ON WILD LIFE TRAILS 125 
present. Unexpected meetings and near meet- 
ings were had with most large and leading 
species of animals on the Continent. The 
alert grizzly, realizing I was one of the super- 
killer species, generally avoided me. I travelled 
alone and unarmed, and before I had satisfied 
myself that the grizzly is not a ferocious animal 
I most unexpectedly met one. I was his bogie 
—both acted on the impulse. 
In the wilds one may meet a skunk or a bear. 
Either gives concentration—one’s every-day 
faculties take a vacation, and the Imagination 
has the stage. A bear adventure is telling. You 
meet the bear, he escapes, and eager listeners 
hear your graphic story. 
The skunk is a good fellow—a good mixer. 
His policy is to meet or be met—the other fel- 
low will attend to the running. The war-filled 
wilderness of tooth and claw ceases to be ag- 
gressive in the pacifying process of the little 
black and white skunk When a skunk goes 
into reverse thus runs the world away. From 
the met skunk you absorb story material— 
local colour, carry off enduring evidence; your 
friends scent the story, they shrink from you; 
from registered fragments their creative fac- 
ulties have restored a movie scene. 
