At Close Range 



comes almost within touching distance. If any 

 further proof is needed, you may find it when you 

 sleep in the open, and shy creatures draw near 

 without any fear of you. By daylight deer, bear 

 and moose are extremely timid ; they rarely come 

 within eyeshot of your camp, and they vanish 

 at the first sniff which tells them that you have 

 invaded their feeding-grounds,. But when you are 

 well asleep the same animals will pass boldly 

 through your camp-yard; or they will awaken 

 you, as they have many times awakened me, when 

 you are tenting or sleeping under the stars by 

 some outlying pond. If you lie quiet, content 

 to listen, the invading animal will move freely 

 here or there without concern; but no sooner do 

 you begin to stir, however quietly, than he catches 

 the warning scent, and a thudding of earth or a 

 smashing of brush tells the rest of the story. 



I recall one night, cloudy and very still, when I 

 slept under my canoe on a strip of sand beside a 

 wilderness lake. The movement of an animal 

 near at hand awoke me. In the black darkness I 

 could see nothing; but somehow I knew he was 

 big, and aside from the crepitation of the sand, 

 which I plainly heard, I seemed to feel the brute 

 near me. For a moment there was a pause, a 

 dead silence; then came a thump, a rattlety-bang; 

 the canoe shook as something hit the lower end of 



[227] 



