CABIBOO HUNTING. 163 



manage it somehow, and accommodate a gentleman like 

 you appear to be/* 



"All right, my good man, we are ready; and John 

 and Noel will go ahead and haul out the cariboo from 

 the barren to the road ; " and off we go, a merry party, 

 following the ox sled, whilst the old settler shouts un- 

 ceasingly to his cattle, " Haw ! Bright — Gee ! Diamond ; 

 what are ye 'bout there, ye lazy beasts V and the great 

 strong animals go steadily forward, occasionally bringing 

 their broad foreheads in violent contact with a tree ; but 

 proceeding, on being set right, with perfect unconcern, 

 till we come to the edge of the barren. Here the Indians 

 had already hauled out two of the cariboo by straps 

 fastened to the horns, drawing the carcases easily over 

 the surface of the snow, and in a couple of hours we were 

 again en route for home, with everything packed up, 

 guns in case, and nine cariboo as trophies. 



The frozen carcases were pitched down into the hold of 

 the little schooner, the same one which had brought us 

 across before ; and in a few hours, with a fresh breeze 

 following us, we grated safely through the floating field 

 of ice which nearly blocked up the basin of Minas, and 

 landed at Windsor, Nova Scotia, and so to Halifax. 



M 2 



