LEITH by C. Willa Stewart, Continued.

Tolstoy, in "War and Peace", describes in horrific detail the long-drawn-out killing of a female wolf and her cubs as part of a day's sport, reminiscent of the barbaric practice of fox-hunting in this country today. And Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", usually performed for the entertainment of children, gives the impression of the wolf being a nasty animal which has to be hunted and killed.

My great interest in wolves was triggered by reading Farley Mowat's book, "Never Cry Wolf", an account by a Canadian Naturalist of a summer spent in a tent in the Arctic, only yards away from a wolf pack. I read with growing fascination of curious, very intelligent and non-threatening animals, who never once showed any signs of aggression or viciousness but only unobtrusive interest in their human companion - at a distance. Surely the most important fact to emerge from this book is that Farley Mowat survived to tell his tale. It was this tale which was to transform my conception of "canis