IN TIMBER AND BRtlLfiE. 235 



to their nightly tasks. More frequently, returning late 

 in the canoe along the shore of some lake, you might 

 hear two or three reports, like miniature pistol shots, 

 as the creatures, surprised by the gliding craft, dived 

 with a splash of their immense flat tails. 



Having up to this time had no experience with 

 caribou except in Newfoundland, it was difficult to 

 allow at once for the different conditions now to be 

 encountered. Most of our hunting led us into woods 

 where, in Newfoundland, one would never look for 

 caribou, but would endeavour to pass through them 

 as quickly as might be, in the hope of finding barrens 

 or open ground above. But here all the high ground 

 was densely wooded, and caribou-hunting for the first 

 week resolved itself into the watching of marshes, none 

 of which were more than a mile in extent, and all of 

 which gathered around the inlet and outlets of a chain 

 of lakes. After spending some fruitless days at this 

 dull form of sport, I decided to leave the marshes, upon 

 which most of the caribou which had been killed in 

 recent years were obtained, and to strike out to the 

 north-west of Snow Lake, where I was informed the 

 country became more open, until forest merged into 

 brulee (the district having been devastated of forest by 

 fire years before), especially in the neighbourhood of the 

 lake of that name. 



The end of October was approaching ; we had been 

 hunting and travelling for some little time without 

 having sighted a caribou of any kind. The weather had 

 turned cold, so cold that once or twice, when crossing 

 one or other of the little lakes, we had been glad enough 

 to light a fire upon the shores at which to warm our- 

 selves. It was a cold year, as is proved by the fact that 



