306 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



claws, and a mean-looking tail that looks as if it had been 

 cut off half way, and healed up with a wisp end. The 

 animal runs with its tail down, but when it stops to look 

 back, up goes the tail, skunk-like. In spying out the land, 

 a Wolverine often rises high on its hind legs. 



A full-grown Wolverine stands about twelve inches 

 high at the shoulder, its head and body are about thirty 

 inches, and tail ten inches, exclusive of the hair. 



The general color of this animal is dingy or smoky 

 brown, but there is a large light-colored patch on the 

 side. On the head the hair is short and close, but on the 

 body, neck and tail it is long and flowing. Its eyes are 

 black, and so are its legs, but its claws are conspicuously 

 white, and very large. 



The Wolverine is a fairly good climber, and game 

 hung in a tree is not safe from its destructive jaws. Mr. 

 J. W. Tyrrell once outwitted the wolverines of the Barren 

 Grounds by erecting a cache on four very high posts, then 

 trimming the posts and peeling off all the bark, after 

 which he nailed six cod-hooks to each post. The Wolver- 

 ines tried very hard to climb up to that cache, but failed. 



The Wolverine is a great traveller; but Mr. J. W. 

 Tyrrell says that those he chased on the Barren Grounds 

 could not run very fast, and he easily outran them. 

 Charles L. Smith says that this animal has the widest 

 individual range of any carnivorous animal with which 

 he is acquainted, not even excepting the grizzly bear. 

 He says that from its home den a Wolverine will travel 

 from twenty to thirty miles in each direction. Like all 

 the short-legged marten-like animals, it travels by a series 



