ON WILD LIFE TRAILS 125 



present. Unexpected meetings and near meet- 

 ings were had with most large and leading 

 species of animals on the Continent. The 

 alert grizzly, realizing I was one of the super- 

 killer species, generally avoided me. I travelled 

 alone and unarmed, and before I had satisfied 

 myself that the grizzly is not a ferocious animal 

 I most unexpectedly met one. I was his bogie 

 both acted on the impulse. 



In the wilds one may meet a skunk or a bear. 

 Either gives concentration one's every-day 

 faculties take a vacation, and the Imagination 

 has the stage. A bear adventure is telling. You 

 meet the bear, he escapes, and eager listeners 

 hear your graphic story. 



The skunk is a good fellow a good mixer. 

 His policy is to meet or be met the other fel- 

 low will attend to the running. The war-filled 

 wilderness of tooth and claw ceases to be ag- 

 gressive in the pacifying process of the little 

 black and white skunk. When a skunk goes 

 into reverse thus runs the world away. From 

 the met skunk you absorb story material 

 local colour, carry off enduring evidence; your 

 friends scent the story, they shrink from you; 

 from registered fragments their creative fac- 

 ulties have restored a movie scene. 



