Thenceforth The Journey
Was One Of Warm, Sunny Weather And Pleasant Travel.
Each night the
sun went down in red and purple fire; and each morning rose in gold
on a steel-blue sky.
There was only one bad side to this, that was
the constant danger of forest fire. On leaving each camp - we made
four every day - I put the fire out with plenty of water, many
buckets. Rob thought it unnecessary to take so much trouble. But
great clouds of smoke were seen at several reaches of the river,
to tell how dire it was that other campers had not done the same.
CHAPTER XLVII
WHEN NATURE SMILED
It seems a law that every deep valley must be next a high mountain.
Our sorrows ended when we quit the canyon, and then, as though in
compensation, nature crammed the days with the small joys that seem
so little and mean so much to the naturalist.
Those last few days, unmarred of the smallest hardship, were one
long pearl-string of the things I came for - the chances to see and
be among wild life.
Each night the Coyote and the Fox came rustling about our camp, or
the Weasel and Woodmouse scrambled over our sleeping forms. Each
morning at gray dawn, gray Wiskajon and his mate - always a pair
came wailing through the woods, to flirt about the camp and steal
scraps of meat that needed not to be stolen, being theirs by right.
Their small cousins, the Chicadees, came, too, at breakfast time,
and in our daily travelling, Ruffed Grouse, Ravens, Pine Grosbeaks,
Bohemian Chatterers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Shrikes, Tree-sparrows,
Linnets, and Snowbirds enlivened the radiant sunlit scene.
One afternoon I heard a peculiar note, at first like the
"cheepy-teet-teet" of the Pine Grosbeak, only louder and more
broken, changing to the jingling of Blackbirds in spring, mixed
with some Bluejay "jay-jays," and a Robin-like whistle; then I saw
that it came from a Northern Shrike on the bushes just ahead of
us. It flew off much after the manner of the Summer Shrike, with
flight not truly undulatory nor yet straight, but flapping half
a dozen times - then a pause and repeat. He would dive along down
near the ground, then up with a fine display of wings and tail to
the next perch selected, there to repeat with fresh variations and
shrieks, the same strange song, and often indeed sang it on the
wing, until at last he crossed the river.
Sometimes we rode in the canoe, sometimes tramped along the easy
shore. Once I came across a Great Homed Owl in the grass by the
water. He had a fish over a foot long, and flew with difficulty
when be bore it off. Another time I saw a Horned Owl mobbed by two
Wiskajons. Spruce Partridge as well as the Ruffed species became
common: one morning some of the former marched into camp at
breakfast time. Rob called them "Chickens"; farther south they are
called "Fool Hens," which is descriptive and helps to distinguish
them from their neighbours - the "Sage Hens." Frequently now we
heard the toy-trumpeting and the clack of the Pileated Woodpecker
or Cock-of-the-Pines, a Canadian rather than a Hudsonian species.
One day, at our three o'clock meal, a great splendid fellow of the
kind gave us a thrill. "Clack-clack-clack," we heard him coming,
and he bounded through the air into the trees over our camp. Still
uttering his loud "Clack-clack-clack," he swung from tree to tree
in one long festoon of flight, spread out on the up-swoop like an
enormous black butterfly with white-starred wings. "Clack-clack-clack,"
he stirred the echoes from the other shore, and ignored us as he
swooped and clanged. There was much in his song of the Woodpecker
tang; it was very nearly the springtime "cluck-cluck" of a magnified
Flicker in black; and I gazed with open mouth until he thought
fit to bound through the air to another woods. This was my first
close meeting with the King of the Woodpeckers; I long to know him
better. Mammals, too, abounded, but we saw their signs rather than
themselves, for most are nocturnal. The Redsquirrels, so scarce last
spring, were quite plentiful, and the beach at all soft places
showed abundant trace Of Weasels, Chipmunks, Foxes, Coyotes,
Lynx, Wolves, Moose, Caribou, Deer. One Wolf track was of special
interest. It was 5 1/2 inches, long and travelling with it was the
track of a small Wolf; it vividly brought back the days of Lobo
and Blanca, and I doubt not was another case of mates; we were
evidently in the range of a giant Wolf who was travelling around
with his wife. Another large Wolf track was lacking the two inner
toes of the inner hind foot, and the bind foot pads were so faint
as to be lost at times, although the toes were deeply impressed in
the mud. This probably meant that he, had been in a trap and was
starved to a skeleton.
We did not see any of these, but we did see the post-graduate
evidences of their diet, and were somewhat surprised to learn that
it included much fruit, especially of the uva-ursi. We also saw
proof that they had eaten part of a Moose; probably they had killed
it.
Coyote abounded now, and these we saw from time to time. Once I
tramped up within thirty feet of a big fellow who was pursuing some
studies behind a log. But again the incontrovertible-postmortem-evidence
of their food habits was a surprise - the bulk of their sustenance
now was berries, in one case this was mixed with the tail hairs - but
no body hairs - of a Chipmunk. I suppose that Chipmunk escaped minus
his tail. There was much evidence that all those creatures that
can eat fruit were in good condition, but that flesh in its most
accessible form - rabbits - was unknown, and even next best thing - the
mice - were too scarce to count; this weighed with especial force
on the Lynxes; they alone seemed unable to eke out with fruit.
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