A STALK. 343 



direction from wliich the wind was blowing, to 

 make a long detour, and approach him from 

 the further side of the hill. This I presently 

 succeeded in doing, and on reaching the foot of 

 the hill, I went down on my hands and knees, 

 and crept slowly upwards, being careful not to 

 make any noise by knocking the barrel of my 

 rifle against a stone, for I expected to see the 

 horns of the stag appearing above the brow of 

 the hill at any moment. However, I presently 

 crawled flat on my stomach right on to the 

 highest part of it, and then at once saw a herd 

 of ten caribou lying down on the open ground 

 about three hundred yards away from the hill. 



This herd consisted of one big heavy stag 

 with large antlers, and nine does and young 

 animals, and as I could not see any other caribou 

 stag anywhere in the surrounding country, 1 

 soon became convinced that the one which was 

 now lying down with the herd was the same 

 animal which I had first seen feeding alone on 

 the top of the hill. 



Whilst I had been working round to get at 

 him from below the wind, he had left off 



