The Wolf 341 



limit of his capacity, if anything remains it is commonly 

 dragged to some place of concealment and buried. Then 

 the brute lies down until the apathy induced by surfeit 

 passes away. Wolves hunt both by sight and scent, by 

 day and night. They will certainly interbreed with dogs, 

 producing fertile offspring ; and they may be domesti- 

 cated. But as they grow older the characteristics germane 

 to their savage natures assert themselves. It is said by 

 Godman that "when kept in close confinement, and fed 

 on vegetable matter, the common wolf becomes tame and 

 harmless, . . . shy, restless, timid." If he had said it 

 became ill, the statement would have been more conform- 

 able with fact. No such interruption of the normal course 

 of life is possible without an impairment of health, both 

 bodily and mental. Carnivorous animals are not to be 

 turned into vegetarians at will, nor any creature's energies 

 thwarted and cramped without distortion and atrophy. 



Wolves no doubt can swim, but it is certain that a wolf 

 seldom voluntarily takes to water in which he cannot 

 wade. Audubon saw one swimming, and others have 

 witnessed the like. Still all accounts represent these 

 beasts as stopping short in pursuit on the bank of a 

 stream. Naturalists say that the length of life in this 

 species is twenty years, and it has been recorded also 

 that they do not become gray with age. It looks like 

 a purility to repeat what has been gravely reported more 

 than once ; namely, that when wolves have plenty to eat 

 they get fat, become lazy, and are not so aggressive as 

 under contrary conditions. On the other hand, nothing 

 is more common than to find writers explaining every act 



