ock, was
found perfectly senseless by an officer who came to see the cause of the
alarm. Some difficulty was experienced in getting him to relinquish his
hold of the beef--which he stuck to like a Briton--and it was several
days before his nerves recovered from the shock of the fright.

The wolf and the jackal tribes are by no means without their use in the
economy of nature, though from their predatory habits they are justly
regarded as pests in the countries they infest: that they will disturb
the dead and rifle the graves is true, but they also clear away offal,
and with vultures, are the scavengers of hot countries; they follow on
the track of herds, and put a speedy end to the weak, the wounded, and
the dying; they are the most useful, though most disgusting of camp
followers, and after a battle, when thousands of corpses of men and
horses are collected within a limited space, they are of essential
service--

I stood in a swampy-field of battle,
With bones and skulls I made a rattle
To frighten the wolf and carrion crow
And the homeless dog--but they would not go;
So off I flew--for how could I bear
To see them gorge their dainty fare.
COLERIDGE.

Revolting and heart-sickening though such scenes may be, the evil is
less than would result from the undisturbed decay of the dead: were that
to take place, the air would hang heavy with pestilence, and the winds
of heaven laden with noisome exhalations would carry death and
desolation far and near, rendering still more terrible the horrors and
calamities of war.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 62.

[2] Holland's Plinie's Naturall Historie, ed. 1635

[3] Edit, Edin. 1541, quoted from Magazine of Natural History.

[4] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824.

[5] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824.

A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE.

Among the French prisoners taken at the battle of Vitebsk, during
Napoleon's disastrous retreat in Prussia, was a French general, who was
accompanied by: his wife and daughter. Being badly wounded, he was
removed to the military hospital, but the ladies were received into the
private house of Madame Strognof, whose husband held, at that time, a
subordinate appointment under the Russian Government.

A certain Botwinko was then procureur at Vitebsk. Without the
procureur's sanction nothing can be done in his department; for he
represents the e