352 BIG GAME FIELDS 



long, squat, shambling animal, with a triangular 

 head and two cruel, leering eyes the wolverine 

 or glutton. With just about six rakes of his ras- 

 cally claws he could demolish the entire house, 

 but presto! the little chaps whisking out into the 

 friendly water are not to be caught by such a 

 trick. 



Then there were also those gray drifting 

 shadows that lurked near the pond w^hen the little 

 chaps were busy in the spring repairing the dam 

 those round-eyed, moon-faced lynxes, gaunt 

 with famine after the scourge of winter, which 

 come stealing on soft-padded feet and bellies to 

 the snow, just w r ithin springing distance. The 

 wary sentinel beaver bringing down his wide flat 

 tail on the water with a loud "smack" a signal 

 to every beaver to vanish beneath the shining sur- 

 face. 



In the morning we rode to the north, and a 

 more wildly desolate, oppressively isolated, cold, 

 deathless tract cannot be imagined. The wind 

 had swept the northern slopes bare of snow and 

 piled it deep in their age-eaten seams. Far be- 

 low from almost a sheer drop, looked up a val- 

 ley, studded with balsam and other stunted 

 growths, while a little stream glistening in the 

 sun, wriggled on its way. Across the yawning 



