Preface vii 
know who and what the creature is that sits so quietly near them. 
Sometimes, indeed, they seem almost to understand the mental 
attitude which has no thought of harm but only of sympathy 
and friendly interest. Once I was followed for hours by a young 
wolf which acted precisely like a lost dog, too timid to approach 
and too curious or lonely to run away. He even wagged his 
tail when I called to him softly. Had I shot him on sight, I 
would probably have foolishly believed that he intended to attack 
me when he came trotting along my trail. Three separate times 
I have touched a wild deer with my hand; once I touched a 
moose, once an eagle, once a bear; and a score of times at least 
I have had to frighten these big animals or get out of their way, 
when their curiosity brought them too near for perfect comfort. 
So much for the personal element, for the general attitude 
and fitness of the observer and his critics. But the question is 
not chiefly a personal one; it is simply a matter of truth and 
observation, and the only honest or scientific method is, first, to 
go straight to nature and find out the facts ; and then — lest 
your own eyesight or judgment be at fault — to consult other 
observers to find if, perchance, they also have seen the facts 
exemplified. This is not so easy as to dogmatize or to write ani¬ 
mal stories; but it is the only safe method, and one which the 
nature writer as well as the scientist must follow if his work is 
to endure. 
Following this good method, when the critics had proclaimed 
that my record of a big wolf killing a young caribou by biting 
into the chest and heart was an impossibility, I went straight to 
the big woods and, as soon as the law allowed, secured photo¬ 
graphs and exact measurements of the first full-grown deer that 
crossed my trail. These photographs and measurements show 
beyond any possibility of honest doubt the following facts: 
