THE WARY WOLF 149 
tried to escape; but the horse landed a kick 
on this fighter, crippled it, and finally killed 
both. 
The new environment of wolf life that ac- 
companied the approach of man demanded a 
change of habit. Many things that wolves 
had always done—which had been good enough 
for their ancestors—must be done no more; 
things that never had been done must be done 
at once. It was the old, inexorable law— 
the survival of the fittest; the passing of those 
which could not change and cope with newly 
imposed conditions. 
Any one who has had experience with wolves 
is pretty certain to conclude that they are in- 
telligent—that they reason. A trapper who 
thinks that a wolf is guided by instinct, who 
fails to realize lupine vigilance, and forgets that 
wolves are always learning—ever adapting them- 
selves to changing environment—will be laughed 
at by a multiplying wolf population. 
With astounding quickness the new dangers 
man introduced into the wolf world were com- 
prehended and avoided. In the decade fol- 
lowing 1885 wolves appear to have gained 
knowledge of human ways more rapidly than 
man developed in his knowledge of wolf ways. 
This rapid mental development on their part 
cannot be called instinct. Plainly it was a case 
