194 OUR NATIONAL PAEKS 



There are panthers, foxes, badgers, porcupines, 

 and coyotes in the Park, but not in large num- 

 bers. I have seen coyotes well back in the range 

 at the head of the Tuolumne Meadows as early 

 as June 1st, before the snow was gone, feeding 

 on marmots ; but they are far more numerous 

 on the inhabited lowlands around ranches, where 

 they enjoy life on chickens, turkeys, quail eggs, 

 ground squirrels, hares, etc., and all kinds of 

 fruit. Few wild sheep, I fear, are left here- 

 abouts ; for, though safe on the high peaks, they 

 are driven down the eastern slope of the moun- 

 tains when the deer are driven down the western, 

 to ridges and outlying spurs where the snow does 

 not fall to a great depth, and there they are 

 within reach of the cattlemen's rifles. 



The two squirrels of the Park, the Douglas 

 and the California gray, keep all the woods 

 lively. The former is far more abundant and 

 more widely distributed, being found all the way 

 up from the foothills to the dwarf pines on the 

 Summit peaks. He is the most influential of the 

 Sierra animals, though small, and the brightest of 

 all the squirrels I know, — a squirrel of squirrels, 

 quick mountain vigor and valor condensed, purely 

 wild, and as free from disease as a sunbeam. 

 One cannot think of such an animal ever being 

 weary or sick. He claims all the woods, and is 

 inclined to drive away even men as intruders. 

 How he scolds, and what faces he makes ! If 



