BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 417 
bulls is in the rutting season, when they are a little less cautious 
than usual, and when there is generally a good ‘tracking snow’ 
to help the hunter, who requires all the help he can get in his 
a with the keenest-scented beast on earth. Dull-witted 
_ the caribou may be, and I very much doubt whether his eyes 
are any better than a man’s, but his nose is, as our neighbours 
_ say, a ‘holy terror.’ I have seen a caribou allow a man to 
__ walk almost up to him in very thin covert, and have had his 
congener, the Spitzbergen reindeer, walk straight dack to me 
when I crouched (after ‘jumping’ him) to see what I was. I 
_ shot him at ten paces to save myself from being run over by 
the inquisitive fool. The last caribou shot by friends of mine ~ 
_ out here were killed by the lazy one of the party, while satisfying _ 
_ an inordinate appetite at the unreasonable hour of mid-day, 
_ andin camp. Captain L., like an honest hunter, was scouring 
_ the hills ; Major P. was feeding contentedly in camp. _L., of 
_ course, never got a shot during the expedition, but three cari- 
_ bou walked up to lunch with P. and were shot. 
_ But if the eyes of caribou are not very trustworthy, their 
_ ears are about as good as the ears of other forest beasts, and 
_ their noses are matchless. I have known a herd strike the 
_ track of a man in the snowa day old, and turn as if their noses 
- had touched hot iron ; and once a caribou has satisfied himself 
that there is a man about, he will not stop travelling for half a 
; good feed won’t tempt him, deep snow won’t stop him, 
snow-shoes can’t catch him— in fact, the hunter had better look 
for another, and keep on the right side of him when he finds 
B 
' Caribou feed upon very much the same food as the moose, 
browsing for the most part, and depending largely during the 
4} spth of winter upon beard moss and other lichens for support. 
€aribou hunting in British Columbia is sufficiently fascinating 
in n itself but for some of us it has an added charm from the 
fact that the best chance of getting a grizzly occurs when the 
Fe ones and offal of two or three of these deer are lying about in 
the upland forest. Where the caribou are, there also are the 
a EE 
