A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



Finally, becoming thoroughly alarmed, this bull trotted back 

 to the shelter of the timber, where I was unable to follow it in 

 my stocking feet. 



On the way back to camp that evening, after a tiring and 

 unsuccessful day's hunting in a depressing drizzle, Dell and 

 I stepped out of the spruces into a wide, circular barren, 

 to be confronted by a large band of caribou at close range. 

 About seventy yards distant, in the open, stood a solid mass of 

 about thirty-five cows, with every head turned in our direction, 

 while beyond them a three-year-old bull was nervously trotting 

 back and forth in the short grass, with action that would have 

 put a hackney to shame. Forty yards to one side of the band 

 the dark-colored bull stood, with bristling white mane, lowered 

 antlers, and fore-legs braced, challenging continuously with a 

 series of low grunts. The rich coloring of this band of caribou, 

 contrasting with the yellowish brown of the short, dead grass 

 of the barren, and framed in the distance by a black ridge of 

 spruce over which a red sun was setting, made a picture not 

 easily forgotten. 



The next few moments were punctuated by the repeated 

 sharp reports of a .30-. 40 Winchester, and immediately the scene 

 changed. A cloud of thin blue smoke drifted along the edge 

 of the barren ; the old bull lay motionless on its side in a rapidly 

 reddening pool; a fat and edible cow w^as struggling its last a 

 few yards beyond, and the remainder of the band had disap- 

 peared among the dripping spruces. This bull possessed antlers 

 measuring thirty-six inches and thirty-six and one-quarter 

 inches along the beams, with a spread of twenty-eight and 

 one-half inches between the tips, and carrying twenty -five 

 points. We spent the next day in skinning and cleaning heads, 

 and packing meat into our camp, which now presented quite 

 a cheerful appearance. 



That night grizzlies moved into our vicinity, and the next 

 day proved to be an interesting one. In the morning, during 



