176 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



gully at the foot. She lay on her back in the little trench, 

 breathing hard, and Elting put another bullet through her 

 heart. She was a large female, measuring six feet seven 

 inches from nose to tip of tail. We pulled her by the 

 thick hair out to level ground, cut her open and left her 

 for the next day. It was after dark when we got back 

 to camp, tired but satisfied with a full day's sport. 



With this auspicious beginning we naturally thought 

 that the rest of our stay at Pavlof Bay would be very 

 productive of trophies. We did not dream that we were 

 not again to bring in a single head. 



Kleinschmidt and Young were, however, excited to 

 the highest degree by our success and the next morning 

 were up at four o'clock, hurried through their breakfast 

 and got off, the missionary swearing a Presbyterian oath 

 that he would bring in as fine a caribou as Elting, on this 

 his sixty-sixth birthday. The mush-pot got burned in the 

 scramble so that we could get nothing to eat for another 

 hour. It did not particularly matter, however, because 

 Elting and Mike were going to skin the bear and I intended 

 to prepare my caribou head for sending down to the shore, 

 and also to carry Elting's into camp. Dr. Young and 

 Kleinschmidt arrived about three o'clock; the little sky- 

 pilot carrying on his shoulders the head of a good caribou 

 which he had brought fom- miles, wading the icy river 

 on the way. Elting and Mike came in before sundown 

 with the bear skin, which had taken them four hours to 

 get off. Elting's hands were blistered painfully by the 

 long use of the knife. 



Our next tramp was the longest and hardest of this 

 trip. The caribou had become wary, for among us we 

 had been scouring the country rather thoroughly and the 

 game had moved off to a considerable distance. Thirteen 



