Caribou -H tinting. 225 



ways 'head you see 'im tracks go everywheres ; must be nine, may 

 be ten caribou go that way." 



" Are they fresh tracks ? " 



" We look by-em-by ; find out which way wind first. By t'un- 

 ders, we got wrong end barren." 



" What do you mean ? " 



"Wind blow straight down barren; s'pose we try hunt 'im 

 caribou, sartin he smell us." 



11 Well, what had we better do ? " 



" Best hide 'im somewheres on barren." 



" There 's a clump of firs nearly in the middle of the barren ; I 

 should think that a good place." 



" We go try 'im. You see caribou movin' all time ; may be 

 by-em-by comin' back on his tracks, then very good chance." 



The barren was about three miles long and over one mile wide, 

 sprinkled with groups of fir-trees, and the usual supply of alders, 

 bowlders, and old dead tree-trunks. Lurking about in our place of 

 concealment was tedious in the extreme, and I was about to beguile 

 the time with a smoke, but I remembered in time the terrible rating 

 old Tomah got from Sebatis when smoking, for we were in ambush 

 behind the big bowlder. 



Just then we heard the boom of a gun. 



" By t'unders, that old Tomah, sartin ; so cunnin', you see, just 

 like fox ; he find out wind wrong way, then he go round on woods 

 an' come out other end barren." 



" Do you think he has turned the caribou back this way?" 



"Sartin, that just reason he go round woods; so cunnin', you see, 

 that old Tomah." 



We now moved out of our shelter a little so as to command a 

 better view of the barren. 



" Do you see any caribou, Sebatis ? " 



" No, don't see nothin' 't all." 



I was looking intently, and fancied that I saw the form of a 

 caribou disappearing behind a bunch of alders. Sebatis saw him at 

 the same moment, and several others that I failed to detect. 



" By t'unders ! " he whispered, " you see 'im, one, two, five 

 caribou, just goin' behin' bushes up there ; good chance now, s'pose 

 don't make 'im noise." 

 *5 



