H4 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



While studying the plant life and the geology 

 of Arizona, a year or two later, I came upon 

 Jack near Grand Canon. In walking across 

 the desert, two coyotes, as I supposed, crossed 

 the trail in front of me. But as they speeded 

 away the footwork of one of them lacked the 

 deftness and lightness characteristic of the 

 movement of the coyote. Also, his tail was held 

 too high and was too much curled for the tail of 

 a coyote. It must be the collie, Jack, I decided. 



Jack had reverted to wild-dog life in the 

 desert with the coyotes. As he and his mate 

 moved off they were joined by a coyote who 

 made a number of fawning attempts to play with 

 him. But the newcomer was completely ig- 

 nored by this large, aristocratic fellow. The 

 last view that I had of this pair revealed the col- 

 lie of the desert standing with his coyote mate 

 near a solitary tree cactus on the dreary desert 

 rim. 



That night the air was marvellously clear. 

 Stars, rank above rank, filled to vast depth that 

 wondrous Arizona sky. I sat with a cowboy 

 by his camp-fire, listening to the varied voices of 

 the coyotes. A number were signalling, and 

 occasionally the multitudinous efforts of one 

 of these desert ventriloquists were followed 

 by the merry and derisive laughter of the listen- 

 ing coyotes. Two or three times a lone and 



