A GOOD PLAN. 123 



his nose, his ears are scarcely inferior to it in acute- 

 ness. 



" ' The cariboo usually feeds down wind, and as he is 

 furnished with a nose as sharp as that of the moose, 

 nothing can follow on his track without being per- 

 ceived. To the difficulty of getting within shot is 

 added the difficulty of seeing the cariboo, when skill 

 and patience have at length brought the hunter within 

 range. His colour so assimilates with the hues of the 

 gray lichen-covered rocks or the moss-clad trunks, or, 

 if in winter time, with the alternate flecks of snow 

 and bare brown patches of the tree stems, that the 

 unpractised eye finds it almost as difficult to detect the 

 presence of the game as to stalk it. Yet the very 

 uncertainty of the pursuit invests it with one of its 

 chief charms for the true hunter. For him who looks 

 to certain slaughter as his reward, the shambles, not 

 the forest, is the proper place; the pole-axe and not 

 the rifle should be his weapon.' " 



Here ended Pierre's account of the cariboo. His 

 comrades expressed themselves much pleased with the 

 information which he had imparted; and it was re- 

 solved that the young hunter naturalist should com- 

 municate so much of the history of each animal brought 

 down by their rifles as he himself knew from personal 

 observation, or had learned from others on whose 

 statements he could rely. Pierre modestly disclaimed 

 any intimate acquaintance with the natural history of 

 the animals of America ; but Jake insisted that " nary 



