248 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



band of closely marching caribou were striking together. In 

 that way, my son, it is easier to approach, and when you are 

 ready to fire, look carefully for a large, white, fat doe, and then 

 let drive at her; for bands of deer are never led by bulls, but 

 always by does and usually by a barren one. If you shoot the 

 leader first, the chances are the band will stand waiting for one 

 of their number to lead the way. Remember, too, that deer are 

 never so frightened at seeing or hearing you as they are at 

 scenting you, for the merest whiff of man-smell will drive them 

 away. When they first scent you they will take two or three 

 jumps into the air with their heads held high, their nostrils 

 extended, and their eyes peering about; then swinging round, 

 they will gallop off and later settle down into a great high- 

 stepping, distance-covering trot that will carry them many 

 miles away before they halt. There is still another good way to 

 hunt caribou on a lake and that is to put on a wolf skin and 

 approach on all fours, but it is not so successful as when the 

 hunter wears a caribou skin." 



TRAILING IN THE SNOW 



Breakfast over, we slipped on our snowshoes and set out to 

 follow a mass of tracks that led southward. It was easy going 

 on a beaten trail, a blind man could have followed it; and that 

 reminds me of something I have failed to tell you about winter 

 trailing in the Northland. In winter, the men of the North- 

 land don't trail human beings by scent, they trail them by sight 

 or sometimes by touch. Sight trailing, of course, you under- 

 stand. Trailing by touch, however, when not understood by 

 the spectator, seems a marvellous performance. For instance, 

 when a husky dog, the leader of a sled-train, will come out of 

 the forest and with his head held high, and without a moment's 

 hesitation, trot across a lake that may be three or four miles 

 wide, upon the surface of which the wind and drifting snow 



