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228 “TRAVELS
may not fpare his horfe. But it fometimes happens that the
wolves, in the anguifh of famine flock together, lofe their ufual
timidity, and from the confidence of affociation become {fo intre-
pid as to fet upon the horfes yoked to fledges. In fuch an attack
it is extremely dangerous to be overturned and left upon the road
by the horfe: he naturally takes fright, and fometimes makes his
efcape; then the wolves perceiving the traveller defencelefs upon
the ground, fall upon and devour him. Thefe accidents, how-
ever, aré not at all to be apprehended by a numerous party hke
ours, as the wolves keep at a diftance, and fly at the noife of
fledges and the voices of feveral people. We faw abundance of
their tracks every where on our route, but we did not perceive a
fingle wolf, nor any ravenous animal except foxes, which ufed to
look us fteadily in the face for a moment, while we amufed our-
felves by whiftling after them.
The dreary filence and obfcurity of a thick wood, whofe
branches forming a vaulted roof, cut off the traveller from a view
of the fkies, and admit only faint and dubious rays of light, 1s
always an impofing object to the imagination ; the awful impref-
fion the mind experiences under this majeftic gloom, this difmal
folitude, this defertion of nature, is not be defcribed. The tem-
perature of the air is much milder in the interior of this wood
than the external atmofphere; a difference which is extremely
perceptible to one who like us enters the wood after traverfing a
lake or open plain. The only noife the traveller hears in this
foreft is the burfting of the bark of the trees, from the effect of
the froft, which produces a loud but dull found.
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