38 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
An entire family of skunks out on a frolic 
came unexpectedly upon me. They numbered 
eight. I was sitting on a log against a pine, 
and resolved not to move. In front of me the 
mother stepped upon a thorn, flinched, and lifted 
her foot to examine it. All gathered about her. 
As they moved this way and that, in the sun- 
shine then in the shadows, their shiny black and 
clean white showed as though just scoured and 
polished. Surely they were freshly groomed 
for a party. 
Without noticing me they began playing, 
jumping, and scuffling about. Then single file 
they pursued one another round a tree. In a 
mass they suddenly started to rush round the © 
pine against which I sat. I saw them vanish 
behind the northwest quarter but when they 
swept round the southeast I was not there. 
In Montana I was sitting on top of a low 
cliff looking down into a willow thicket below, 
when a deer shied from the willows and hurried 
on. Then a coyote came out mad and sneez- 
ing. A squirrel went down to investigate but 
quickly climbed a pine sputtering and threaten- 
ing. The unusual ever lured me—appealed to 
my curiosity—and often this brought adventure 
plus information. So down into the willows I 
started. From the side of the cliff I reached 
an out-thrust limb of a pine, swung out, and let 
