492 
THE STORY OF THE WOLVERINE. 
from six to eight inches in length. The fur of the body and limbs' is rather 
coarse, long and thick, and there is also a thick woolly under-fur. The 
general color is dusky or blackish brown, but there is a distinct band of 
chestnut, or some lighter tint, commencing behind the shoulders, then run¬ 
ning along the flanks, and meeting its fellow at the root of the tail. The 
front and sides of the head are light grey, while upon the throat and chest 
there may be one or more light spots. The limbs and under-parts, together 
with most of the tail, are very dark. The claws are nearly white. 
There is considerable individual variation in the size of the glutton, the 
length of the head and body in seven examples measured by me varying 
from twenty-six and one-half to thirty-six inches, and that of the tail, with 
the hairs at the end, from twelve and one-half to fifteen inches. About 
twenty-nine inches may, however, be set down, as the length of the head and 
body in average-sized specimens. 
In Europe the glutton appears to have been long regarded as a kind of 
fabulous creature, and it is remarkable that it is known by the same name— 
vielfrass—in almost all the continental countries. What may be the mean¬ 
ings of this name is uncertain, some writers considering that it is com¬ 
pounded of two Swedish words signifying rock-cat, while others refuse to 
admit its Scandinavian origin. By the French Canadians the animal is 
termed Carcajou, and by the English residents of British North America, 
Quickhatch, the latter, and probably also the former, being derived from 
some almost unpronounceable native name. 
The glutton is a forest-haunting animal, and in America is to be found 
in all suitable districts to the north of the United States as far as the Arctic 
coast, traces of its presence having been observed on Melville Island, in 
about latitude 75 °. Its southern limits on the eastern side of the continent 
may be set down as about latitude 42 0 or 43 °, or, roughly speaking, that of 
Lake Erie, but 011 the western side it descends lower, having been, definitely 
recorded from Salt Lake, while in the mountains it may extend as far as 
Arizona and New Mexico. The animal is, however, now virtually exter¬ 
minated throughout the United States. 
In Europe the glutton is found at the present day in Norway, Sweden, 
Lapland, the north of Russia, namely, in the neighborhood of the White 
Sea, in the Government of Perm, and the whole of Siberia, and Kamschatka. 
I11 the time of Eichwald it was still to be found in Lithuania, but is now 
extinct there. Solitary specimens have, indeed, been killed in Saxony and 
Brunswick; but these must be regarded merely as stragglers, and not as 
