PLAY AND PRANKS OF WILD FOLK 203 



or strike it. Each player was intense, and all were 

 as serious as football players. A sweeping gale 

 carried the whirling weed forward again. It came 

 in contact with a rock outcrop and rolled to one 

 side. The whole team rushed at the weed and 

 tumbled pellmell around it. 



In this general mix-up two of the wolves started 

 a fight. The pack joined in the row, struggling 

 and rolling about. A pair occasionally clinched, 

 reared into the air, and fell back. The badly 

 mashed tumbleweed with crippling bounces went 

 on with the wind across the wide, dust-blown 

 plains. Suddenly the fight stopped, the panting 

 wolves stood for a few seconds looking at nothing, 

 then scattered. The play was over. Had it 

 started, I wondered, as unceremoniously, as sud- 

 denly, as it stopped? 



Most wild-animal players are as solemn as chess 

 contestants, and most games are as serious as a 

 football match. The characteristic play of the 

 wolf is serious, silent team-work. But the digni- 

 fied, independent grizzly plays alone. He, too, romps 

 in silence, but joyfully. He relaxes and has the 

 time of his life. Bears appear to excel in light- 

 hearted, merry make-believe. 



A grizzly bear coasting on a steep mountain-side 

 made a picturesque play spectacle. He was play- 

 ing on a summit slope south of Long's Peak in 

 what is now the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

 As he sat down in the snow, put his fore paws on his 



