THE WAY OF THE WILD 



55 



Besides, these calamities of climate and season, of fire and flood, 

 are occasional and local in their happening, not constant and 

 general, so that in a large sense the free and unrestricted in- 

 crease of earth's millions is thrown upon the world for main- 

 tenance, and there is not enough. The only alternative is a 



Fig. 8. In a fight against snow and cold the bison can hold his own 



wholesale destruction of individuals by starvation, in which the 

 strongest alone survive. 



The competition for food is, therefore, the chief element in 

 the struggle for existence. There is no common food supply 

 for all species, but everything, from the biggest to the littlest, 

 from the strongest to the weakest, lives upon its neighbor, and 

 it is literally true that the chief concern of each inhabitant of 

 the wild, and the one upon which he bestows most of his time 

 and his principal attention, is to secure something to eat and to 

 avoid, in return, being eaten himself. With one eye on his prey 

 and the other on his enemy he balances his chances and gambles 



