686 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1918 
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Photograph used by courtesy of Brooklyn Museum. 
Group of caribou collected and mounted by the author in the positions the animals assume when they scent the hunter 
After watching for about four hours with¬ 
out any caribou making an appearance, 
Pennell remarked that he would “bile” the 
kettle, as the Newfoundlanders say when 
making tea. While he was thus engaged, 
I caught a glimpse of something in the dis¬ 
tant landscape—a mere dot which attracted 
my attention at once. It looked like one 
of the moss-covered boulders which dotted 
the sloping hills of the horizon, but I no¬ 
ticed a slight movement, and on focusing 
the glasses more clearly four caribou 
loomed up on the lens. 
“Here they come!” I called to Pennell, 
who dropped the tea kettle and came run¬ 
ning up the rock on which we had our 
lookout. A few more times we passed the 
glasses from one to the other and then de¬ 
cided to begin the stalk. The “deer” were 
moving along at a lively pace, walking in 
single file for a few moments and break¬ 
ing into a trot every little while. They 
were following their lead or trail which 
ran north and south. It was thus a case 
of intercepting them as they travelled in 
our direction. This may seem quite easy, 
and sometimes it is, but more often the 
caribou make a slight detour around a 
pond which brings them out of reach of the 
average shot, and here is where the expe¬ 
rience of a native guide comes into play. 
He has a way of foretelling just the direc¬ 
tion a caribou is going to take and the 
trail he is most likely to follow. Pennell 
judged this problem as accurately as many 
others of a similar nature. The “deer” 
headed slightly to the left and began to 
graze. After a lively sprint of about three 
hundred yards in their direction (under 
cover of a clump of spruce trees) we grad¬ 
ually worked closer, but before we came 
within good range we were detected by an 
alert young doe who communicated her 
fears to the three other animals who were 
slightly ahead. We stood motionless in 
order to cause no further alarm. Remark¬ 
ing to Pennell that it was a long shot, I 
held the front ivory sight high up on the 
shoulder of the nearest stag. At the re¬ 
port of the gun only three caribou rushed 
away. We heard the impact of the bullet 
distinctly and rushed up to find a young 
spike-horned stag. At once we made cer¬ 
tain measurements and began to skin and 
preserve the first specimen for the Mu¬ 
seum group. 
T WO days more passed by and no cari¬ 
bou were seen. The morning of the 
thirty-first broke stormy with a pene¬ 
trating cold rain, and wind blowing in the 
wrong direction for hunting. However, we 
started out, arrived at the lookout and 
ipade a fire by which we could keep com¬ 
fortable and still scan the marshes for 
signs of game. At noon we were joined 
by two other hunters, and after a brief 
lunch of tea, bread and cold caribou meat, 
we resumed our vigil until about two 
o’clock in the afternoon when we spied a 
single doe, which was added to the col¬ 
lection, just as she stepped across the re¬ 
serve line. 
Waiting for caribou is sometimes a mo¬ 
notonous form of hunting, but when a 
large herd is spied the excitement is in¬ 
tensified and the ancient spirit of the chase 
asserts itself. All other interests fade, and 
the primitive man steps forth to bring 
down the quarry just as he did in the days 
when hunting was the only means of ob¬ 
taining a livelihood. The remaining four 
caribou that I killed were taken in a man¬ 
ner quite similar to the first two, although 
certain incidents in the hunting of each 
specimen stand out clearly. In one in¬ 
stance, we sighted a herd of twenty-one, 
all strung out in single file, rushing along 
during a snowstorm. It was a wonderful 
sight and something not to be forgotten. 
This herd was a long distance off and in 
order to cut across their trail and inter¬ 
cept them it was evident that we would 
have to run around a lake or else take the 
risky chance of travelling over the thin ice 
which covered its surface. We decided on 
the dangerous plan—there was no other 
choice except to sit by and let twenty-one 
caribou walk away unmolested. The mid¬ 
dle of the pond was reached without caus¬ 
ing anxiety, but here the ice creaked and 
groaned like a large plate glass window 
before it finally falls; cracks appeared and 
branched out before us twenty feet ahead, 
but fate was kind and we reached the far¬ 
ther shore without a mishap. The pursuit 
continued, and in a breathless condition we 
finally managed to intercept the herd which 
had been startled by a party of “meat 
hunters” who had also joined in the chase. 
But with all the maneuvering the “deer” 
evaded all the hunters, who had figured on 
a large coup. 
On the sixteenth day of November I 
shot another stag. This completed my al¬ 
lowance of six. I was glad that the kill¬ 
ing was over, but happy in knowing that 
we had obtained several fine specimens, not 
exceptional in horn measurements but 
typical representatives of their race both 
in color of coats and size. Large stags are 
extremely rare in this section of the coun¬ 
try. Out of 130 “deer” which passed along 
the leads over which I was watching, only 
three large stags were seen. All the rest 
were young stags and does with an equal 
number of fawns. 
T HE following is a list of the number 
of caribou noted each day. This will 
give a general idea of the way thej 
may be expected to appear, but it will b« 
