A HERD OF CARIBOOS. 251 



pleasure; so, with a common accord, we decided on re- 

 turning. 



We busied ourselves in putting our baggage in order, 

 adding to it the elk meat, the two haunches, and the two 

 skins ; the whole was placed upon the tobogins, and 

 towards noon we resumed our route to Quebec. 



Two hours after our departure, the dogs suddenly darted 

 towards a hill, at whose base we were advancing with 

 difficulty over a bed of half-melted snow. They barked 

 in a most plethoric fashion, thanks to the previous day's 

 banquet, whose digestion was not yet completed. 



Soon we heard a great noise, caused by the snapping 

 and crackling of shrubs and cedar boughs, and a moment 

 afterwards five enormous "cariboos," the reindeer of 

 North America, swept past on our right, at about a 

 hundred paces from our caravan. 



In vain Maclean and myself discharged our four barrels 

 at them; our bullets were spent among the branches of 

 the forest, and the whole herd speedily vanished in the 

 depths of the cedar wood. 



We did not even think of pursuing the five fugitives ; 

 it would have been madness, for they were as swift as the 

 wind, and their light feet scarcely dinted the snow, whose 

 surface began to grow much firmer, thanks to the colder 

 air of the afternoon. 



This hunting incident beguiled for us the wearisome- 

 ness of our route, and we arrived without any mishap at 

 the first hut we had constructed. It was unoccupied, as 

 the reader will suppose; but the snow, driven by the 

 wind, had to some extent invaded the interior. While 

 we were clearing out the doorway, two or three chatter- 



