On the morning of June 21 a dozen came to the ridge across the river,
briefly inspected the camp, and retreated. In a short time they
returned, four antlered bucks in the lead, and some hornless individuals
in the rear (almost in a separate band). Three of the bucks stood side
by side, looking long and earnestly at the camp, while the others
grazed. Finally dissatisfied with the prospect, they made off upstream.
A little before 7 p.m. on the same day six Caribou appeared on the same
ridge. For once the dogs were inattentive and silent. After promenading
back and forth along the brow, the Caribou disappeared on the far side
of the ridge; but in a few moments they were in the water at the river’s
mouth, in very close formation, three of them swimming abreast. There
were three good bucks and three smaller, hornless animals. After they
got ashore at the opposite point, there was wagging of tails and shaking
of ears, heads, and bodies, while the water flew off in a spray. Then
they leisurely proceeded along the shore and around the point.
About 7 p.m. on June 24 some 10 Caribou (mostly big bucks) swam the
river and landed immediately above our camp. The last two, I noted, were
heading almost upstream in the current that was running 6-8 miles per
hour. They swam high, with the whole line of the back 2 or 3 inches out
of the water and with the antlers tilted back to keep the snout above
the surface. On landing, the animals hastened to the top of the Camp
Ridge and ran off along it, while the chained and frustrated dogs
expressed their feelings in the usual manner.
As I was retiring to my tent on the Camp Ridge in the twilight about
11:30 p.m. on June 29, I noticed a Caribou in the opposite edge of the
river, about 125 yards away. For the most part it stood in about a foot
of water and kept watching upstream. After some minutes I moved closer,
right along the skyline; I waved a white pillow at it and shouted
several times, but still it would not leave. Eventually it did move a
few feet back from the water’s edge and there appeared to browse on some
dwarf birches.
The next day, watching from Pile o’ Rocks northwest of camp, I noticed
three Caribou passing on a northeasterly course. They walked for the
most part, but now and again trotted. They were two well-antlered bucks
and a smaller individual with shorter horns. One of the former paused to
graze in a green-sprouting sedge bog. It was perhaps such fresh summer
vegetation that had helped to produce fat an inch thick on the haunches
of an animal secured about this date.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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