drags on the snow making a track as if a small log 

 had been dragged along. 



Skunks are. less common in the Northwoods than 

 in a settled country. If you meet one, do not scare 

 him; and if one should wander into your tent, he 

 will not discharge his smell-gun battery, if you let 

 him take his own time about leaving. I have had one 

 almost walk over my feet as I sat in front of my tent 

 reading. We looked at each other in a friendly way; 

 I continued my reading and he continued hunting for 

 grubs and insects under the forest leaves. 

 THE CATS 



There are two wild cats in Minnesota, the bob-cat 

 or wild cat, and the Canadian Lynx, the largest of the 

 two. In years when the rabbits are common, the 

 lynxes are likely to be numerous, and when the rab- 

 .bits die of the plague, the lynxes starve and become 

 scarce. 



THE LITTLE FOLKS IN FUR 



We have told of big game and large beasts of prey. 

 Their wild ways interest all men and have inspired the 

 weavers of romance; but in real importance in the 

 household of Nature, the smallest of her children, the 

 wild mice take first place. 



If you ask where they live, the answer is every- 

 where. In the ground, under stumps, in hollow logs. 

 I fa census man could count them, he would probably 

 find more wild mice in our state, than there are human 

 beings in the whole United States. It is their func- 

 tion to change grass and all sorts of seeds into flesh. 

 and incidentally to scatter the seeds of the shrubs and 

 trees that furnish their food. 



16 



