PERIL MADE THEM COMPANIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

PERIL MADE THEM COMPANIONS.

ALL KINDS OF WILD BEASTS HERD- " ED TOGETHER TO ESCAPE A FOREST FIRE.

An incident of the forest fires in the hills of the Descanso neighbourhood in Southern California illustrates the comradeship that common peril brings about among beas-ts :as well .as '-among men. After the flames had . completed - theirwork of destruction and spread a pall over the hills, a rancher went 'forth among the charred stumps and smoking brush heaps to look for a number of cattle and colts which he feared had been hemmed in by the fire. He went across gully and ridge in his search, until at last he saw his stock some litle distance ahead. He was more than astonished upon coming up to the group to find npt only his cattle and colts, but a deer, three wildcats, a coyote, and several rabbits, all alive and apparently in no fear of him. They watched his approach with indifference,the timidity gone from the big eyed deer, no venom in the wildcat's purr, and honesty shining in the grey coyote's face. The rabbits sat on their haunches, as meek as the pets of children. But the poor coyote was in pain, and as the farmer came close trie erstwhile robber of the roost dragged his helpless "hindquarters toward the man in mute supplication. The legs of the animal had been frightfully burned.

The rancher was in no mood to male friends of such strange creatures, and at once drove his stock through the smouldering brush, the deer going along with the cattle, the rabbits hopping along at the rancher's heels, the wild cats slouching along behind, and the coyote, unable to follow, whining a pathetic appeal for succour. When the burning field was passed the deer broke into a run for the distant hills, tne rabbits were away like a flash, and the old defiance and snarling leer came back to the wild cats, who scorned to make a show of haste. They walked slowly out of sight.