CHAPTER XX 



MORE ABOUT WINTER AND THE TRACKS OF 

 THE ANIMALS IN THE SNOW* 



" The ground is all memoranda and signatures, and every object 

 covered over with hints which speak to the intelligent." EMERSON". 



To him who would study the movements of 

 wild animals, especially those of nocturnal habits, 

 the northern winter must be a season of constant 

 pleasure and interest. For at no time in the 

 animal's life are his movements so clearly revealed 

 as when the tell-tale snow covers the land. Unless 

 there is a hard, smooth surface-crust no creature 

 may venture forth without leaving tracks so 

 clearly defined that even man, with his dulness of 

 perception in matters connected with wood lore, 

 can give a fairly satisfactory account of the 

 animals' doings. The snow-covered ground is, in 

 fact, an open book, on the pages of which are set 

 forth facts which are absolute secrets during the 

 greater part of the year. And yet how few persons 

 ever avail themselves of these conditions. Do we 

 not often hear people who profess to be nature 

 lovers lament the, to them, insurmountable diffi- 

 culties that interfere with their studying the lives 

 of the animals ? They declare that, with all their 

 walking through woodland and swamp, they 

 seldom, if ever, have the good fortune to see any 



* First published in Country Life in America. 



