WILD ANIMALS AND MEN 247 



enraged bull, hearing this last sound, charges directly for 

 the spot. Then, as the brute passes broadside, the hunter fires. 



"But, my son, to return to caribou hunting, you probably 

 know that those deer are very fond of open places during sunny 

 weather in winter time, such places as, for instance, rivers and 

 small lakes where the wind will not be strong. There they 

 will spend most of the day resting or playing together in big 

 bands of perhaps fifty or more. Sometimes, however, when a 

 high wind springs up, they have a curious custom of all racing 

 round in a circle at high speed. It is a charming sight to 

 watch them at such sport. Most of their feeding is done right 

 after sunrise and just before sunset, and at night they always 

 resort to the woods. 



"Then, too, when caribou go out upon a lake they have a 

 habit of lying down beside the big ridges that rise three or four 

 feet above the rest of the surface, where the ice has been split 

 apart and then jammed together again with such power that 

 the edges are forced upward. They lie down there to avoid 

 the wind while resting in the sun. There the hunter sometimes 

 digs a trench in the snow and lies in wait for the unsuspecting 

 deer. When he shoots one, he immediately skins it, but takes 

 care to leave the head attached to the skin; then ramming a 

 pole into the head at the neck, he drapes the skin over the pole 

 and getting down on all fours places the skin over his back and 

 pretends to be a caribou. Thus he will approach the band, 

 and should he tire of crawling along on his hands and knees 

 he will even lie down to rest in sight of the deer, but he always 

 takes care to keep down wind. In such a guise it is not hard 

 to come within gun-range of the band. 



"A very good thing to carry when hunting deer in the 

 woods is a bunch of tips of deer horns, each about four inches 

 long and all suspended from the back of the hunter's belt; as 

 the horn tips will then tinkle together at every movement of 

 the hunter, and make a sound as though the horns of a distant 



