434 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



the Great Fish River has always been the summer hunting 

 ground of the Yellow Knives ; and yet their chief told me 

 that he had never known these animals more numerous than 

 at the present day, and certainly a great many were killed 

 while we were waiting for the ice in the river to break up. 

 But this is only the edge of the musk-ox country : the rocky 

 wilderness stretches far towards the north and east to the 

 Arctic Ocean, uninhabited except by a few wandering Esqui- 

 maux close to the coast. Into this desert the winter hunters 

 can never penetrate, as it lies too far beyond the tree-line to 

 admit of wood being hauled on dog-sleighs. It is true that the 

 number of hides exported by the Hudson Bay Company is 

 greater than it used to be, but this is easily accounted for by 

 the fact that the robes have increased in value, and the price 

 now paid to the Indians in the north is sufficient to encourage 

 them to haul the skins to the Fort, instead of using them for 

 moccasins, as was formerly the case. 



In spite of the many stories that the Indians told me, and 

 the evident dread in which they hold the musk ox, I could not 

 see anything to justify the belief that it is a dangerous animal 

 to attack. I never saw anything resembling a charge, although 

 I have often been close up to a badly wounded bull on pur- 

 pose to see if there was any truth in these reports. But the 

 Indians are given to superstition, and attribute miraculous 

 powers to the musk ox, and probably the ferocious appearance 

 of an old bull has worked upon their timid imaginations till 

 they are ready to believe thoroughly in these traditions. 



On expeditions of this kind there is really no sport in the 

 ordinary acceptance of the term, and under any circumstances 

 the musk ox is so easily approached that one soon tires of the 

 slaughter ; the same thing applies to the caribou, which are 

 sometimes found in almost incredible numbers in the Barren 

 Ground in summer or the woods in winter. But it is never a 

 certainty that the game will be forthcoming when most re- 

 quired for meat, and the knowledge that starvation, even to 

 the last extremes, may come upon you at any time, goes far 



