ry certain no Morvinian
ever went so far as the Melville peninsula to take a hunting lesson from
an Esquimaux. The very birds of prey, those flying thieves of the air,
are used for wolf-hunting amongst some of the savage nations of the
earth. The Kaissoks take them with the help of a large sort of hawk,
called a _beskat_, which is trained to fly at and fasten on their heads,
and tear their eyes out; and the Grand Khan of Tartary has eagles tamed
and trained to the sport in the same way as we have our packs to hunt
the roebuck and wild boar.

In the sombre forests of the Nivernais and Burgundy, where wolves are
still numerous, and where they occasion the farmers great loss by the
destruction of their cattle, they are destroyed in every way imaginable.
General _battues_ are held, and private hunting parties meet, a
multitude of traps set, pits dug, the sportsman and the peasant lie in
wait for them, and dogs and cats, well stuffed with deadly poison, are
placed near their haunts in the thick underwood. Nevertheless, and in
spite of all these crafty inventions and open war with them, the wolves
scarcely diminish in number; they still present the same formidable
phalanx, and seem determined to defy their destroyers.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of
sportsmen--Distribution in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal
rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and
the reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with
dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf.

In the first days of May, that interesting epoch in which in the forest,
the woods, and the plain, the majority of all animals are with young;
and in the commencement of December, the period of storm and tempest and
the heavy rains, which precede the great snows, two general _battues_
take place in Le Morvan. To these all the tribe of sportsmen--the good,
the bad, and the indifferent--are invited; in short, every one in the
neighbourhood who loves excitement attends. Gentlemen, poachers, and
_gens-d'armes_, young conscripts and old soldiers, doctors and
schoolmasters, every one who is the fortunate possessor of a gun, a
carbine, a pistol, a sabre, a bayonet, or any other weapon, presents
himself at the rendezvous. Bands of peasants, also, armed with
bludgeons, spears, broomsticks, cymbals, bells, frying-pans, sauce-pans,
and fire-irons (it is impossible to make too much noise on the