Oct. 19, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
487 
mit himself to be seen if he can help it. During 
thousands of miles of traveling and hunting in 
the Rockies during the past twelve or fourteen 
years, I have seen but four bears, and many 
men with even greater opportunities have seen 
fewer or none at all. 
The Upper Snake River debouched into the 
lake a few hundred yards away from my tent, 
and for several miles above its mouth it is so 
tortuous and deep as to be sluggish, and is thus 
a favorite resort of beaver. There are not a 
few occupied wigwams, some of them the largest 
I ever saw, at least twelve feet high and fifteen 
feet or more in diameter. I often saw the ani¬ 
mals, especially at dusk, for they are still fairly 
plentiful, notwithstanding the fact that they have 
suffered fearfully at the hands of poachers. They 
are not by nature nearly so timid as many be¬ 
lieve, nor are their habits so strictly nocturnal 
as is the general impression. They often work 
by day, and not infrequently they would not take 
to the water from some log on the bank until I 
was only a few feet away from them. Once a 
big old fellow impassively swam several times 
around my boat, looking me over, occasionally 
diving with a resounding whack on the water 
with his tail, but always coming up to gaze 
again. He kept this up until I rowed away and 
left him. 
The canvas of the boat became from much 
use thoroughly saturated with an ancient and 
fish-like smell, which had a curious result. Every 
night an otter would visit and search the boat 
as it lay on the beach, usually tumbling some¬ 
thing out of it like an oar or rowlock. One 
day in the river I saw in broad daylight close at 
hand what I took to be the visitor. It was a 
female with three half grown kittens. First be¬ 
neath the surface and then with head stretched 
high above it, she and her progeny circled my 
boat again and again, sniffing the “rich” odors 
that it exhaled. They had more curiosity than 
fear and did not hesitate to come within twenty 
feet of me. I often saw them afterward, though 
not so close again, and their “sign” was all about 
that stretch of the shore. But never once did 
I see any evidence that they were feeding on 
fish. Their exclusive diet was apparently craw¬ 
fish which are in those waters exceeding plenti¬ 
ful. This leads me to suspect that for otter to 
catch fish is not easy, unless in comparatively 
confined water like a brook. 
An odd picture the otter makes swimming. 
When I first saw them in the water they looked 
to me like dogs, despite their round bullet-like 
heads and short ears and jaws. They gave a 
curious note when close to me, something like 
the “spit” of an angry bobcat. 
Another day I saw at some distance a family 
of mink, but did not try to get close to them. 
I frequently saw single specimens in daylight 
within a couple of rods’ distance. They, like the 
marten, are fairly plentiful in that region and 
both animals are not very shy. 
It was a surprise to me to learn that the 
pine squirrel could swim, for he is usually found 
pretty high up on the mountains, nowhere near 
water that is for him navigable. The Upper 
Snake is at its mouth perhaps 250 feet across, 
and one day I saw a pine squirrel in mid-stream. 
He paid not the slightest attention to my boat 
or to me and swam close past me, going strong. 
It was a curious figure he cut, holding his long 
bushy tail clear of the water. After reaching 
the other side he shook himself just as a dog 
would do and vanished in the underbrush. 
On one side of my camp was the largest and 
coldest spring that ever I saw. On the other 
side, perhaps 400 yards away, was a series of 
hot ones, averaging a temperature in excess of 
120 degrees. These latter spread out over a 
boggy place of several hundred acres, and the 
rank, green grass, together with the alkaline de¬ 
posits from the hot springs, attracted many wild 
creatures. Geese bred there and from my tent 
I could see them by the score at almost any hour 
of the day. So also the elk, deer and moose 
seldom failed to come out of the timber at dusk 
or in the morning, and though I did not always 
see them, their tracks were everywhere and I 
heard them often near the camp. 
Plentiful as were my four-footed friends, 
they were as nothing in point of variety or num¬ 
ber to the birds. At that place I saw some rather 
odd and rare ones, as for example gulls and 
kittiwakes, white pelicans, fish and bald eagles. 
I also saw on the Snake, though not exactly at 
this time, what I was sure were woodcock, but 
as my friends who are skilled in ornithology in¬ 
sist that this could not be, and as I did not 
procure a specimen, I can only say that it is 
possible I was mistaken, albeit I saw the birds 
repeatedly at close quarters, sometimes using a 
nine-power Goerz-Trider glass, and I think I 
know Wilson’s snipe and all the other snipe that 
frequent the Rockies. 
The fishing of the ospreys, kittiwakes and 
(Continued on page 505.) 
COL. JOSEPH H. ACKLEN, NASHVILLE, TENN. 
Commissioner of Fish, Game and Forestry. Elected President of . the National Association of Game and 
Fish Commissioners at the sixth biennial meeting held in Denver. Colo., Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, 1912. 
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