356 MANUAL FOE TOUNG SFOETSMEN. 



and whatever else one may ; ask for explanations, not at 

 the time, but by the camp fire, when the hunt is over ; keep 

 cool, and when the critical moment come, if come it may, 

 take as good an aim and shoot as quickly and as straight 

 as he can. 



Elk and moose hunting, and yet more, cariboo hunting, 

 partake all of the character of still-hunting — except the 

 pursuit of the former when it is made with greyhounds or 

 deer hounds on the prairies — with the addition of difficulty 

 and hardship of running many miles on snow-shoes in pur- 

 suit of the vast and cumbrous animals over the frozen snow 

 crust of the wintry wilderness, and camping out many nights 

 in succession, under the inclement sky of the high northern 

 latitudes, with the thermometer at 40 degrees, or more, 

 below zero. 



Buffalo are sometimes stalked, but more usually ridden 

 down by mere speed of horses without the aid of hounds, 

 and shot in full career with carbine or rifle, by the hunter 

 galloping side by side with them. The horsemanship is 

 the great art to be attained, and skill is needful both to 

 gallop at speed safely over the broken and interrupted 

 surface of the wild plains, and to sit firmly and securely, 

 when the horse swerves or sheers off, as ho is taught to do, 

 the instant the shot is fired, to avoid the sudden charge of 

 the infuriate beast. 



The best place at which to fire in any large animal in 

 motion, is immediately behind the bend of the shoulder, 

 where the fore-arm is articulated with the shoulder-blade, 

 at about two thirds the distance from the withers, measured 

 downward to the elbow. If the ball, or charge of buck- 



