ON WILD LIFE TRAILS 123 



into action and drove the mink off with vile skunk 

 spray. The musk of mink caused his advance 

 to pause, he edged around to the other side, 

 but too much, gave up the fish, and walked off 

 gritting his teeth. 



Beavers commonly leave stuffy house and 

 spend summer vacation miles up or down 

 stream. They travel by water. The swift 

 water of a rapids forced two companies of 

 beaver travellers to use the trail of land-lubbers 

 on the bank. Here the company going up 

 visited with another company going down. 

 They mingled, smelled, and rubbed noses. The 

 company going up turned back and both went 

 off to frolic in a beaver pond. Later one com- 

 pany went on down and the other up the 

 stream. Tracks showed that ten left the pond 

 going down; this company had numbered twelve 

 when it met the other company. The up- 

 bound company numbered fourteen at the meet- 

 ing. Late that day I counted those going up 

 stream as they left the trail and took to the 

 water at the head of the rapids. They had 

 increased their number to sixteen. 



Two droves of deer met one October on the 

 trail by stream and a beaver pond. They stopped, 

 mingled, visited, and then laid down together. 

 One drove was migrating from summer range on 

 the peaks and high plateaus to winter range miles 



