Hunting in the Selkirks 179 



camp that night it behooved us not to delay; so we 

 merely halted long enough to dress the caribou, and 

 take a steak with us which we did not need, by the 

 way, for almost immediately we came on a band of 

 spruce grouse and knocked off the heads of five with 

 our rifles. The caribou s stomach was filled with 

 blueberries, and with their leaves, and with a few 

 small mushrooms also, and some mouthfuls of moss. 

 We went home very fast, too much elated to heed 

 scratches and tumbles; and just as it was growing so 

 dark that further traveling was impossible we came 

 opposite our camp, crossed the river on a fallen hem 

 lock, and walked up to the moody Indian, as he sat 

 crouched by the fire. 



He lost his sullenness when he heard what we had 

 done ; and next day we all went up and skinned and 

 butchered the caribou, returning to camp and mak 

 ing ready to start back to the lake the following 

 morning; and that night we feasted royally. 



We were off by dawn, the Indian joyfully leading. 

 Coming up into the mountains he had always been 

 the rear man of the file; but now he went first and 

 struck a pace that, continued all day long, gave 

 me a little trouble to follow. Each of us carried his 

 pack ; to the Indian s share fell the caribou skull and 

 antlers, which he bore on his head. At the end of 

 t ie day he confessed to me that it had made his head 

 &quot;heap sick&quot; as well it might. We had made four 

 short days , or parts of days march coming up ; for 



