44 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



any record, in snow-filled entrance holes to their 

 dens, of their coming out. A ground-hog, a 

 bear, or any hibernating animal may come out 

 on this day or any day, but this has not the 

 slightest influence on the weather." Before 

 going on with his pack burro the prospector took 

 a piece of charcoal and on the white bark of an 

 aspen showed me how to make drawings of the 

 dens which I dug into. 



Where conditions food and digging are fa- 

 vourable there sometimes are numbers of dens in 

 a comparatively small area. Conditions must 

 be favourable for the making of a den. Often the 

 den is by an outcropping rock ledge, preferably 

 in gravelly soil. Sometimes along the side of a 

 rock and in fractures of it there is opportunity to 

 dig down. Other dens are by and beneath 

 boulder piles or beneath the roots of big trees. 

 In any case the ground-hog desires a back- 

 ground some place where he can lie in the sun 

 and feel secure. 



Ground-hogs become so hog fat that they make 

 a comical show with tail flopping as they go on 

 hasty, short gallops for the den. A ground-hog 

 has a heavy body and short legs and at best is a 

 low-geared animal. Having enemies he gener- 

 ally keeps close to the den. 



There are exceptional cases where old ground- 

 hogs do wander far away. Two summers while 



