122 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
would be their next adventure. Around a 
turn of the trail within five minutes after the 
black bear met the skunk he clashed with a 
lion, so tracks by the trail showed. 
I often wondered, too, what experience an 
animal had been through immediately before he 
trailed into my sight. The peevish lion was 
just from her fat, safe, happy kittens. One of 
the two cross grizzlies was from a row with 
another grizzly, while the other had been play- 
ing along the trail and was on good terms with 
himself and the world. 
When skunk and mink—the more offensive 
of the smelly family—meet in contest, then 
smells to heaven their meeting. riven into 
a corner, the mink will spread high-power musk 
in the only avenue of advance. He then is in 
an impregnable position—no fcllow has nose 
sufficiently strong to pass. Or, if the mink 
place a guarding circle of musk around a prize 
kill this makes a time lock and will hold his prize 
for hours against all comers. 
A skunk and mink clashed by the trail across 
the river. The skunk was leisurcly advancing 
to seize a flopping, misguided trout on the bank 
when a mink rushed as though to close with the 
skunk. The skunk hesitated—and lost the 
fish. The mink in the delay of action made 
musk screen near the trout. The skunk went 
