n 4 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



mountain lion met. The grizzly the dignified 

 master of the wilds was shuffling along, going 

 somewhere. He saw the lion afar but shuffled 

 indifferently on. Within fifty feet the lion 

 bristled and, growling, edged unwillingly from 

 the trail. At the point of passing he was thirty 

 feet from his trail-treading foe. With spitting, 

 threatening demonstration he dashed by; while 

 the unmoved, interested grizzly saw everything 

 as he shuffled on, except that he did not look 

 back at the lion which turned to show teeth 

 and to watch him disappear. 



It was different the day the grizzly met a 

 skunk. This grizzly, as I knew from tracking 

 him, was something of an adventurer. His 

 home territory was more than forty miles to the 

 southeast. He had travelled this trail a number 

 of times. On mere notion sometimes he turned 

 back and ambled homeward. 



But this day the grizzly saw the slow-walking 

 skunk coming long minutes before the black 

 and white toddler with shiny plume arrived. 

 The skunk is known and deferred to by wild 

 folk big and little. Regardless of his trail 

 rights the grizzly went on to a siding to wait. 

 This siding which he voluntarily took was some 

 fifty feet from the trail. Here the grizzly finally 

 sat down. He waited and waited for the easy- 

 going skunk to arrive and pass. 



