Wolves and Wo If -Hounds. 391 



should be tamer than other closely allied species, like the 

 mountain sheep and ruffed grouse. No one can say why 

 on the whole the wolf of Scandinavia and northern Russia 

 should be larger and more dangerous than the average 

 wolf of the Rocky Mountains, while between the bears of 

 the same regions the comparison must be exactly reversed. 



The difference even among the wolves of different 

 sections of our own country is very notable. It may be 

 true that the species as a whole is rather weaker and less 

 ferocious than the European wolf ; but it is certainly not 

 true of the wolves of certain localities. The great tim- 

 ber wolf of the central and northern chains of the Rockies 

 and coast ranges is in every way a more formidable crea- 

 ture than the buffalo wolf of the plains, although they 

 intergrade. The skins and skulls of the wolves of north- 

 western Montana and Washington which I have seen 

 were quite as large and showed quite as stout claws and 

 teeth as the skins and skulls of Russian and Scandinavian 

 wolves, and I believe that these great timber wolves are 

 in every way as formidable as their Old World kinsfolk. 

 However, they live where they come in contact with a 

 population of rifle-bearing frontier hunters, who are very 

 different from European peasants or Asiatic tribesmen ; 

 and they have, even when most hungry, a wholesome 

 dread of human beings. Yet I doubt if an unarmed man 

 would be entirely safe should he, while alone in the forest 

 in midwinter, encounter a fair-sized pack of ravenously 

 hungry timber wolves. 



A full-grown dog-wolf of the northern Rockies, in 

 exceptional instances, reaches a height of thirty-two inches 



