276 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



natural haunts, some two or throe days travel from 

 civilization, whose natures have been gradually modi 

 fied generation by generation from being constantly 

 hunted with long-range repeaters. Judging from these 

 sorts of wild animals, it certainly seems that the brute 

 creation has been sadly maligned. The bear cubs lick 

 each other s paws with an amatory singing that is 

 something between the purr of a cat and the grunt of 

 a pig. The old polars wrestle like boys out of school, 

 flounder in grotesque gambols that are laughably 

 clumsy, good-naturedly dance on their hind legs, and 

 even eat from their keeper s hand. And all the deer 

 family can be seen nosing one another with the affec 

 tion of turtle-doves. Surely the worst that can be said 

 of these animals is that they shun the presence of man. 

 Perhaps some kindly sentimentalist wonders if things 

 hadn t gone so badly out of gear in a certain historic 

 garden long ago, whether mankind would not be on as 

 friendly relations with the animal world as little boys 

 and girls are with bears and baboons in the fairy books. 

 And the scientist goes a step further, and soberly asks 

 whether these wild things of the woods are not kindred 

 of man after all ; for have not man and beast ascended 

 the same scale of life? Across the centuries, modern 

 evolution shakes hands with old-fashioned transmi 

 gration. 



To be sure, members of the deer family sometimes 

 kill their mates in fits of blind rage, and the innocent 

 bear cubs fall to mauling their keeper, and the old 

 bears have been known to eat their young. These 

 things are set down as freaks in the animal world, and 

 in nowise allowed to upset the influences drawn from 

 animals living in unnatural surroundings, behind iron 



