How Animals Talk 



As for the man-scent, you may judge of that 

 by the violent start or the headlong rush when an 

 animal catches the first alarming whiff of it. If he 

 passes quietly on his way, therefore, you may be 

 reasonably sure he has not smelled you. To the 

 latter conclusion I have been forced many times 

 when I have been watching in the woods, sitting 

 quiet for hours at a stretch, and a deer or bear or 

 fox, or some other beast with nose as keen as a 

 brier, has passed at a dozen yards' distance with- 

 out a sign to indicate that he was aware of me. 

 Some of these animals came much nearer; so near, 

 in fact, that I was scary of a closer approach until 

 I had called their attention to what lay ahead of 

 them. 



So long as you are seen or suspected, you need 

 have little fear of any wild beast (only the tame 

 or half-tame are dangerous), but a brute that 

 stumbles upon you in an unexpected place or mo- 

 ment is always a problem. Nine times out of ten 

 he will fall all over himself in his haste to get away; 

 but the tenth time he may fall upon you and give 

 you a mauling. Moose, for example, are apt to 

 strike a terrible blow with their fore feet, or to up- 

 set a canoe when the jack-light approaches them; 

 not to attack, I think, at least not consciously, 

 but in blind panic or to ward off a fancied enemy. 

 So when I have watched from the shore of a lake 



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