242 HUNTING CAMPS. 



travelling, the only thing to be done was to take our 

 chance of picking up his tracks. 



This we did with as little delay as possible, and 

 finding that they led across the wind, circled a little to 

 the left and, passing by a couple of clumps of balsam 

 and juniper, we perceived ahead of us a large fallen tree, 

 and beyond the fallen tree the caribou stag lying down 

 in the open, at a distance of about one hundred and 

 fifty yards. We saw him, and he gained some hint of 

 our presence at almost exactly the same instant. He 

 sprang to his feet as I dropped on my knee and fired 

 through a gap in the roots of the dead tree. I 

 heard the bullet tell, and the caribou staggered ; but, 

 running round to get a clear view, I saw he was still 

 on his feet, so I fired again, when the animal fell. 



He had been standing broadside on, with the head 

 slightly turned, when 1 fired the first shot, which I 

 afterwards found had hit him in the neck. When he 

 dashed forward my attention had been fixed upon 

 making sure of him, so that, beyond the first glance 

 which showed me that his left horn was well developed, 

 I had given no more thought to his head. As he 

 fell we both ran up. He lay upon his right side, quite 

 dead. Ed seized his horn to turn him over, and 

 then for the first time we became aware that the right 

 antler was missing, though the left was still quite firm. 



As the date was the 1st of November it was unlucky 

 that he had dropped his horn, though occasionally it 

 happens that caribou, and especially the larger stags, 

 lose their antlers by this date. This is, however, a 

 matter both of individual and seasonal variation, as in 

 most years these Canadian deer retain their horns as 

 late as the 20th and even the 25th of the month, 



