18 East and West 
largely crepuscular or nocturnal in their 
habits and keep out of man’s way. Various 
rats and mice are peculiar to the South-West 
but as they are all nocturnal one is seldom 
aware of their existence, unless it is by their 
depredations. In Arizona the large, clumsily 
built nests of the trade or pack rats are every- 
where in evidence, heaps of sticks and rubbish 
covered often with joints of the cholla cactus 
by way of armour. Squirrels, chipmunks, and 
skunks abound but all are different species 
from ourown. The various zones from desert 
to snowline have each their characteristic 
kinds and it is one of the remarkable features 
of both Arizona and California that one may 
traverse all the zones by climbing a mountain; 
—that is to say, one travels from Mexico to 
the Arctic circle within these few miles of 
ascent. 
If one encounters a deer, it will very likely 
be the blacktail which largely replaces our 
whitetail. Formerly in riding in the Coco- 
nino forest I often started antelope and these 
encounters were the chief pleasure of any 
excursion. The sight of a wild animal alert 
and free in its native haunts is still to me 
one of the rarely stimulating influences. 
Bears or panthers are now seldom to be met 
