actically no yard feeding at all; and
consequently their healthy outdoor looks, and their velvety rumps were
very conspicuous as they scattered away from the trail on our approach.
Several times we dashed right in among them, and I had to shout in order
to clear the road. They did not like to leave the firm footing on the
trail, where they fed by pawing away the snow on both sides and baring
the weeds. Sometimes a whole bunch of them would thunder along in a
stampede ahead of us till they came to a cross-trail or to a farmyard;
there we left them behind. Sometimes only one of them would thus try
to keep in front, while the rest jumped off into the drifts; but, being
separated from his mates, he would stop at last and ponder how to get
back to them till we were right on him again. There was, then, no way to
rejoin those left behind except by doing what he hated to do, by getting
off the trail and jumping into the dreaded snow, thus giving us the
right of way. And when, at last, he did so, he felt sadly hampered and
stopped close to the trail, looking at us in a frightened and helpless
sort of way while we dashed by.

The next sight, too, impressed me with the degree to which snow
handicaps the animal life of our plains. Not more than ten feet from
the heads of my horses a rabbit started up. The horses were going at a
gallop just then. There it jumped up, unseen by myself until it moved,
ears high, eyes turned back, and giving a tremendous thump with its big
hind feet before setting out on its wild and desperate career. We were
pretty close on its heels and going fast. For maybe a quarter of a mile
it stayed in one track, running straight ahead and at the top of its
speed so that it pulled noticeably away. Every hundred yards or so,
however, it would slow down a little, and its jumps, as it glanced back
without turning--by merely taking a high, flying leap and throwing its
head aloft--would look strangely retarded, as if it were jumping from
a sitting posture or braking with its hind feet while bending its
body backward. Then, seeing us follow at undiminished speed, it would
straighten out again and dart away like an arrow. At the end of its
first straight run it apparently made up its mind that it was time
to employ somewhat different tactics in order to escape. So it jumped
slantways across the soft, central cushion of the trail into the other
track. Again it ran straight ahead for a matter of four or five hundred
yards