HUNTING ALONE 119 



later without an apparent glance to establish its 

 location in forest that I would have had to blaze 

 a tree or two and take careful bearings if I was 

 to be sure of ever finding the spot again. The 

 shooting of the Indians — never brilliant — up to 

 the present had been particularly bad. They are, 

 however, seen to better advantage when hunting 

 more or less alone, and when not unbalanced by 

 over-eagerness to secure first blood ; as they this 

 day were. Continuing, the party shortly after- 

 wards again dismembered ; three of the Indians 

 going off south-east, and the remaining two and 

 self heading now more south-west. We sighted 

 two Caribou standing in an open space, but they 

 jumped off into the scrub so hurriedly that it 

 was impossible to shoot. About this time the 

 two Indians with me (the man who had asked 

 me to come and another) appeared anxious to go 

 off by themselves. Until now I had been an 

 interested spectator, but not without inner ex- 

 citement and inclination to try my luck, so 

 suspecting nothing, and assuming we would meet 

 again at the raft-crossing, I wished them good 

 luck and struck into the forest alone. I had gone 

 no great distance before I came on three, or four, 

 Caribou feeding in low-lying scrub forest. Among 

 them was a fine buck, and this animal I succeeded 

 in bringing down, while the others vanished 

 through the timber. My quarry was not dead, 

 but it was not difficult to track him to where he 

 had collapsed in a muskeg bottom a short dis- 

 tance away, and dispatch him with a fatal shot. 

 It was then about 10 a.m. It was still snowing, 

 but less cold — not a bad day to stand about in ; 



