160 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



among the wild animals unconsciousness even of 



o 



observation seems a necessity, which accounts 

 largely for our fleeting and infrequent glimpses 

 of this side of wild life, so seldom can we get 

 close enough to watch the play of a wild creature 

 without exciting alarm. But wild life is not all 

 watchfulness and fear; there is a time for play 

 in the soberest, somberest of wild lives. The ani- 

 mals play joyously, keenly, seriously, desperately 

 even, as college boys play desperately at foot- 

 ball, and old men seriously at solitaire ; for kill- 

 ing time is a serious business, and killing your 

 rival in football is certainly desperate enough. 



I have watched a great ungainly hippopotamus 

 solemnly trying to kill time by cuffing a croquet 

 ball back and forth from one end of his cage to 

 the other. His keeper told me, that, without 

 the plaything, the caged giant would fret and 

 worry himself to death. It was his game of soli- 

 taire. This play of the butterflies was nothing if 

 not joyous, yet there was something fearful and 

 desperate in the choice of the peak for the game. 



In all their games of rivalry, which seem to be 

 mimic warfare, the animals are as serious as hu- 

 mans, and, forgetting the fun, often fall to fighting. 



