12 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



winter ways which enable them to make a living 

 and to outwit enemies. A number collect in a 

 small area as the snow begins to deepen and 

 keep the snow well trampled down so that they 

 can walk on top of it. Crisscross trails and their 

 connected trampled spaces enable the animals 

 to run about, to retreat, to fight off their enemies, 

 and to find something to eat. In autumn they 

 eat the mosses and dry grass, as the snow deep- 

 ens the twigs and leaves on the low-growing 

 shrubbery alder, willow, and birch and as they 

 trample the deepening snow and still keep on 

 top of it they feed upon the low limbs of the 

 aspen and other trees and spruce and hemlock 

 needles. 



I came upon the winter yard of thirty or forty 

 deer a trampled space of a half mile along the 

 fish-hook course of a mountain stream. A 

 stretch of trampled trail passed beneath arch- 

 ing willows. At one point there was a small, wet 

 and spongy area on both sides of the stream 

 where much of the snow had melted as it fell. 

 Over this the deer had repeatedly trampled, 

 eating the leaves and stalks of the blue Mertensia 

 and other plants. These were still green, having 

 been crushed down and preserved beneath the 

 first snowfall. 



One steep stretch of the stream was very swift 

 and, together with the trampling in, it had not 



