228 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



glasses as to teach the use of the rifle or the understanding of any 

 of the principles of hunting in the open country. The green man 

 stands erect with his heels together, lifts the glasses jauntily to his 

 eyes and spins slowly around on one heel, taking from half a min- 

 ute to a minute to make a complete survey of the horizon. Then 

 he announces that there is no game in sight. The experienced 

 hunter will take some pains to find the best place to sit down, will 

 bring out from somewhere a piece of flannel that is clean no mat- 

 ter how dirty he himself and every other item of his outfit may be, 

 and wipe every exposed lens till he is sure there isn't a speck or 

 smudge anywhere. If the landscape is well within the power of his 

 glasses he will probably rest his elbows on his knees, but if the dis- 

 tance is great or the wind blowing, he will lie down flat with elbows 

 on the ground, or will build up out of stones or any available ma- 

 terial a rest for the glasses that cannot be shaken by the wind. 

 If the wind is blowing hard he may even place a fifteen- or twenty- 

 pound stone on top to keep them steady. There is never any pivot- 

 ing or swinging motion as he brings them to bear upon successive 

 fields of view. If the angle of vision is six degrees, as it may be 

 with six-power glasses, or three degrees with twelve-power, he ex- 

 amines thoroughly the field disclosed by their first position and 

 then moves them a less number of degrees than they cover, so that 

 the second field of view shall slightly overlap the first. In calm 

 weather and with an ordinary landscape it takes about fifteen 

 minutes for one good look around from a hilltop, and under special 

 conditions it may take a good deal more. If, for instance, some- 

 where near the limit of the power of the glasses is seen a patch that 

 may be a caribou but which may also be a stone or a wolf, it may 

 take an hour of study to make sure. 



Six little white specks on a hillside were apparent now on what 

 I thought was the mainland, a mile or two from the beach. The 

 sky was clear and there was that quivering, wavy motion in the 

 atmosphere which is due to the sun shining on areas of different na- 

 ture, causing air currents to rise that differ in temperature and 

 humidity. Through such an atmosphere all things have blurred out- 

 lines even if their shapes are not otherwise distorted, and the shape 

 may easily appear fantastic. Small stones, round or flat, may look 

 like tall pillars and even appear to move. If stones or the like 

 appear to move they will all seem to be moving in the same direc- 

 tion. This may be the case with caribou, although they seldom 

 retain their relative positions as immovable bodies seen through 

 a mirage would do. My six specks looked round and had blurred 



