than the wolf. He exists in nearly every country, and most likely has at
one time existed in all. In America there are wolves in its three zones.
They are met with from Cape Horn to the farthest point northward that
man has reached. They are common in the tropical forests of Mexico and
South America. They range over the great prairies of the temperate zones
of both divisions of the continent, and in the colder regions of the
Hudson's Bay territory they are among the best known of wild animals.
They frequent the mountains, they gallop over the plains, they skulk
through the valleys, they dwell everywhere--everywhere the wolf seems
equally at home.

In North America two very different kinds are known. One is the
"prairie" or "barking" wolf, which we have already met with and
described. The other species is the "common" or "large" wolf; but it is
not decided among naturalists that there are not several distinct
species of the latter. At all events, there are several _varieties_ of
it--distinguished from each other in size, colour, and even to some
extent in form. The habits of all, however, appear to be similar, and it
is a question, whether any of these varieties be _permanent_ or only
_accidental_. Some of them, it is well known, are accidental--as wolves
differing in colour have been found in the same litter--but late
explorers, of the countries around and beyond the Rocky Mountains, have
discovered one or two kinds that appear to be specifically distinct from
the common wolf of America--one of them, the "dusky wolf," being much
larger.

This last is said to resemble the wolf of Europe more than the other
American wolves do--for there is a considerable difference between the
wolves of the two continents. Those of the Northern regions of America
have shorter ears, a broader snout and forehead, and are of a stouter
make, than the European wolves. Their fur, too, is finer, denser, and
longer; their tails more bushy and fox-like; and their feet broader. The
European wolf, on the contrary, is characterized by a gaunt appearance,
a pointed snout, long jaws, high ears, long legs, and feet very narrow.
It is possible, nothwithstanding these points of difference, that both
may be of the same species, the difference arising from a want of
similitude in the circumstances by which they are surrounded.

For instance, the dense wool of the Hudson's Bay wolf may be accounted
for by the fact of its colder habitat, and its broader fee