Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/200

174 animal living among the loose rocks at the bottoms of slopes up to 7,000 feet and more. Its habitat may be traced by little heaps of herbs and flowers known as "Pika's Hay." In his book, "Among the Selkirk Glaciers," Mr. Spotswood Creen tells of finding these little bouquets of cut flowers at intervals on a mountain side. Observing the first collection, his companion said "Some one has been up this way," and they were puzzled until finding more of them near the burrows of the little beast which Mr. Green names "Sewelell." It is an interesting creature which shares with the wild bee a propriety in the mountain flowers. Professor Macoun with a scientist's scrupulous care for truth, says that although called a hare and resembling the young of that species, the Little Chief Hare is quite different in structure.

The yellow-haired porcupine (Erethizon expixanthus) is sometimes found in the Selkirks, also squirrels; and higher up, chipmunks. The Mountain Eat (Ncatoma Drummondii) abounds; and there are tales to be told concerning his depredations. As the wolverine to the trapper, so is the mountain rat to the traveller. Like the porcupine, he will eat leather and anything of that sort which he can bite, but there is something human in his kleptomania. Potatoes and all edibles that can be neatly hoarded he will carry off by generous instalments; and anything shiny, such as tinware, knives, razors—and revolvers, when he can lay claws upon such valuable booty.

Trappers' game ought to be mentioned, those small animals who»e pelts are of Commerce. In the Columbia and Beaver Valleys trappers once did well with martin, fisher and beaver. Of all fur-bearing animals in British North America, the beaver bears part in romance and history. Was not this precious little beast the raison d'etre for the most adventurous and romantic monopoly in history, the Honorable the Hudson's Bay Company?

Mink and Ermine (the weasel in its winter coat) are in the Selkirks; and muskrat, which of late years has increased in value. Professor Macoun recommends Glacier House to naturalists who may from that base make leisurely trips up the mountain slopes to study the fauna of the region.

Birds.

Unlike the wild animals, birds do not flee the people. Rather, they follow human settlement and nest in the haunts of men. Even the game-birds fear the carnivorous animals more than human creatures. During the Summer Meet in 1908. of the Alpine Club on Roger's Pass, a member identified a number of small birds. There were the solitary thrush singing his bell-like song; the yellow-warbler (canary), robin, yellow-breasted chat, white-crowned sparrow; the junco, a little grey bird with black head and white breast; the magpie with his Scotch burr, the barn-swallow nesting under the eaves at Glacier House; and, on the highest alps of Mt. Abbott, the humming bird. Also, on Roger's Pass were identified—unseen like Shelley's skylark—the vesper-sparrow, a sweet plaintive singer singing all night; and the song-sparrow, a joyous singer and the loveliest heard in the vicinity.

Professor Macoun tells about the violet-green swallow that breeds in the cliffs of the Columbia near the mouth of Beaver River;