HOW I LEARNED TO HUNT CARIBOU 255 



were lying down, for caribou are like cattle in their habit 

 of lying down for long periods. I now commenced a 

 cautious advance, not along the actual trail but crisscros- 

 sing it from high hilltop to high hilltop, hoping to get a 

 view of the animals while they were at least half a mile 

 from me and while I was beyond the range of their eye- 

 sight, for they cannot see a man under even the most 

 favorable conditions farther off than half a mile. Under 

 ordinary conditions they would not see you much beyond 

 a quarter of a mile. 



Finally I saw the band lying quietly on some flat land. 

 There was no cover to enable me to approach safely 

 within five hundred yards and that is too far for good 

 shooting. I thought these might be the only caribou in 

 the whole country. We had thirteen hungry dogs and 

 two sick men, and now that I had a large band before me 

 it was my business to get enough food at one time to en- 

 able us to spend at that place two or three weeks while 

 the men had a chance to regain their health and the dogs 

 to regain their flesh and strength. 



On a calm day when caribou can hear you farther than 

 you can shoot, there is only one method of hunting. You 

 must study their movements from afar until you make up 

 your mind which direction they are going. Then you 

 must walk in a wide curve around them until you are in 

 the locality towards which they are moving and well 

 beyond earshot. This takes judgment, for they usually 

 travel nearly or quite into the wind and you must not 

 allow them to scent you. You, therefore, have to choose 

 a place which you think is near enough to their course so 

 that they will pass within shooting distance, and still 

 not directly enough in front so that they can smell 

 you. 



