ON WILD LIFE TRAILS 123 
into action and drove the mink off with vile skunk 
spray. The musk of mink caused his advance 
to pause, he edged around to the other side, 
but too much, gave up the fish, and walked off 
gritting his teeth. 
Beavers commonly leave stuffy house and 
spend summer vacation miles up or down 
stream. They travel by water. The swift 
water of a rapids forced two companies of 
beaver travellers to use the trail of land-lubbers 
on the bank. Here the company going up 
visited with another company going down. 
They mingled, smelled, and rubbed noses. The 
company going up turned back and both went 
off to frolic in a beaver pond. Later one com- 
pany went on down and the other up the 
stream. Tracks showed that ten left the pond 
going down; this company had numbered twelve 
when it met the other company. The up- 
bound company numbered fourteen at the meet- 
ing. Late that day I counted those going up 
stream as they left the trail and took to the 
water at the head of the rapids. They had 
increased their number to sixteen. 
Two droves of deer met one October on the 
trail by stream and a beaver pond. They stopped, 
mingled, visited, and then laid down together. 
One drove was migrating from summer range on 
the peaks and high plateaus to winter range miles 
