THE CHASE. 369 
His comrade follows, treading exactly in his footsteps and hold- 
ing the guns of both in a horizontal position, so that the muzzles 
project under the arms of him who carries the head. Both 
hunters have a fillet of white skin around their foreheads, and 
the foremost has a strip of the same around his waist. They 
approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly but 
setting them down somewhat suddenly, after the manner of a 
deer, and always taking care to lift right or left feet simultane- 
ously. If any of the herd leaves off feeding to gaze upon this 
extraordinary phenomenon it instantly stops, and the head begins 
to play its part by licking its shoulders and performing other 
necessary movements. In this way the hunters attain the very 
centre of the herd without exciting suspicion, and have leisure to 
single out the fattest. The hindmost man then pushes forward 
his comrade’s gun, the head is dropped, and they both fire nearly 
at the same instant. The deer scamper off, the hunters trot after 
them. In a short time the poor animals halt to ascertain the 
cause of their terror; their foes stop at the same moment, and, 
having loaded as they run, greet the gazers with a second fatal 
discharge. The consternation of the deer increase; they run to 
and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a great part of 
the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards.” 
This long extract is fully justified by the amount of real infor- 
mation which it contains as to the habits of the Barren-ground 
Caribou. From the facts stated I arrived at a different conclu- 
sion from that stated by Captain Franklin. He says the Rein- 
deer “has a quick eye;” but his conduct shows that he has the 
dullest eye of the genus. Any of the others with whose habits 
we are well acquainted would have detected the counterfeit, es- 
pecially when one hunter was following the other, long before 
they reached the herd. The facts related demonstrate that the 
sense of smell is not so reliable as has been often stated, else the 
hunters, under no circumstances, could have reached the middle 
of the herd without creating alarm. 
As further illustrating the habits of this animal, I must quote 
from what Captain Lyon says of the mode of hunting it by the 
Esquimaux. “The Reindeer visits the Polar regions at the lat- 
ter end of May, or early part of June, and remains till Septem- 
ber. On his first arrival he is thin and his flesh is tasteless, but 
the short summer is sufficient to fatten him to two or three 
inches on the haunches. When feeding on the level ground an 
Esquimau makes no attempt to approach him, but-should a few 
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