CHAPTER VIII.--WOLVES AND WOLF-HOUNDS.
The wolf is the arch type of ravin, the beast of waste and desolation.
It is still found scattered thinly throughout all the wilder portions
of the United States, but has everywhere retreated from the advance of
civilization.
Wolves show an infinite variety in color, size, physical formation, and
temper. Almost all the varieties intergrade with one another, however,
so that it is very difficult to draw a hard and fast line between any
two of them. Nevertheless, west of the Mississippi there are found two
distinct types. One is the wolf proper, or big wolf, specifically akin
to the wolves of the eastern States. The other is the little coyote, or
prairie wolf. The coyote and the big wolf are found together in almost
all the wilder districts from the Rio Grande to the valleys of the upper
Missouri and the upper Columbia. Throughout this region there is always
a sharp line of demarkation, especially in size, between the coyotes and
the big wolves of any given district; but in certain districts the big
wolves are very much larger than their brethren in other districts.
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