free water. Behind us tho lonely wolf sat watching us disappear, and slowly, hopelessly,. floated onward to his doom.