IN TIMBER AND BRtTLEE. 239 



with a covey of these birds. The best weapon is a little 

 22 taking the short cartridge, with which it is generally 

 possible to secure all the birds one wants without in 

 any way alarming the country. Both kinds of " part- 

 ridge" are ordinarily tame, so much so that at times 

 it is easy to capture them with a long pole and a wire 

 noose, yet at other times they become curiously wide- 

 awake ; indeed, I have frequently known them on one 

 day to take no notice of approaching footsteps, while 

 on the day directly following they will hardly allow 

 you within shot. The reason for this has probably 

 something to do with the weather, but what con- 

 ditions affect them I have not sufficient experience 

 to say. 



Climbing over the hill-top, we changed our water- 

 shed, and so the day passed almost without incident until 

 late in the evening, when within a mile of camp we 

 picked up the trail of a little band of caribou, which 

 must certainly have passed us unseen earlier in the day. 

 The trail headed towards the lake and disappeared into 

 a large thicket of spruce and alder close to the water. 

 Our chance seemed to have come at last, and, advancing 

 cautiously, we had already, without knowing it, come 

 within eighty yards of the deer, while we had still a 

 quarter of an hour of shooting light left. We paused 

 several times to ensure ourselves against error, and in 

 fact heard the animals feeding and moving, when, to 

 my disgust, our two Frenchmen suddenly appeared in 

 the canoe and began breaking the ice close to the 

 farther shore. They were more than a mile away, but 

 their voices carried with appalling distinctness through 

 the quiet evening, and in another instant there was the 

 sound of a stampede, and, running forward, we found 



