"Nearly gone. We'll need another Caribou about Thursday."
"You better get one now to be ready Thursday. I do not like it so
steaming fresh. See, there's a nice little buck on that hillside."
"No, not him; why he is nearly half a mile off. I'd have to pack
him in. Let's wait till one comes in camp."
Which we did, and usually got our meat delivered near the door.'
Caribou meat fresh, and well prepared, has no superior, and the
ideal way of cooking it is of course by roasting.
Fried meat is dried meat,
Boiled meat is spoiled meat,
Roast meat is best meat.
How was it to be roasted at an open fire without continued vigilance?
By a very simple contrivance that I invented at the time and now
offer for the use of all campers.
A wire held the leg; on the top of the wire was a paddle or shingle
of wood; above that, beyond the heat, was a cord.
The wind gives the paddle a push; it winds up the cord, which then
unwinds itself. This goes on without fail and without effort, never
still, and the roast is perfect.
Thus we were living on the fat of many lands and on the choicest
fat of this.
And what a region it is for pasture. At this place it reminds one
of Texas. Open, grassy plains, sparser reaches of sand, long slopes
of mesquite, mesas dotted with cedars and stretches of chapparal
and soapweed.
