248 HUNTING CAMPS. 



under the trees little snow had penetrated, and the trail 

 in consequence was hard to take up. But I found his 

 tracks where he had paused between two trees, and the 

 displaced snow on the branches bore clear evidence of a 

 spread of horn of over four feet. In another half-mile I 

 lost the trail completely, and it was nearly two hours later 

 before I crossed it again on the edge of an alder swamp 

 at the base of the hill, where, after a prolonged struggle 

 with the alders in which I certainly was not the victor, I 

 gave up the pursuit, and, passing back along the lower 

 ridges of the hill, came to a well-defined path that had 

 been cut by migrating caribou. This path was as wide, 

 though not as deep, as those which I had seen in 

 Newfoundland ; it presented but few fresh tracks, and, 

 within no very long distance, debouched on the shores of 

 a small lake, where I ate my lunch, and while I ate I 

 heard a cow moose call several times on the mountain 

 side above me. 



I passed the early part of the afternoon searching for 

 this moose, but when I at last discovered her tracks I 

 found she was alone, and therefore not worth following. 

 I next mounted to the top of the hill through the wood of 

 birches, and leaving this behind I came out above it on the 

 open hill-top, from which I gained a wonderful view. I 

 was about to enjoy looking round the country when, almost 

 straight below me, I caught glimpses through the trees of 

 a herd of caribou, seemingly about thirty strong, on a 

 marsh round the edge of which I had in the morning tracked 

 the moose. I came down the mountain at my best speed, 

 and was soon lying hidden among the bushes within a 

 hundred yards of the caribou. A very fine stag escorted 

 this herd, and also two smaller ones ; the big fellow's 

 horns, though long and beautifully curved, were compara- 

 tively light. I lay watching them for upwards of an hour 

 before an outlying doe winded my trail of the morning and 



