ly reverse ways with
different animals. No one can explain the process of natural selection
which has resulted in the otter of America being larger than the otter
of Europe, while the badger is smaller; in the mink being with us a
much stouter animal than its Scandinavian and Russian kinsman, while
the reverse is true of our sable or pine marten. No one can say why the
European red deer should be a pigmy compared to its giant brother, the
American wapiti; why the Old World elk should average smaller in size
than the almost indistinguishable New World moose; and yet the bison of
Lithuania and the Caucasus be on the whole larger and more formidable
than its American cousin. In the same way no one can tell why under
like conditions some game, such as the white goat and the spruce grouse,
should be tamer than other closely allied species, like the mountain
sheep and ruffled grouse. No one can say why on the whole the wolf of
Scandinavia and northern Russia should be larger and more dangerous than
the average wolf of the Rocky Mountains, while between the bears of the
same regions the comparison must be exactly reversed.

The difference even among the wolves of different sections of our own
country is very notable. It may be true that the species as a whole
is rather weaker and less ferocious than the European wolf; but it is
certainly not true of the wolves of certain localities. The great timber
wolf of the central and northern chains of the Rockies and coast ranges
is in every way a more formidable creature than the buffalo wolf of the
plains, although they intergrade. The skins and skulls of the wolves
of north-western Montana and Washington which I have seen were quite as
large and showed quite as stout claws and teeth as the skins and skulls
of Russian and Scandinavian wolves, and I believe that these great
timber wolves are in every way as formidable as their Old World
kinsfolk. However, they live where they come in contact with a
population of rifle-bearing frontier hunters, who are very different
from European peasants or Asiatic tribesmen; and they have, even when
most hungry, a wholesome dread of human beings. Yet I doubt if an
unarmed man would be entirely safe should he, while alone in the forest
in mid-winter encounter a fair-sized pack of ravenously hungry timber
wolves.

A full-grown dog-wolf of the northern Rockies, in exceptional instances,
reaches a height of thirty-two inches and a weight of 130 pounds;