HOW I LEARNED TO HUNT CARIBOU 259 



quently it works. On this occasion, however, I merely 

 took careful aim at an animal about three hundred yards 

 away. It dropped so instantaneously that although the 

 sound of the bullet striking it induced the other caribou 

 to look up, they recognized no sign of real danger. They 

 were, however, alert and when they saw the second 

 caribou fall they ran together into a group and moved 

 somewhat towards me. I now shot animals on the outer 

 margin of the group and as each fell, the others would 

 run a little away from that one. Their retreat in any 

 direction was stopped by killing the foremost animal in 

 the retreat, whereupon the band would turn in the oppo- 

 site direction. 



It would not have been difficult for me to kill the 

 whole band alone, but I was not shooting alone. From 

 a point somewhat above and behind me I could hear 

 other shots, and some animals I was not aiming at were 

 dropping. Without looking around I knew what this 

 meant. My companions traveling along shore on the ice 

 had seen the caribou and had waited for some time until 

 they began to fear that I might have missed the band. 

 The two sick men had then been left behind in camp 

 while their Eskimo companion had come inland to try 

 to get the caribou. When he got near he saw that I was 

 approaching them and very wisely did not interfere. 

 There is nothing so likely to spoil a caribou hunt as two 

 hunters whose plans conflict. Even when they have a 

 chance to consult at the beginning of the hunt, two men 

 are less likely to be successful than one. For one thing, 

 caribou may see a black dot on the landscape and take 

 no warning from it, but if they see two black dots and 

 later notice that they are either closer together or farther 

 apart than they were a moment before, this makes a 



