Wolves and Wolf -Hounds 217 



unable to run, so that they are easily ridden 

 down, roped, and then dragged to death. 



Yet even the slaughter wrought by man in 

 certain localities does not seem adequate to 

 explain the scarcity or extinction of wolves, 

 throughout the country at large. In most 

 places they are not followed any more eager- 

 ly than are the other large beasts of prey, and 

 they are usually followed with less success. 

 Of all animals the wolf is the shyest and hard- 

 est to slay. It is almost or quite as difficult 

 to still-hunt as the cougar, and is far more 

 difficult to kill with hounds, traps, or poison ; 

 yet it scarcely holds its own as well as the 

 great cat, and it does not begin to hold its own 

 as well as the bear, a beast certainly more 

 readily killed, and one which produces fewer 

 young at a birth. Throughout the East the 

 black bear is common in many localities from 

 which the wolf has vanished completely. It 

 at present exists in very scanty numbers in 

 northern Maine and the Adirondacks; is al- 

 most or quite extinct in Pennsylvania; lin- 

 gers here and there in the mountains from 

 West Virginia to East Tennessee, and is found 

 in Florida; but is everywhere less abundant 

 than the bear. It is possible that this destruc- 

 tion of the wolves is due to some disease among 



VOL. III. 10 



