120 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
my camp. Near camp two otters met and 
turned aside and later I followed their trail 
to otter slide. Two woodchucks met by a 
boulder on which I sat quietly. They counter- 
marched in half war-like half circles. A pause, 
then with apparently friendly negotiations pro- 
gressing, they discovered a coyote slipping 
toward them. 
Many times through the years I waited for 
odd hours, and days, at a promising place on a 
trail a few miles from my cabin. The tracks 
along this showed it to be in constant use, 
but never have I seen a traveller pass along it. 
My being at many a meeting elsewhere was just 
a coincidence. Years of wilderness wander- 
ings often made me almost by chance an un- 
invited guest—I was among those present. 
Dull fellows well met were skunk and por- 
cupine. These dull-brained but efficiently 
armed fellows are conceded the right-of-way 
by conventional wilderness folk. They blun- 
dered to head-on ciash. Never before had this 
occurred. Each was surprised and wrathy. 
There was a gritting of teeth. Each pushed 
and became furious. Then the skunk received 
several quills in the side and in turn the por- 
cupine a dash of skunk spray. Both abandoned 
the trail, sadder but not wiser. 
Deer, bear, beavers, and wolves travel be- 
