\Ohistling [P\armots.

ANY strange animals inhabit the mountains of
the west, and it was once my pleasure to have
a pleasant experience with some of the most
curious animals that nature has produced.

A party of us had started for the mountains
on a hunt, from which we expected a great deal
of pleasure. One bright day, after enjoying our
noon-day lunch, we passed through a beautiful
piece of bottom land blooming with flowers, red
and yellow monthly musk fringing the banks of
the stream, where it spread out over the meadow
in a dozen different channels. One of our men
wanted to stop and take up a homestead there,
but one of our guards said: ‘Too much plenty
snow in winter,” and after quenching our thirst
at the creek we passed on. Another turn
brought us to the base of a steep, bare, stony

mountain. Skirting this and climbing over some big rocks we suddenly came

into a lovely, grassy country. Like a prairie in summer, every variety of flower
seemed to bloom and blossom in the grass; the place was ablaze with red, blue,
yellow and white. We must have passed several hundred acres of it, and every
here and there a rippling stream ran through it. The place was a perfect
‘Paradise, and we stood in the bright, warm sunshine thankful to’ get out of the
dark valley from which we had just come. We pushed onward until evening,
when we camped under Sentinel Rock, about a mile from the divide which
separated us from the valley beyond. After supper, while smoking our pipes
and telling stories, suddenly the mountain skies seemed to be alive with men
whistling to one another; when one would turn sharp around only to hear
another and shriller “Whew!” on the other side; and soon we saw lots of animals,

about the size of a fox, with long, bushy tails, running about from rock to rock, .

sometimes lying down, but more often sitting bolt up, erect, like a ferret. We

shot a couple of small ones that night and afterward shot several more, larger
ones. Campbell called them whistling dogs and declared they were good to
eat, but the smell was enough for us. Their odor is peculiar, but not fragrant.

They have two long teeth in front, like a beaver, and feet shaped almost like