at the other end. And if one can follow, it
is only a question of time before coming up with that animal. And be
sure of its direction before setting out; many a novice has lost much
time by going backward on the trail.

_Fifth_.--In studying trails one must always keep probabilities in mind.
Sometimes one kind of track looks much like another; then the question
is, "Which is the likeliest in this place."

If I saw a jaguar track in India, I should know it was made by a
leopard. If I found a leopard in Colorado, I should be sure I had
found the mark of a cougar or mountain lion. A wolf track on Broadway
would doubtless be the doing of a very large dog, and a St. Bernard's
footmark in the Rockies, twenty miles from anywhere, would most likely
turn out to be the happen-so imprint of a gray wolf's foot. To be sure
of the marks, then, one should know all the animals that belong to the
neighborhood.

These facts are well known to every hunter. Most savages are hunters,
and one of the early lessons of the Indian boy is to know the tracks
of the different beasts about him. These are the letters of the old,
old writing.

A First Try

Let us go forth into the woods in one of the North-eastern states when
there is a good tracking snow, and learn a few of these letters of the
wood alphabet.

Two at least are sure to be seen--the track of the blarina and of the
deer mouse. They are shown on the same scale in Figs. 1 and 2, page
198.

In Fig. 3 is the track of the meadow mouse. This is not unlike that of
the blarina, because it walks, being a ground animal, while the deer
mouse more often bounds. The delicate lace traceries of the masked
shrew, shown in Fig. 4, are almost invisible unless the sun be low;
they are difficult to draw, and impossible to photograph or cast
satisfactorily but the sketch gives enough to recognize them by.

The meadow mouse belongs to the rank grass in the lowland {192} near
the brook, and passing it toward the open, running, water we may see
the curious track of the muskrat; its five-toed hind foot, its
four-toed front foot, and its long keeled tail, are plainly on record.
When he goes slowly the tail mark is nearly straight; when he goes
fast it is wavy in proportion to his pace. Page 193.

The muskrat is a valiant beast; he never dies without fighting to the
last, but he is in dread of another brookland creature whose trail is
here--the mink. Individual tracks of this animal are shown in