I. PREFACE. 



THAT a new book treating on the much-discussed 

 wolf can be written at all the animal must be 

 described from an entirely different point of 

 view, else it would be superfluous. Happily the author 

 feels that there is a side, an important one, to the 

 wolfish character, which has been overlooked or per- 

 \-erted. It is a side decidedly fa\-orable to the animal, 

 to its inherent right to live, to be protected by man- 

 kind. The wolf of Pennsylvania accomplished much 

 more good than harm. At the time when the Indians 

 ranged the Continent and Nature's balance was per- 

 'fect, the wolf played an important role. With the 

 panther it preyed upon the weak and sickly wild ani- 

 mals and birds, preventing the perpetuation of imper- 

 fect types and the spread of pestilences. It kept up a 

 high standard of excellence among the lesser creatures, 

 was the great preserver of type and perfection. 

 Woh-es having no animals to prey on them killed the 

 sick and weakly specimens of their own race, thereby 

 keeping up the standard of strength and virili,ty. 

 Charles John Andersson, in his remarkable book, "The 

 Lion and the Elephant," in speaking of the lions of 

 Central Africa said : "Destroy them and the hoofed 

 animals would perish in masses of inanition." In ad- 

 dition wolves devoured bugs, insects, grubs and worms 

 of an injurious nature. When the white man ap- 

 peared on the scene and began killing all living things 



