90 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
out of sight, which in so large an animal appears impossi- 
ble. To accomplish this, they lower their backs, push their 
heads far forward, with the antlers laying close along the 
withers, while each foot is raised, and, with very bended 
knee, placed far and silently in advance of the other. To 
observe this done, the action is so slow and measured, that 
you can not help being astonished at the rapidity of pro- 
gression that results. The moose, also, will practice this 
ruse to avoid observation; but it is far from as great an 
adept in it as the caribou. In summer this animal almost 
becomes aquatic in its life; for, whether it result from the 
pestering annoyance of the legions of mosquitoes or black 
flies that constantly hover around them, or its love for the 
refreshing influence of the bath, it appears to spend day 
after day submerged, with little else than its nose, eyes, and 
horns above water. At this season it feeds but little dur- 
ing day; but when the sun has set, and the atmosphere be- 
comes cooler, it sallies off to the woodland and swamps in 
search of its favorite lichens and ground shrubs. The 
shooting of one species of deer so much resembles another, 
and I have already described so many adventures in pur- 
suit of moose and, hereafter, in the pursuit of the more 
common Virginian deer, that I will tax the reader’s pa-. 
tience no further than to add, that to be successful in pur- 
suit of caribou, unless when they are swimming the great 
rivers in their annual migrations, the hunter must be cool 
and self-possessed, have an extensive knowledge of wood- 
craft, and powers of endurance to bear fatigue of no ordi- 
nary quality. 
The peculiar and varied formations that the horns of the 
caribou assume have been the subject of much controversy 
among the cognoscenti. Why palmation should occur in 
oné antler over the brow and in another at the extremities, 
has been accounted for by individuals doubtless to their 
