CELEBRATING GROUND-HOG DAY 45 



I was guiding on Long's Peak a ground-hog 

 had located on the summit. A few minutes after 

 I arrived on top with a party of climbers he 

 would show himself and wait for lunch scraps. 

 After he was better acquainted he did not wait 

 but expected to have helpings from the first 

 table. His winter den was two thousand feet 

 below the top. Ground-hogs, especially in 

 spring, search for the first green plants; judging 

 from their tracks, they know just where these 

 are most likely to be found. 



I tried to weigh a big ground-hog near my cabin. 

 While he was out I plugged entrance holes then got 

 him into a sack. He was a fat pig and weighed 

 I know not how much more than the twenty-four- 

 pound limit of the scales. He was yellow-brown 

 over back and sides with an orange-coloured 

 belly, cheeks nearly white, paws black, and 

 forehead nearly black, his ten-inch tail covered 

 with hair from four to six inches long. This tail 

 was like a big dust-brush. This fellow and num- 

 bers of others became half tame and would come 

 close for turnips and other things which I car- 

 ried to them. 



Many times I have seen four youngsters 

 around a den. Often they were asleep in the sun, 

 and other times chasing one another around a 

 stump or having a game of tag over the rocks. 

 Several times in August I found young hogs 





