Bo The Woodland Caribou, 



trail in suitable weather — the best time is the latter end of February or the 

 beginning of March ; the best weather is when a light, fresh snow of some 

 three or four inches has fallen on the top of deep drifts and a solid crust ; the 

 fresh snow giving the means of following the trail ; the firm crust yielding a 

 support to the broad snow-shoes and enabling the stalkers to trail with 

 silence atid celerity combined. Then they crawl onward, breathless and 

 voiceless, up wind always, following the foot prints of the wandering, pas- 

 turing, wantoning deer ; judging by signs, uumistaken to the veteran hunter, 

 iindistinguishable to the novice, of the distance or proximity of their game^ 

 imtil they steal upon the herd unsuspected, and either finish the day with a 

 sure shot and a triumphant whoop ; or discover that the game has taken 

 alarm and started on the jump, and so give it up in despair, 



'* One man perhaps in a thousand can still-hmit, or stalk, Caribou in the 

 summer season. He, when he has discovered a herd feeding up wind, at a lei- 

 sure i^ace and clearly uualarmed, stations a comrade in close ambush, well 

 down wind and to leeward of their upward track, and then himself, after 

 •closely observing their mood, motions and line of course, strikes off in a wide 

 ■<Mrcle well to leeward, until he has got a mile or two ahead of the herd,, 

 when very slowly and guardedly, observing the profoundest silence, he cuts 

 across their direction, and gives them his wind, as it is technically termed, 

 dead ahead. This is the crisis of the affair ; if he gives the wind too strong- 

 ly, or too rashly, if he makes the slightest noise or motion, they scatter in an 

 instant, and away. If he give it slightly, gradually, and casually as it were, 

 not fancying themselves pursued, but merely approached, they merely turn 

 away from it, working their way domn ivind to the deadly ambush, of which 

 their keenest scent cannot, under such circumstances, inform them. If he 

 succeed in this, inch by inch he crawls after them, never pressing them, or 

 drawing in upon them, but preserving the same distance still, still giving them 

 the same wind as at the first, so that he creates no panic or confusion, until 

 at length, when close upon the hidden peril, his sudden whoop sends them 

 headlong down the deceitful breeze upon the treacherous rifle. 



" Of all wood-craft, none is so difficult, none requires so rare a combina- 

 tion as this, of quickness of sight, wariness of tread, very instinct of the 

 craft, and perfection of judgment. When resorted to, and performed to the 

 admiration even of woodmen, it does not succeed once in a hundred times — 

 therefore not by one man in a thousand is it ever resorted to at all, and by 

 him, rather in the wantonness of wood-craft, and by way of boastful experi- 

 ment, than with any hope, much less expectation of success." 



Professor Dawson on new species of Meriones. — In the last Janu- 

 ary number of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, there is aa 

 interesting article on the Meriones and Arvicola of Nova Scotia, by 

 1*rofessor Dawson, of McGill College, Montreal. The learned Professor 

 describes and figures a new species of "Jumping Mouse," Meriones 

 Acadicus^ 



