THE WAPITI. 193 



of any one going through the mountains. It 

 is also found in the timber belts fringing the 

 streams of the great plains, where it lives for 

 a week at a time in a single tree or clump of 

 trees, peeling the bark from the limbs. But 

 it is the easiest of all animals to exterminate, 

 and is now abundant only in deep mountain 

 forests. It is very tame and stupid ; it goes 

 on the ground, but its fastest pace is a clumsy 

 waddle, and on trees, but is the poorest of 

 tree-climbers, grasping the trunk like a small, 

 slow bear. It can neither escape nor hide. 

 It trusts to its quills for protection, as the 

 skunk does to its odor ; but it is far less astute 

 and more helpless than the skunk. It is 

 readily made into a very unsuspicious and 

 familiar, 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 hungry, as they 

 will eat anything; and I think that elk oc- 

 casionally 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 chip- 

 munks, however, are by far the most numerous 

 and lively denizens of these deep forests. 

 They are very abundant and very noisy ; 

 scolding the travellers 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 chick- 

 arees often ascend to the highest pine tops, 

 '3 



