The Land of the Musk-Occ 



would pass close to a projecting point of land, a half- 

 mile up the lake. So, keeping a wary eye upon 

 them, the hunter ran swiftly. He had not hunted 

 antelope and buffalo on the plains all his life without 

 learning how to approach moving game. As long 

 as the caribou were in action, they could not tell 

 whether he moved or was motionless. In order to 

 tell if an object was inanimate or not, they must stop 

 to see, of which fact the keen hunter took advantage. 

 Suddenly he saw the gray mass slow down and bunch 

 up. He stopped running, to stand like a stump. 

 When the reindeer moved again, he moved, and 

 when they slackened again, he stopped and became 

 motionless. As they kept to their course, he worked 

 gradually closer and closer. Soon he distinguished 

 gray, bobbing heads. When the leader showed 

 signs of halting in his slow trot the hunter again 

 became a statue. He saw they were easy to deceive ; 

 and, daringly confident of success, he encroached on 

 the ice and closed up the gap till not more than two 

 hundred yards separated him from the gray, bobbing, 

 antlered mass. 



Jones dropped on one knee. A moment only his 

 eyes lingered admiringly on the wild and beautiful 

 spectacle; then he swept one of the rifles to a level. 

 Old habit made the little beaded sight cover first the 

 stately leader. Bang! The gray monarch leaped 



161 



