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.