TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 217 



men accomplished the dismemberment process, and 

 then we all loaded ourselves up, carrying as much 

 as we could. Personally, I hauled along more than 

 I bargained for, and the leg of caribou, which I 

 changed from my right hand to my left, seemed a 

 terribly out-sized and over-weighty affair ere I put 

 it down triumphantly in camp. 



The Leader had bagged a fairly decent animal, and 

 Cecily a two-year-old bull, so the wolf was not as 

 yet to howl discordantly at our door. 



I may as well say right here that caribou shooting 

 has no sort of interest for me, and the whole thing 

 to do with stalking these animals, if one can call it 

 stalking, is what one would imagine a battue among 

 cows at home might be like. The caribou in the 

 district we shot over having been so little hunted 

 knew no fear, and would just as soon join the hunter 

 as not. In fact one animal did keep Ralph company 

 whilst he skinned her dead lord. It made him feel 

 so small and impertinent for having rudely broken 

 into so friendly a domestic circle he said he could not 

 apologize enough. 



The veriest tyro could procure two good heads in 

 three days in the region we trekked across,^ and as 

 soon as we had totalled that number apiece, shooting 

 no more and no less, we set gaily off for the heart of 

 the mountains. Before climbing much higher we 

 buried our caribou heads in an accessible tomb, to 

 be retrieved later. The head-skins had to be taken 

 with our party, so that the curing process might 

 have no cessation. 



