INCIDENTS OF STII.L-HUNTING 243 



and a few cross the river every night to feed amongst the 

 loose timber situated on the north bank, as well as to lie 

 up where the trees are not so closely packed as on the 

 south side. 



It was, therefore, necessary to become a "still-hunter," 

 and to seek the stag by slow and careful manoeuvres in the 

 semi-open forest to the north. Numerous tall larches are 

 scattered throughout this country, and from the topmost 

 branches of these, small openings in the woods and various 

 glades can be spied at intervals ; so during the next eight 

 days Joe and I spent our time alternately creeping slowly 

 up-wind about the forest in moccasins, and spying likely 

 bits of country from the tree-tops. This is by far the most 

 entertaining and difificult method of hunting the caribou. It 

 is quite distinct from river-hunting, which 1 have already 

 described, and which requires patience, quickness, and straight 

 shooting, sometimes at long range ; or open-ground stalking, 

 which is easy ; or waiting on trails at migration time, which 

 is scarcely sport at all. Once in the timber, with its eddying 

 winds, its intense stillness, and its abundance of noisy debris, 

 the caribou stag becomes a high-class beast of the chase, 

 and almost as difficult to kill as the wapiti or the red stag 

 under similar circumstances. With the trees around to help 

 the sight, sound, and olfactory nerves, he seems to gain 

 unusual perception, especially during the short season prior 

 to the taking of wives. The crack of a stick, the slightest 

 movement, or the puff of the tainted atmosphere, and he is 

 off full gallop without further inquiry. Those who have only 

 seen the caribou stag under conditions of the "rut" or the 

 blind movement of migration, are in no sense qualified to 

 speak of him as a beast of the chase, as it only takes in one 

 point of view. In the wood he is a different animal altogether, 



