90 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



out of sight, which in so large an animal appears impossi- 

 ble. To accomplish this, they lower their backs, push their 

 heads far forward, with the antlers laying close along the 

 withers, while each foot is raised, and, with very bended 

 knee, placed far and silently in advance of the other. To 

 observe this done, the action is so slow and measured, that 

 you can not help being astonished at the rapidity of pro- 

 gression that results. The moose, also, will practice this 

 ruse to avoid observation ; but it is far from as great an 

 adept in it as the caribou. In summer this animal almost 

 becomes aquatic in its life ; for, whether it result from the 

 pestering annoyance of the legions of mosquitoes or black 

 flies that constantly hover around them, or its love for the 

 refreshing influence of the bath, it appears to spend day 

 after day submerged, with little else than its nose, eyes, and 

 horns above water. At this season it feeds but little dur- 

 ing day ; but when the sun has set, and the atmosphere be- 

 comes cooler, it sallies off to the woodland and swamps in 

 search of its favorite lichens and ground shrubs. The 

 shooting of one species of deer so much resembles another, 

 and I have already described so many adventures in pur- 

 suit of moose and, hereafter, in the pursuit of the more 

 common Virginian deer, that I will tax the reader's pa- 

 tience no further than to add, that to be successful in pur- 

 suit of caribou, unless when they are swimming the great 

 rivers in their annual migrations, the hunter must be cool 

 and self-possessed, have an extensive knowledge of wood- 

 craft, and powers of endurance to bear fatigue of no ordi- 

 nary quality. 



The peculiar and varied formations that the horns of the 

 caribou assume have been the subject of much controversy 

 among the cognoscenti. Why palmation should occur in 

 one antler over the brow and in another at the extremities, 

 has been accounted for by individuals doubtless to their 



