The Second Occasion Was In 1905, Within Three Miles Of Chipewyan,
And, As Before, About The Middle Of May.
The nest was much like
the first one; the mother saw him coming, and charged furiously,
uttering a sort of coughing.
He shot her dead; then captured the
young and examined the nest; there were three young this time. They
were white like the others.
Not far from this camp, we found a remarkable midden-yard of Lemmings.
It was about 10 feet by 40 feet, the ground within the limits was
thickly strewn with pellets, at the rate of 14 to the square inch,
but nowhere were they piled up. At this reckoning, there were over
800,000, but there were also many outside, which probably raised
the number to 1,000,000. Each pellet was long, brown, dry, and
curved, i.e., the winter type. The place, a high, dry, very sheltered
hollow, was evidently the winter range of a colony of Lemmings that
in summer went elsewhere, I suppose to lower, damper grounds.
After sunset, September 5, a bunch of three or four Caribou trotted
past the tents between us and the Lake, 200 yards from us; Billy
went after them, as, thanks to the Wolverine, we were out of meat,
and at one shot secured a fine young buck.
His last winter's coat was all shed now, his ears were turning
white and the white areas were expanding on feet and buttocks; his
belly was pure white.
On his back and rump, chiefly the latter, were the scars of 121
bots. I could not see that they affected the skin or, hair in the
least.
Although all of these Caribou seem to have the normal foot-click,
Preble and I worked in vain with the feet of this, dead one to make
the sound; we could not by any combination of movement, or weight
or simulation of natural conditions, produce anything like a "click."
That same day, as we sat on a hill, a cow Caribou came curiously
toward us. At 100 yards she circled slowly, gazing till she got
the wind 150 yards to one side, then up went her tail and off she
trotted a quarter of a mile, but again drew nearer, then circled
as before till a second time the wind warned her to flee. This she
did three or four times before trotting away; the habit is often
seen.
Next afternoon, Billy and I saw a very large buck; his neck was
much swollen, his beard flowing and nearly white. He sighted us
afar, and worked north-west away from us, in no great alarm. I got
out of sight, ran a mile and a half, headed him off, then came on
him from the north, but in spite of all I could do by running and
yelling, he and his band (3 cows with 3 calves) rushed galloping
between me and the lake, 75 yards away. He was too foxy to be driven
back into that suspicious neighbourhood.
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