300 
YERTEBEATA. 
THE GliUTTOK. 
tnge ; he throws himself down upon elks and reindeer, and fixes so firmly on their bodies with his 
claws and teeth that nothing can remove him. In vain do the poor victims fly and rub them- 
selves against trees ; the enemy attached to the crupper or the neck continues to suck their blood, 
to enlarge the wound, and to devour them gradually and with great voracity, till they fall down 
dead." 
Buffon, however, though sometimes seduced into exaggeration by the marvelous facility of his 
style and the lavish flow of his imagination, belonged to an age when what had been said was 
not considered as, of course, done; authority was not the exclusive guide, at least in matters of 
science, and therefore his inquiries went behind what was written, the question being. What is the 
truth ? Thus he not only corrected many errors of those who had gone before him, but even, 
in some cases, recanted his own. In regard to the glutton, in a supplementary chapter, he gives 
an accoimt of one he had actually seeu, as follows: "He was so tame that he discovered no fero- 
city, and did not injure any person. His voracity has been as much exaggerated as his ferocity; 
he ate, indeed, a great deal, but when deprived of food he was not importunate. He is rather 
wild, avoids water, and moves with a kind of leap. After eating, he covers himself in the cage 
■with straw. In drinking, he laps like a dog. If indulged,., he would devour more than four 
pounds of flesh in a day ; he swallows his food voraciously, and almost without chewing." Such 
is the plain, unvarnished tale, told from observation. How different from the loose narrations of 
the "old authors." 
The wolverene is found in all the high northern latitudes of both continents. It is common in 
Canada, and even in Michigan, and thence northward to the Polar Sea, its range extending from 
Davis' Straits on the east, to the islands of Alaska on the west. The body of the animal is about 
two feet and a half long; the head is broad and compact, suddenly rounded olf on every side to 
form the nose ; jiaws resembling those of a dog in shape ; back arched ; tail low and bushy ; legs 
thick and short ; the whole aspect indicating strength without much activity. Fur generally dark 
brown, passing in the height of winter almost into black. A pale reddish-brown band, more or 
