114 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
mountain lion met. The grizzly—the dignified 
master of the wilds—was shuffling along, going 
somewhere. He saw the lion afar but shuffled 
indifferently on. Within fifty feet the lion 
bristled and, growling, edged unwillingly from 
the trail. At the point of passing he was thirty 
feet from his trail-treading foe. With spitting, 
threatening demonstration he dashed by; while 
the unmoved, interested grizzly saw everything 
as he shuffled on, except that he did not look 
back at the lion which turned to show teeth 
and to watch him disappear. 
It was different the day the grizzly met a 
skunk. This grizzly, as I knew from tracking 
him, was something of an adventurer. His 
home territory was more than forty miles to the 
southeast. He had travelled this trail a number 
of times. On mere notion sometimes he turned 
back and ambled homeward. 
But this day the grizzly saw the slow-walking 
skunk coming long minutes before the black 
and white toddler with shiny plume arrived. 
The skunk is known and deferred to by wild 
folk big and little. Regardless of his trail 
rights the grizzly went on to a siding to wait. 
This siding which he voluntarily took was some 
fifty feet from the trail. Here the grizzly finally 
sat down. He waited and waited for the easy- 
going skunk to arrive and pass, 
