CARIBOU-HUNTING 



antlers intact, although the rear-quarters of the caribou were 

 badly mangled by coming in contact with the rocks of the 

 moraine below the glacier. The bull had been shot through 

 the lungs, and as we looked up the slope we could trace its 

 erratic course as it slid down by a broad red streak which zig- 

 zagged along the bluish-white glacier front. 



By continuous travelling we reached camp about eleven 

 o'clock that night, crossing the glaciers and the intervening range 

 of rugged mountains in inky darkness. We had been travelling 

 steadily for over sixteen hours, and after a hearty meal of cari- 

 bou steaks were lost in sleep the moment we touched the 

 blankets. Mac spent the entire next morning in tracking 

 down and bringing into camp our horses, which had wandered 

 over a range of mountains into an adjoining valley. By noon 

 the two of us, leading the four horses loaded with a light camp- 

 ing outfit, set forth to collect the heads of the caribou shot 

 during the previous day. In crossing the first pass we saw the 

 sheep of the day before, and lower down on the mountain- slope 

 drove the horses to within a couple of hundred yards of a band 

 of six inquisitive caribou. At dark we pitched the tent in a 

 clump of stunted trees within a hundred yards of the carcass 

 of the second caribou killed the day previous. The next morn- 

 ing we awoke early, to discover that the ground was covered 

 with two inches of fresh snow. As we cooked breakfast over 

 the camp-fire we could see several bands of caribou feeding on 

 the hillsides within a mile of the tent. 



In a cold, cutting wind we spent the day in collecting and 

 skinning out the heads of the caribou. While we were bring- 

 ing in the last one an old bull with a fine head, who was at- 

 tracted by the unusual sight of pack-horses, approached to 

 within forty yards. It stood out conspicuously against the 

 white background, and I succeeded in securing several photo- 

 graphs before it finally became alarmed at the restlessness of 

 the horses. Then it trotted slowly away, stopping occasionally 



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