50 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



ber. Around us rose the precipitous snow covered mountains through 

 a gap of which a large stream entered the lake, its cascades giving off 

 clouds of vapor. High above us a bald eagle wheeled in majestic flight 

 with white head and crissum flashing in the light of the rising sun. 

 Cutting our way through a brule we reached another lake upon which 

 there was an abundance of fresh tracks. An hour later I left the other? 

 and started down the lake with the boy before the dogs. Three .or 

 four bands of caribou, perhaps fifty in all, soon came out upon the ice. 

 Yahty ran toward the nearest of them followed by the dogs which 

 dashed past him at full cry as soon as they discovered the caribou. I 

 was seated upon tne sled while Yahty ran, holding the sled line in a 

 cloud of snow which trailed out behind like the tail of a comet. 



The caribou stood motionless until we were within a couple of 

 hundred yards before making off; they soon stopped, side on, to sur- 

 vey their pursuers, snuffing the air for a moment ; they would throw 

 back their heads and leap high in the air, and again dash away at a 

 swift run, passing patches of smooth ice without a miss step. 



The drifts were small, but the snow was well hardened making a 

 rough surface for the swift flying sled. Just as I would be about to 

 pull the trigger after taking hasty aim a sudden lurch would nearly dis- 

 lodge me from my seat and perhaps send the muzzle of the rifle sky- 

 wards. I succeeded in killing two and breaking a fore leg of another 

 which ran with undiminished speed, in fact led the band as they 

 entered the timber and so escaped. 



Placing a row of pine boughsatintervalsof fifteen or twenty yardsquite 

 across an arm of the lake we concealed ourselves on shore, and waited 

 the appearance of the caribou. Only one band approached our barrier 

 which they followed some distance, but did not venture to cross ; they 

 turned away before coming within range, but the following day we were 



more successful in employing this, a common device of the Dog Ribs. 



i 



That evening we feasted until a late hour upon the first caribou 



meat of the season. Several heads were skinned and hung from poles 



before the fire .by the mitten cords of the owners and willow hooks. 



\-> soon as the outside was roasted the jaw was turned back and the 



tongue, one of the choicest bits of all, slightly cooked. The dogs were 



