CHAPTER XXI 



THE SMALL NEIGHBORS OF THE BIG GAME 



Animal Life on the Summits — The Little Chief "Hare" — A Four- 

 Footed Haymaker — The Fate of "Little Mike" — The Columbia 

 River Ground-Squirrel — A Tiny Chipmunk — A Plethoric Ground- 

 Squirrel — The Yellow-Haired Porcupine — The Pine Squirrel — 

 The Pack-Rat — The Hoary Marmot — The Wolverine — The Trap- 

 pers' Evil Genius — Species of Depredations — Charlie Smith Gets 

 Square with an Enemy — A Wolverine Caught Alive. 



From our first moment on the summits, we were 

 keenly interested in the smaU mammals and birds which 

 dwell with the goat, sheep and grizzly bear. Amid such 

 riotous abundance of mountain-side, peak and valley, 

 every bit of animal life attracts grateful attention. The 

 vastness of the mountains makes one feel so small that 

 even a chipmunk or a little chief " hare " is welcomed 

 on the basis of brotherhood in the great Family of Living 

 Things. The only occurrence on our trip that bordered 

 upon calamity concerned Little Mike, the Pika, whose 

 story will be set down later on. 



On the summits, small mammalian life is not really 

 abundant. I was disappointed by the discovery that 

 it is possible to tramp and climb for hours at a stretch 

 without sight or sound of a four-footed creature of any 

 kind save the goat. This scarcity is doubtless due to two 

 causes : the martens and wolverines, and " the long and 



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