ON WILD LIFE TRAILS 117 



The birds, chipmunks, and a squirrel were en- 

 tertaining as ever, but I had hoped for something 

 else. I had just started for camp when dimly 

 through the trees I saw something coming down 

 the trail. 



A dignified grizzly and a number of pompous, 

 stiff-necked rams met and were so filled with 

 curiosity that everyone forgot reserve and good 

 form. They stopped and turned for looks at one 

 another and thus merged a rude, serious affair 

 into a slowly passing, successful meeting. 



I sometimes sat at a point on this ridge trail 

 so that the passing animal was in silhouette. 

 The background was a lone black spruce against 

 the shifting sky scenery. Horns and whiskers, 

 coats of many colours, and exhibits of leg action 

 went by. Horned heads, short-arched necks, and 

 held-in chins abundantly told of pride and pom- 

 posity. But the character topography was in 

 each back line. From nose tip to tail, plateau, 

 canon, hill, and slope stories stood against the sky. 



The tail, though last, was the character 

 clue to the passing figure. Regardless of curve, 

 kink, or incline, it ever was story revealing: 

 sometimes long and flowing, but the short 

 tail attitude incited most imaginative interest 

 in the attached individual. 



From treetop I watched one trail where it 

 was crossed by a stream. Generally deer and 



