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 mouth fuls 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 

 "heap sick" as well it might. We had made four 

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



