278 The Caribou 



closed, and the animals are killed usually by shoot- 

 ing them from the outside through the branches 

 of the trees that form their prison. Stabbing the 

 animals when feeding on rocky ground is also 

 resorted to, and the Eskimo are such adepts at 

 this method of hunting that they frequently 

 get within a few paces of the game before 

 shooting. Caribou are afflicted with great curi- 

 osity, and will approach closely any object that 

 is new or strange, provided it is motionless ; and 

 of this weakness the Eskimo takes advantage. 

 Having placed himself behind a rock in the vi- 

 cinity of some deer that are feeding, he imitates 

 their hoarse bellow to attract their attention; 

 and in a short time some of them will certainly 

 draw near to investigate the quiet figure from 

 near which the sound proceeds, circling round 

 and round and gradually drawing near until one 

 or more usually pay for their weakness with their 

 lives. Probably no animal is so easily approached 

 as are these Barren-Ground caribou in the sum- 

 mer time, and enormous numbers are slain every 

 year, so many, indeed, that it would seem the 

 race must become extinct in a comparatively 

 brief period. In their dispositions they are not 

 unlike sheep in some particulars, especially in 

 following a leader; and sometimes a herd will 

 run the gantlet of a line of hunters simply 

 because one stupid animal had gone that way 



