WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



but made straight for the shore, landed, and without 

 a single backward glance at the calf, bolted into the 

 forest. This incident surprised me greatly, for as a 

 rule animals are devoted to their young. Perhaps their 

 natures vary as widely as do those of human beings. 



Altogether I spent some twelve days at Mr. Pratt's 

 place, tramping, waiting and watching for chances of 

 taking photographs of moose and beaver. I carried 

 the canoe from lake to lake on my back, and he took 

 the food. One incident I shall never forget. I ought 

 to know something about mosquitos, but in all my 

 experience Canada is the only place where I have had 

 to eat my dinner over the smoke of the camp-fire. 

 There were millions of the insects. If they had been 

 African mosquitos we should have had a dose of fever 

 each, and probably have been finished in twenty-four 

 hours. 



So far as beaver were concerned, I put in three 

 solid days without securing a single picture, a good 

 example of the patience necessary in the case of the 

 nature-photographer. I do not know whether the 

 beaver got my wind, or whether some instinct told 

 them that I was about ; but I never saw them at 

 work. I tried all sorts of means to induce them to 

 show themselves. I opened their dam over-night 

 and at dawn found it timbered up again, repaired 

 with almost human skill. 



I have had deahngs with a great variety of animals, 



282 



