* Paper. Nevertheless a thousand wolves upon the average are killed in a year.
is a gathering sound for the wolf, but the voice of man, made in his Creator's image, will hold him aloof. The blast of a horn greatly annoys them, a fiddle makes them fly, and the gi ogling of bells is. also a means of scaring them, which, besides the expedience of proclaiming your approach in dark nights on these noiseless sledge-roads, is one reason why all winter equipages are fitted up with bells/
Nor is the breaking up of the winter in Estonia less truly portrayed: — ' The soft hand of spring imperceptibly withdraws the bolts and bars of winter, while the earth, like a drowsy child, 'twixt sleeping and waking, flings oft one wrapper after another and opes its heavy lids in showers of sweet rivulets. And the snow disappears, and the brown earth peeps almost dry from beneath; and you wonder where all the mountains of moisture are gone. But wait — the rivers are still locked, and though a strong current is pouring on their surface, yet, from the high bridge, the green ice is still seen deep below, firm as a rock— and dogs go splashing over in the old track, and peasants with their horses venture long after it seems prudent. At length a sound like distant thunder, or the crashing of a forest, meets your ear, and the words " Der Eisgang, der Eisgang! " pass from mouth to mouth, and those who would witness this northern scene hurry out to the old stone bridge, and are obliged to take a circuitous route, for the waters have risen ankle deep— and then another crash, and you double your pace regardless of wet feet, and are startled at the change which a few hours have produced. On the one side, close besetting the bridge, and high up the banks, lies a field of ice lifting the waters before it and spreading them over the country; while huge masses flounder and swing against one another with loud reports, and heave up their green transparent edges, full six feet thick, with a majestic motion; and all these press heavily upon the bridge, which trembles at every stroke, and stands like a living thing labouring and gasping for breath through the small apertures of the almost chocked arches. On the other side the river is free of ice, and a furious stream, as if all the imprisoned waters of Russia were let loose, is dashing down, bearing with it some huge leviathan of semi-transparent crystal, and curdling its waters about it, till this again is stopped by another field of ice lower down.
'The waters were rising every minute — night was approaching, and the beautiful old bridge gave us great alarm, when a party of peasants, fresh from their supper at the Hof, and cheered with brandy, arrived to relieve it. Each was armed with a long pole with an iron point, and flying down the piles and on to the ice itself, began hacking at the sides of the foremost monster, till, impelled by the current beneath, it could fit and grind itself through the bridge and gallop down to thunder against its comrades below. The men were utterly fearless, giving a keen sense of adventure to their dangerous task which rivetted us to the spot; some of the most daring standing and leaning with their whole weight over the bed of the torrent upon the very mass they were hewing off, till the slow swing which preceded the final plunge made them fly to the piles for safety. Some fragments were doubly hard with imbedded stones and pieces of timber, and no sooner was one enemy despatched than another succeeded; and although bodies of men continued relieving each other all night, the bridge sustained such damage as could not be repaired. All was over in twelve hours, but meanwhile, " the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth," and every hill and building stood insulated.