124 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



many parts of the land from which the wolf has vanished. 

 No animal is quite so difficult to kill as is the wolf, 

 whether by poison or rifle or hound. Yet, after a com- 

 paratively few have been slain, the entire species will 

 perhaps vanish from certain localities. In some localities 

 even the cougar, the easiest of all game to kill with 

 hounds, holds its own better. This, however, is not gen- 

 erally true. 



^ But with all wild animals, it is a noticeable fact that 

 a course of contact with man continuing over many gen- 

 erations of animal life causes a species so to adapt itself 

 to its new surroundings that it can hold its own far better 

 than formerly. When white men take up a new country, 

 the game, and especially the big game, being entirely un- 

 used to contend with the new foe, succumb easily, and 

 are almost completely killed out. If any individuals sur- 

 vive at all, however, the succeeding generations are far 

 more difficult to exterminate than were their ancestors, 

 and they cling much more tenaciously to their old homes. 

 The game to be found in old and long-settled countries is 

 of course much more wary and able to take care of itself 

 than the game of an untrodden wilderness ; it is the wil- 

 derness life, far more than the actual killing of the wil- 

 derness game, which tests the ability of the wilderness 

 hunter. 



After a time, game may even, for the time being, in- 

 crease in certain districts where settlements are thin. This 

 was true of the wolves throughout the northern cattle 

 country, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and the west- 

 ern ends of the Dakotas. In the old days wolves were 



