most), and before the chase was well
begun it was over; her cotton tuft disappeared under a log; she was safe
in the pile of wood, where so far as I know she lived happy ever after.

[Illustration]

THE RABBIT THAT WEARS SNOWSHOES

The Snowshoe Rabbit is found in all parts of the Park, though not in
very great numbers. It is called "Snowshoe" on account of the size of
its feet, which, already large, are in snow time made larger by fringes
of stiff bristles that give the creature such a broad area of support
that it can skip on the surface of soft snow while all its kinsmen sink
in helplessness.

[Illustration]

Here is the hind foot of a Snowshoe in winter, contrasted with the hind
foot of a Jackrabbit that was nearly three times its weight.

Rabbits are low in the scale of intelligence, but they are high enough
to have some joy in social life. It always gives one a special thrill of
satisfaction when favoured with a little glimpse into the home ways, the
games, or social life of an animal; and the peep I had into the Rabbit
world one night, though but a small affair, I have always remembered
with pleasure, and hope for a second similar chance.

This took place in the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho, in 1902. My wife
and I were out on a pack-train trip with two New York friends. We had
seen some rough country in Colorado and Wyoming, but we soon agreed that
the Bitterroots were the roughest of all the mountains. It took
twenty-eight horses to carry the stuff, for which eighteen were enough
in the more southern Rockies.

[Illustration]

The trails were so crooked and hidden in thick woods, that sometimes
the man at the rear might ride the whole day, and never see all the
horses until we stopped again for the night.

THE TERROR OF THE MOUNTAIN TRAILS

[Illustration]

There were other annoyances, and among them a particularly dangerous
animal. The country was fairly stocked with Moose, Elk, Blacktail,
Sheep, Goats, Badgers, Skunks, Wolverines, Foxes, Coyotes, Mountain
Lions, Lynx, Wolves, Black Bears and Grizzly Bears, but it was none of
these that inspired us with fear. The deadly, dangerous creature, the
worst of all, was the common Yellow-Jacket-Wasp. These Wasps abounded in
the region. Their nests were so plentiful that many were on, or by, the
narrow crooked trails that we must follow. Generally these trails were
along the mountain shoulder with a steep bank on the upside, and a sheer
drop on the oth