KILLING THE CARIBOU 43 



from his lordship, whom we found down on his knees 

 unable to rise. And then a battle royal started be- 

 tween the guide and the bull. The guide wanted to 

 finish him with the back of the axe, and in order to 

 do so he would angle around him, trying to get in a 

 blow on the forehead. The caribou, however, although 

 unable to raise himself to his feet, could and did swing 

 his great head and antlers around in every direction 

 with vicious and lightning-like quickness. Had he 

 caught the guide with his antlers it would have been 

 a sorry day for that personage. Another shot from 

 my rifle, however, settled the matter. To keep the 

 caribou in good shape we elevated his head and shoul- 

 ders upon some skids that were in the road, and then 

 tramped back to our camp, a walk of fully six miles. 

 Next day our three guides with my son and myself 

 went back, taking a camera with us, and although the 

 morning was rainy and squally we obtained a fairly 

 good picture of him. As he was frozen pretty stiff, 

 the men raised him up on his feet and fastened a rope^ 

 from each antler to a couple of trees, one on either 

 side of the road. These held up his head and steadied 

 his carcass so that my son was enabled to photograph 

 him in a standing position. 



The guides skinned him, but took off his head 

 unskinned. The next day, in order to incur no risk 

 of having the head spoiled by the wet weather or care- 

 less skinning, I sent a guide with it to Greenville, a 



