CARIBOU-HUNTING 



dred yards the caribou lay down in the open, and this time the 

 Indian crawled up so close to it that he almost singed the hair 

 with the flash of the carbine. This shot through the shoulders, 

 at three yards' distance, instantly killed the wounded caribou. 

 Mac tried to explain his poor marksmanship by the lateness of 

 the day, indistinct sights, poor shooting-rifle, and a few other 

 time-worn excuses; but the laugh with which I greeted these 

 suggestions put him in a sulky mood for nearly two days. On 

 reaching camp I did not hesitate to state the particulars of the 

 chase to the cook, and Hungerford, who loathed Indians in 

 general, and MacClusky in particular, did not by any means 

 allow the incident to die a natural death. 



In the morning, while Mac was hunting for our horses, he 

 almost stumbled over a fair-sized bull which, with six cows, 

 was lying down among the stunted trees in a gully sheltered 

 from the wind. Accompanied by a cold, biting breeze, we led 

 the horses up the valley, which was now covered with a light 

 fall of snow, packed a load of meat from the young bull cari- 

 bou, skinned the lynx, and at noon camped in some stunted 

 firs near the scene of the death of the old bull. While Hunger- 

 ford was cooking luncheon we decapitated this caribou and 

 brought the trophy into camp. About three o'clock Mac and 

 I started on foot through the pass, on the lookout for game. 



Three-quarters of a mile from camp we suddenly caught 

 sight of a band of about eighty caribou coming through a 

 barren which filled the narrowest part of the pass. This mass 

 of brown and gray animals, over which towered the antlers of 

 several large bulls, was about six hundred yards away. The 

 caribou of which it was composed were travelling at a fast walk. 

 By a spirited sprint of two hundred yards we reached a small 

 grassy knoll in the middle of the barren as the whole band, 

 now at a swinging trot, swept by. The nearest caribou came 

 within fifty yards. The branching antlers of four large bulls 

 loomed up over the gray backs of the mass of caribou, and as 



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