100 SHOET STALKS 



spent in sucli solitary diversion. Early in the day I liit 

 tlie fresh spoor of a heavy bull, a cow, and two smaller 

 ones, and lazily followed through all their wanderings, 

 well knowing that I should almost certainly be " picked 

 up " l3y them as they lay at mid-day. After following 

 the trail for some distance, I found there were the 

 tracks of two bulls instead of one, thouuh I had nut noticed 

 where the second had joined the company ; and when, 

 farther on, one of them diverged, I followed that. He 

 took a circuit of a mile or more, then rejoined his own 

 track and followed the rest of his family. In fact, it was 

 one and the same bull whose double track had puzzled 

 me, and who, like a wise general, w\anted to make sure of 

 his rearguard. Perhaps he had caught a distant sight of 

 me. At any rate, when the party lay down for the day, 

 they were so placed as to command their own track 

 without beino- seen. The l)ull had taken even oreatcr 

 care to hide himself, and when his consort was at last 

 jumped, I failed to get even a glimpse of him. But, 

 taking up his track again, I followed it, and found that, at 

 this alarm, he had made a short circuit till he got my 

 wind, and then off at full speed. Retracing my steps, 

 I found that the stalker had himself been stalked. A 

 wolverine, an animal that is fond of doino- his huntinsf bv 

 deputy, or rather contents himself witli the scraps which 

 he thinks the two-footed hunter will leave him, had been 

 cautiously tracking me, step l^y step. His foot}»rints, 

 which are like those of a small bear, were very distinct in 

 the melting snow, and showed that he had kep)t almost 

 close to my heels, but had slunk out of the way when he 

 saw me comino- back. The intellioeuce of this animal is 



