THE UNKNOWN 225 



be a family of Red-throated Loons, yodelling .their 

 inspiring marching song. 



One day when at Gravel Mountain, old Weeso came 

 to camp in evident fear "far off he had seen a man" 

 In this country a man must mean an Eskimo;- with 

 them the Indian has a long feud; of them he is in terror. 

 We never learned the truth; I think he was mistaken. 



Once or twice the long howl of the White Wolf 

 sounded from the shore, and every day we saw a few 

 Caribou. 



A great many of the single Caribou were on the small 

 islands. In six cases that came under close observa- 

 tion the animal in question had a broken leg. A 

 broken leg generally evidences recent inroads by 

 hunters, but the nearest Indians were 200 miles to the 

 south, and the nearest Eskimo 300 miles to the north. 

 There was every reason to believe that we were the 

 only human beings in that vast region, and certainly 

 we had broken no legs. Every Caribou fired at (8) 

 had been secured and used. There is only one danger- 

 ous large enemy common in this country; that is the 

 White Wolf. And the more I pondered it, the more it 

 seemed sure that the Wolves had broken the Cari- 

 bous' legs. 



How! This is the history of each case : The Caribou 

 is so much swifter than the Wolves that the latter have 

 no chance in open chase; they therefore adopt the 

 stratagem of a sneaking surround and a drive over the 

 rocks or a precipice, where the Caribou, if not actually 

 killed, is more or less disabled. In some cases only a 

 'leg is broken, and then the Caribou knows his only 



