468 BIG GAME OF NORTH A.Mi:i:i( A. 



North American Continent? There certainly appear to 

 exist some strongly marked physical simihiritics l)etvveen 

 the Tete du Boule Indians and the Laplanders. 



Now I am obliged to come to the melancholy and tragic 

 part of the story, which, were it a mere fiction, instead of 

 a generally accepted tradition in the unwritten records of 

 the tribe, I should tell in a different manner. 



On one occasion, as usual with him, Sabourin was out 

 alone, hunting Caribou. He had driven his team up to a 

 herd, and had succeeded in killing two of their number. 

 He was then about twenty miles from home. Shortly 

 before sunset, he had fastened the carcasses to his sledge 

 and started for home, which he expected to reach in a 

 couple of hours. 



Night had fallen, and while passing through a pine for- 

 est, he was suddenly startled by the howling of Wolves 

 close at hand; and before he could unloose and throw the 

 carcasses off his sledge, the savage animals, in great num- 

 bers, rushed upon his team, both of which they i)ulled 

 down and tore to pieces in a few minutes. Meanwhile, the 

 hunter had climbed to the branches of a pine-tree. He 

 carried his gun up with him, and commenced firing down 

 upon the dark mass of Wolves. He killed a number 

 of them, as was seen afterward, which were soon devoured 

 by their fellows; but his ammunition soon became ex- 

 hausted. Still the blood-roused monsters kept watch. 



Daylight at last came, and all was silence in that dreary 

 solitude. Not having arrived at the camp, fears were felt 

 for his safety, and a searching-party started u^dou his trail 

 next day, and on arriving at the scene of the last night's 

 tragedy, they discovered the missing man still seated on a 

 branch of the i)ine, about twelve feet from the ground. 

 One of the Indians climbed uj), after vainly uttering many 

 shouts to wake him from his sleep, as they imagined, and 

 upon touching the hunter, he found that he was dead. He 

 had been frozen stiff. 



It is well known that intense cold superinduces sleep. 

 The Indians rightly concluded that poor Sabourin had 



