ll within a short distance of Trifogle's, when a
large wolf bounded close past me: he seemed, however, the more
frightened of the two, which I was not at all sorry to perceive.

When I arrived at the tavern, I told Trifogle what I had seen. He said,
it was very lucky I had not fallen in with the pack; for only the night
before he had gone to a beaver-meadow, about two miles distant, to look
for his working oxen which had strayed, when he was surrounded by the
whole pack of wolves, and was obliged "to tree," to save his bacon. He
was, it seems, kept for more than three hours in that uncomfortable fix
before he durst venture down--"when he made tracks," as the Yankees
say, "for hum pretty considerably smart, I guess."

My solitary journey was performed in the fall of 1830: at the present
time (1853) you may travel at your ease in a stage-coach and four
horses, with taverns every few miles, and more villages on the road
than formerly there were houses. Such are the changes that a few short
years have produced in this fast-rising country!

CHAPTER XXII.

VISIT OF THE PASSENGER-PIGEON TO THE CANADAS. -- CANADIAN BLACKBIRDS. -
- BREEDING-PLACES OF THE PASSENGER-PIGEONS. -- SQUIRRELS.

THE passenger-pigeon* visits the Canadas in the early spring-months,
and during August, in immense flocks, bringing with them an agreeable
change in the diet of the settler.

[* The passenger-pigeon is not so large as the wild pigeon of Europe.
It is slender in form, having a very long-forked tail. Its plumage is a
bluish-grey, and it has a lovely pink breast. It is, indeed, a very
elegant bird.]

Persons unacquainted with the country and the gregarious habits of this
lovely bird, are apt to doubt the accounts they have heard or read
respecting their vast numbers: since my return to England I have
repeatedly been questioned upon the subject. In answer to these
queries, I can only say that, in some parts of the province, early in
the spring and directly after wheat-harvest, their numbers are
incredible. Some days they commence flying as soon as it is light in
the morning, and continue, flock after flock, till sun-down. To
calculate the sum-total of birds passing even on one day, appears to be
impossible. I think, the greatest masses fly near the shores of the
great Canadian lakes, and sometimes so low, that they may be easily
killed with a horse-pistol, or even knocked down with a long pole.

During the first spring in which I reside