churned by llu' passing; of what could only be an ondli-ss paradr 

 of deer 



Followins this path, winding between the giant, billowing 

 alders, we presently came upon something that I had not sec-ii 

 previously outside of forest Africa -a genuine and completely 

 natural dew pond, perfectly circular, filled with limpid, clear 

 water looking like a black mirror, and surrounded by a gently 

 sloping muddy verge completely mosaicked with tracks of the 

 local w hite-tailed deer. Among these were also tracks of raccoon, 

 opossum, muskrat. many mice, some larger water birds, and 

 some fair-sized creature with a strange leaping gait. These latter 

 most nearly matched the prints of one of our rarest carnivorous 

 animals, the fisher marten, but I frankly did not then believe 

 this possible since the animal was alleged to have been extinct 

 in this area for a long time. (About a month later a pair were 

 caught in traps by a licensed trapper who took them to the game 

 warden, not knowing what on earth they might be.) From this 

 pond, which was about twenty feet in diameter, four paths 

 meandered away almost exactly to the four points of the com- 

 pass and were so laid out among the great bushes that you 

 could not see more than a few feet along any of them. 



Just beyond, very ancient oaks unexpectedly towered above 

 us and. as we went in under these, almost all undergrowth faded 

 away. We found ourselves in a sort of natural cathedral with a 

 true forest canopy above, a carpet of mosses at our feet, and a 

 few spindly saplings balancing like giant green feathers in the 

 gloom. From the great trees there hung genuine creepers — not 

 the finger-thick vines that entangle our shrubbery if we neglect 

 to tend it, but great liana-like ropes of poison ivy, lode vines, 

 and wild grape. In some places the trees that once supported 

 these monsters had completely vanished and the creepers 



A common red fox in full winter coal. This is one of the 

 most widely spread of all mammals, and one that manages 

 to survive and thrive alongside human settlements. Cross 

 and silver foxes are natural mutations of this species. 



Below: A pair of long-tailed or New York weasels, among 

 the better known of the numerous weasels on the continent 



