NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 141 



determined to do so, you can generally come to terms 

 with him again. But a caribou in a similar case will 

 altogether abandon the part of the country in which he 

 has been jumped. Thus we were aware that if the two 

 animals ahead had winded us or our tracks to follow 

 them would have been worse than useless. But as 

 matters stood I did not believe that they had been 

 much frightened ; consequently, as one of them appeared 

 to be a particularly big fellow, we pushed on upon their 

 trail not without hopes. 



For the first couple of miles the big slots were very 

 plain, but after this the nature of the ground changed 

 and hard, bald barrens took the place of the marshes. 

 From each of these we spied the country ahead, but for 

 two hours we saw nothing of the caribou, and I was 

 thinking of giving them up, as we could not tell in 

 which direction they had gone, when we suddenly 

 perceived them sparring together upon a sloping barren 

 about a mile distant. I took out the telescope, only to 

 find that the damp had clouded the lenses and that 

 without a thorough cleaning it was practically useless. 

 Fortunately, however, the stags were in full view, the 

 wind was absolutely in our favour, and the country 

 broken up by boulders, which afforded good cover. In 

 these circumstances we were able to go forward at a 

 good pace, but, to our vexation, long before we came 

 within range we saw the smaller of the two stags 

 walk away over the hill, followed immediately by his 

 companion. 



We lost little time in reaching the hummock over 

 which they had vanished, and, crawling cautiously round 

 the base of it, we found ourselves quite close to the 

 smaller stag, which stood with its head up looking out 



