WOLVES AND WOLF-HOUNDS. 183 



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 destruction of the wolves 

 is due to some disease among them, perhaps to 

 hydrophobia, a terrible malady from which it 

 is known that they suffer greatly at times. 

 Perhaps the bear is helped by its habit of 

 hibernating, which frees it from most dangers 

 during winter ; but this cannot be the com- 

 plete explanation, for in the South it does not 

 hibernate, and yet holds its own as well as in 

 the North. What makes it all the more curi- 

 ous that the American wolf should disappear 

 sooner than the bear is that the reverse is the 

 case with the allied species of Europe, where 

 the bear is much sooner killed out of the 

 land. 



Indeed the differences of this sort between 

 nearly related animals are literally inexplicable. 

 Much of the difference in temperament be- 

 Jtween such closely allied species as the Amer- 

 ican and European bears and wolves is doubt- 

 less due to their surroundings and to the 

 instincts they have inherited through many 

 generations ; but for much of the variation it 

 is not possible to offer any explanation. In 

 the same way there are certain physical dif- 

 ferences for which it is very hard to account, 

 as the same conditions seem to operate in 

 directly 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, 



