580 



RT^roET OP statu: geologist. 



1840 an animal was shot in Washington Township (Noble County), 

 which at that tiiiK^ was named the wolverene, the only one reported 

 to have been seen in the county." 



Concerning' its occurrence in Knox County, Mr. Chansler writes : 

 "As strange as it may seem for this animal to be caught this far 

 south, Mr. N. B. Bruce declares that a Mr. Simondson killed one 

 of them near Edwardsport, this county, in 1852. I questioned him 

 and he gave its size, color, form and general makeup all right. 

 What it was doing as far south, I am at a loss to know." 



I have less hesitation in recording the wolverene on the basis 

 of such reports than I would have for most other species of mam- 

 mals. Its form, size, and color are so different from any other 

 animal that could possibly occur in the State that there seems to be 

 no chance for a mistake. This is the more true because in the days 

 when these animals were reported, the pioneers were familiar with 

 every beast of the woods. Moreover, there is a definiteness about 

 the reports which makes them creditable, the statements in each 

 case being that the animal was killed at a certain place in a certain 

 year. The evidence of its occurrence in Indiana is almost exactly 

 parallel to that given by Rhoads for Pennsylvania, and is, I think, 

 quite as strong, although Indiana is somewhat more remote from the 

 known range of the species than the latter State. In his native for- 

 est, the wolverene is a great wanderer, and the animals found in 

 this State were without doubt strays. 



Habits. — Probably no animals, not even snakes, are so univer- 

 sally detested as is the wolverene in the gre^t north, where he is 

 best known. Many a voyageur who has left a well-built cache of 

 food for a time of need, returns to find the store broken open and 

 a part of it eaten and the rest defiled by the filth which this animal 

 deposits on surplus food to prevent others from using it. So of- 

 fensive are the odors and substances which he deposits on this food 

 that no other animal of the forest, however hungry, can eat it. 



His very method of hunting makes him seem despicable. He 

 can not climb trees like the more agile membei's of the family to 

 which he belongs; and he has neither the speed nor the cunning to 

 capture the swift creatures of the wood in a fair race. Therefore, 

 he feeds on offal, carrion, or lamed, starved or entrapped animals 

 and on such food as he can steal in one way or another. 



Anoth(;r ha})it which makes the species universally hated by 

 the men of the; north is that of systematically following a line of 

 traps for the bait or the animals which have been caught. In this 

 way a great number of traps are sprung or destroyed and many a 



