LITTLE MOUNTAINEERS 



425 



become better acquainted with," replied 

 the Doctor. "You can take their cartes 

 dc visitcs with your camera. I will 

 promise to furnish sitters." 



This arrangement, I am happy to say, 

 resulted not only in a very busy and a 

 very pleasant time, but a valued collec- 

 tion of animals peculiar to the Rockies. 

 I must confess, too, that I found the 

 pursuit of knowledge respecting the 

 habits of rodents in the pifion belt quite 

 as interesting and at times almost, if 

 not quite as exciting, as stalking moun- 

 tain goats or shooting at big horns. 



For instance, take the packrat epi- 

 sode, the packrat being a little joker of 

 whose existence and peculiarities I had 

 little, if any, previous knowledge. As 

 may be seen in the illustration he looks 

 like an ordinary rat (which he is not 

 by a long chalk) with a rather bushy 



tail. 



We had been out on a two days' ex- 

 cursion and had returned to our dug- 



out camp early in the morning. Doc 

 Lawrence was outside cleaning some 

 trout we had caught, and I was indoors 

 looking for a box of pilot bread that 

 we had brought with us. Presently I 

 saw reason to pause and call out : 



"Doc !" 



"Well!" replied the Doctor. 



"They've been here while we were 

 down in the Divide, playing hob with 

 our goods and chattels. I thought we 

 were altogether too far away from civ- 

 ilization and hoodlums to be made the 

 butt of such practical jokes — no, you 

 need not laugh, Doc, I'm mad all the 

 way through; I'd just like to capture 

 the smart alecks who put up this job 

 on us. I wouldn't do a thing to them, 

 wouldn't I?" 



"What's amiss ?" asked Doctor Law- 

 rence. 



"Everything," I answered, shortly, 

 being rather out of patience with my 

 friend for taking the matter so lightly. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOOD CHUCK 



(Arctomys flavientris) 



