98 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



willows and climb for the rams. We had hardly 

 started across the tundra than we located a herd of 

 eighteen caribou one thousand yards dead ahead, 

 with only a few scattered willows and several two- 

 feet-deep gulches between us for cover. The wind, 

 however, was in our favor and we began a very dif- 

 ficult stalk across the open. 



By crawling along on all fours we reached the 

 scanty cover of the willows and made our way up 

 the shallow gulch, when we again crawled across 

 to another patch of willows. The caribou were 

 two hundred yards away, some feeding and some 

 lying down; one cow looked directly at Baker, who 

 dropped on all fours and began to eat grass in a 

 vain effort to deceive the animal into believing the 

 guide to be a caribou ; but the animal's sight was too 

 good, and she gave the alarm and the herd was off 

 at a rapid pace. The writer ran through the wil- 

 lows in order to get a clear shot at the largest bull 

 and broke his leg at the first shot at two hundred 

 yards' range; the animal continued to run, and my 

 second and third shots were complete misses, while 

 the fourth shot ranged through the shoulder and 

 slowed him down considerably. At two hundred 

 and fifty yards the bull stood looking at us for a 

 moment, and the writer recovered from his poor 

 shooting and put the bull out with the fifth shot. 

 When we had skinned out the animal and dressed 

 the meat and packed it on our horses, we started 



