ii2 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



turned to follow these to the top of a little ridge 

 then returned to his former tracks and course 

 A quarter of a mile farther he again turnec 

 aside to follow a lion's tracks, this time beneath 

 an enormous wreckage of large rocks. There 

 may have been a den somewhere among these 

 rocks. 



His tracks then descended to lower and more 

 open territory. He had called at a beaver pond 

 evidently hoping for a meal of beaver, anc 

 climbed part way up the willow-covered house 

 and lain down. Through the ice close to the 

 house there was a hole which the beavers 

 had kept gnawed open, and through which they 

 came out for air and to sun themselves on the 

 side of the house. 



Judging from the melting and compacting 

 of the snow, the lion had remained on the 

 house for hours, watching this ice hole. He hac 

 then gone off and wandered here and there 

 through the willowy flat below the beaver pone 

 without securing anything. He then returned to 

 the beaver dam at a point where all the outflow 

 of the pond had been led through a hole about 

 the size of the average telephone pole. This 

 hole enabled the beavers to come out of the ponds 

 beneath the ice roof or cover which was more 

 than a foot thick. At this point the lion had 

 tracked about as though watching for a beaver. 



