INDIAN LOOSES BET 149

happen to be hidden in some hollow‘out on the hillside,
I went to a lot of trouble and much labour to make a
wide circle round the back of the mountain so as to come
down from the top, as by doing so we would not only
be out of sight on our way up, but get the wind in a
favourable quarter. While we were making our ascent
We came upon an old pair of ram’s horns, and it occurred
to me then that after all the Indian probably knew better
than I did and would win his bet. The farther we went
the more I became convinced that such a country was
far more likely to hold sheep than caribou. Later on,
when nearly to the top, we began to find numerous fine
rock slides and small hillocks, such as are greatly favoured
by sheep, and there were some old tracks in evidence,
too, which might be ram tracks or perhaps those of goats,
as they were not plain enough to distinguish. By that
time my hopes of finding rams ran high. Then, when
we crossed the divide and got a view of the country on
the other side, instead of basins and rough ground there
were smooth undulating grassy hills stretching out for
five or six miles, and not very long afterwards we found
abundant signs of a small bunch of caribou. The Indian
lost his bet as though we did not see the animals them-
selves, for they had moved during the night, we went
down to where they had been and found numbers of their
beds and other evidence to prove of what species they
were. It certainly was a curious thing that this little
band should have stayed there all that time and have
moved off just before we got to where they had been,
There is another interesting story in connection with
this band of caribou; eventually they were responsible
for my securing on the next year’s trip the finest set of
horns I have ever seen. But of this you will be told
later on.

The Osborn caribou usually live on high plateaux which
vary in width from one to fifteen miles and may extend
in length twice that distance. These plateaux consist
partly of undulating low hills interspersed with marshes
and swamps and lakes; it is seldom that any green