434 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the Great Fish River has always been the summer hunting — 
ground of the Yellow Knives; and yet their chief told me — 
that he had never known these animals more numerous than ~ 
at the present day, and certainly a great many were killed © 
while we were waiting for the ice in the river to break up. 
But this is only the edge of the musk-ox country: the rocky © 
wilderness stretches far towards the north and east to the 
Arctic Ocean, uninhabited except by a few wandering Esqui- — 
maux close to the coast. Into this desert the winter hunters _ 
can never penetrate, as it lies too far beyond the tree-line to 
admit of wood being hauled on dog-sleighs. It is true that the — 
number of hides exported by the Hudson Bay Company is — 
greater than it used to be, but this is easily accounted for by 
the fact that the robes have increased in value, and the price © 
now paid to the Indians in the north is sufficient to encourage © 
them to haul the skins to the Fort, instead of using them for — 
moccasins, as was formerly the case. q 
In spite of the many stories that the Indians told me, and — 
the evident dread in which they hold the musk ox, I could not | 
see anything to justify the belief that it is a dangerous animal — 
to attack. I never sawanything resembling a charge, although ~ 
I have often been close up to a badly wounded bull on pur- © 
pose to see if there was any truth in these reports. But the ~ 
Indians are given to superstition, and attribute miraculous | 
powers to the musk ox, and probably the ferocious appearance 
of an old bull has worked upon their timid imaginations till — 
they are ready to believe thoroughly in these traditions. q 
On expeditions of this kind there is really no sport in the 
ordinary acceptance of the term, and under any circumstances ~ 
the musk ox is so easily approached that one soon tires of the 
slaughter ; the same thing applies to the caribou, which are i 
sometimes found in almost incredible numbers in the Barren ' 
Ground in summer or the woods in winter. But it is never a 
certainty that the game will be forthcoming when most re-— 
quired for meat, and the knowledge that starvation, even to - 
the last extremes, may come upon you at any time, goes far 
