Natural Telepathy 



moods. In this case the solitary caribou was 

 tremendously startled; for I was very near, and 

 the first intimation he had of me, or I of him, was 

 when my snow-shoe caught on a snag and I 

 pitched over a log almost on top of him. Yet the 

 difficulty of drawing a conclusion from any single 

 instance appears in this: that I have more than 

 once stalked, killed and dressed an animal with- 

 out disturbing others of his kind near at hand (it 

 may be that no alarm was sent out, for the animal 

 was shot before he knew the danger, and in the 

 deep woods animals pay little attention to the 

 sound of a rifle) ; and again, when I have been 

 trying to approach a herd from leeward, I have 

 seen them move away hurriedly, silently, suspi- 

 ciously, in obedience to some warning which 

 seemed to spread through the woods like a 

 contagion. 



The latter experience is common enough among 

 hunters of big game, who are often at a loss to 

 explain the sudden flight of animals that a moment 

 ago, under precisely the same outward influences, 

 were feeding or resting without suspicion. Thus, 

 you may be stalking a big herd of elk, or wapiti, 

 which are spread out loosely over half a mountain- 

 side. You are keen for the master bull with the 

 noble antlers; nothing else interests you, more's 

 the pity; but you soon learn that the cunning old 



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