242 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



The following season after the avalanche had fallen, 

 fresh vegetation would spring up, making a green streak 

 of growing brush, trees and herbage, all very pleasing to 

 the eye. These streaks reached from the base of the 

 mountains to the top of the timber line. Fire has 

 ravaged most of these grand sentinels of northern 

 British Columbia of their thick growth of trees, but this 

 brings its own reward, for nature with her lavish 

 generosity soon clothes the burnt-over ground with a 

 lusty growth of green herbage which gives rich suste- 

 nance to mountain goats, caribou, moose and deer and to 

 such smaller animals as the whistling marmot and the 

 rabbit ; and among the birds, the ptarmigan, the blue 

 grouse, the " fool " hen and the willow grouse. 



Where such game abounds, there, of course, will lurk 

 the fierce animals that prey upon it. Up near the 

 timber line the grizzly and black bears find food suit- 

 able for their wants. The fur-bearing marten finds in 

 the many squirrels plenty of food for his appetite. 

 The lynx likes the taste of the rabbit, as does the eagle, 

 the owl, the wolverine, the coyote, the weasel and the 

 timber wolf. 



Poor bunny has a hard road cut out for him. He 

 has more blood-thirsty enemies than any other animal 

 under the blue canopy of the skies. It may be that he 

 was originally designed to furnish food for so many 

 different species, and for this reason he was made the 

 most fecund of all animals, the female giving birth to 



