THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



have credited the transaction had it been related to 

 him by others and not seen by himself, and he re- 

 gards it as one of the strangest, and most unexpected 

 experiences of his life, and he has been a man of 

 much experience and affairs." 



Very recently in my own neighborhood, two hunt- 

 ers well known to me were in the woods when they 

 saw what they at first took to be two red squirrels 

 chasing each other round the bole of a tree. On 

 coming nearer, they saw that there was but one red 

 squirrel, and that it was being hotly chased by a 

 weasel. The squirrel was nearly tired out and must 

 soon have fallen a victim to its arch enemy had not 

 the hunters shot the weasel. Why the squirrel did 

 not lead off through the tree-tops, where the weasel 

 could not have followed him, is another instance 

 of the mystery that envelops this question. 



The story of my Alaskan correspondent indicates 

 that in Great Britain as well as in this country the 

 weasel tribe has the same mysterious power over 

 the rabbit. Additional evidence of this is given by 

 an English correspondent who writes me: "I once 

 saw a stoat chasing a hare on a country road. The 

 hare was going very slowly and haltingly ; the stoat 

 was close upon it, and soon would have caught it had 

 I not driven it away from the hare. My father, who 

 was with me, told me then of the paralyzing effect 

 the sight of a stoat had upon a hare, as did three or 

 four other men to whom I related the incident." This 

 280 



