486 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



America, it can not be said to be, nor has it ever been, 

 plentiful. On the west, north, and east, the range of the 

 animal extends to the ocean. The f6ur skins which I had 

 the pleasure of examining at Trappers' Lake were from 

 specimens trapped in the winter of 1889, at an elevation of 

 ten thousand feet, in Garfield County, Colorado, on the 

 fortieth parallel. 



While crossing the mountains between Middle and 

 Egeria Parks, Colorado, in the winter of 1883, I was fortu- 

 nate enough to kill one of these animals. I say fortunate, 

 because for twenty-five years I have annually passed from 

 two weeks to three months in the wildest portions of Colo- 

 rado, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and never have seen but 

 this one living specimen at large. 



It was late in the afternoon of a day that promised snow, 

 that I had seated myself in the edge of a clump of pines 

 for a moment's rest, before starting upon a down-hill jour- 

 ney of ten miles. While mentally discussing the chances 

 of getting lost in a snow-storm, were I to leave a well-known 

 creek for a more direct but untried route, a Wolverine 

 came out of a gulch, and was about to pass within fifty 

 yards of me. It caught the movement as I raised my rifle, 

 and sat upon its haunches, when almost instantly its neck 

 was broken by a bullet in the throat. It proved to be a 

 male in good condition, and was killed so quickly that it 

 gave forth no fetid odor. The lateness of the hour, and iliy 

 heavy load, prevented taking more than the hurriedly 

 stripped skin; and even this was given to a friend to keep as 

 a memento of our hunt. 



The following account of the capture of a Wolverine, 

 written by Frank T. Wyman, of Boise City, Idaho, I take 

 pleasure in quoting verbatim: 



' The Wolverine spoken of was killed by my brother, 

 Charles M. Wyman, in February, 1889. He had spent the 

 night in a cabin on the top of Lion Hill, about forty miles 

 south-southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. The altitude is 

 about nine thousand feet above the sea. Early in the morn- 



