39 The Wilderness Hunter. 



complete explanation, for in the South it does not hiber- 

 nate, and yet holds its own as well as in the North. What 

 makes it all the more curious 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 re- 

 lated animals are literally inexplicable. Much of the 

 difference in temperament between such closely allied 

 species as the American and European bears and wolves 

 is doubtless 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 expla- 

 nation. 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, while the badger is 

 smaller ; in the mink being with us a much stouter animal 

 than its Scandinavian and Russian kinsman, while the 

 reverse is true of our sable or pine marten. No one 

 can say why the European red deer should be a pigmy 

 compared to its giant brother, the American wapiti ; why 

 the Old World elk should average smaller in size than 

 the almost indistinguishable New World moose ; and yet 

 the bison of Lithuania and the Caucasus be on the whole 

 larger and more formidable than its American cousin. In 

 the same way no one can tell why under like conditions 

 some game, such as the white goat and the spruce grouse, 



