The Wapiti 203 



far less astute and more helpless than the skunk. It 

 is readily made into a very unsuspicious and famil- 

 iar, but uninteresting, pet. I have known it come 

 into camp in the daytime, and forage round the fire 

 by which I was sitting. Its coat protects it against 

 most foes. Bears sometimes eat it when very hun- 

 gry, as they will eat anything; and I think that elk 

 occasionally destroy it in sheer wantonness. One 

 of its most resolute foes is the fisher, that big sable 

 almost a wolverine which preys on everything, 

 from a coon to a fawn, or even a small fox. 



The noisy, active little chickarees and chipmunks, 

 however, are by far the most numerous and lively 

 denizens of these deep forests. They are very abun- 

 dant and very noisy; scolding the travelers exactly 

 as they do the bears when the latter dig up the caches 

 of ants. The chipmunks soon grow tame and visit 

 camp to pick up the crusts. The chickarees often 

 ascend to the highest pine tops, where they cut off 

 the cones, dropping them to the ground with a noise 

 which often for a moment puzzles the still-hunter. 



Two of the most striking and characteristic birds 

 to be seen by him who hunts and camps among the 

 pine-clad and spruce-clad slopes of the northern 

 Rockies are a small crow and a rather large wood- 

 pecker. The former is called Clark's crow, and 

 the latter Lewis' woodpecker. Their names com- 

 memorate their discoverers, the explorers Lewis and 

 Clark, the first white men who crossed the United 



