" UNACCOUNTABLES " AND OTHER SHOTS 45 



for the shoulders and fired. My! what was the 

 matter ? They did not drop, but went on, appar- 

 ently untouched. I was so taken aback by this, 

 that I never thought of reloading my gun till 

 they were out of range. I had shot and missed 

 two caribou at ten yards distance. It was not 

 buck fever either, as I had passed that stage long 

 before. I examined the snow on the opposite side 

 of the gorge, but could find no trace of the bullet. 

 Where it went to has always been a mystery to 

 me. My brother and the Indians soon arrived, 

 and I told them what had happened. They said 

 nothing, but I could see by their looks that my 

 reputation as a good shot had suffered consider- 

 ably. They had killed nothing either. There 

 were only three caribou in the band, and they had 

 gpt wind of them at a long distance. They had 

 shot more to drive them down to the lake than 

 anything else. Not discouraged, Old Crepo, 

 such was the Indian's name, started on their 

 trail, followed them all day and part of the 

 night, when he took a short rest, started again, 

 and came up with them early in the morning and 

 killed the whole three. There was no trace of my 

 shot in them. There is a possibility that the ball 

 may have dropped out of my gun before I fired. 

 Who knows ? Of course, in a lifetime, I have had 

 many other strange and lucky shots, some of 

 which I may mention in other portions of this 

 book, but those reported above, I consider remark- 

 able ones and deserving of special notice. 



