SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



ally examined. At a slower gait it jumps like 

 the familiar little cottontail, also found in the 

 dunes, putting its hind feet in front and out- 

 side of its fore feet, and the tracks appear in 

 patterns of fours. I have often followed the 

 tracks of a jack for long distances, as he 

 bounded in and out among the dunes, some- 

 times going down to the beach or up to the 

 top of a sand peak. The abundance of tracks 

 on the tops of some lofty dunes would suggest 

 midnight sessions of the tribe. It is a great 

 pity that this interesting animal is a thing of 

 the past here, for he was certainly a charming 

 feature of the dunes. 



My most intimate relations with a jack- 

 rabbit occurred on January 27, 1907. Snow 

 was spitting in biting gusts from the north- 

 east and the thermometer was only twelve 

 degrees above zero, a day when bird and beast 

 might feel fairly secure from man. But the 

 jack, whose tale I now relate, reckoned with- 

 out his host, for in an Eskimo koolatuk and 

 on snow-shoes I could comfortably defy the 

 storm. My friend, the late Mr. Julian Dodge, 

 who was ranging in front of me in the dunes, 

 suddenly threw himself like a foot-ball player 

 on a ball, and emerged from a snow-drift with 



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