2 3 2 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



during the five preceding days and nights it had 

 been used as a bridge by squirrels, rabbits, porcu- 

 pines, mice, weasels, and a number of mountain 

 sheep. By the north end of the log, where dur- 

 ing September a squirrel had piled pine cones, a 

 coyote had crouched behind a spruce tree and 

 watched for the squirrel. After a long wait he 

 had turned and gone off into the spruce woods 

 to look for something else to satisfy his hunger. 



Trailing in the snow nearly always gave me a 

 number of things to think about on each trip 

 made. In following a grizzly for eight days and 

 nights I had a book full of experiences; these, 

 together with what I found to read about this 

 great animal, made him more and more inter- 

 esting. It was something of interest to know 

 that the bear, dog, and the seal were, a million or 

 so years ago, closely related. 



In following one line of tracks I often came to 

 where this was followed, or crossed, by other 

 tracks; often I wanted to follow these new ones, 

 and once I did. This was when, following the 

 trail of a mountain sheep, I came to where it was 

 crossed by the trail of a mother grizzly with 

 only three feet, and her two cubs who stopped 

 now and then to romp and wrestle in the snow. 



When a boy, the good plan of learning to iden- 

 tify twenty-five or more birds, flowers, or ani- 

 mals had not been thought of. So I went about 



