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162 CARIBOU

while the tracks would be visible at sufficiently frequent
intervals to enable me to keep my course for, perhaps, a
mile or a mile and a half. Then I lost them completely
on a wide stretch of thick, short grass. By that time it
was getting on in the afternoon.

‘© Confound those infernal brutes! why could they not
have stayed here ? it is about as fine a place for them as:
there is in the whole country.’? Such were the thoughts
that passed through my mind as my gaze wandered over
a splendid country of fine dry meadow with the sun
shining brightly on it, and a distant range of towering
snow-clad peaks away off to the west—a part of the rugged
Coast Range—giving it a perfect background. My next
thought was, ‘“‘ What on earth is that stick doing up here
at this altitude, where nothing but grass and moss grow ;
it must have been stuck there by some trapper as a guide
to a fox trap; but nobody ever traps around heres
Just then the supposed stick moved over to one side and
disappeared. Immediately out came my glasses, and no
sooner were they on the spot than up came the stick again.
It was the top of the horns of a caribou that was lying
down in a hollow. He must have been close on to three
hundred yards away, but it was not long before I reached
a bit of a mound considerably closer, and on creeping up
to the top of it, a clear view of my quarry was to be had.
There were three noble bulls, one with huge, wide-spreading
horns ; another with horns somewhat above the average ;
and a third of only medium size, but large enough to have
satisfied anybody who was not too particular. All three
of them were lying down enjoying the warm sun after a
sumptuous feed.

It was the simplest matter in the world to get close to
them; the wind was favourable, and there were plenty
of low places to creep along, so I went nearer and, choosing
a couple of rough tussocks about eighty yards from them,
began to make an examination of their horns. It was
obvious that the big bull was a noble prize. Even the
number of points on his tops could be counted with

fair accuracy—that is, the long ones—and that he had