134 THE BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU 



my shooting hand frozen, sometimes down to the 

 second joint, but if attended to at once and 

 thoroughly chafed with snow there are no serious 

 consequences — nothing but the sharp pain of 

 reviving circulation, and, sometimes, the skin 

 will afterwards blacken and peel off. 



I turn now to the Indians, and the extent of 

 their Caribou hunting. It has been said that 

 Indians kill less with modern weapons than they 

 did in the past by primitive methods, but I think 

 such a statement should be taken with reserva- 

 tion. I grant that Indians, as a rule, are indif- 

 ferent marksmen, but it is well to remember that 

 what they lack in that respect they more than 

 make up for in bushcraft. They are undoubtedly 

 skilled hunters, keenly intelligent hunters with 

 a second sense — a wild sense which is essentially 

 Indian and which makes it possible for them to 

 get very close to animals, much in the crafty, 

 patient manner of prowling wolf or fox that 

 manoeuvre to outwit and come within striking 

 distance of their prey. 



On October 21, 1913, an Indian of Fort Du 

 Brochet was returning after dark on the ice 

 of Reindeer Lake, after setting out a trap-line, 

 when he heard the muffled thunder of countless 

 Caribou passing north-east over the ice. No 

 Caribou had been seen until then. It was the 

 hour of their coming. This Indian got back 

 to the Post in great excitement and soon spread 

 the glad news among the half-dozen cabins on 

 the lake shore. The following morning at the 

 first faint light of dawn, the hunters of the settle- 

 ment went out to kill, while the Caribou con- 



