FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 71 



and has a hard crust, sometimes regular ice, on the top. The 

 moose cannot run or sometimes even walk through this, as he 

 is an enormous size and weight and has a small sharp hoof, and 

 sinks right down through the crust and is caught and cut by it. 



As the winter gets on and the snow gets very deep, the moose 

 "yards" as it is called. That is, two or three or more get 

 together, they select a tract of ground with plenty of food for the 

 rest of the winter, and they keep to their " yard " trampling it 

 down continually for the rest of the winter, and never leaving it. 



When driven out of this yard in the late winter (the cows 

 are then heavy in calf) they can easily be run down and I am 

 told used often to be butchered with axes. 



It was against the law to kill them after (I think) 1st Feb. ; 

 it was no sport and I am glad to say I never hunted them in the 

 late winter. In the early winter they are very difficult to stalk. 



The cariboo is a much smaller animal though yet about 

 the size of a cow. Their hoofs are very different from those of 

 the Moose and spread out, (something I am told, like a camel's) in 

 such a way as to prevent their sinking much in the snow at any 

 time ; and to enable them to travel without breaking through 

 at all where there is a hard crust or thin ice. Consequently 

 you can never get a good shot at them except by downright 

 good tracking and stalking. Still they should in my opinion 

 only be killed in the early winter, when they are fat, and the 

 breeding season is not close. Their senses of smell and hearing 

 are extremely acute, and great skill is required in stalking them. 



They are found generally in herds of from two or three up 

 to 30 or 40, and I have been told even 100. 



Cariboo on the march, from one part of the forest or from 

 one feeding ground to another, always go in Indian file — each step- 

 ping exactly in the footsteps of the leader— so that if you come 

 upon a track where perhaps 30 have passed, you would, until you 

 have been educated, think that only one cariboo had passed 

 along. 



The Indian hunter however knows better, and from the 

 depth of the foot mark, and numerous other signs will tell you 

 with wonderful accuracy, how many there are in the herd, the pace 

 they were going, the number of minutes, hours, or days since 

 they passed (fee, (fee. 



When the herd begins to feed they of course scatter all 

 about, and if it is in thick wood, it is sometimes very difficult 

 then to track them up till you can get a shot, without some one 

 of the herd " winding " you. 



I was generally very lucky in my cariboo hunts — but it is 

 very uncertain work, and I have often seen a party come back 

 with none, 



