224 HUNTING CAMPS. 



tired, and it was not the loss of my pack's weight that re- 

 newed me, but that eagerness which only comes to a hunter 

 when, after days of failure, he sees a chance of retrieving 

 his fortunes at the eleventh hour. 



As I said, we ran down the slope and along the savanne 

 at a pace much too great for steady shooting ; but 

 the light was fading, and the caribou on his feet, conse- 

 quently he might wander away anywhere among the clumps 

 and bushes, so that speed was quite in the essence of our 

 undertaking. After we had covered half a mile, we found, 

 to our disgust, that a river lay between us and the caribou. 

 Its edges were frozen, and no more than a dark stream 

 flowed in the middle, but luckily we struck it at a point 

 where the water was not very deep. It was, however, ex- 

 ceedingly cold, and the current quite strong enough as it 

 swirled to our armpits, but we soon broke through the ice 

 and were climbing the bank upon the farther side. Here 

 we found ourselves in what must have been either one large 

 marsh dotted with trees, or a series of little ones. Edward 

 made for a point which should bring us within fifty yards 

 of the spot where he had seen the caribou, but when we 

 arrived there the stag had disappeared. As we were not 

 certain in which direction he was travelling, the only thing 

 to be done was to take our chance of picking up his 

 tracks. 



This we did with as little delay as possible, and finding 

 that they led across the wind, circled a little to the left 

 and, passing by a couple of clumps of balsam and juniper, 

 we perceived ahead of us a large fallen tree, and beyond 

 the fallen tree the caribou stag lying down in the open, 

 at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards. We 

 saw him, and he gained some hint of our presence at almost 

 exactly the same instant. He sprang to his feet as I dropped 

 on my knee and fired through a gap in the roots of the 

 dead tree. I heard the bullet tell, and the caribou staggered ; 



