36 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



vive, but their presence and haunts are known to hunters, 

 and it is doubtful if they will much longer continue to 

 wear their coveted hides. Where they are found, their 

 houses and dams are always of great interest to the intel- 

 ligent traveler, but this has practically long ceased to be 

 the case in the Mt. Rainier National Park. 



Fisher, marten, and otter, and several varieties of 

 weasel are occasionally found, also the civet-cat and 

 the lynx. Only a rare glimpse will ever be had of 

 these creatures in their wild state, but such a view is to 

 be prized in exact proportion to its infrequency. Two. 

 varieties of skunk are found at a lower altitude, but 

 perhaps these do not penetrate into the park proper. 

 Their presence may well be spared here. A gray fox is 

 found on the mountain, and several varieties of mice, 

 which doubtless are of interest to him. A chipmunk 

 lives here, the Douglas squirrel, the ground-squirrel, and 

 wood-rat, — this last the hero of many a story of misap- 

 propriation and of strained relations between the occu- 

 pants of cabins in forest or prairie. Rabbits are found, 

 and the very interesting pika, or cony, who lives among 

 the broken rocks at an altitude corresponding to the lower 

 glacier belt and somewhat higher still; his cry as he sits 

 at the entrance of his hole is always agreeable to the 

 ear, and the glimpse that one gets of him as he scurries 

 to cover is a pleasant little picture to recall* He and 

 the whistling marmot are generally found sharing the 

 same sort of conditions, and this has resulted in a sort 

 of similarity of habit. This little hare is of especial inter- 

 est as having a call not unlike the bleating of a lamb, a 

 curious and distinguishing circumstance for a representa- 

 tive of this silent clan. His designation as the "little chief 

 hare" is a well-inspired appellation. Although the small- 

 est of his tribe, he seems to have an individuality and 



* It is strange that there is a passage in the Bible referring to a totally different 

 animal (the Hebrew shaphan) which, as translated, exactly and literally applies 

 to this one : " There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are 

 exceeding wise. . . . The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their 

 houses in the roc'ks.'"— Proverbs xxx, 24-26. 



