140 



A BRUSH WTH A CARIBOU 



ACROSS STREAM TO FIND A GOOD CHANNEL. 



every living creature of the backwoods, from the tiniest bird to the 

 largest beast ; witness his never-failing courage, hardihood and 

 woodcraft, and then you will see how superior he is to the vicious 

 semi-criminal village idler, who regards him as his laughing-stock 

 and makes him the butt of his coarse jests. 



' Lucivee Dick ' had earned his sobriquet from a fierce encounter 

 he had once waged successfully with a savage lynx or ' lucivee ', 

 without other weapon than a thick oak stake. He told me of a 

 pair of mighty antlers of which he had caught a transient glimpse 

 at Big Bald Mountain which resembled the winter branches of the 

 rock maple. My ardour to possess such a trophy as Dick so elo- 

 quently described prompted me to make an engagement with this 

 hunter on the spot to go out in the succeeding autumn in quest of 

 this stag of many points for not until the hard frosts of late autumn 

 arrive can the caribou be successfully hunted. 



It is a remarkable fact that the rutting season of this deer does 

 not begin until the first cool blasts of October give warning of the 

 approach of winter. Most other wild animals mate in the early 

 spring when the forests beneath the gentle west winds grow redolent 

 of the coming summer. 



All summer long the ' bulls ' and ' cows ' (as they are locally 

 designated) wander singly and separately. During summer fishing 

 trips I have frequently surprised a solitary stag, and sometimes a 

 hind with her yearling calf hiding in some secluded spot, or enjoying 

 a sun-bath on the sand bars of some mountain river. 



When October comes the animals collect in a large band in some 

 open space cleared by forest fires, or where some high mountain 



