I50 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



eter, each of which marked a tragedy. Unfortunately, 

 the silly ground-squirrel has not yet learned, either by 

 inheritance or in the "school of the woods "(!), that a 

 three-foot burrow is the same as a pantry shelf to a hun- 

 gry grizzly, and that no Citellus is safe who stops his 

 burrow anywhere above a vertical depth of six feet. 

 With plenty of time, and no end of earth, the foolish 

 ground-squirrel (here called the " gopher"), rests from 

 his digging just under the frost-line. In October the 

 grizzly joyously rips out half a cubic yard of earth, 

 thrusts his deadly hooks on down to the end of the bur- 

 row, and Citellus quickly is converted into half an ounce 

 of bear-oil. 



Between the grizzlies underground, and the greedy 

 marten above ground, the mountains of British Columbia 

 will not be overrun by ground-squirrels, chipmunks, nor 

 other small mammals until the fangs and claws decrease. 



But this is a digression. 



I soon saw that the way around the north side of the 

 fall was very rugged and precipitous, and far too diffi- 

 cult to be chosen voluntarily. Accordingly I crossed the 

 dry stream-bed, and started to climb, by hand and foot, 

 up the extremely steep southern side, which happened 

 to be covered with a good growth of green timber. I 

 had not gone more than a hundred yards when I struck 

 the old trail that Charlie had mentioned. Feeling very 

 complacent over the finding of the right course by plain 

 animal instinct, I blithely swung on up, and soon stood 

 on level ground above the falls. 



And then I noted how very different the ground be- 



