CHAPTER XXXII 



THE TREELESS PLAINS 



On August 7 we left Camp Last Woods. Our various 

 specimens, with a stock of food, were secured, as usual, 

 in a cache high in two trees, in this case those already 

 used by Tyrrell seven years before, and guarded by the 

 magic necklace of cod hooks. 



By noon (in 3 hours) we made fifteen miles, camping 

 far beyond Twin Buttes. All day long the boat shot 

 through water crowded with drowned gnats. These 

 were about 10 to the square inch near shore and for 

 about twenty yards out, after that 10 to the square 

 foot for two hundred or three hundred yards still 

 farther from shore, and for a quarter mile wide they 

 were 10 to the square yard. 



This morning the wind turned and blew from the 

 south. At 2 p. M. we saw a band of some 60 Caribou 

 travelling southward; these were the first seen for two 

 or three days. After this we saw many odd ones, and 

 about 3 o'clock a band of 400 or 500. At night we 

 camped on Casba River, having covered 36 miles in 7 

 hours and 45 minutes. 



The place we had selected for camp proved to be a 

 Caribou crossing. As we drew near a dozen of them 

 came from the east and swam across. A second band 

 of 8 now appeared. We gave chase. They spurted; 

 so did we. Our canoe was going over 6 miles an hour, 



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