250 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



him carefully for about a mile and found that he was 

 going to pass about half a mile from me. I then ran as 

 hard as I could to a place I judged to be directly in his 

 road and there I lay down. I was so badly out of breath 

 that had he come along directly I should probably have 

 missed him, but something induced him to stop for ten or 

 fifteen minutes and when he finally came over the ridge 

 about two hundred yards away from me I was over the 

 worst effects of my running, although I am not sure that 

 my hand was really steady. The magnificent animal 

 crumpled up with the first bullet. That evening Kunal- 

 uak did not argue that it had been a chance shot 7 but I 

 am not sure but it was. 



From this time on I did my own hunting. I have 

 usually been in command of the traveling parties and it 

 has been optional with me what to do. Because hunting 

 is pleasanter than taking care of the dog teams or building 

 the camps, I have generally assigned the hunting to my- 

 self while my Eskimo or white companions have had to 

 do the harder and more difficult work. Still this has been 

 not wholly because I was in command, but partly because 

 many years of hunting have made me an expert in that 

 line of work, just as any ordinary person can become an 

 expert in anything through long practice. 



When you consider that an experienced hunter is an 

 expert in a very simple task, you will not think it remark- 

 able that we count on being able to secure at least three 

 out of every four caribou we try to get. The same pro- 

 portion applies to seals and polar bears. This is why we 

 feel no hesitancy in making journeys of hundreds and 

 even thousands of miles in the arctic regions, depending 

 on hunting entirely for our food. If you read of travelers 

 starving to death up there it will be through some special 



