238 



THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



Our Cairn at Sand Hill 

 Bay 



All day long we had seen small bands of Caribou. 

 A score now appeared on a sandhill half a mile away ; 

 another and another lone specimen trotted past our 

 camp. One of these shopped and gave us an ex- 

 traordinary exhibition of agility in a 

 sort of St. Vitus's jig, jumping, kick- 

 ing, and shaking its head; I sus- 

 pect the nose-worms were annoying 

 it. While we lunched, a fawn came 



^ gazed curiously from a dig _ 



tance of 100 yards. In the after- 

 noon Preble returned from a walk to say that the 

 Caribou were visible in all directions, but not in great 

 bands. 



Next morning I was awakened by a Caribou clatter- 

 ing through camp within 30 feet of my tent. 



After breakfast we set off on foot northward to seek 

 for Musk-ox, keeping to the eastward of the Great 

 Fish River. The country is rolling, with occasional 

 rocky ridges and long, level meadows in the lowlands, 

 practically all of it would be considered horse country; 

 and nearly every meadow had two or three grazing 

 Caribou. 



About noon, when six or seven miles north of Ayl- 

 mer, we halted for rest and lunch on the top of the long 

 ridge of glacial dump that lies to the east of Great Fish 

 River. And now we had a most complete and spec- 

 tacular view of the immense open country that we 

 had come so far to see. It was spread before us like a 

 huge, minute, and wonderful chart, and plainly marked 

 with the processes of its shaping-time. 



