WILD ANIMALS AT HOME
By the Same Author
THE BOOK OF WOODCRAFT AND INDIAN LORE
WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN
TWO LITTLE SAVAGES
BIOGRAPHY OF A GRIZZLY
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTHERN ANIMALS
ROLF IN THE WOODS
THE FORESTERS' MANUAL
Wild
Animals
At Home
by
Ernest Thompson Seton
Author of "Wild Animals I Have Known,"
"Two Little Savages," "Biography of a Grizzly,"
"Life Histories of Northern Animals,"
"Rolf in the Woods," "The Book of Woodcraft."
Head Chief of the
Woodcraft Indians
With over 150 Sketches and
Photographs by the Author
Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1923
Copyright, 1913, by
Ernest Thompson Seton
All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
Foreword
My travels in search of light on the "Animalsat Home" have taken me up and down the RockyMountains for nearly thirty years. In the canyonsfrom British Columbia to Mexico, I havelighted my campfire, far beyond the bounds oflaw and order, at times, and yet I have found noplace more rewarding than the Yellowstone Park,the great mountain haven of wild life.
Whenever travellers penetrate into remote regionswhere human hunters are unknown, theyfind the wild things half tame, little afraid ofman, and inclined to stare curiously from a distanceof a few paces. But very soon they learnthat man is their most dangerous enemy, and flyfrom him as soon as he is seen. It takes a longtime and much restraint to win back their confidence.
In the early days of the West, when gameabounded and when fifty yards was the extremedeadly range of the hunter's weapons, wild creatureswere comparatively tame. The advent of[Pg vi]the rifle and of the lawless skin hunter soon turnedall big game into fugitives of excessive shynessand wariness. One glimpse of a man half a mileoff, or a whiff of him on the breeze, was enoughto make a Mountain Ram or a Wolf run formiles, though formerly these creatures would havegazed serenely from a point but a hundred yardsremoved.
The establishment of the Yellowstone Park in1872 was the begi